Group travel
Group bookings, handled by a person
Pilgrimage parties, families travelling together and corporate groups — the bookings a search box handles worst.
Booking for a group is the clearest case where a search box stops being the right tool, and it is worth knowing why rather than just being told to call.
A fare you see on a results page exists in a limited quantity at that price. When you need nine seats on one flight, the cheapest bucket will usually not hold nine, so the system either splits your party across fares or quietly prices all nine at the highest one it can fill. Neither is what you wanted, and neither is obvious until the total appears.
Groups also change. Somebody’s leave does not come through, a child is added, a grandparent decides at the last minute to come after all. Under individual bookings each of those is its own change fee under its own fare rules. Handled as one file, it is usually one conversation.
What we do differently
One named agent
The same person from the first quote to the last boarding pass, not a queue and a reference number.
Seats worked, not just searched
Sometimes by holding seats, sometimes by splitting the party deliberately across two connecting flights, sometimes by advising you to move a day.
Pilgrimage travel
Najaf and the Gulf corridors book in groups around dates that are not always flexible. Our desk is set up for exactly that, in Arabic and Urdu.
Corporate groups
Where the fixed point is a meeting rather than a price, tell us the constraint and we will build the rest around it.
Have these ready and it goes quickly
- 1
Numbers and ages
Exact passenger count, and the ages of anyone under twelve — infants and children price differently and change what the airline will hold.
- 2
Which dates are actually fixed
Outbound flexibility is often worth more than return flexibility, or the reverse, and it is rarely both. Knowing which direction is firm is half the work.
- 3
Names as they appear in the passports
Not the names people are known by. A correction after ticketing carries a fee on most airlines and is impossible on a few.
- 4
Who can say yes
The single most common cause of a lost group fare is a quote that expired while it went round a family WhatsApp.
Questions we get asked
How many people make it a group?
In airline terms it is usually nine or ten travelling together, but the practical answer is lower: from about four or five, a desk can hold seats and keep a party on one fare in ways a booking form cannot. If in doubt, call and we will tell you which side of the line you are on.
Can everyone pay separately?
Often, but it depends on the fare and the airline, so raise it early rather than at the end. We will tell you what is possible before you collect anybody’s money.
What happens if someone drops out?
That depends on the fare rules the group was ticketed under, which is exactly why they are worth reading before you choose on price. Whatever the airline charges, you will see it before anything is confirmed.
Tell us about the group
Numbers, rough dates and the one thing that cannot move. We will come back with options rather than a single take-it-or-leave-it total.
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