Generally we book to fly from our local airport and return in to a London airport.  We find that this is usually the cheapest combination.  We then take the train home.  For the cheapest train tickets, book them 12 weeks in advance (or just less).  If you are taking the train in both directions, it is usually cheaper to get 2 x single journey tickets, rather than a return ticket.  Sometimes cheaper train tickets can also be obtained by splitting each journey down in to two parts (ie say from Leeds to Peterborough, and Peterborough to London Kings Cross, rather than Leeds to London) – it’s just trial and error if you have the time to do this.  Train tickets can be purchased at www.thetrainline.com  

With departing and returning to different airports, this will generally mean changing planes at an American airport.  We have found it costs no extra to leave the plane as it touches down in America, and catch the same plane a few days later.  We stopped over in New York for 3 nights at Christmas, with no extra flight costs by doing this.

We have also booked different returning flights to England, to the flights we booked to Orlando.  Recently we flew to Las Vegas for 4 nights (via New York), before flying down to Orlando (via Memphis).  We then returned to London via Memphis.  We were able to do this combination of flights by booking through www.expedia.co.uk and using the multiple-destination option.

We have also found cheap charter flights by booking the night before, although this option is usually outside of school holidays, and means set durations of 7, 14 or 21 days.  Also, when taking this option, it usually means that baggage is charged extra, but the upside is that these flights are usually direct flights, although in to Sanford Airport and not Orlando International Airport.

We have also found it to be an advantage to be a member of the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, register at www.virginatlantic.com . We have acquired numerous airmiles both with Virgin and their network of partners, such as Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Dollar Car Rental.  These airmiles entitle members to reward flights (look out for the special offers) and for miles+money flights, which means reduced flight prices in exchange for 2000 of your acquired airmiles.  Airmiles do not expire as long as you earn or spend airmiles every three years.