Advice on Washington & Orlando trip options

[pog2005]

Hi all. Grateful for some advice on the following.

We live in Wales, and are looking to travel as a family of four to Orlando next summer, using the 2 2-4-1 companion vouchers we have. We also have enough points to fly business.

To make the most of the journey, we’re looking to visit another city while in the US, and have settled on Washington – then taking an internal (cash) flight to Orlando. However, travel to and from the airport by car become slightly complicated because the BA Orlando flights are from Gatwick. I’m therefore looking at various options – including flying from Manchester:

1) Fly Heathrow – Washington; return Orlando – Gatwick (with BA)
Not particularly easy because would need to get from Gatwick to Heathrow to collect the car (will probably have 3+ cases, so travelling by train would be challenging).

2) Fly Manchester – Heathrow – Washington; return Orlando – Gatwick, Heathrow – Manchester (with BA)
Would. be easier in terms of car location, but trying to go from Gatwick to Heathrow would be a pain.

3) Fly Manchester – Dublin – Washington; return Orlando – Manchester (with Aer Lingus)
Potentially the easiest, but unsure about reward seat availability, and how business in Aer Lingus compares with BA.

Are there any options / considerations I’m missing? Any insights on the above?

[NorthernLass]

Washington DC is an amazing city and internal flights are very easy from DCA (don’t use IAD for this if you can avoid it).

MCO award seats are some of the trickiest to get and it’s unlikely that EI would release 4 in J, though you may see some economy if you snap them up when they appear.

LGW does complicate things – have you thought about returning from MIA? It’s about a 3 hour drive from MCO and US car hire companies are pretty relaxed about you having different pick up and drop off cities (that’s if you were going to hire a car, but you might want to as there’s a lot more to Florida than Disney, of course).

Otherwise, to avoid having to mess around with open jaw and calling BA, look at returning via IAD if cash prices aren’t too high on the domestic flights?

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

There are regular National Express coaches (plus another company whose name escapes me) between the two airports which take less than an hour.

Using the train and it’s step free with lifts and escalators at all stations so not too bad and I do that regularly as a solo flyer with two large bags.

Re availability on EI would be an issue for even a solo flyer let alone 4 so I’d discount that option.

[Andrew.]

NorthernLass wrote:

Washington DC is an amazing city and internal flights are very easy from DCA (don’t use IAD for this if you can avoid it).

MCO award seats are some of the trickiest to get and it’s unlikely that EI would release 4 in J, though you may see some economy if you snap them up when they appear.

LGW does complicate things – have you thought about returning from MIA? It’s about a 3 hour drive from MCO and US car hire companies are pretty relaxed about you having different pick up and drop off cities (that’s if you were going to hire a car, but you might want to as there’s a lot more to Florida than Disney, of course).

Otherwise, to avoid having to mess around with open jaw and calling BA, look at returning via IAD if cash prices aren’t too high on the domestic flights?

Brightline, the High Speed rail sevice from MCO to Miami is also a good option.

[Andrew.]

BA Flyer IHG Stayer wrote:

There are regular National Express coaches (plus another company whose name escapes me) between the two airports which take less than an hour.

Using the train and it’s step free with lifts and escalators at all stations so not too bad and I do that regularly as a solo flyer with two large bags.

Re availability on EI would be an issue for even a solo flyer let alone 4 so I’d discount that option.

Oxford Bus Company runs the hourly Airline service between Gatwick & Heathrow.

[ed_fly]

Some ideas, 1) NYC flies into Gatwick on BA, 2) drive to Heathrow, use national express coach to get to Gatwick fairly easy even with bags, had to make this journey with a 8 and 4 year following a lhr cancellation. 3) drive to Heathrow and use airportr to take your cases. There is going to be some degree of inconvenience

[Andrew.]

pog2005 wrote:

Hi all. Grateful for some advice on the following.

We live in Wales, and are looking to travel as a family of four to Orlando next summer, using the 2 2-4-1 companion vouchers we have. We also have enough points to fly business.

We tried to use our 2-4-1 voucher this summer for an (economy) trip to MCO. The reality was that the Hotels that we were looking at were pricing at the same, or more for two weeks than the BA Holiday for two people. We essentially saved £700 by not using my BA companion voucher.

Try the holiday builder to see what it comes out with, Eg LHR-IAD, DC Hotel, MCO Hotel, MCO-LHR via NYC or Dublin.

DC is great, the Crystal City area is really handy for everything if you don’t mind being over the river (within walking distance or metro) from the centre.

[ukpolak]

Good tip for the BA Holiday route as we too were looking at Florida for summer 2025 using 2 x companion vouchers. I have read that Miami, Tampa and Orlando in biz in school hols are nigh on impossible to book, so was thinking of going via NYC using voucher and then a cash ticket onwards. Or even Atlanta and then driving only because Atlanta seems to have more Avios availability.

Question re the BAH route with objective therefore of double tier points – would the whole holiday’s hotels have to be booked via BAH or just a portion? I wanted to avail of some hotel points for a portion of the trip. Eg perhaps BAH for flights and two or three nights of hotel, before booking rest of hotels solo.

[ed_fly]

@ukpolar definitely do-able. I’ve got 4 to MCO and back from Tampa for Easter next year. Looks like a fair number of seats available for summer next year.

[ukpolak]

Many thanks – have been holding off triggering the companion voucher on our 2 x cards but will do some investigating. Am easy in terms of Florida location as wanted to do a bit of a road trip – great that there is availability and thanks for letting me know.

[Man of Kent]

We are doing the exact same trip at the beginning of March. This will be our second trip to Washington DC as there is so much to see and do there. I’m afraid I can’t offer any suggestions on travelling to / from the US as we are using Virgin.

For your internal flight though if you have enough Avios left after the transatlantic flights have a look at going from DCA to MCO. We have booked this for 11,000 Avios plus £4.40 each (adult) with AA booked through BA (I think the Avios price has gone up recently though). As an alternative, I think Jet Blue also go DCA to MCO direct which as per todays’ article you could try to book through Qatar.

@Andrew – would be interested to hear more about Crystal City as a location as we haven’t booked anything yet.

[ed_fly]

When booking AA with Avios also check Qatar, the pricing structure may be different

[Ihar]

I hope you’re going for a long time!! Orlando/Miami (and if you do Keys) / Washington DC are a packed trip in themselves.

Found DCA very quick to get through on internal flights (and to get to!). If you go to DC, many of the Smithsonian museums are ticket-limited so make sure you book (free) – missed out last time.

[NorthernLass]

You could book 2 people with the companion voucher and the other 2 on a BA Holiday (select hotel rooms which will accommodate all of you, or 2 rooms, during the booking process). We’ve done this mix and match-type thing a few times.

You can have as many or as few hotels (and cars) as you like as part of the holiday, just make sure you adhere to the terms of the double TP offer if you’re going for that (can’t recall what date it runs till now).

We’ve visited DC/Virginia twice now, stayed at Homewood Suites in Alexandria plus HGI at DCA the first time and The Willard the second time, all had positives. If you’ve only got 2/3 days, select a few things to do as you’ll never fit it all in! You could have a full day just walking around the major landmarks like the White House, Lincoln Memorial, etc.

[FatherOfFour]

We are planning something very similar, using 3 x 2-4-1s (from 2 holders) Obvious pitfalls to this is: a) 2 bookings – risk of separation if IRROPS b) no hope of getting 6 Business seats from MCO/TPA or MIA in the holidays. c) I don’t even have a BAPP currently, d) The increased spend requirement and timing to get 3 vouchers between us needs some strategic planning!

However, we will likely fly in AND OUT of Washington – using either cash or Avios for internal return flights OR fly back Economy direct from MCO.

We managed multiple large cases on the train at Easter on our Aus trek – it’s not ideal but depending on the age of your kids they could help? (We used both LHR and LCY and combo of Lizzie Line, Jub/DLR – I’m not sure Gatwick will be quite as straightforward for some reason)

Thanks @Andrew. for the tip on hotels- I think we’re planning a villa/condo booked direct, so this might not be a factor for us.

[NorthernLass]

Don’t forget that the 241 does often open up extra availability, especially if you can travel from the regions, as long as you’re only searching for 2 seats per voucher.

[pog2005]

Wow – when I posted this morning I hadn’t anticipated receiving so many responses – many thanks to everyone for the very helpful advice.

We have already booked our accommodation at Disney World a few months ago when the free dining in 2025 offer launched. However, we held back on booking flights until I had the second of the 2-4-1 BA vouchers.

The plan to visit Washington originally stemmed from a concern that we might struggle to get reward seats available to Orlando, but based on the comments above there will probably be more to do there than we can fit into the two days we’d planned to be there. Returning to Washington for the transatlantic flight home might therefore make sense!

[annabh]

We’re just on this exact holiday! Getting business class to IAD is quite easy, as two flights per day plus Baltimore as well. Myself and my son flew out first which was great as we could guest in my husband to the lounge who made the most of that experience, avios points are lower for that but taxes are higher.

Getting the returns is a bit more tricky but what I did was book the outbound and then booked the inbound at full avios cost, then got the half amount refunded. If you don’t have enough avios this may be tricky. Although I would have done Tampa or Miami if we didn’t get this.

In terms of Washington DCA is super easy and small so you can leave it quite late to get there, we did a full day in DC before getting the 630 American flight using avios. We did 4 nights and did loads in that time. One thing to say both are super hot during summer so you may need to factor in rest when planning any intenaries.

Washington is a fab city and would 100% recommend this holiday.

[NorthernLass]

@pog2005, you could still book a BAH and include just your DC accommodation or car hire.

IAD is quite a hike from DC itself so factor in 30 mins to an hour for transfers – also both times we’ve been the immigration queues have been insane! We usually book an airport hotel for the first night after a long flight so we can just flop after completing the entry procedures.

If you don’t actually want to go into the city at both ends of the trip, the Air and Space Museum has a site in an enormous hangar a few minutes from IAD. It’s an amazing day out for adults and kids and has loads of exhibits including a space shuttle, a Blackbird (the “invisible” stealth plane), a Concorde and the Enola Gay.

[MF176]

Love DC, and I think the metro is one of the best I’ve used anywhere in the world. Makes an already quite compact city a total breeze. I was there last summer and arrived in to DCA on AA, departing IAD on BA, all very seamless and a good experience at both airports.

[Andrew.]

Man of Kent wrote:

@Andrew – would be interested to hear more about Crystal City as a location as we haven’t booked anything yet.

It’s a rather curious place with the majority of the hotels, buildings and Crystal City metro station (on the East Side) connected via an underground network of pedestrian tunnels and small shops.

The hotels, well the best way to describe them is “standard conference” hotels. They are all functional soulless hotels with a high turnover of military, political, commercial, and tourist guests. It’s not a flattering description, but there’s far too much to do in DC to be hanging around your hotel for long.

If you look on a map for National Landing Water Park https://maps.app.goo.gl/i3mnuhQx6Zr9jTAF8 , it’s near Crystal City Metro Station and gives access to the Mt Vernon Trail. From there you have an easy walk, approximately 5.5km/50 minutes to the Washington Monument.

Alexandria is also a good location to stay, it’s 2 stops South of DCA on the Metro.

[NorthernLass]

We did 3 nights at Homewood Suites in Alexandria, it was a nice property with suites big enough for families, full kitchen and decent breakfast with hot drinks to go in the lobby as well. It was next to a strip of shops which was handy for picking up supplies, and had free parking, the Holy Grail of car hire stays!

[Chris R]

Yet more evidence of demand for domestic connections to Gatwick that can help economies of scale that BA chose to ignore

[Man of Kent]

Thanks @Andrew, will check out the hotels in both Crystal City and Alexandria.

[pog2005]

All. Just wanted to report back that I managed to book the flights – we’re heading out to Washington a day earlier than originally planned based on the advice here that there’s a lot to fit in while there!

We did consider options to enable us to fly back into LHR, but eventually concluded that getting the bus from LGW to LHR and collect the car was probably the easiest (and most cost effective) option.

I now need to book flights from Washington to MCO. They seem pretty pricey at the moment – especially once you’ve factored in 3 checked bags. When I’ve looked to redeem Avios, I don’t see that I’m getting as much value per Avios as I’d like, and checked bags again don’t seem to be included. There’s plenty of time so may wait and see.