Bulk flight purchases (Iceland)
Discussion
I'm getting married in Iceland later this year. I was hoping to try and arrange a group discount airfare rate for all the guests, almost certainly with IcelandAir. This may need to be combined with a group hotel (or hotels), but its difficult to pin down exact numbers and dates as we're still 6 months away. Therefore most guests can only tell us "we'd like to come out a few days before", but nothing more specific.
Does anyone have any experience of arranging such a group rate? How does it work, do you need to all be on the same dates, same plane, same hotel?
We've got a few feelers out with some travel agents, but after some advice if anyone's done this before.
Does anyone have any experience of arranging such a group rate? How does it work, do you need to all be on the same dates, same plane, same hotel?
We've got a few feelers out with some travel agents, but after some advice if anyone's done this before.
My daughter went to Iceland on a school trip a few years ago. It may be worth giving a school trip tour company a call to see if they can help. You may find they offer better rates than a high street agency as they almost always buy flights and hotels in bulk. Have just searched the web and found these people (sorry don't know them so can't tell you if they are any good. However they do organise trips to Iceland)
http://www.nstgroup.co.uk/tour/geography-in-icelan...
http://www.nstgroup.co.uk/tour/geography-in-icelan...
JQ said:
Out of interest, where are you getting married? My wife is Icelandic and we did it the other way round, flying all the Icelanders over here. We obviously spend quite alot of time over there, so I'm just being nosy.
Here: http://www.hotelbudir.is/We considered another popular venue called Hotel Ranga, but decided on Budir due to some of the details that particularly appealed to my girlfriend.
TallMark said:
JQ said:
Out of interest, where are you getting married? My wife is Icelandic and we did it the other way round, flying all the Icelanders over here. We obviously spend quite alot of time over there, so I'm just being nosy.
Here: http://www.hotelbudir.is/We considered another popular venue called Hotel Ranga, but decided on Budir due to some of the details that particularly appealed to my girlfriend.
My PH advice - get yourself in a 4x4 and get some river crossings and mountain climbs under your belt and get yourself over to a Glacier and get yourself on a Skidoo - great fun. Also, tell all your guests to stock up on Duty Free - they have a huge Duty Free store in the arrivals area of Keflavik Airport and Icelanders consider it a big crime not to buy your maximum allocation on each visit. Alcohol is expensive and it's sale is quite restrictive, so once at the hotel you'll do well to find a Vin Bud - an off licence operated by the Government and only found in selective locations, plenty in Reykjavik. We tend to smuggle nice wine in our suitcases as well as stocking up on Duty Free and have never been caught, however, my English BiL was caught on one occasion, so I'm not keen on recommending what we do, as you are subject to a fine and confiscation.
If you've got any questions, I can't guarantee I can answer them but I can certainly ask the family.
We also have a slight PH claim to fame in that my Icelandic BiL has the only TVR on the island.
JQ - thanks for your response, might ping you a few questions later :-)
I tried the group booking line for IcelandAir, and basically this is not a "discount" rate. It actually worked out a lot more expensive than booking direct on their own website (£360 vs £250 for one set of dates). It seems the group booking is designed purely to make sure you can reserve enough seats and get an entire party on one plane. So that's disappointing. Also, group bookings are for groups of 10+, and they must all travel on the same plane.
I tried the group booking line for IcelandAir, and basically this is not a "discount" rate. It actually worked out a lot more expensive than booking direct on their own website (£360 vs £250 for one set of dates). It seems the group booking is designed purely to make sure you can reserve enough seats and get an entire party on one plane. So that's disappointing. Also, group bookings are for groups of 10+, and they must all travel on the same plane.
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