I need help booking my groups

[texduke]

I run a student tour company and we are getting raked over the coals by the airlines right now. I take groups of students and teachers from all over the US to 2 primary destinations- DC and NYC. I am willing to consider anything. Due to the nature of student travel, most of these flights occur between MAr 1- June 31. In the past when I looked into charters, the dead head and other issues made it too costly. I need help figuring out how I could pick up multiple groups if necessary en route to DC to fell the charter, then hopefully having groups ready to return home. There are usually a number of really concentrated weeks.

Is this a doable business model in the charter business for 6000 plus seats per year?

If not, are there true brokers in the domestic travel market who book mass amounts of seats and have the ability to sell them directly to me below the standard booking rates if Im taking groups of 20-150?

I need guidance. Right now my travel department is simply using sabre to find the flights then trying to call the group sales to book and we still can only get our own agents at Continental and United. If anyone has vast experience in booking group travel , negotiating airline contracts, ad /or knows the possibilities opn in the charter market I am very interested in talking to you and at a minimum hiring you to audit our practices and try to increase our profitability.

Thank you

 

[tea42]

try the charter dept. at USAIR

 

[Travelagent]

If not, are there true brokers in the domestic travel market who book mass amounts of seats and have the ability to sell them directly to me below the standard booking rates if Im taking groups of 20-150?
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Not really- brokers or "consolidators" will negotiate with the airlines a "bulk rate" for certain routes but NOT a specific "20 seats on flt 123 JFK-CDG on Dec 1, 2009"

If you are familiar with classes of service such as T, U, V, Y, F the consolidators will go to the airline and negotiate a rate of lets say $400 plus any applicable taxes for V class seats from JFK-CDG where as the published fare maybe $500. As you probably already know the availability of certain classes of service change like the wind. 20% of the flight could be "V" fares for off season but only 3% for high season. Confused yet?


SO if your group is looking for 60 seats on a particular flight and date then you will more than likely not be able to take advantage of using a consolidator or broker. They other catch is that most consolidators will only deal with travel agents and not just a group coordinator.

Have you tried dealing with STA travel- they specialize in student travel and have a great group department. They also have a very good relationship with the airlines group department due to the volume that they book and can sometimes get waivers for those cancellations, deviations and changes that enevitable come with student travel.

Good luck.