V-Flyer

Can somebody help me..thinking of heading back to Florida in June/July 2015.. The package holiday prices seem quite high. Should I book a fly drive with Virgin holidays just now or wait until the flights become available with Virgin at 11 months and book separate car hire and flights. What would be the cheapest option. Was also hoping to travel from Glasgow, but if all else fails Manchester will do. All opinions welcomed please.

Book when it's a price you are content with.

If it doesn't get there it wasn't meant to be. If it does, book and don't look back.

That could be a slogan!

Book and don't look back!

Personally, I think the Virgin Holidays fly drive prices can be very competitive. You can often get flight+car for two weeks for literally a few pounds above the VS flight price. And they sometimes have very reasonable flight upgrade prices.

nkp85uk - ditto, book when happy with price full stop - anything else is crazy. For florida we've booked VH most times ourselves - it's very competitive for Y, and you can book > 11 months out which is a winner if you need to know an itinerary for work or personal funds reasons - VH allow payment month by month... VS do not. Exception is if you want PE or UC - you may not find as competitive as a VS sale in every case.

Do you know if they offer the downtown disney checkin on fly-drive bookings out of interest - personally I've never tried, hence why asking - prior to us having DVC (see other thread) we booked full packages with VH every time including hotel.

If price is only consideration, the "other" british airline does cracking flydrive pricing usually too, sometimes considerably lower than VH (but usually about same) - I was quoted 950 for 2 of us with car in November in their sale. They only accept 11 month bookings too for reference.

I thing you do get disney checkin on a fly drive. This year we used virgin flight only and paid the $10 each...well worth it!! Decisions, decisions.. VH prices are pretty high at the moment!

I have been in the book and don't look back camp but now I feel I can learn for the future by looking back.
I bought my tickets for return to MCO out in Feb back in March as soon as the March date opened. I was able to upgrade straight away to PE and after a few weeks got UC on the way out. UC for the return has been a whole different ball game with me checking my date up to 6 times a day with dates opening all around mine but never on it.
So now they have gone well past my fly date I've bitten the bullet and changed the date and got UC both ways.
It means we'll have a stop in St. Augustine on the drive down from South Carolina which should be nice.

But, I'll keep checking just so I can try and get an idea of when reward seats come up, but I've already learned Sunday is much better than Saturday for MCO to LGW upgrade.
There is always next year so what I learn won't be wasted.

Dick D

dickydotcom wrote:I have been in the book and don't look back camp but now I feel I can learn for the future by looking back.
I bought my tickets for return to MCO out in Feb back in March as soon as the March date opened. I was able to upgrade straight away to PE and after a few weeks got UC on the way out. UC for the return has been a whole different ball game with me checking my date up to 6 times a day with dates opening all around mine but never on it.
So now they have gone well past my fly date I've bitten the bullet and changed the date and got UC both ways.
It means we'll have a stop in St. Augustine on the drive down from South Carolina which should be nice.

But, I'll keep checking just so I can try and get an idea of when reward seats come up, but I've already learned Sunday is much better than Saturday for MCO to LGW upgrade.
There is always next year so what I learn won't be wasted.

Dick D

I agree but think this is a very different 'look back' as it is more about market research vis-a-vis the next booking.

Sunday to LGW in late Feb had a load of ~ 40 pax. UC was not full.
Definitely worthwhile if booking out of season doing that.

Also had some luck today, the G's I held outbound and inbuond from LAS in PE - when calling to book - well, G's opened today from LAX to LHR on exact day booked. Both are Tuesday flights!

Maybe a lesson is hold what you want in one direction and something close in other, call back 2 hours before hold expires, then you may be lucky. It worked for me at least - seriously happy about getting 2xG's to LAX next April. I would also note the website did not show the G's - as I checked only an hour before, so calling the upper class reservation people again proves best bet.