Evaluating flight options for a group of 20 flying sydney-singapore-manchester in july.

Does anyone have a feel for price of group versus early bird vs normal ?

i would think sg airlines would be our best option?

what will we paying in taxes and charges?

I don't recommend screwing around with something this important yourself ... find a good travel agent who knows how to book groups. It's a lot more than just booking 20 people.

Agree - http://bestflights.com.au/

thanks...

how do airlines deal with groups?

do they have a separate 'group' department?

do they deal with group bookings on an ad hoc,case by case basis or do they have a set group rate?

Qantas has a group travel desk, accessed by travel agents. Or you can ring Qantas up and see if they'll answer your questions directly. They typically offer discounts to groups of 10 or more, but details can vary widely. I'd go through a qualified travel agent to avoid miscommunication or confusion.

Many 'groups rates' do not offer a discount as such, but a constant fare per ticket. If you were booking 20 separate tickets, it could well be spread out among 5 or 6 different fares. A groups rate will avoid this and, quite often, will represent a saving of some sort.

The main advantages of most groups fares is the flexibility. Ticketing deadlines are extended hence name changes are possible (handy for sports teams etc). The fare itself will often permit changes at very reasonable (if any) cost (also handy for sports teams who end up going home earlier than expected).

As I'm sure you will do, shopping around is crucial if you've got 20 people to take care of. You need particularly to be aware of cancellation policies and name changes as the chances are that at least 1 of those 20 people will let you down in some way. This flexibility is very much worth paying a premium for.

Very interesting...we strongly prefer sg airlines as they have a nightly sg-manchester direct flight.

in '05 we did a similar trip...thru a sports tour agency with a group sg booking.I was dismayed to find that about three months from travel i was in another travel agent and just asked them for their best price on a single tix sydney-manchester on the same date...it was $250 cheaper!!!!