AlanA

Today is the first date that BA dates cover our return flights,
We are going 28th Nov, ret 12 Dec, 3 Adults as our son us 17 now, in business class with Chevy Tahoe

Standard BA price LGW-MCO is coming out as £7,015.
Defence discount price is £6,581

Now,
Dublin-MCO, which is via LGW (same flight as above) comes in at €5,090 (£4,358)
Defence Discount comes in at €4,765 (£4,076)

(Virgin holidays, with equivalent car and equivalent insurance, lgw-mco is, wait for it...
£11,324!)

now, I’m still waiting for Virgin Atlantic, Aer Lingus and American to reach our travel dates before we book, and the after Christmas BA Sale

We know that either, train to Gatwick, plus hotel, or flight from BHX to dub, that flight will add roughly £500 to the price, but once Aer Lingus is available it will be less than that for BHX-DUB-MCO

(BA for BHX-MCO is normally £1,000 plus for the same flights)

So, yes extra flight (on the way back we choose the mco-lgw-lhr-dub, as pick up cases at lgw and catch train home, quicker than waiting for flight back from DUB in the afternoon)

mikeyfly

I wouldn’t jump to book next November right now. MCO and TPA often £1,400 per person on advanced (six month +) booking. Let the prices settle and check again in a few weeks. Maybe if there’s a sale around Easter time? Also INV-MCO/TPA-LON gets decent prices.

Good place for requesting fare help:


Find me a good British Airways fare - ticket clinic [Beta / draft: BA FARES ONLY]

corporate-wage-slave

Buying cash flights on the first possible set of dates is usually an expensive way to travel, but I guess there is also a value of reassuring yourself the holiday is booked.

The cheapest BA flight-only(before DDS) from DUB to MCO in early November with a 2 week stay seems to be about 1400€ per person, so that's the benchmark, which won't always be possible once particular dates are fixed. I assume your figures are 3 plus car total rather than per person. So multiplying that up I think you're fairly close to the lowest fare for DUB, but not the very lowest, and I suspect the LGW fare will probably fall at some point.

As a general rule, with plenty of holes in it, the cheapest time to buy is usually 6 to 8 weeks before departure, that's when competition is at its most fierce.

navylad

there was an app I used to use that predicted based on historical fare information whether to hold out or buy- don’t know what it was called sadly though or if it is still going and there is always that element of risk (I think at 6 weeks out even I as a solo happy to amend travel pans to go elsewhere traveller would be twitchy if I had leave booked).

mikeyfly

Yeah, I think families don’t like to leave their flights until 6/8 weeks before, they’ll want to lock in accom, car etc etc and be fully prepared!

AlanA

Not rushing to book atm, too early for all flights to be available, another 10 days for other airlines to reach our departure date, so will keep an eye on flights and sales etc.
first class into Miami us tempting, only £300 more per person, on a 747 however.
also looking at flights into JFK and ORD, but a bit risky for weather at that time of the year

wilsnunn

There is an app called Hopper that I believe does this. Not sure how accurate it is though.

andymcdonnell

I just booked DUB-LHR-IAD DCA-LGA JFK-LHR-DUB in J and 8 nights hotel between Washington & NYC in May for just over €2000 each. The same thing ex LON was over €1000 each more expensive so for me, ex EU is definitely good value

corporate-wage-slave

Because so much would ride on it, I would factor in an overnight in DUB before the main travel day, rather than attempt to do this all on one day. You mentioned potential weather problems in ORD and JFK, I would say that DUB would also potentially be risky there. For the return it's less problematic.

AlanA

yes, last year I had factored in a good few hours between the flight from LHR-DUB-MCO, only to sit on the Apron for three hours as Dublin’s ground radar went tech.
luckily, as I had factored in a large gap, we still made the DUB-MCO part.
onky otter issue was due to the length of time at LHR, peopke got off and they offloaded one of our cases! Took three days to catch up with us

looking at hotels, the difference between Gatwick and Dublin is minimal for tge night before

Blueboys999

On the wider point as to whether ex-EUs is still 'worth it', I still think that for a family trip of perhaps 4 or 5 people the level of savings is usually well worth the faff of positioning and overnight pre-flight stays and the OP's quoted figures are a good example of that. However, I am now much more willing to pay what is often a relatively small premium to start and end nearer home as the wider family trips are a thing of the past for me.

alexwuk

May I please add probably the most important qualifier "Except for UK school holidays, the cheapest time..."? :-)

simoflyer

CWS, Is this 6-8 weeks from your experience or do you have a reference?

corporate-wage-slave

Personal experience. There is a USA based ARC report from 2012 which also suggested the same, based on (I think) USA domestic sales, but the dynamics seem global to me.