Group Travel
 

Hello All,

I am trying to arrange travel for a group of 12 roundtrip from Tokyo to Hong Kong in November. I called Cathay to see if they have group rates but the agent was completely unhelpful. She quoted a fare $1,000 higher than their website.

Can anyone provide brief guidance?

Does Cathay offer group rates lower than published fares?
Are there "discount" airlines that travel Tokyo to Hong Kong and back?
Will a travel agent be able to get "consolidator" fares?

Thanks everyone!

Welcome to FlyerTalk. First off where are you and which CX res did you call?

To arrange travel originating from TYO, you would need to contact CX in Japan and especially for arranging groups. Probably better to contact a Japanese TA to help you with that. They would of course have local rates on CX not available through CX res outside of Japan.

Other than CX, there are other rates you might be able to find - but again best to contact a Japanese TA for that.

Guy Betsy,

Thank you very much for your reply. I contacted CX (that is Cathay, right?) in Los Angeles.

But I understand now that I should contact a Japanese travel agent.

Do you mean a travel agent in the US specializing in Japanese travel?

Or do you mean a travel agent in Japan? If so, can you recommend an agent? How do I find them?

Many thanks again,
Tony

Group rates are rarely cheaper than internet or discounted agents rates. They are generally a discount on the published rate.

Essentially Groups have to travel, so there's no real point in any airline heavily discounting for them.

Generally CX (and most airlines) won't take group bookings directly in countries other than their home port due to the larger work involved and you'll have to contact an agent with a 'Groups' department.

The best thing is to contact a Travel agent in the country of origin of the first flight.

For smaller groups just over the 9 limit, you might find it cheaper to book a couple of tickets, say for 6 and 6.

It would be easier if you go to local tour operators, they should be able to help you since they are already buying bulk from the airlines. Another idea is that you can check with JTB or similar agents where they offer cheap hotel & airfare packages.

(A bit off topic, not sure if this is true or not, flights out of NRT are generally more expensive than flights going into NRT, eg, the fare for NRT/HKG/NRT is higher than HKG/NRT/HKG.)

Off Topic for CX board but you may want to do even harder ... fly HND via NH / JL should be even cheaper

Good point.;) But both flights land at midnight :(

Hi OP,
I am organsing a group of 100+ students on CX; BKK-HKG-NRT in November and I'd like to share what I have done here. I had contacted CX office in Bangkok stated the destination and number of my group. According to the CX agent, she had to put those details and bidding price into their systems in order to get the quotation which is around 100 USD chepaer than V fare that I have bought for myself.

So, I would recommend you to contact your local CX office and inform them your requirement. I don't know if they have minimum amount of passengers required but it couldn't hurt to try. Hope this helps :).

S