Premium flight or Premium hotel

Oh the dilemma! I have a bonus from work to spend on a holiday. I want to go to Florida with a mate. We have a choice - either fly UCS and stay for a week in a 2* hotel or go PE and stay in a 5*. The price ends up the same. Suggestions?

Hmmmm, could you split it and go UCS one way and PE back and stay in a 4 Star?

What's the 2 star hotel?
What's the 5 star hotel?

Flight every time for me. I know when we have been to Florida we dont spend hardly any time in the hotel. Didnt even eat there once, went out every time.

I think I'd go PE and 5* - at the end of the day, sleeping in luxury is more desirable to me.

Shame you have to make a choice, work harder young man and get a bigger bonus [:D].

Would depend where in Florida you were planning to stay. Miami,The Keys, Orlando or somewhere else?

[Neil]

I would never stay in a 2* hotel just to fly in a premium cabin. I would also look at maybe PE outbound and UCS inbound and getting a good 3*/ cheap 4* hotel through something like Priceline. With a bit of careful planning and hunting around the net I am sure you would be able to get a good compromise. If you definitely wanted to choose one or the other then I would say PE/5* wins hands down.

I am addicted to business class rather badly, but I wouldn't go near a 2* hotel... so would have to choose a 5* hotel and PE (although I would be DESPERATELY looking for was way to afford UC and a 4/5* hotel...).

Boo

[Darren Wheeler]

Priceline. 4* hotel for 2* price.

Business class essential for any flight over 4 hours. There are very good 2* hotels available but anything under 4 * needs to be a thoroughly investigated before booking. Priceline is great but you need to know how to play the system to be sure of the right result.
Don't despair, put the effort in and it may pay dividends.

I personally wouldnt fly economy (whether premium or not, they are both economy products) and want to relax - go UCS and get a deal on a hotel that meets your requirements.

So easy... UCS then tent on the street.

Blimey? Check the value out. As long as you don't mind spending a few quid on yourselves over and above, it has to be UCS...

H

Surely it all depends on what the hotel is. If its 2 star on the 192 in Kissimmee then go PE.

I would take the latter go PE and 5*. PE is not such a bad product to have afterall. The question is could you live with 7 days in a 2* hotel and enjoy a total of approximately 24 hours of Clubhouse and UCS pampering?

I would fly PE and stay 5*. hotel however I would stay at a Disney moderate hotel and fly UCS as for us it was about £1000 cheaper than a Disney deluxe with PE. Disney Mods are nice.

You could always stay in my villa!

American hotels, even the godforsaken Holiday Inn variety, are still better than any 2 star hotel in central London, which are pretty much youth hostels....

My advice is to book your flight in UC and log on to priceline.com or hotwire.com and search for a hotel room... A friend of mine got a 1000 sq ft suite at the Planet Hollywood hotel in Vegas for New Year's Eve for less than 60 quid a night...

I think you could have a few choices if you want to fly UCS, firstly the disney properties are always extremely expensive comapred to a lot of the others.

I know a lot of people who end up with LBV hotels such as the Hilton on priceline, plus there are a number of other on Hotel Plaza Blv with really good deals in the 3*+/4 cat and some 5. OK they may not be disney hotels but they're close to the action and you can benefit from the free transportation if necessary from downtown disney.

Another idea if you you don't mind the travelling in and out of disney is to look at one of the holidays homes.

We visit orlando every October for a least a couple of weeks and have always found good deals in really good hotels in down town disney plus managed to afford the UCS return.

Alternatively if you're looking to say a few hundred then checking out connecting VS flights from other east coast airports may help bring the price down. We bagged IAD-MCO with jetblue for 60 quid return and the price difference between upper to MCO and IAD was way more than that.

I'd go UCS outbound/PE inbound and compromise on the hotel. If that's not an option, I would have to say PE/5*.

!

Personally, it kind of seems pointless to go on holiday and spend the first day of it in misery from the flight. I'm all for UC.

However, here's a way to make up your mind: are you planning on making your hotel a destination (think spa or something like Atlantis here), or are you going to get out and about after you arrive? Public transportation and/or driving in the US is mostly a joke; you'll be spending a lot of time going from place to place. If you don't expect to eat all your meals at your own hotel, or dine on room service exclusively, you may be spending very little time in your hotel after you arrive.

Far be it from me to assert all 2* are alike, but if all you're going to do is sleep, why blow the funds on a 5* room you may see only six hours in a row when you're asleep in it? If you don't need a valet, a concierge floor, a maid, or 24-hour room service, why pay for it? If you don't expect to eat every meal in your hotel, why pay for a room just because it's over the restaurant you've been drooling to try? If you're looking for just 'a bed and a bath' it's silly to pay silly money for something you won't even use.

You can get a lot more done if you pick place/convenience over stars, honestly. You'll lose less in-transit time to and from what you went on holiday to see. And, if you check around, there are hotel packages which don't include the airfare, if you want to fly VS and the package doesn't allow it.

Besides, if you're like many people, you'll need a holiday to recover from your holiday, but you're scheduled to return to work the day after (forfend, on? [:0]) the day you return home. If you fly UC home you'll feel a little less rotten about jumping back into the grind.

If, however, you want to make your US hotel destination a no-holds-barred spa trip, welllll... you'd better get a raise or forget the UC seats without a really good package deal...... (and you'd probably be happier visiting a European spa; better range of treatments and much better therapists, IMHO)