Hello CD!
We are attempting to convince a major airline to offer teams a discount on team air fares. The vice-president in charge of group sales would like some numbers to work with. If your team will be traveling by air this year to a regional or nationals, please post the cities you will be traveling to and from and the number of people traveling.
Thank you,
Ken
Hey Mr. Loyd,
You also mean international air fares? 
Other than that, great idea! Contacting airlines to buy thousands of tickets should give you at least some bargain power. 
SFO, OAK, or SJC----> ATL for San Francisco Bay Area teams.
Last year we had approx. 40 people traveling with our team and we fly from Bradley International Airport, Hartford (CT)/Springfield (MA).
We haven’t discussed where we might be flying this year - to Atlanta if we end up qualifying (we do not currently qualify). Flying from Hartford to Atlanta was more expensive than the previous years where we flew from Hartford to Houston or Hartford to Orlando.
There are a lot of CT teams, and I would expect that most of us fly out of Bradley.
YYZ–>LAX… max 15 members. more like 10-12
hopefully this will mean all first teams. not just US ones ;).
We fly out of whatever airport can give us cheap and reliable service. 
We have flown from Bradley (CT) to Orlando (FL) in the past, but the past two years from Laguardia (NY) to both Houston (TX) and Atlanta (GA).
As for numbers aboard from the team… I would guesstimate from 20-30 people in our group total.
If we could get the funds to go to Atlanta, then 1110 would need about 25-30 (max) seats from LAX to ATL, but I’m still not sure if we will go to the Championship.
1257 is probably going to send about 15 people to the championship from EWR.
842 roundtrip PHX <++> ATL, we hope 20 or so members
Orlando -> Houston 20-40 members
Perhaps you should look at some other methods of coming up with an estimate of the flights that will be required. I doubt this thread is a very good survey of all teams. Maybe try to find out the number of people attending the championships last year (and don’t forget there will be more spots next year).
Max,
My wife works for the airline and it has taken us two years to speak face to face to the VP. He is not interested in broad estimates (we have furnished them in the past). He wants to see team numbers, number of people traveling, from where to where. He is looking for ways for the airline to make money and the teams to save money. If you know of a better way, I am all ears.
Ken
This is a nice thing you are doing.
BWI to/from Atlanta for 20.
When I priced this last year (but we didn’t go), it seemed better to do it by bus. Not because the bus was that much cheaper, but would serve as “hotel” for 2 nights and would serve as a way to transport all the stuff that you no longer can take via plane, so it was more cost efficient. But a lower price would make a difference. It’s about 12 hours drive for us.
Now the team has “joked” the past two years that wouldn’t “Hooters Air” make a great sponsor? :eek: They fly from here to there, via Myrtle Beach.
We travel with roughly 30 people, students and mentors combined.
Team 499 will be registering for Nat’s for the first time this year. We will take 12 - 18 people from SAT - ATL. We drive the 3 hours to Houston for the Lonestar regional.
Thanks,
APS
I didn’t realize you were going to be using these numbers directly, I thought you were looking for a general estimate. Anyway, good luck! (for your sake and ours )
FIRST may have better numbers on this. As for destinations, there are 31 destinations, with the biggest airline destination being Atlanta, but I am sure you realized that. :rolleyes:
FIRST may also have data from the year the American Airlines offered a discount. I seem to recall that alot of teams were still able to find cheaper tickets elsewhere though…
Wetzel
It might be useful to know which airline you’re speaking with so that teams can find the airport closest to them that such airline services and give you more accurate information about loads and departure dates.
Teams here need to fly Seattle-Tacoma Int’l to William B. Hartsfield Int’l, but jetBlue, for example, isn’t a useful airline for that – no matter how great the discount.
[quote=M. Krass]It might be useful to know which airline you’re speaking with so that teams can find the airport closest to them that such airline services and give you more accurate information about loads and departure dates.
M,
I hesitate to mention the airline at this time because I fear this post might then become a “dump on” airlines post. I am simply attempting to gather some numbers (especially for regional travel) to present to the “number crunchers” at corporate. The airline currently has a group discount but it varies with group size, purchase date, destination. What we are attempting to do is have a FIRST discount which would be subtracted from the lowest fare. As I am sure you are aware, many airlines are in deep trouble. We are trying to find a way for the airline to make a small profit and still give the teams the maximum savings. As I said in an earlier post, we have been working on this for two years. At least we finally have found someone willing to talk to us.
Ken[/quote]
LAX to ATL approx 30 people