How to Book Group Flight Tickets

Group booking runs on a request-and-quote cycle, not a checkout. Nothing about it happens in a shopping cart, and that is the part most people are looking for when they search.

1. Send the request. Route, travel date, passenger count, cabin, and whether the return is fixed or open. Names are not needed yet.
2. Receive quotes. The desks price your block. Expect a written comparison rather than a single number, usually within a working day on domestic routes.
3. Check the validity. Every group fare is held for a stated window. Past it, the block is released and the price is re-quoted at whatever inventory then costs.
4. Pay the deposit. A part-payment confirms the seats. The balance is due before departure, on a date the quote states.
5. Supply the name list. Names exactly as printed on the ID or passport being travelled on, before the deadline on your quote.
6. Tickets issue. You receive one booking reference covering the party.

What to get in writing before you pay

• The all-in per-passenger price including taxes
• The validity window on the quoted fare
• The deposit amount and the balance date
• The name-list deadline
• The name-change and cancellation rules, in numbers rather than adjectives

Where groups usually go wrong

Two things cost groups money. Letting a quote expire, because the re-quote comes from a fuller aircraft. And treating the name deadline as soft — after it, a name change is priced as a change, and on some fares cannot be made at all.

How long it takes

A domestic group can be quoted and confirmed inside a day or two. International travel, and anything above about fifty passengers, is worth starting weeks ahead — not because the paperwork is slow, but because that is while the fare is still worth holding.