mamarosa

I have yet to master the art of searching and actually finding things on this forum, so bear with me as I ask a question that I'm certain has already been discussed!

I'm getting to the 'purchase airfare' portion of our trip planning for the end of May. Our original plan was to fly out of Orlando, on Virgin, but I've been watching the fares and I have found that USAir seems to have the best fares (out of Tampa) to London (Tampa is actually closer to our home). Out of Orlando, it's a toss up between Virgin and USAir.

I swear I saw a discussion on the fact that USAir has financial backing until June 30th. Is this in fact the case? Should I even bother checking the USAir flights? We will be returning on or around June 7th, so we would fall well into the June 30th timeframe.

We are a family of 5, and cost is a factor. If we can save a couple to a few hundred dollars on airfare, that would be great! As for service, I fly USAir frequently for business, but have never flown with outside the US. If there's a great deal of difference between the two, we would spend the extra on Virgin (which I have flown several times).

Sorry for the rambling, I hope my questions aren't too hidden in there!!!

Thanks!

twina49

Our group of five reserved on USAir to fly from Philadelphia to Gatwick in May, based on my travel agent's assurance that they had received a directive that it was fine to book with USAir through the end of June, that "everyone who needed to sign a contract had signed." I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but the price was just too good to pass up!

rkkwan

USAir will be fine by mid-June. And their new A330 from either PHL or CLT are more comfortable than Virgin.

I believe VS may still be using leased 747-200 on their MCO flights, and those planes are old and tired with terrible legroom.

The benefit is that it's non-stop, vs a connection on USAir. But if you live closer to Tampa, then that's a tossup.

mamarosa

Thank you both for your responses. We are still debating, but the price from TPA (avg $550 each RT) seems too good to pass up!

Thanks again!

Judyrem

Yes, that IS a good fare IMO, but direct flights ALWAYs will be the deciding factor for me....so many things can go wrong on connecting flights IMO.

rkkwan

mamarosa - After looking into this further, I believe Virgin uses mostly its own 747-400 on the Orlando-London route, and the old 747-200 on Orlando-Manchester.

Therefore, I don't think you need to worry about the poor legroom and old equipment since you're not going to Manchester.

mamarosa

I sit here this evening, kicking my self in the arse! We obviously 'discussed' this matter a bit too much! The USAir flights in/out of Tampa that would have cost $2781 for all 5 (3 adult fares and 2 child fares) LAST NIGHT, are now a whopping $4559 for the same flights!

Any opinions on whether I should wait now and see if they come back down? We would prefer to purchase the tickets from USAir directly, as we are hopeful to make it to Vegas on FF miles for our anniversary! I know we're probably being overly optimistic, but oh well!

I have heard that very early on Weds. mornings is the best time to look at and book fares online, does this still hold true?

Thanks!