madfish

Does anybody have any experience of doing a group booking with BA? If so, how did you find the experience?

I am currently organising a group visit for 20 sixth formers to New York for February. I did this last year although went through an agency that specialises in group travel, although flew with Virgin. We are looking at approximately £725pp this year. This is for economy flights from MAN via LHR and 3 nights accommodation, with transfer between JFK and the hotel.

This is somewhat expensive, especially when looking at dummy bookings on BA.com I could find flights and accommodation (range of 4* hotels in good locations) for around £450pp. The only thing not included is the hotel transfer. Although, in theory we also have a local rep in New York should the need arise. Don't really think this is essential, unlike in countries where a language barrier may exist. It certainly seems like we could be paying a lot for this.

I have submitted a request for a quote from BA, but cannot see if they only do the flights for groups or if they can also do hotel bookings as a package. Does anybody know if this is possible? If so, then I really do think that we would be better off doing this rather than through an agency, after all I never use a TA personally.

I am aware that group tickets should still give avios and TPs (as well as being able to access the lounges as a gold) and they also offer increased flexibility for name changes, but are there any other benefits?

Sorry for all the questions!