getting there- or- air fare worries

[tjkluse]

Our family of 8 is currently living in Australia. My husband's job here finishes in November and we are returning to Pennsylvania for a few days (just enough time to get over jet lag) and then heading off to Orlando for 3 weeks.

We are returning back on Nov 23 and will be leaving for Orlando on Nov 28. However, due to school commitments our oldest will be remaing behind in Australia until the 5th of December when she will fly directly into Orlando from Australia . This sets up some interesting obstacles for us.

First, since we will just be returning to the USA right before we leave, diriving a car to Florida isn't an option as we will not yet have one of our own. And, renting a van, most of which only seat seven and won't hold us all is WAY too expensive. It would cost us far more than it would if we could fly.

Second, we wil not be flying together both ways. Since my oldest will be joining us, I will need to book 7 round trips and then a one way for her to come home.

Which lkeads me to the biggest problem- on-line discount air fars sites. I am a real novince at findin what is available on line. But, the sites I've looked at take a maximun of 6 passangers at a time. This means I will have to enter us in two groups. Which means, there is a possibility we would need to fly different flights or pay different rates

I'm going crazy, and driving my family crazy as well, trying to figure out how to get us to Orlando and back as a group. (Hmmmm, maybe I should leave all of the kids with grandma and go myself. After all, it's been years since they saw them.....)


I know someone here must have transported a large group and I would love to hear your iseda.

Thanks,
Tammi

 

[prncess674]

more than likely you will need to call the airline to book this many seats at one time. If you books in chunks online you can always call and have your "PNR's" linked together.

If you don't mind possibly sitting apart My suggestion is to play around with the numbers so you can get tickets at the cheapest prices. Try just booking 1 ticket and see what the pricing is and keep pricing the itinerary adding one at a time. They may only have x seats at the most discounted price. You may end up paying more for part of your family but atleast you get them all as cheap as possible.

for example the airline may only have 4 really cheap seats on the flight but if you request 5 all five will price out at the higher price.

Next since you will have one party who only needs a one way ticket it is still probably cheaper to book a round trip and throw away the second half. Just have the one way ticket originate in MCO. Do not book with the origination as your hometown because if they aren't on the originating flight they will cancel the return.

I am not sure if Southwest airlines is an option for you but SWA has very reasonable one way fares.