How airline group booking actually works, step by step

Most people assume a group booking is just ten individual tickets bought at once. It isn't. When you ask an airline for 10 or more seats on the same flight, the request goes to a separate group desk, the seats are priced as one block, and the booking follows its own timeline of deposits and deadlines. Once you understand that timeline, group travel becomes a lot less stressful.

Here is the process the way it runs on our desk, using a simple example: 24 people flying Delhi to Goa for a company offsite.

1. The enquiry: what the airline needs to see

An airline group desk will not quote on "about 20 people sometime in March". To get a real number you need four things:

• Route and direction — Delhi–Goa one way, or a return.
• Dates, ideally with one alternate date on each side.
• Head-count split into adults, children (2–11) and infants (under 2).
• Preferred timings — "morning departure" is enough.

Names are not needed at this stage. That is one of the main advantages of a group fare: you can lock the price before you know exactly who is coming.

2. The quote: one fare for the whole block

The airline looks at how full the flight already is and gives a single per-person fare for the block, plus a quote validity — often 24 to 72 hours. Group fares are not always cheaper than the lowest fare you see online that minute. Their value is that the price is fixed for everyone, including the person who signs up three weeks later, when public fares on that flight may have doubled.

For our offsite example, the desk might come back with two options: IndiGo at 07:10 and Air India at 09:45, each with its own fare, baggage allowance and payment schedule. We put both side by side in writing so the organiser can compare them properly.

3. Accepting and paying the deposit

When you accept, the airline creates a group PNR and asks for a deposit. The amount and due date vary by airline and by how close the travel date is. Pay late and the seats can be released without warning — this is the single most common way groups lose a good fare.

Tip: decide who in your organisation can approve payment before you ask for quotes. A 48-hour quote is useless if finance needs a week.

4. Balance payment and the name list

Closer to departure there are two more deadlines: the balance payment and the name list. The name list is where every traveller's name is entered exactly as it appears on their ID (or passport, for international trips). After this point, changes are restricted and usually chargeable. We have a separate guide on name list deadlines because it causes more confusion than anything else.

5. Ticketing and after

Once names and full payment are in, the airline issues tickets. You receive e-tickets for each passenger, or one consolidated itinerary for the organiser. From here the booking behaves much like normal tickets: web check-in opens, seats can be selected (often for a fee), and meals or extra baggage can be added.

If the airline later changes the schedule, the group desk handles it for the whole block — you do not need 24 separate phone calls.

Where groups usually go wrong

• Collecting quotes without anyone authorised to pay the deposit.
• Promising the group a fare before it is actually confirmed in writing.
• Sending names in a WhatsApp message with nicknames or missing surnames.
• Cutting numbers after the deposit without checking how much is refundable.

None of these are hard to avoid once you know they exist.

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