Please note that as of January 12th 2009 new rules for visa apply for entry to the USA. From this date the American authorities dictate that passengers who don’t have a visa, but still meet the requirements for travelling under the ”Visa Waiver Program” must apply electronically prior to entry to the USA.
The application is called ESTA (Electronic System Travel for Authorization) and must be completed before departure. The authorities recommend that this be done 72 hours before departure. In most cases the application is considered at once, and the answer is also given online at once. The passenger has a personal responsibility to apply for and show an ESTA. An approved ESTA is valid two years and for more entries to the USA. At check-in it is checked whether the passenger holds an approved ESTA in the information that is read electronically from the passport. In the transition period the authorities dictate that the green form (I-94W) which is handed out at check-in and/or on board the flight must be completed as well.
Most Scandinavian citizens are able to travel to the US without a visa (up to 90 days) with the Visa Waiver program. Please note, that a machine-readable passport is required – otherwise you have to apply for a visa. Remember to take out travellers insurance, just in case.
Useful tips and tricks
Due to the EXTREMELY WIDE range of airlines across the Atlantic Ocean and the many airline companies it can be a bit of a jungle to find the right route at the right price – we have made a list of good advice based on our experience:
To find the most suitable route at the best price you should pay attention to the following:
- Determine the travelling dates, but be flexible – include a margin of +/- one week.
- Start out in good time – preferably 3-6 months before the departure date.
- Avoid outward and return journey on Saturdays! This is in general the most expensive day to fly.
- In stead, choose outward journey on Sundays or Mondays and return journey on Fridays, Sundays or Mondays. Since we, as most other landlords, offer flexible changeover day, this is not a problem.
- The travel time is normally 13 - 17 hours. Generally, routes with a shorter travel time are more expensive than routes with a longer travel time, i.e. the direct routes are faster and more expensive.
- AND RIGHT NOW: Keep an eye on the campaigns, there are lots of them!
Use momondo. This seach engine (available in many languages) finds most airline companies and is well updated with prices. You should visit it regularly (weekly) to spot the campaigns.
Then, visit the homepages of the travel agencies, with links from Momondo. The prices may, as stated on the pages, vary from day to day, and may be cheaper, more expensive or sold-out.
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Go to the airline companies’ websites and seek directly. Here you can typically find many more flight departures than those you get on Momondo, for instance try:
travelstart and travellink are also good examples of agencies that convey/sell flight tickets.
Please note that there is a charge of up to €25 for payment with e.g. VISA or MasterCard, however, should the airline company go bankrupt, you on the other hand have better chances of getting your tickets refunded when you pay with international credit cards.
Price level
The price level for a round-trip flight ticket to Orlando is typically €600 – 700 and upward for an adult. The most favourable campaign price we have seen was a round-trip with KLM + NWA from Hamburg to Orlando at €450 for an adult and €400 for children up to 12 years in May including taxes and charges.
Air routes
As mentioned already there are a vast number of possibilities. Newark (N.Y.), Atlanta are Detroit the most common intermediate airports in the USA, since they all have many daily routes to and from Orlando. Apart from that, the possibilities are almost endless.
And if you don’t mind driving the American highways and would like to see a bit more of the big country, you should try flying to Atlanta, rent a car, and spend an extra day and perhaps a night on driving from Atlanta to Orlando, a drive of around 500 miles.
Airports in Orlando
Orlando has two ariports:
Orlando International Airport (MCO)
(approx. half-an-hour drive, mostly scheduled airliners)
Sanford International Airport
(a one-hour drive - mostly charter planes).
Only Icelandair is using Sanford International Airport.
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