Nailing Down Your Travel Requirements
Determine your destinations. Before you can book bulk tickets, you need to know which cities you will be traveling between. This might be the same two cities on a regular basis if you travel for business, or it might be multiple cities at different times if you’re booking a one-time trip for a large group. For example, if you travel for business you might need 10 flights between Boston and St. Louis to cover your air travel for 3 months. If you’re planning a large group trip, you might need a flight between JFK airport, Paris, London, and back to JFK for 30 people. Consider this information carefully and have it easily accessible when you’re ready to book.
Determine how many people are going. If you’re booking business travel for yourself, you know you only need to arrange air travel for one. If you’re booking for a large group, you need to have a final number of travelers before you book. If you’re booking group travel, you’ll need to know this final number a considerable amount of time before you plan to travel, usually several months.
Work out your travel time frame. You’ll need to know what the time frame is for your travel. If you’re booking business travel, you’ll probably have a regular travel schedule, with set dates each week (or every few weeks). If you’re booking for a group, this might be slightly more flexible, but you’ll need to know roughly how long you plan to spend in each location. For example, if you’re traveling for business, you might know that you leave Boston every second Tuesday for St. Louis, and that you’ll return from St. Louis the following Friday. If you’re booking group travel, you might know that you’re leaving JFK for Paris in late May, spending approximately 10 days in Paris before leaving for London, and then spending four days in London before returning to JFK. If you have any flexibility in your travel dates, you should have this information easily accessible when you’re ready to book.
Collect traveler information before you book. Before you can book air travel for other travelers, make sure you have everyone’s information. This includes full legal names, addresses, and birthdays. Double check the spelling of names if you are booking for others – the names on their tickets must match the names exactly on the IDs they use (driver’s license or passport, etc) for them to be able to travel.
Booking Through a Consolidator
Find a consolidator. Consolidators are companies that buy bulk plane tickets at wholesale prices directly from airlines, and then sell them at greatly reduced rates to others. Using a consolidator will likely get you a better rate than you could on your own through an airline or travel website. Some examples of consolidators are: 1-800-FlyEurope, Airfare.com, AirfarePlanet.com, AirlineConsolidator.com, AirTreks, BargainTravel.com, CheapTickets, Economytravel.com, Globester, and TFI Tours. You can also look for consolidators in the travel section of most major Sunday newspapers. Consolidators are different than discount airlines – they do not actually own planes, they just have access to deeply discounted tickets. Some travel websites, like Travelocity and Expedia, sometimes offer consolidator fares on certain flights, but they are not actually consolidators. Generally, such websites only offer published fares. Consolidators, on the other hand, offer fares that are not published, and are worked out between the consolidator and the airline.
Check their reputation. Consolidators pop up and fold quite frequently, so you need to check the reputation of the consolidator that you use. Check to see if they belong to a consolidator trade organization. Look for membership in organizations like the United States Air Consolidators Association (USACA), American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), or the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA). You should also check to see if anyone has reported the consolidator you’ve chosen to the Better Business Bureau (BBB). The consolidator should have good BBB reports and scores.
Check restrictions on bookings. When using a consolidator, check what restrictions there are on tickets you purchase through them. When you book with a consolidator, you usually can’t use frequent flyer miles to pay for your ticket. Additionally, the tickets are probably nontransferable and nonrefundable.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Make sure you ask plenty of questions while you're purchasing your tickets. You can either do this by calling the consolidator's customer service phone number and booking over the phone or using the website's chat box, although calling customer service will probably be faster. For example, find out if the consolidator has an emergency number to call in case of problems with your travel. Ask what happens if you miss your flights – the original flight or any connections. You should also ask if there are any fees associated with purchasing through them, on top of the price of the ticket.
Use a major credit card to book. If you can, use a major credit card to book your travel through a consolidator. This can be a personal or business credit card. Using a major credit card gives you recourse if you don’t get a valid ticket because you can deny payment to the consolidator through your credit card company.
Confirm your reservation with the airline. Before you pay for your ticket through the consolidator, contact the airline and make sure they have your reservation in process. This way you know the consolidator is doing what they’re supposed to be doing on their end. You should also check with the airline again after you pay.
Get a record locator number from the consolidator. Once you’ve booked your travel with the consolidator, ask for a record locator number (this might also be a confirmation number). This gives you proof that you booked your tickets through the consolidator and gives you a reference number in case you need to contact the consolidator later.
Booking Through an Airline
Purchase a commuter book. Some airlines offer what’s called a commuter book (or, alternatively, airpass memberships). Commuter books are books of coupons (usually 10) that can each be redeemed for one one-way flight between two specific airports on that airline. You pay one set amount for the book and can then use the coupons to book flights any time in the future. These are an especially good option if you know you'll need to be traveling frequently between the same places but aren't sure of exact dates yet. The price of the commuter books varies depending on where you’re flying from and to, so it’s best to shop around before you choose one. If you usually fly in one area of the country, look for commuter books through regional, rather than national, airlines. Once you're ready to book your flight, you'll input your traveler information and seat preference like you would when making any other flight reservation, but instead of putting in credit card information to pay, you'll enter the code off of one of the coupons in your book. Keep in mind that you may have to pay extra for things like flight insurance.
Look for flat rate tickets. Some airlines provide flat rate tickets for a limited time. Purchasing a flat rate ticket allows you to buy one ticket that you can use as frequently as you want within a certain time frame. These tickets are more expensive than a regular one-way or round-trip ticket, but it can work out to be much cheaper than booking multiple individual round trips. Make sure you double check the details of any flat rate tickets you're interested in purchasing: you might be restricted in the airports you can use or the cities you can fly to. With a flat rate ticket, the booking process works the same way as any other booking, but you would enter the information from your flat rate ticket instead of your credit card information. There are now third-party apps and subscription services, like OneGo, that allow you to purchase a flight subscription for a set amount per month and give you the freedom to book with more than one airline. These are a great option for very frequent business travelers.
Call the airline group reservation desk directly. If you’re booking large group travel, call the airline’s group reservation desk directly. Their representatives have considerable experience booking air travel for large groups, and they can help guide you through it. Before you decide on one airline, call a few different group reservation desks to compare prices as well as flight details. It might work out that you can get a better rate or better flights if you book the different legs of your flights on different airlines. When you're ready to book a group flight directly through an airline, make sure you have all of the travelers' information in front of you: their full legal names, the type of ID they'll be using, their addresses, and their birthdates. The airline's group reservation agent will need this information to reserve your block of seats and issue boarding passes for all of the members of your group.
Reserve your flight at the right time. If you’re booking for a group, you want to reserve your flights approximately 8 to 10 months before your planned departure. Airlines release individual seats for specific flights up to a year in advance, but they don’t release groups seats until later. Airlines release group seats at slightly different times, so check the specific timeframe for group seats with your airline.
Booking Through a Travel Agent
Check their credentials. As with a consolidator, make sure that the travel agent you use is a member of a professional organization, like the Universal Federation of Travel Agents Association (UFTAA) or National Association of Career Travel Agents (NACTA). You can also look up reviews of travel agents on the Consumer Affairs website or the Better Business Bureau.
Meet your travel agent in person. Whether you’re booking business flight for yourself or group travel for others, it's best to meet with your travel agent for the first time in person.. This gives you the chance to meet the agent, discuss your specific travel needs, and have a longer conversation than the phone or email allow.
Ask questions. Make sure you ask your travel agents plenty of questions to clarify the details of your trip. You should know if there are there fees on top of the price of the ticket and if there is a help hotline you can call if your travel plans are disrupted. You should also ask your travel agent the best way to communicate with them – do they prefer the phone or email? This is particularly important if you need to contact them while you travel.
Create a schedule. After you’ve met with your travel agent, create a schedule with the due dates for each of the phases of your trip. This includes knowing when you need to have all of the traveler information to the agent, when they need copies of passports/IDs, and when down payments and final payments are due.
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