1 Cost

2 The duration of the flight including the number of stops on route.

3 If people have experienced bad flights either due to the weather or the airline they flew with was poor.

Because we are frequent visitors Carol (my better half and is the one that makes all our flying arrangements) usually has a good idea when she see’s a flight advertized if it’s a good, bad or indifferent price.

As well as being able to judge the cost she can also equate in the additional time taken for potential stop over’s, the experiences we have had with the different airlines (if we have flown with them before), the time of year we intend to fly which in turn dictates how close to our departure date before books the flight.

She also takes into account the differences between chartered or scheduled flights.

This is all way over my head so my input is usually limited to a whine if the flight is delayed, there is not enough leg room or we don’t have our own headrest TV’s but credit were credit is due Carol usually says ‘I am a great help’ when I make one of my observations.

When we are asked for ideas from people it usually boils down to 2 main areas depending on individual circumstances.

During high season especially for new visitors to Florida, people who are not frequent flyers or if they are flying with very young children we would suggest a direct flight. Not always the cheapest but you get on a plane 8-9 hours later you get off.

If lowest cost is the main aim then chartered flights with stop over’s can usually be the cheapest way to travel. The main disadvantage is the time it takes to get to your destination.

We once took 24 hours from taking off at Orlando to landing at our local airport Durham Tees Valley. I can’t remember my exact words at the time but in a nut shell I stated I wouldn’t be doing it again in a hurry.

I think that was an occasion when Carol mentioned that I was ‘a great help’.

We have had a number of odd, interesting and unplanned experiences using scheduled flights. If you are interested I will put some of our experiences on the articles site.

 Brian Pearson