Orlando direct flights or stopover

Aidey

Looking for pros and cons please. Aerlingus direct for 4 of us currently 2,800. Aerlingus to Gatwick then Orlando and vice verse on way back 1600. So apart from massive saving is the stopover a bit of a pain, and I believe you go through emigration in Orlando, is this painful after a 8/9 hour flight?

naughtysmurf

Aidey wrote: »

Looking for pros and cons please. Aerlingus direct for 4 of us currently 2,800. Aerlingus to Gatwick then Orlando and vice verse on way back 1600. So apart from massive saving is the stopover a bit of a pain, and I believe you go through emigration in Orlando, is this painful after a 8/9 hour flight?

You have other indirect options with the likes of United, Delta, American, KLM out of Dublin, 4 of us going indirect for just under 2k in May & doing pre clearance here first which is always better than doing it in MCO, allow a minimum of 1hr30 if doing it at MCO

alchemist33

We're going Dub- Charlotte-Orlando for 500ish each. Haven't done it before but people on boards have said the preclearance in Dub is well worth it.

jimmycrackcorm

My experience of doing the indirect option put me of doing it again. We had a three hour wait at Dublin check-in and staff had to rush us through at the last minute, followed by another three hour similar experience in Gatwick. Basically an awful day travel particularly if you have kids.

abarkie

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

My experience of doing the indirect option put me of doing it again. We had a three hour wait at Dublin check-in and staff had to rush us through at the last minute, followed by another three hour similar experience in Gatwick. Basically an awful day travel particularly if you have kids.

Did the saving make it worthwhile though?

Penalty

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

My experience of doing the indirect option put me of doing it again. We had a three hour wait at Dublin check-in and staff had to rush us through at the last minute, followed by another three hour similar experience in Gatwick. Basically an awful day travel particularly if you have kids.

Why did you have a 3 hour check in in Dublin and then 3 hours in Gatwick?
The 3 hours in Dublin makes sense if you are travelling to the US but not if your first stop is Gatwick?

OP this is a hard question to answer this as it all depends on your budget.

Is the direct flight easier - yes definitely.

However if the difference is going to put you under financial strain than the stop over is perfectly doable - always try to to do at least the return journey by stopping in the US.

Travelling overnight and connecting in London is a major pain especially with young kids and a 3-4 hour stop over.

Connecting through the US adds a few hours to the journey but it's not too bad and for me the price difference has been so great that we always connect rather than the direct route as the AL direct prices where always far too expensive. ie last year for us (6) 3k connecting versus 5k direct.

dudara

Direct flight is far easier IMO, and I really would urge pre-clearing in Dublin as the wait times when you land in the US without pre-clearance can be unpredictable. I flew through recently when going from Cancun to Dublin via Phileadelphia, but I had to queue over an hour once when going Dublin to Seattle via Gatwick. That could be painful if travelling with kids.

If you really want to do indirect because of savings, then at least take a connecting flight through America so that you benefit from pre-clearance.

readytosnap

via uk is a nightmare, we mostly go via Atlanta or JFK, usually a lot cheaper (anywhere between 100-300) and pre clearance (only if your first stop is in the States) in Ireland.

nsa0bupkd3948x

My sisters family would always do a connection in US so fly to US (get preclearance) and connect. She says the savings are worth it. 1.2k savings is a lot of spending money over there!

BabysCoffee

I hate stopping off in London coming home. It's punishment landing so close to Ireland and having to wait an hour or two to fly home - all after a night flight from the states.

I prefer doing a USA connection if doing a two stop flight from Florida.

Look on ebookers for other options.

johnory1

It all depends on your budget and layovers, I done it once to miami, I waited 2hrs in a queue, but saying that I was queuing for 1hr 30 mins in pre-clearance going to florida last year, which didnt feel to good as we were on the early flight and left the house 430am. But knowing how expensive things are in florida, and if theres no change in airport in london , 1200 extra spending money, is enough to pay for all your meals+tips for a week and would definitley tip the scales of balanace

naughtysmurf

There is more than just cost to take into account, for us, overall travel time from our door to checking in at hotel or villa, comfort of travel, number of plane changes, immigration etc

Many UK travellers to Orlando travel UK-DUB-MCO, with the pre-clearance being the main reason, that's how much they value it, it's luck of the draw landing in MCO, worst case, if you land along with a couple of other international flights, your last of your plane, you could be looking at 2-3hrs to clear immigration which won't be much fun

Aidey

Thanks for all the replies�� Think I need to do a bit more research . Is it best to book direct with the airlines? Did any of you use skyscanner, trail finder etc? Is luggage automatically transferred to your connecting flight?

Aidey

Readytosnap Which airline did you us/travel site?

Aidey

Naughtysmurf did you use travel site to book?

Ficheall

Are ye serious about taking connections in the US if possible? I've had two internal flights in the US (intentionally booked so I could get out and stretch my legs), and they were two horrific experiences. Granted, I was going to California, which is a bit further, but I swore I'd never take a domestic flight in the US again.
The direct flight is a delight in comparison.

And re customs, the only hassle I've had has been pre-clearance here, but that was moreso due to the official and my foolishness at not having printed out the return ticket to show at my outward journey. Waiting for customs stateside did take a long time, but I had the luxury of not having kids to keep entertained..

naughtysmurf

Aidey wrote: »

Naughtysmurf did you use travel site to book?

I use skyscanner to compare prices & flight duration, if I see something that I'm happy with I go direct to the airline website, I wouldn't book flights through a third party though but that's just me

Filter your search by including the two stops tab

Penalty

Ficheall wrote: »

Are ye serious about taking connections in the US if possible? I've had two internal flights in the US (intentionally booked so I could get out and stretch my legs), and they were two horrific experiences. Granted, I was going to California, which is a bit further, but I swore I'd never take a domestic flight in the US again.
The direct flight is a delight in comparison.

And re customs, the only hassle I've had has been pre-clearance here, but that was moreso due to the official and my foolishness at not having printed out the return ticket to show at my outward journey. Waiting for customs stateside did take a long time, but I had the luxury of not having kids to keep entertained..

What was horrific about the experience??
Customs is all done in Ireland as well so when you land you are treated like a domestic traveler - there is no delay whatsoever -no luggage to claim - you just walk to your next flight.

I've travelled about 10 times through the us over the last 5 years and once was it bad because if weather related delays. Apart from this it's just normal air travel.

Advice on connections would be not to have too long on a layover somewhere between 2-3hours is ideal. Anything shorter is a risk although I have done 1 hour 15 lay over which was fine.

If all runs ok 2 hours is perfect get off stretch the legs and get a bite to eat.

Anything over 3 hours is too long.

endofrainbow

Ficheall wrote: »

A

Waiting for customs stateside did take a long time, but I had the luxury of not having kids to keep entertained..

Customs is just a walk-through - do you perhaps mean Immigration ?

cheekojuls

As others have said, avoid going to the Uk.

Either get a direct flight to Orlando, or indirect through the US, either through Charlotte or Atlanta

readytosnap

Aidey wrote: »

Readytosnap Which airline did you us/travel site?

all of them except BA & Virgin.
Use sky scanner to check prices, then compare the one suitable for you directly with the airline (sometimes dearer sometimes cheaper). I've never had a problem using 3rd party sites and have used most of them over the years.

danwhite88

Booked with BA flying from Dublin with a 3 hour lay over in JFK. On the way home we have 1 hour stop in Gatwick. Saved €600 between 3 people. Worth it imo.

readytosnap

danwhite88 wrote: »

Booked with BA flying from Dublin with a 3 hour lay over in JFK. On the way home we have 1 hour stop in Gatwick. Saved €600 between 3 people. Worth it imo.

Each to their own but I would want to be saving more than €200 for 2 stops & 14+ hr journey. Plus 1hr wait in London is not very long for a connecting flight, at least it is not Heathrow
My daughter flew through London on the way back from San Francisco, their flight home was delayed so they missed their connection in London and had to wait an extra 4 hours for the next available, that's after a a 11 or 12 ? hr flight.
so it was nearly 24 hrs to get home. 3hrs in san fran before flight plus flight plus 4hrs in London then 2hr drive home.

Edit: or did I misread what you said and you are going dub-jfk-mco then mco-jfk-lgw-dub

danwhite88

readytosnap wrote:

Edit: or did I misread what you said and you are going dub-jfk-mco then mco-jfk-lgw-dub

Travelling dub-jfk-mco then mco-lgw-dub. We were happy to save 200 each.

BabysCoffee

danwhite88 wrote: »

Travelling dub-jfk-mco then mco-lgw-dub. We were happy to save 200 each.

I have found the hour or so wait in London after the long flight to be one of the most uncomfortable hours in my life. I would pay 200 euro to never have to repeat it. At this point of the jetlag the only place you want to be is home in your bed.