Originally Posted by
westcoastman
I have planned group trips and AS has never worked out. In a couple of cases the airfare was higher than what was available on the website. This is because AS has very few seats per fare bucket. I planned a trip for 20 at the beginning of March to LAX and UA worked out to $210 each while AS was much higher even though the price for one ticket was the same as UA. Another trip, ONT-PDX, the organizer decided to go with SWA and have a stopover in OAK rather then pay AS's inflated group airfare, which was higher than the if just one person booked.
Everyone that I have talked through this process has questioned why AS would not discount the airfare for a group but rather actually marks it up but these travelers don't understand how inflexible the airlines are about airfares and if you try to book 10 people and there are only 8 seats everyone pays the higher price.
I found the rules around United Airlines "team" group reservations better than AS. You can change names for no fee all the way up to departure and individual team members can stay longer than the "group" return date and change it for no fees. However, there are penalties if you lose more than 10% of your group before departure.
I am part of a group flying from GEG-FAI, and it seems to be working out quite well. We got a reduced rate off the flight, and I was even able to call and make changes to my personal itiniary, like using the upgrade cert FAI-SEA and changing my seats. Associated with a school probably assisted us in getting lower fares, but it seems to be working out fine. Trip is next wednsday, and if any snags occur, I'll let everyone know, but am happy thus far, (especially since I don't have to pay the full fare).
Flying to places with competition, other carriers may offer better fares. However, AS won't book "group" airfare to destinations involving codeshares... so ended up with NW... worked out ok, but no upgrades... When flying to AK though, AS should be a good bet.