OK you raised a good point Tori. The person from AA says...
"The fare is also guaranteed but taxes will have to be priced at time of ticketing. In my experience, they don’t change much. They might a little because of the currency exchange rate."

That said, we'll have similar issues if we try to book tickets separately, as well as changes to the fare, so it might just be a question of when we choose to make the final payment.

The issue with seat availability is simply one of whether we're able to choose our ideal seats together, not whether we'll get on the plane - so no issue there. The spaces are booked, but not the specific seats yet.

Martin

On Mon, Dec 23, 2019 at 9:55 AM Martin Clarke <martinfclarke@gmail.com> wrote:
It's a good question. My understanding reading through the Ts & Cs is that the fares quoted will be honoured including all taxes etc, but that seats aren't guaranteed until we pay the full amount. I'm double checking with them what that means, and if it is a risk how we mitigate it. I'll forward the info just in case you want to have a look through.

Martin

On Mon, Dec 23, 2019 at 9:36 AM Victoria Hair <victoria.hair1@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
Hi Martin, 

All my emails are still going to spam so didn't see this sorry! 
The group flights sound like a great idea. One more of caution, my sister works in the travel industry and does a lot of group flight booking and mentioned something worth thinking about. You might have already already clocked this, or it might not be a problem, but:
'check how they're working out the tax. Sometimes airlines don't fix the rate until they "ticket" you which isn't until much closer to the flight and they can suddenly hike the rate up and the total could end up being a lot more. This happened to me and they tried to charge me £2000 extra.'
Could also genuinely just be a cheap flight though!

On driving, I can drive, although have never driven on wrong side of the road!

Tori

Get Outlook for Android
From: TowerRavensDART <towerravensdart-bounces@lists.postman.org.uk> on behalf of Clare Watters <clarewatters@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2019 8:51:25 PM
To: Martin Clarke <martinfclarke@gmail.com>
Cc: dart@towerravens.org.uk <dart@towerravens.org.uk>
Subject: Re: [Tower Ravens DART] Flights, itinerary, stuff to check
 
Hi Martin,

I completely agree. Super cheaper. I am happy to drive and have driven in the US before. Passport sorted. Are we likely to pay the deposit now? If so, how much will you be expecting from each of us at this point?

Thanks,

Clare

On Fri, 20 Dec 2019 at 20:28, Martin Clarke <martinfclarke@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all

Thanks for the minutes Miriam.

Flights
TL;DR I've provisionally booked some flights. If you don't care about the details skip to itinerary below ▽▽▽.

I've been doing some research over how best to do group bookings for flights, and out of interest got quote from the BA and American Airlines groups service expecting it to be far too expensive. The BA one was too expensive but amazingly American Airlines have given me a quote of £404 per person. That's cheaper than basically any other price I've found (the cheapest quote of £337 didn't include bags), and offers flexibility with numbers, names, even travel dates and cancellation. We also don't need to pay the full amount until September. Becky, Emma and I are in agreement that we should bite their hand off for that. I'm happy to share the full Ts&Cs if you care.

I've provisionally reserved the booking for 16 people (we can cancel down to 10 free of charge, but potentially costs more to add people later if prices have gone up), and I need to confirm that by 1 January including paying a deposit of $100 per ticket. Emma and I will work out the detail of how the money is going to work over the next few days and let you know.

If anyone has any strong objections please let me know ASAP.

Itinerary

Outward
Depart Heathrow 09:15, Sat 10 Oct
Arrive Chicago 12:10, Sat 10 Oct

Return
Depart Chicago 19:25, Monday 19 Oct
Arrive Heathrow 09:05, Tuesday 20 Oct

I reckon we'd spend a couple of days in Chicago, then hire a car on Monday 12 Oct and head towards Minneapolis, stopping a few places en-route. With this itinerary in mind, I propose that we'd drive back to Chicago rather than fly.

Stuff to check
You'll need to make sure you have a passport with a minimum of six months remaining on it after our trip. If you haven't got this, start planning to get one!

You'll need to apply for a visa waiver. It costs $14 (about £10). I'll remind you nearer the time! - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/tourism-visit/visa-waiver-program.html

Insurance - you must get travel insurance. I've done a quick check and you should be able to get a decent policy for about £25. There doesn't appear to be any benefit to doing a group policy.

Drivers. Would you be willing to drive when we're in the USA, and are you over 25? We'd probably get 7-seat minivan type vehicles. Please let me know.

That's all for now.

Thanks for last night and see you all soon!

Martin

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