From Ireland to Orlando and then NYC

grungefreak1

Hi,

I am hoping somebody can give me some constructive and useful advice.

I am planning a family holiday for next year (Summer 2015). All previous holidays were done via a Travel Agent (apart from handy Euro breaks which I booked online myself).

There are 2 adults and 3 kids (Ages 7, 10, and 11).

Here is my question: I want to book the whole thing myself online but can somebody recommend the best way to do this?e.g. via an "all in one" site like Expedia? via Airline websites, hotel websites, car rental sites all separately?
Or am I just best to go with the Travel Agent?

Any thoughts or advice is welcome.

GF

Ideo

grungefreak1 wrote: »

Hi,

I am hoping somebody can give me some constructive and useful advice.

I am planning a family holiday for next year (Summer 2015). All previous holidays were done via a Travel Agent (apart from handy Euro breaks which I booked online myself).

There are 2 adults and 3 kids (Ages 7, 10, and 11).

Here is my question: I want to book the whole thing myself online but can somebody recommend the best way to do this?e.g. via an "all in one" site like Expedia? via Airline websites, hotel websites, car rental sites all separately?
Or am I just best to go with the Travel Agent?

Any thoughts or advice is welcome.

GF

Why not book dub orl and then ny dub with aer lingus or whoever, and then a cheap JetBlue orl to ny yourself? I guess just check out prices of doing it separate first, then as a package and then make a call as to what's cheaper?!

As for whether it's Better to go with a travel agent - depends on how much time to check out packages yourself vs separately booking things

Faolchu

basically what you do is book a multi stop trip - Dub to MCO, MCO to JFK, JFK to Dub. American Airline should allow you to do it online.

should be easy enough to arrange, there should be no need to use a travel agent.

if you go here theres an option for Multicity on teh right. thats what you need to select multiple stops.

http://www.aa.com/intl/ie/bookOnline/bookOnline.jsp?anchorEvent=false&from=Nav

Airport codes are

Dublin = DUB
Orlando International = MCO
New York = JFK

InTheTrees

Kayak.com will also let you book "multi city" trips.

Ponster

As Ideo said you just need to sit down with a computer and work out all the available options and get the best flights based on price, distance, time of flights, etc.. This is the work that normally you'd pay a travel agent to do and they charge you to do so.

I'd use Kayak or Skyscanner. Use the multicity option booking a DUB-MCO flight that returns from JFK-DUB. There's a good chance that booking the internal flight separately (MCO-JFK) will work out cheaper but you have to do the work to figure that out

iusedtoknow

+2 for kayak. This year I organized a whole european trip for the two of us doing the following

San Francisco->Barcelona->Dublin (with Car)->Paris->Prague->San Francisco.

The whole thing took around an evening to organize, mostly around the flight time/connection pain...everyone has a tolerance level, so you need to make sure they all work for your family, my wife works nightshift and dayshifts in the same week, so jetlag is nothing for her whereas I am crippled for the first 2 days either way.

The whole price was upfront, the only thing was...it was not flexible, we had to travel on the dates we said. That said, we only needed a hotel in Paris and Prague - however if you uses kayak for flights and something like booking.com or hotels.com for the accommodation, you'll be laughing.

InTheTrees

I've noticed that Kayak doesnt seem to penalize you in price for stop off's if they're on your route.

In other words iff you're going from NY to LA and you change planes in Denver, you can make that denver change of planes take 36 hours and have a "free" stop over in Denver. If that makes sense. TYping on my phone.

endofrainbow

Use comparison sites to research but always book directly with the airline. Don't forget to check with Southwest and JetBlue as they don't usually show up on the search engines.

Faolchu

on think to consider with booking internal frlights instead if a mulitcity is baggage allowance. if you book all the way with say AA they consider you as an international traveller even on their internals so you get a higher allowance (30kg i think) but if you book say JFK to MCO return with someone else or even as a stand alone flight then you're considered internal and have a lower allowance (circa 20KG) teh additional costs for that 10KG can be high.

endofrainbow

Faolchu wrote: »

on think to consider with booking internal frlights instead if a mulitcity is baggage allowance. if you book all the way with say AA they consider you as an international traveller even on their internals so you get a higher allowance (30kg i think) but if you book say JFK to MCO return with someone else or even as a stand alone flight then you're considered internal and have a lower allowance (circa 20KG) teh additional costs for that 10KG can be high.

incorrect

IF your are ticketed domestically and internationally, the baggage allowance only applies if you are traveling within 24 hours of the international flight...

plus, Southwest bag charges are incorporated into the base fare.

23kg is the standard allowance for all domestic flights on domestic airlines

Faolchu

endofrainbow wrote: »

incorrect

IF your are ticketed domestically and internationally, the baggage allowance only applies if you are traveling within 24 hours of the international flight...

not for me it hasnt. I've always been given the 30KG allowance

billie1b

Faolchu wrote: »

not for me it hasnt. I've always been given the 30KG allowance

Same as myself, im going DUB to LHR (BA), LHR to LAS (BA), LAS to JFK (AA) and JFK to DUB (AA), all fligts have the international baggage allowance

Tangey99

The OP is looking to book at entire holiday, not just the flights. He specifically mentions hotels and car hire.

If you were just doing Orlando, then a package would be best. There are loads of them put together that combine hotel,car hire and flights, and a lot of them would be tough to beat if doing it separately.

However, once you dial in your requirement for New York, that changes things. If you go into a TA, it's unlikely there will be a package that suits your requirement, so basically they'll put together a package by individually booking, and add a bit for themselves. In that scenario, if you have the interest and ability, you could do the work yourself, putting together a package that suits you, stay in the hotels you research yourself, and likely will do it cheaper than a TA.

If you are doing it yourself, the flights are going to be the most expensive part of it. So look at those first. If you have some flexibility, try moving your dates a few days or a week, and see if the prices come down. Sometimes midweek flights are a bit cheaper than weekend.

In terms of hotels, use Google earth to get a rough grasp of the area you want to stay in. I have never been Orlando, but given it is mostly geared to families, I expect most rooms can handle 2 adults and 3 kids, assuming you are looking to be in 1 room, but you'd need to check. The previous sentence does NOT apply to New york hotels. Many rooms are small, and will only sleep 2 people, chances are you might need to book two rooms. Also New York (assuming you mean Manhattan) is a big place, so again check that the hotel you are picking is within striking distance of the places you want to visit. Before committing to a hotel, check the hotel reviews out on Tripadvisor. 3* hotels in new york can be a bit of a lottery, so do your research.

If not hiring a car in New York, remember to price in the cost of transfers to/from the airport.

Oh and ensure you have good insurance, and take it out as soon as you book. Don't plan to take it out a week or so before you depart. An important part of insurance is to cover you in case you have to cancel, and obviously you don't have that protection until you have taken out the insurance.