Best Stopover airport UK to Orlando

Snowdon66

Earning My Ears
Joined
Nov 30, 2018
Hi all
I am Planning a trip from London to Orlando for Easter 2020 and in order to make the flights more affordable will be aiming to fly via a US airport. Any recommendations for which airport is most suitable?
Thanks in advance for your help.
 
We have stopped at Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York and Washington. in our experience Detroit and Philadelphia have been the easiest. We only did Washington once and I remember it being grubby. Atlanta (done a few times) - customs was very busy but not too long and we had to a train to change terminals but the airport was clean and we made connections without too much trouble. Detroit - customs easy - a long terminal that has a train running from end to end. Clean with OK food places. Likewise Philadelphia. New York (JFK) was a nightmare and on one occasion when son missed a connection (flying on his own as an older teenager) no one really wanted to know and he didn't know to stand his ground and make them sort it out. The only solution offered was for him to make his way to La Guardia where he could get a flight to MCO that was leaving in an hour. He and another lad in the same situation had very little cash, ran with cases (luckily he was a very fit basketball player at that point) to the entrance where they met a lovely stretch limo chauffeur who was heading back from dropping off his boss and took pity on them. Drove them over in record time and they made it!

Mrs TT
 
We have stopped at Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York and Washington. in our experience Detroit and Philadelphia have been the easiest. We only did Washington once and I remember it being grubby. Atlanta (done a few times) - customs was very busy but not too long and we had to a train to change terminals but the airport was clean and we made connections without too much trouble. Detroit - customs easy - a long terminal that has a train running from end to end. Clean with OK food places. Likewise Philadelphia. New York (JFK) was a nightmare and on one occasion when son missed a connection (flying on his own as an older teenager) no one really wanted to know and he didn't know to stand his ground and make them sort it out. The only solution offered was for him to make his way to La Guardia where he could get a flight to MCO that was leaving in an hour. He and another lad in the same situation had very little cash, ran with cases (luckily he was a very fit basketball player at that point) to the entrance where they met a lovely stretch limo chauffeur who was heading back from dropping off his boss and took pity on them. Drove them over in record time and they made it!

Mrs TT
Thanks, that is really helpful :-)
 
Have you looked at London to Amsterdam to MCO

Or London to Dublin ( Immigration done here .... so you arrive as a domestic Passenger ) to MCO ( Orlando )

with Aer Lingus
 


Have you looked at London to Amsterdam to MCO

Or London to Dublin ( Immigration done here .... so you arrive as a domestic Passenger ) to MCO ( Orlando )

with Aer Lingus

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about these. We've done GLA - Amsterdam - MCO and GLA - Amsterdam - Detroit/Philly/Atlanta - MCO (to save money when there was 4 of us). Would do these again if the price was right. Having said that we had a really bad experience in 2010 when we were hit by the Volcanic Ash and had flown with KLM. Not exactly a regular occurrence though.

We did GLA - Dublin - MCO for the first time in October but have to say based on our experience would not be keen to do so again (although we'll probably try it just to see if we were unlucky). The queue for pre clearance was extraordinarily long and it took us over 2 hours to get through the security followed by the TSA desks. We've never queued that long at any airport (including MCO when we were once held on our plane to let arrivals clear at little) although others in the queue round about us who had done the route before said that it wasn't the norm. Once through Immigration there were only two small coffee shops to cater for our lengthy wait. DD is allergic to both gluten and dairy and had had to bin the food she had brought with her. There was nothing (and I mean nothing) at either outlet that she could eat. We were told they probably had food in the Dublin lounge but at 39 euros each and a party of 8 we declined. Aer Lingus' in flight choices were for a vegetarian or vegan meal. The veggie meal had cheese and the vegan one had pasta. Boy was she hangry by the time we reached Orlando! She did much better on the return journey - vegan meal had no gluten and there were multiple options in the ordinary departure lounge.

Mrs TT
 
Philly is a decent airport (in the departure lounge) but clearing international arrivals seemed so backwards!

You were only allowed to go through the automated gates if you were a US citizen, so that side of the queue was empty whilst we had to wait ages to get through! (Longer than at Orlando)
 


If it has to be a US airport I would look at Atlanta as there are a dozen flights to Orlando from there, if you have delays, bad weather etc, there are plenty of options to rebook you to.

But I would prefer a European airport myself, as you avoid one time US customs and transferring your suitcase to your next flight yourself. Lufthansa also has a flight to Orlando from Frankfurt.
 
Philly is a decent airport (in the departure lounge) but clearing international arrivals seemed so backwards!

You were only allowed to go through the automated gates if you were a US citizen, so that side of the queue was empty whilst we had to wait ages to get through! (Longer than at Orlando)
Thanks
 
If it has to be a US airport I would look at Atlanta as there are a dozen flights to Orlando from there, if you have delays, bad weather etc, there are plenty of options to rebook you to.

But I would prefer a European airport myself, as you avoid one time US customs and transferring your suitcase to your next flight yourself. Lufthansa also has a flight to Orlando from Frankfurt.
Thanks, I will check it out.
 
i agree with Detroit being an easy connecting airport - i've used it many times and it's pretty painless and i enjoy window shopping there, they have some nice airside stores to waste your time in...

JFK is dreadful and i would avoid it unless you get a super bargain you can't refuse..

.
 
i agree with Detroit being an easy connecting airport - i've used it many times and it's pretty painless and i enjoy window shopping there, they have some nice airside stores to waste your time in...

JFK is dreadful and i would avoid it unless you get a super bargain you can't refuse..

.
Thanks Beth
 
You don't have to have a stop to be cheapest, keep your options open as I've seen direct flights cheaper than stopped flights before now.
 
i agree with Detroit being an easy connecting airport - i've used it many times and it's pretty painless and i enjoy window shopping there, they have some nice airside stores to waste your time in...

.

Hello Beth :goodvibes any tips about changing planes in Detroit. I’m looking to book our flights for this coming December in a couple of weeks and as I’m using Virgin air miles it looks as though via Detroit is going to be our earliest flight out of Heathrow.
 
Hello Beth :goodvibes any tips about changing planes in Detroit. I’m looking to book our flights for this coming December in a couple of weeks and as I’m using Virgin air miles it looks as though via Detroit is going to be our earliest flight out of Heathrow.

not sure what tips exactly.....i have to look which terminal virgin goes into...
i always fly delta when i fly via detroit (or to detroit as the case may be - that's where i'm originally from)..

but there are two terminals...so let me go check to see if virgin uses the delta terminal, called the McNamara terminal or the other terminal (i think called the north terminal, but it may have an actual name)..

be right back..
 
ok so that's weird....virgin isn't listed on the airport website, so i have no way of knowing if they use mcnamara or north terminal.
there are international airlines using both terminals.
Looking at the list, aeromexico, air france, and delta use the mcnamara terminal (mostly delta which has a major monopoly in detroit, with 75% of the traffic there)
and the following airlines use the north terminal: everyone else: air canada, alaska, american, frontier, jet blue, lufthansa, royal jordanian, southwest (i didn't know southwest flew to DTW, news to me), spirit, united and wow...

virgin isn't mentioned..

so the reason i say this, i have never ever been in the north terminal..
i assume it's much like the mcnamara terminal (what i always refer to as the delta terminal, since it's mostly delta in there)..

mcnamara is very nice, so i'm sure the north terminal is also nice as i think it was built later..

of course, as with any US airport, if it's your entry point into the US, you have to cross immigration and customs.
Immigration in the mcnamara terminal was pretty painless.
True, i'm an american, so it's always relatively painless, but now with the kiosks, things have been simplified.
and customs seemed pretty simple as well.
after you cross customs, you give back your suitcases at the connecting flights desk.
Just ask the customs officer where it is.
i've gone braindead, so i can't remember where you come out, but i'm sure you have to go through security again.
it's pretty fast in detroit - none of those hour long lines.

I've made it through detroit immigration customs really speedily - i think i clocked myself at much less than an hour, then adding on security.
But i would never bank on that.
of course, i assume that virgin will only book you with the amount of time you need there...

once you're airside at mcnamara - it's a really long terminal...really really really long..
one long straight terminal....
there's a train right inside the building - it's overhead...if you look up you'll see it..
it has three stations - in the middle and at each end..
but i never use it since the terminal also has moving walkways and i like to look at the shops...
and if i have a long wait, i like to walk up and down the terminal to get a bit of exercise in between flights..
or rather to stretch my legs after the long flight over the atlantic..
the food in the terminal isn't bad and the shops are interesting..the first desigual i ever saw was at that airport...

i usually use the delta business lounge, so i don't hang out in the terminal itself except to walk around..
but again, i'm talking about mcnamara and not the north terminal.

the airport has good maps of the two terminals on their website..
https://www.metroairport.com

.
 
so after that long drawn out treatise above, i googled again and this time i got an answer..
virgin uses the mcnamara terminal..
that's the one i wrote about above..

just editing this to add - if your connecting flight is on a codeshare with one of the delta regional airlines, you might have to move to the side terminals that are parallel to the main mcnamara terminal...

the little regionals fly out of those parallel terminals, which you get to by going underground...you just walk to them from the center of the main mcnamara terminal....you take an escalator down, walk through a long long tunnel and then take the escalator back up....i have to go check what those smaller parallel terminals are called as i don't remember..

.
.
 
Last edited:
ok so that's weird....virgin isn't listed on the airport website, so i have no way of knowing if they use mcnamara or north terminal.
there are international airlines using both terminals.
Looking at the list, aeromexico, air france, and delta use the mcnamara terminal (mostly delta which has a major monopoly in detroit, with 75% of the traffic there)
and the following airlines use the north terminal: everyone else: air canada, alaska, american, frontier, jet blue, lufthansa, royal jordanian, southwest (i didn't know southwest flew to DTW, news to me), spirit, united and wow...

virgin isn't mentioned..

so the reason i say this, i have never ever been in the north terminal..
i assume it's much like the mcnamara terminal (what i always refer to as the delta terminal, since it's mostly delta in there)..

mcnamara is very nice, so i'm sure the north terminal is also nice as i think it was built later..

of course, as with any US airport, if it's your entry point into the US, you have to cross immigration and customs.
Immigration in the mcnamara terminal was pretty painless.
True, i'm an american, so it's always relatively painless, but now with the kiosks, things have been simplified.
and customs seemed pretty simple as well.
after you cross customs, you give back your suitcases at the connecting flights desk.
Just ask the customs officer where it is.
i've gone braindead, so i can't remember where you come out, but i'm sure you have to go through security again.
it's pretty fast in detroit - none of those hour long lines.

I've made it through detroit immigration customs really speedily - i think i clocked myself at much less than an hour, then adding on security.
But i would never bank on that.
of course, i assume that virgin will only book you with the amount of time you need there...

once you're airside at mcnamara - it's a really long terminal...really really really long..
one long straight terminal....
there's a train right inside the building - it's overhead...if you look up you'll see it..
it has three stations - in the middle and at each end..
but i never use it since the terminal also has moving walkways and i like to look at the shops...
and if i have a long wait, i like to walk up and down the terminal to get a bit of exercise in between flights..
or rather to stretch my legs after the long flight over the atlantic..
the food in the terminal isn't bad and the shops are interesting..the first desigual i ever saw was at that airport...

i usually use the delta business lounge, so i don't hang out in the terminal itself except to walk around..
but again, i'm talking about mcnamara and not the north terminal.

the airport has good maps of the two terminals on their website..
https://www.metroairport.com

.

Thanks so much for the VERY detailed reply. It sounds as though it will be the McNamara terminal as we’ll be on Delta for both the international and domestic flights (they are a Virgin partner airlines I can use my Virgin air-miles)
 

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