Flights from London Gatwick to Fort Lauderdale

[jimzgoldfinch]

Just found out that British Airways will cease flying into FLL from LGW in Sept 2019. Therefore there will be no direct flights from London to FLL. (Norwegian will be flying to Miami as well).

An alternative flight from Heathrow to Miami has similar timings BUT the cost of the outbound flight has increased dramatically. Fortunately, later flights by BA & AA have not changed (yet?). I'm due to fly out in Jan 2020 so I suspect a lot of people will have to rebook!

[tfred]

Given Norwegian's financial status (bad), they wouldn't be my first choice.  American Airlines, but they may be very close to BA in pricing

[mikkelhansen]

35 minutes ago, tfred said:

American Airlines, but they may be very close to BA in pricing

American Airlines and British Airways have codeshare flights, so a return trip could be booked directly with either AA or BA, but the actual carrier could be AA one way and BA the other way. And you are correct, usually the prices will be very close to each other with those two airlines.

Virgin Atlantic flies LHR-MIA v.v. as well, and in general their pricing seems to be about BA/AA's.

[hopeless holiday booker]

When we have cruised from Fort Lauderdale we have generally gone from heathrow to Miami.  We then either stay in miami overnight or get a taxi to fort lauderdale and stay overnight there.  Not to much of a hassle so don't let it put you off.

[yorky]

4 minutes ago, hopeless holiday booker said:

When we have cruised from Fort Lauderdale we have generally gone from heathrow to Miami.  We then either stay in miami overnight or get a taxi to fort lauderdale and stay overnight there.  Not to much of a hassle so don't let it put you off.

We are doing exactly the same this year, pricing up Fort Lauderdale was way higher when we booked.

[anniedave]

3 hours ago, jimzgoldfinch said:

Just found out that British Airways will cease flying into FLL from LGW in Sept 2019. Therefore there will be no direct flights from London to FLL. (Norwegian will be flying to Miami as well).

An alternative flight from Heathrow to Miami has similar timings BUT the cost of the outbound flight has increased dramatically. Fortunately, later flights by BA & AA have not changed (yet?). I'm due to fly out in Jan 2020 so I suspect a lot of people will have to rebook!

We are on 20th Jan reflection cruise and have flights from Heathrow to Miami with American airlines - flight run by BA . I had done my own research so I had to tell my TA that we couldn't fly gatwick to FLL as he wasnt aware ! 

[lovescarborough]

4 hours ago, jimzgoldfinch said:

Just found out that British Airways will cease flying into FLL from LGW in Sept 2019. Therefore there will be no direct flights from London to FLL. (Norwegian will be flying to Miami as well).

An alternative flight from Heathrow to Miami has similar timings BUT the cost of the outbound flight has increased dramatically. Fortunately, later flights by BA & AA have not changed (yet?). I'm due to fly out in Jan 2020 so I suspect a lot of people will have to rebook!

Wow that's really poor service from BA to allow customers to book then cancel the route ! I looked at booking this route for Jan 2020 as we're really sick of Miami queues at immigration but decided against it as the return flights didn't work for us staying on for a day after the cruise. We booked Virgin instead. Surely if you booked BA they should have some obligation to sell you a replacement flight to Miami at the price available when you originally booked ? I would certainly kick up a fuss and maybe get one of our TV consumer programmes involved. 

[jimzgoldfinch]

1 hour ago, lovescarborough said:

Wow that's really poor service from BA to allow customers to book then cancel the route ! I looked at booking this route for Jan 2020 as we're really sick of Miami queues at immigration but decided against it as the return flights didn't work for us staying on for a day after the cruise. We booked Virgin instead. Surely if you booked BA they should have some obligation to sell you a replacement flight to Miami at the price available when you originally booked ? I would certainly kick up a fuss and maybe get one of our TV consumer programmes involved. 

 

I was offered a flight via Philadelphia to FLL for same price. Not satisfactory. We had direct flights to FLL earlier this year and did not want to add several hours on to our Journey. Now got a later flight which is more suitable than the original flight to FLL or the alternative flight to Miami.

 

The cost of the change is around £200 but we have now got Celebrity transfers from Miami Airport. Airport transfers between airport and hotel are include. No need to worry about expensive taxi transfers.

[gordylad]

no surprise they cancelled the route...they cancelled our flight in September some time ago 

[little britain]

Bother!  It was so much easier to fly into FLL .  And there isn’t a BA LGWMIA. Back to drawing board....

 

ps; thanks for the heads up! 

Edited April 30, 2019 by little britain

[JBare]

We have always booked flight BA207 from LHR  to MIA and on the last two occasions have taken only about 20 mins to get from plane to luggage reclaim. It arrives early afternoon and on the last occasion had about 8 border people just for that flight.  The last flight was booked through Celebrity as an Iberia flight and was about £300 pp cheaper than through BA.  Iberia also code share with BA and AA and most of the flights are operated by BA. We take the late evening flight home BA208, drop luggage at MIA and catch Airport Express to South Beach for the day. Taxi or TriRail to Fort Lauderdale. Ships transfer back to MIA.

[DYKWIA]

if you fly in business or first and don't mind a bit of a longer journey and a slight detour it can often be significantly cheaper to fly from places like Paris, Dussoldorf, Brussels etc - sometimes flying back to LHR to pick your BA flight up (looking at a £2500 saving for 2 of us on flights to Sydney). 

 

There are rules though,  you must start and end your journey as ticketed - i.e. you can't ignore the bit about starting your abroad  or on your return leave the airport at Heathrow. 

[villauk]

21 hours ago, DYKWIA said:

if you fly in business or first and don't mind a bit of a longer journey and a slight detour it can often be significantly cheaper to fly from places like Paris, Dussoldorf, Brussels etc - sometimes flying back to LHR to pick your BA flight up (looking at a £2500 saving for 2 of us on flights to Sydney). 

 

There are rules though,  you must start and end your journey as ticketed - i.e. you can't ignore the bit about starting your abroad  or on your return leave the airport at Heathrow. 

 

 

Sshhh. We do this too. Tbh, BA’s business class configuration is our least favourite - more seats across than any other carrier we have used.

[Highpeaklad]

On 4/29/2019 at 8:06 PM, lovescarborough said:

Wow that's really poor service from BA to allow customers to book then cancel the route ! I looked at booking this route for Jan 2020 as we're really sick of Miami queues at immigration but decided against it as the return flights didn't work for us staying on for a day after the cruise. We booked Virgin instead. Surely if you booked BA they should have some obligation to sell you a replacement flight to Miami at the price available when you originally booked ? I would certainly kick up a fuss and maybe get one of our TV consumer programmes involved. 

 

To be fair I’m not sure what else BA can do. If the route isn’t making money it has to be dropped. They’re giving 4+ months notice so that’s ample time for most people to rearrange. They will rebook you to similar flights at no charge although there will always be some people who will be inconvenienced. You can only rebook once though, so make sure you are completely happy with the alternatives before you agree. 

[DYKWIA]

1 hour ago, villauk said:

 

 

Sshhh. We do this too. Tbh, BA’s business class configuration is our least favourite - more seats across than any other carrier we have used.

 

We wouldn't normally bother with BA - overated and decidedly poor at the back of the plane, but on some routes and at some prices they make sense.  8 across in Club is poor these days, their new product will make them more competitive,  The running joke is that BA First is the best Business Class in the skies.

 

Our Sydney flights are likely to be with Singapore Airlines who have very good prices (cw London) from mainland Europe

[villauk]

35 minutes ago, DYKWIA said:

 

We wouldn't normally bother with BA - overated and decidedly poor at the back of the plane, but on some routes and at some prices they make sense.  8 across in Club is poor these days, their new product will make them more competitive,  The running joke is that BA First is the best Business Class in the skies.

 

Our Sydney flights are likely to be with Singapore Airlines who have very good prices (cw London) from mainland Europe

 

 

IMHO, Singapore Airlines are the best out there - fantastic service.

[Chicago Boy]

Maybe I missed it but did you book your flights through Celebrity?  If not you might consider doing so.  We always use them and have excellent luck.  In fact, we have book our air through them for our  Transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale in November.  Perhaps I should add we also book our hotels, tours etc through them as well.  We like the protection it affords.

 

[waterbug123]

On 5/1/2019 at 6:57 PM, Chicago Boy said:

did you book your flights through Celebrity?  If not you might consider doing so.  We always use them....we also book our hotels, tours etc through them as well.  We like the protection it affords.

 

 

I agree there is an element of protection when you book an excursion through the cruise line.  Booking hotels however, is usually more costly through the cruise line, as they typically charge per person rather than per room.  As for booking air through the cruise line, the protection is somewhat limited.  They will help get you to the next port if there is a delay or cancellation that causes you to miss your flight, but there are limits to the help they can give in that scenario. If the ship has sea days scheduled before the next port, you could still miss several days of your cruise, or the entire thing if it's a transoceanic cruise.  It's important to read all the fine print.

[jimzgoldfinch]

On 5/1/2019 at 11:57 PM, Chicago Boy said:

Maybe I missed it but did you book your flights through Celebrity?  If not you might consider doing so.  We always use them and have excellent luck.  In fact, we have book our air through them for our  Transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale in November.  Perhaps I should add we also book our hotels, tours etc through them as well.  We like the protection it affords.

 

I booked my flights through my travel agent. I am not sure that having booked through Celebrity would have made any difference. The alternative offered was not acceptable as there are no longer any direct flights from London to FL and I would have expected Celebrity to offer similar with flight with a connection in Philadelphia or other US city.

 

The cost of flying from LGW to FLL was around 10 to 15% cheaper than flying from LHR to FLL. As mentioned the cost of the first alternative flight increased by more than 30% following BA’s announcement. I was booked on a later flight before the price was inflated. Three other flights, one by BA and two by AA (BA code share partner), flight costs had not changed.

 

I agree that booking through Celebrity could have added some level of protection but that doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t have a direct flight.

[british betty]

Sorry but I’m a bit confused. The BA website is still showing flights at the beginning of September from LGW to FLL.🤔

 

 

[chemmo]

We look at absolutely every option...

 

We often fly into and/or out of Orlando and enjoy seeing Mickey Mouse pre or post cruise! Easy and cheap car hire to drive to/from. This year we fly into Orlando for an 8 day villa stay, then drive to Fort Lauderdale for an overnight pre cruise. Post cruise we return home from Fort Lauderdale via JFK...

 

Far more direct flights from regional as well as London airports to Orlando...If you are willing to consider charter flights you can get some great prices although dates and times can be more limited. 

 

We do need business for long haul now. Agree with DYKWIA often worthwhile going via Europe for many US destinations  and with Villauk that the BA business layout leaves a lot to be desired...

 

Virgin tends to be our ‘go to’ when prices permit. Highpeaklad, we tend to find we get the best business flight prices at about 6/7 months out. Our flights for September are now over £2,000 more expensive than when we booked...If BA had let me down 4 months out I wouldn’t be happy...

 

 

Edited May 4, 2019 by chemmo

[jimzgoldfinch]

7 hours ago, british betty said:

Sorry but I’m a bit confused. The BA website is still showing flights at the beginning of September from LGW to FLL.🤔

 

 

Last direct flight is in September, 7th I believe. Alternative options are now AA flight via Dallas or Philadelphia from LHR.

[british betty]

1 hour ago, jimzgoldfinch said:

Last direct flight is in September, 7th I believe. Alternative options are now AA flight via Dallas or Philadelphia from LHR.

 

Ah ha !  We have a hold on flights LGW / FLL for 5th September but return from Miami.

 

I always look at the options available and weight up the pros and cons for a flight with stops as opposed to non stop. I spend hours / days driving myself nuts , BA / Virgin / AA , Norwegian and any others. We are about an hour from both Gatwick and Heathrow so it’s an either /or choice, usually based on times of departure.

 

I also agree that the  business class layout on BA which we have been lucky enough to book over recent years is bizarre.  As one gets older, it’s not easy to climb over the legs of a sleeping complete stranger without waking them. Sadly, we’re all out of Avios and vouchers for this trip and are flying economy and having to pay for an extra case as it’s impossible for us to travel light 🙄

[rachiem]

We had been planning to do the Caribbean cruise in Mch from Fort Lauderdale but we've decided (and just booked) the NCL one from New York.

We live just 15 mins from LGW and really didn't want to trek up to Heathrow. BA offer NY from LGW and the flight was only £350pp return including luggage. We usually fly business but for the 7 hr flight, we will stick with economy.

We love Celebrity but we still really enjoy NCL too...price was roughly the same for a balcony cabin.

[tfred]

Virgin Trains (operating as Brightline here in FL) is planning on extending their Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach to Orlando in the next few years.  The train is absolutely first class.  Combined with a trip to Disney World  it may be an option