V-Flyer

Hi Guys,

Just a quick question.

I am currently looking at UC prices from MAN to MCO for Feb/March and have noticed today that the dates we are looking for are now in the sale if we flew from London.... Boo Hoo...

Does anyone have any inside info as to whether these sale prices will be introduced for the MAN to MCO route also?

Fingers firmly crossed.

Ali

The current sale prices don't include MCO from either MAN or LGW. Where are you looking to get a sale price from London?

Neil

Hi Neil,

I think you are right, as of yesterday MCO was not included but when I click on special offers today, Orlando is now listed from £1329..... or perhaps I have been looking for so long I am now hallucinating

Ali.

Oh yes, there is a specific MCO special offer page here. It is very date specific, and I imagine an incentive to try and fill some flights during a quiet period. It also looks like the dates work round the end of the half term holidays, when the outbound flights would usually be very quiet, but they need a/c in MCO to bring pax home.

I would imagine that MAN wouldn't be included, but never say never and it pays to keep checking. Surely for the saving, might it be worth flying from LGW? Maybe a cheap internal flight down?

Neil

Hmmmmm could consider flying from London....

It's just that we have two LO's and so flying direct from MAN is perfect....

We'll see, thanks for your replies y)

Ali.

We are travelling out before the sale starts, but back on a day in the sale. Why don't they give you the sale fare home? Going to have to book BA again me thinks.

Ok, so I've had a chat with hubby and we would consider flying UC from Gatwick, so a couple of questions...

I think the flight nos were vs15 & 16, what is the UC cabin like compared to the man - mco route? How many seats, I think there is 14 on the man route.

Also how do we go about booking our flights from man to gatwick? Is this something UC reservations can help me with or do I have to do it independently? And where does that leave me if a flight is delayed? And do we only have to check our cases once at man? Sorry for all the questions, we have done this once before many years ago and I think the TA organized it all if I remember rightly.

Sorry for typos, on iPhone.

Thanks in advance,

Ali

My understanding is that you can ask VS to book your flights from MAN-LGW as part of your entire trip on the same ticket. This may cost more that booking independently but it would mean that VS would be responsible for rearranging your flights if anything were to happen re your connections.

Say you booked X flight from MAN to LGW on your own and it was delayed / cancelled and you then missed your LGW-MCO flight, the VS staff might be sympathetic when your turned up at LGW check-in but would be under no obligation to rebook you onto another flight to MCO.

But if you booked that very same X flight through VS on the same ticket as your LGW-MCO flight and something happened then VS would be sympathetic AND have to rebook you too.

But before doing anything I'd check out the price of the LGW-MCO fares and the MAN-MCO fares for the dates you want to travel. Is the difference significsnt enough to make travelling to LGW worth it ??

tonty's advice is good but another suggestion if you are flying UC is that you take a flight down from Manchester the day before and stay in one of the hotels near LGW. That way you don't have to worry about connections and can start your holiday a day earlier. If you are there before 9pm you can use twilight check-in and get rid of most of your bags, keeping only the one you need overnight (and if you so wish can then also check in the following day)

Since you are flying in UC you can use the LGW Clubhouse which is highly recommended. Go there early and have breakfast and a treatment in the Spa all of which is free (apart from some add-on treatments) none of which will be available in the Escape lounge in MAN.

This advice will give you the freedom to book your MAN flight independently of VS and for your return flight to MAN I recommend using a flight after the nearest departing flight there in case of any delays.

There are plenty of hotels around LGW but the Hilton does have the advantage of being linked to the terminal

Hope this helps!

The same a/c operate both out of MAN and LGW so it will be the same UC out of either airport.

As Tonty has said, if you book all through VS then you will be covered in Cade of any delays. You will be able to your bags in at MAN right through to MCO if you book all through Virgin.

It is worth checking the prices from both airports , but those sale fares are VERY cheap so I would imagine the saving would be quite large.

Neil

HI Guys,

So I rang VA to enquire about connecting flights from Man to Gatwick. This was indeed something they could help me with but the price shot up from £4815 for the four of us to over £7.5K!!?!?!?

Anyhoo, I have had a search around the net and have found flights on our dates from Man, much cheaper than on the VA site?! How is this possible? I had no idea? The price on VA is over £7k for 2 ad and 2 ch, the price on Opodo/E-bookers is £5.7k ? Will I encounter any problems booking through a third party?

And one last question if anyone can help, if I book through Expedia/Ebookers etc am I able to choose our seats?

Many thanks for all your replies.

Ali