Airfare for 15 people

[finoky]

I am sort of the go to person for our upcoming cruise in May with family and friends. I have found an airfare that I am pretty comfortable with. My question is how would I go about booking all 15 of us on the same flight at the same fare? When I search for over 5 people instead of 4 or less then the rate that shows is $25 higher per person. Can I get everyone together with 5 laptops and all book 3 or 4 people per laptop all on the same flight at exactly the same moment? I am thinking that if I go through group booking with the airline they will jack it up due to capacity controls with their pricing. Hoping for some insight from the airfare gurus on here. Thanks in advance!

[paul929207]

I suspect that there are only a limited number of seats available at the lower price. You may need to call the airline to make the reservations.

[CruiserBruce]

I would get with a travel agent. Generally, trying to book it your self would run into the concept of fare buckets. There may only be 3 seats at the cheapest fare, then 5 at the next highest fare, then 5 at the next, etc. Probably only an agent or the airline can work out one fare for everyone.

[Cya@Sea]

I am the unofficial coordinator of our cruise. There are 21 of us. We are flying Southwest. I suggest you call the airline and talk to group reservations. It is so much easier than trying to book online for so many people. We did this last year with 10 in our group and we had no problems at all. With Southwest you don't pay entire amount all at once. You pay a deposit due like a month after you reserve it was like 10 percent of total. Final payment is like 45 days out ( i believe). The folks at Southwest have always been nice everytime I called with questions. Good luck I know how crazy it is planning for so many people.

[FlyerTalker]

Call the airline. Ask for the group sales department.

 

What is likely happening is that there are only 4 seats in the cheapest bucket. When you ask for more seats than are available in the bucket, it automatically places ALL of the requests into the higher bucket -- it won't price out 4 at the lowest and then add just one in the next higher.

 

Either the group department or a good agent can give you the straight scoop.

[waterbug123]

I am sort of the go to person for our upcoming cruise in May with family and friends.!

 

As others have said, you either need to use a travel agent, or contact the airline's group booking department. Personally, I'd use a travel agent, and let them deal with the group booking. That way you don't have to play middleman. It'll save you a lot of hassles, stress and trouble if something goes wrong. The TA makes the reservations, and you refer everyone in turn to the TA. That way each person is responsible for meeting the deadline for payment with the TA and each person pays for their own tickets. You don't end up in the middle when cousin Billy doesn't pay on time and gets his ticket cancelled and calls you in a fit because "you knew I was going, why didn't you cover my ticket/call me and remind me/tell the airline not to cancel my ticket?"