Good point sandi makes about flights and availability of tickets.

My experience in recently trying to make a group booking (for more than eight people I had to go through their group booking desk; this was with United, don't know if other airlines are different) was that the cost per person was a fair bit higher than the price shown on their website when I did a search. When I asked why, I was told the main advantage was that the tickets wouldn't have to be paid for until closer to the travel date.

As I couldn't book more than eight people at a time, I made the reservation in batches. Fortunately, the price didn't go up between completing one reservation and starting the next.

Continuing on with my previous message--somehow I managed to post it before I'd finished all I wanted to say--you might be wise to have each family make their own flight reservations. If anyone is nervous about making their own flight reservations, and folks who don't travel much or aren't very computer savvy understandably may well be, do not pay for them yourself until you've received the cost of their airfare.

It would be helpful if you scoped out the best route, time and price, ensuring that you all arrive at the destination airport (i.e. Nairobi) on the same flight. Do the same for the return trip. Then present it to the others and urge them to make their reservations <u>immediately</u>.

There may be some folks who'd like to arrive a day early, depart a day later, or stop over somewhere along the route home. Anyone who wanted to customize or deviate from your recommended itinerary would be able to do so, just as long as they are at the accommodation where you all are staying in plenty of time to leave on safari with the group. Make it very clear that if they aren't there on or before the departure time and date, they're on their own to catch up with the rest of you--there will be no hanging about waiting.