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christene · 08-26-2009, 07:38 PM

Hi Marcia --

Our wedding is in October but we had look into ways to try to get the best flight deal. For us to get a group rate with Delta we would have had to commit to a minimum of at least 10 flights out of the same location, leaving and returning the same time. The discount was only like 10%, so we weren't willing to make a commitment with such a small savings.

We negotiated our hotel contract directly with the hotel but did have the help of a destination wedding travel agent. After the hotel negotiation was done, we asked if she could save the guests much on flights and the answer was "not really". They like to sell 'package deals' through vendors like Funjet, but our deal with the hotel was beating all the packages available. They weren't really able to get better pricing anywhere but offer 'special services' like free transfers (which could be $25 each way for a cab if you're up in Palm Beach) and upgrades...

One thing you might consider is Orbitz... They will offer 'price assurance'. That means if you book the flight through them and someone later books the flight at a lower rate you get the difference back. We had never heard of this until we received an email that we would be receiving a check for a flight we took to New York earlier in the year. I believe there are other sites doing this too. We booked our May flights for our site visit only a couple of weeks in advance and I think paid $800 per ticket out of Indianapolis. Our October tickets booked 4-5 months out were just under $500. And one couple is flying direct out of Newark on Continental for around $370. Of course that's off season, but what has been a surprise is that in the last 5 months those flights haven't fluctuated more than $50-75. Even now, only 9 weeks away, the flights are the same price they were 2 months ago.

One thing you may find out is that not all airlines fly every day. At least for October we found that Delta doesn't fly in/out of Aruba on Tuesdays and Contentinental doesn't fly in/out on Wednesdays. So if you see what looks like obscenely expensive flights, try a different day. We have found that it doesn't seem to matter what day you fly (as long as it is a day they do fly). Prices were the same whether we went Wednesday-Wednesday, Thursday-Sunday or Monday, Friday through Sunday or Monday...

At least that was our experience. For a while we were watching flights every day!

Good luck!

Christene

08-26-2009, 07:38 PM	#4 (permalink)
christene Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 190	Hi Marcia -- Our wedding is in October but we had look into ways to try to get the best flight deal. For us to get a group rate with Delta we would have had to commit to a minimum of at least 10 flights out of the same location, leaving and returning the same time. The discount was only like 10%, so we weren't willing to make a commitment with such a small savings. We negotiated our hotel contract directly with the hotel but did have the help of a destination wedding travel agent. After the hotel negotiation was done, we asked if she could save the guests much on flights and the answer was "not really". They like to sell 'package deals' through vendors like Funjet, but our deal with the hotel was beating all the packages available. They weren't really able to get better pricing anywhere but offer 'special services' like free transfers (which could be $25 each way for a cab if you're up in Palm Beach) and upgrades... One thing you might consider is Orbitz... They will offer 'price assurance'. That means if you book the flight through them and someone later books the flight at a lower rate you get the difference back. We had never heard of this until we received an email that we would be receiving a check for a flight we took to New York earlier in the year. I believe there are other sites doing this too. We booked our May flights for our site visit only a couple of weeks in advance and I think paid $800 per ticket out of Indianapolis. Our October tickets booked 4-5 months out were just under $500. And one couple is flying direct out of Newark on Continental for around $370. Of course that's off season, but what has been a surprise is that in the last 5 months those flights haven't fluctuated more than $50-75. Even now, only 9 weeks away, the flights are the same price they were 2 months ago. One thing you may find out is that not all airlines fly every day. At least for October we found that Delta doesn't fly in/out of Aruba on Tuesdays and Contentinental doesn't fly in/out on Wednesdays. So if you see what looks like obscenely expensive flights, try a different day. We have found that it doesn't seem to matter what day you fly (as long as it is a day they do fly). Prices were the same whether we went Wednesday-Wednesday, Thursday-Sunday or Monday, Friday through Sunday or Monday... At least that was our experience. For a while we were watching flights every day! Good luck! Christene Last edited by christene; 08-26-2009 at 07:41 PM.