Struggling to find a cheap Orlando flight that won’t break the bank?
Up up and away!
People plan their holiday in different ways. Some will find their villa first, some may look for certain dates, and some may simply try to find the best deal on flights and then search for everything else afterwards with fingers crossed! Whatever your approach, a cheap Orlando flight for your family usually a big factor in booking your next big holiday, so we’ve put together some tips to help you find the best deal. It’s something we’re often asked as villa owners, but it’s important to realise it’s not an exact science and may take patience.
Flights vary in price. A lot.
Flight prices depend on supply and demand
All airlines try to fill their planes for the maximum price and profit. This leads to fluctuation in prices. Typically, a last minute deal for a long-haul flight just doesn’t exist any more and you’ll find that booking a few months in advance is the best bet for getting a cheap Orlando flight. For USA flights Skyscanner suggest about 18 weeks in advance. A good article examining short-haul flight prices is here.
The time of year you are shopping makes a difference. When tickets aren’t selling, typically just before Christmas, sales appear and prices can drop. We bought our last tickets to Tampa just 3 days before Christmas.
Do some research a year beforehand if you can – know what price to “buy” at, as if you were trading stocks. For example if the UK to Orlando is ever close to £400 to £450 per person (prices as of 2016) then we buy.
Be flexible with dates
If you don’t really care when you travel, which is rare, then be flexible. Search for entire months of flights. Use skyscanner. Then check the airline sites directly. Watch out for indirect flights because they just aren’t worth the hassle and you’ll run the danger of ruining your holiday. Also try to book to fly out on a weekday and avoid weekends when you can.
Try fly-drive
For our last 5 holidays, 4 have been fly-drive and only one was cheaper to book flights and a car separately – and it was a cheap car as well. We have never found a nice car and separate flight for cheaper than a fly-drive.
Watch out for hidden costs
Hidden costs can be a pain
One example is Virgin fly-drive. Their basic insurance package doesn’t include collision damage waiver (CDW). British Airways’ does. We ended up forking out another £70 on CDW on one trip when we got to Orlando airport and realised. A tip for this is to opt for the daily CDW ($20) then book your own CDW through a 3rd party site (we used www.icarhireinsurance.com) and cancel the airport CDW within 24 hours.
Check other things such as the baggage allowance, and optional extras that you might otherwise have to buy separately.
Change your destination!
No, we don’t mean fly to Scunthorpe, we mean fly to Tampa, Miami, or Orlando. Have a road trip. Our next holiday will fly into Tampa instead of Orlando and was £200 cheaper. It’s about 20 minutes longer to drive to from our villa on Tuscan Ridge, but it’s a quicker airport to get through and quick to get a hire car too.
Free cash through cashback
Theres no such thing as a free gift
Cashback is always worth a shot. For every trip we’ve booked, the flights were through quidco. Here’s a link for £1 off your next quidco purchase! You can do the same with insurance, car hire, and pretty much anything.
Patience
Last but not least, don’t rush into anything – do some research, ask friends, or send us an email to get some cheap Orlando flight advice. Good luck in finding flights for your next holiday to our villa.