For the trade
Ten or more passengers travelling together is a group booking, and a group booking behaves nothing like ten individual tickets. Different deposit rules, different name change rules, different cancellation exposure. We run this side so you do not have to build the expertise for one wedding a year.
The reason to hold group space is not usually price. Group fares are sometimes cheaper than published fares and sometimes not. The reason is control.
Rules vary by carrier and route
Group minimums, deposit amounts, name deadlines and change rules differ by airline, by season and sometimes by individual contract. The figures above are typical industry ranges, not guarantees. We confirm the actual terms in writing on every group we contract.
A typical South Asian wedding group departs from six to twelve cities at once. New York, Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, London and two or three Indian cities. Each needs its own contract, its own deposit schedule and its own arrival timing.
| Problem | How we handle it |
|---|---|
| Guests arriving across a 14 hour window | Group arrivals into transfer waves, and negotiate resort check in flexibility at contract stage |
| India departures needing 24 hours more travel time | Route via a Gulf hub with a controlled connection and build in an arrival day buffer |
| A schedule change breaking one city's connection | Monitored centrally; we rebook the affected block, not the individual passengers |
| Guests booking outside the group to use miles | Tracked against the manifest so transfers and arrival counts stay accurate |
| Elderly passengers needing assistance on every leg | Requested per segment and reconfirmed at 72 hours |
| Excess baggage for outfits, décor and gifts | Allowances checked per carrier and pre purchased where cheaper |
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| 11–12 months out | Request group space across all departure cities once the date is fixed |
| 10 months | Contracts signed, deposits paid, space held |
| 6 months | Booking instructions to guests, first name collection |
| 90 days | Interim payment, unsold seats reviewed and released where possible |
| 45–60 days | Names due, final payment, tickets issued |
| 14 days | Seat assignments, assistance requests, baggage confirmed |
| Travel | Disruption monitoring and rebooking across every departure city |
The two dates that hurt if missed are the name deadline and the final payment date. Miss either and the airline can cancel the entire block, not just the unnamed seats.
Group air is not automatically the right answer. If guests are spread across more than a dozen origins with fewer than ten travelling from each, if the route is heavily served by low cost carriers who do not offer group contracts, or if a large share of your guests intend to use miles, individual booking with a coordinated arrival window is often better. We will tell you which situation you are in before you commit a deposit.
