PE to MCO, London Or Manchester?

What is the difference in PE product between London/Manchester.

In July 2008, we have the choice of either driving to Manchester and flying from there to MCO or having an internal flight from Edinburgh to London and then onto MCO. If we are going PE, is the service from London worth the extra journey/cost or are the PE configs very similar?[?]

Thanks

[preiffer]

PE configs are generally absolutely identical for the MCO routes. As you won't have the benefit of Clubhouse access (unless booking with Virgin Holidays), there's pretty much nothing in it.

[Nottingham Nick]

Don't you just hate it when the first reply to a question completely nails the answer? [8D]:D

I agree with Paul. I would base my decision on the cost of flying to LGW and whether or not either of them gave me the option of avoiding an overnight stay at the departure airport before I flew out.

Nick

[mitchja]

You tend to find MAN flights are usually a couple quid more than LGW flights (which I guess is down to airport fees) other than that A/C are exactly the same.

Regards

As others have said, it makes no difference if you fly from MAN or LGW - you'll end up on the same fleet of aircraft. I'd look at which of the two airports provides the nicer experience - and MAN wins hands down.

Whilst T2 at MAN may not be to everyones liking, it is - IMO - far superior to the South Terminal at LGW. The less said about the baggage hall in the South Terminal at Gatwick the better... to think that this is the "Welcome to Britian" that some overseas visitors get is worrying.

I will openly admit that I have not had the pleasure of flying out of MAN T2 at the height of the holiday season [when I could well imagine it would be pretty grim], but I am comparing like with like here (November departures). Gatwick is awful. Manchester is better.

James

Thanks all for the fantastic info, although that seems to be the norm on v-flyer [y] ..

Not flown PE before so I really wanted to make sure I got the best I could. MAN was my own preference due to various other reasons so looks like that will be what we do.

Couple more questions though if you don't mind.

Given that we need to fly on 17,18 or 19th July to MCO and back on 8,9 or 10 August,

1 - I assume I will need to wait until 8th September before I can book reward or revenue flights? (i.e 11 months before my return flight).

2 - Chances of getting a full fare ticket in PE, a free companion ticket (using AMEX voucher) and 2 reward PE tickets given that we are restricted to dates? Unlikely??

3 - Got 1 amex companion voucher, 210,000 miles and as little cash as possible. Is above the best way to get 4 PE tickets? By my calc the fares mentioned in 2 above would set me back £1415, 4 sets of taxes and 150,000 miles, so just over 2K all in which would be acceptable. (FARE INFO FROM EXPERTFLYER BELOW)

Thanks again

K £1115
S £1415
W £1679/1831/3444

[Neil]

Yes you are correct, you have to wait until 11months after your return date to be able to book your flights.

I would say that if you are wanting/decide to try and go down the reward route then you might have to be patient. It is unlikely that on the MCO route, many, if any reward seats will be available at the 336 day mark, especially if you flight is during school holidays. I tried to book some for our MCO flights last year and they still haven't released any for the 4 week period around our flights.

Just one other thing to consider, it might be worth looking at booking a VH flydrive, the prices we got quoted were very good, include car hire and you also get your FC 10% discount so can make them very competitive (and you can book/price it up now!)

Neil

[HighFlyer]

By my calc the fares mentioned in 2 above would set me back £1415

Don't forget that the ExpertFlyer fares are exclusive of tax, so you'll need to add a little more to that figure, probably around £180.

Thanks,
Sarah

[preiffer]

Ahem... [:w]

Originally posted by GreboDB
By my calc the fares mentioned in 2 above would set me back £1415, 4 sets of taxes and 150,000 miles, so just over 2K all in which would be acceptable.

Agghhh, just noticed that my Companion ticket award was 29th August 2006 so it expires tomorrow. Cannot book the flights I need yet (even though I am ready to!) because the return flights (9th August 2008) have not been released yet.

If I book the flight now with an earlier return date, will I then be able to change the return date to the 9th August when the flights are released? if so, what costs will be involved in doing this?

Thanks