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Booking airfare for large group - Advice?
Booking airfare for large group - Advice?
We are looking to book airfare next summer for a group of 8 adults and 6 kids (only 1 of which might be "babe in lap"). Ideally 2 adults and 2 kids leaving from a different airport than the rest; 2 others may go down a few days earlier than everyone else.
Can anyone tell me about any large group discounts, is it best to go right to the airline rather than an online booking site, if all tickets are booked together but from different originations or on different days can you still get a group fare, is it worth seeking a travel agent's assistance?
Trip Insurance - One large policy or one policy per family?
Thanks in advance,
Can anyone tell me about any large group discounts, is it best to go right to the airline rather than an online booking site, if all tickets are booked together but from different originations or on different days can you still get a group fare, is it worth seeking a travel agent's assistance?
Trip Insurance - One large policy or one policy per family?
Thanks in advance,
Jennifer
Not an expert but it's my understanding that large group discounts/travel would only apply if everyone was on the same itinerary.
Having traveled with a sizable group last summer 7 adults and 2 kids coming from different destinations it was just easier to start looking at the schedules and coordinating arrival times.
Wasn't hard, just took some looking around and then finding the best prices.
Certainly if you don't want to do the work yourself a travel agent might be helpful.
Good luck!
In terms of the insurance, just check with CSA. They should be able to prvide the best guidance about how to structure the policy.
Having traveled with a sizable group last summer 7 adults and 2 kids coming from different destinations it was just easier to start looking at the schedules and coordinating arrival times.
Wasn't hard, just took some looking around and then finding the best prices.
Certainly if you don't want to do the work yourself a travel agent might be helpful.
Good luck!
In terms of the insurance, just check with CSA. They should be able to prvide the best guidance about how to structure the policy.
*Another fine scatterbrained production
Re: Booking airfare for large group - Advice?
I am fairly certain you can't book more than 5 (or maybe it is 6) tickets at the same time on-line. We ran into this two trips ago. We ended up just letting the one couple's travel agent do the bookings.
Each family would need to get their own trip insurance.
Each family would need to get their own trip insurance.
We travel each year with a party of 14. We have called the airlines for quotes for our group and have beat the quotes every time. Large groups to the airlines are really 20+.
Depending on the airline, you can usually book 5 to 7 tickets at once online. We usually figure out our dates and then get online to see how many seats are available on the flights we want.If the flight is booked we alter our dates if possible and then settle on the flights and usually find that booking online with the airline gets you the best fares (not always though,try kayak.com and expedia etc to check). Then we do a conf call with each family and we enter our info together and hit the Book Flights button at the same time. It usually works well this way as it tricks the airline system into giving all a good rate. The more tix that are sold the higher the rate goes up online. That is our method and it works for us. Good luck!
Depending on the airline, you can usually book 5 to 7 tickets at once online. We usually figure out our dates and then get online to see how many seats are available on the flights we want.If the flight is booked we alter our dates if possible and then settle on the flights and usually find that booking online with the airline gets you the best fares (not always though,try kayak.com and expedia etc to check). Then we do a conf call with each family and we enter our info together and hit the Book Flights button at the same time. It usually works well this way as it tricks the airline system into giving all a good rate. The more tix that are sold the higher the rate goes up online. That is our method and it works for us. Good luck!
I've called to inquire about group discounts and I think most airlines will only discount off of the full fare. You're much better off looking around for deals on airfare and taking advantage of that instead. I've booked for our large group(9)the last couple years and just do it in two batches. This year I couldn't get the entire group on the same flight for the first leg of the trip, but we meet up at the hub for the airline and are all together from that point on. This won't be too much of an inconvenience since we won't all fit into one vehicle for the trip to the airport and that part of the trip is short. (Not to mention that the airline will probably change things six times between now and November and we could wind up on the same flight anyway!) The layover for the first group isn't horrendous - they will have enough time to have lunch while waiting. The rest of us will probably have to grab a sandwich to take on the plane. Or maybe we'll have the first group pick up some predetermined sandwiches for us. We're pretty good about working together to benefit the whole group! That's probably why we have so much fun together.