I'm taking a trip with my family to Jamaica end of Jan. 2008. We will be traveling in two groups of 16 people, traveling 1 week apart. What is the best way to find the cheapest rates? I'm curious if booking real early will give me the best rates or waiting for a later date to find a deal. Is one airline better then another for group travel?

Group Travel is not always the cheapest way to go.I have friends going from Dallas to Cancun in March.They are on a group fare with American Airlines.It is $675 each ticket!! Yikes thats allmost double what they could have booked online in October when the group was conceived.Their travel agent is telling them the advantages of group travel:1) They get to travel together.2)Most airlines allow a group to have "delayed" ticketing, in their case 30 days prior to departure.So I would do some more research before you jump on the "group" bandwagon.

Where are you flying from? American and Air Jamaica are the big carriers here. Personally, I would check prices and when it looks good, I'd book it. It wouldn't hurt visiting a travel agent to see what they can come up with.

When I used the Group Travel division of American to book wedding guests to Antigua, the original spiel they gave me was 10% off full economy fare! When I told them it was too much money the rep told me that she would pass my request along to some Powers That Be, who then got back to me offering a reasonable deal for 20 of us for travel to Antigua. It wasn't the cheapest fare I've ever seen, but it was a good price of $500 including taxes per person when most fares for the dates in question were running around $650.

January is high season for air travel to the Caribbean, so there might not be as much leeway in fares.

For accomodations contact the hotel/resort/condo rental agency <b>directly</b>!!! and make sure you talk to the manager/owner.

Do not talk to the regular reservations.

Thank you for your replies to my question. I will be flying out of MSP. Air Jamaica does not fly from there. The airlines that are available to me are AA, US air, northwest, continental. With US air usually offering the best rates. I was thinking I could probably do as well booking myself verses contacting the group rates division at the airlines as some of you have said.