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The Definitive “How To” Guide to Selling Group Travel

• October 7, 2021

Selling group travel is one of the best ways to scale your travel business with minimal effort.  Adding just a few travel groups to your normal travel business forecast each year can really accelerate your profits. I know some travel advisors who only book groups because they are so lucrative. 

The first step is to find your group. Check out,  5 Insider Ways to Find Affinity Travel Groups to get started. 

As with anything, it can be daunting when you begin. You’ve heard the expression…

“It’s like herding cats!”

It can seem like that if you don’t have systems in place. This “How-To” guide will walk you through some of the top things to keep in mind as you launch your group travel fiefdom . 

Choose group itineraries within your niche

Choosing to stay within your niche as you start selling groups is sound advice. There are so many moving parts to booking group travel that I would keep to a destination that you know well. You can always expand later.

Find reputable suppliers

If I was just getting my feet wet with booking group travel, I would stick with a supplier in North America that specialized in group bookings. All cruise lines have affinity group departments. However, if you are looking to build an itinerary for a speciality group, look for a company that has a groups-only division. 

You’ll want to look for a company that has been around for a while. One where you can build a relationship with their group representative and one that has a 24/7 support system. 

I recommend sending out an RFP for your group to at least three separate companies and then interviewing each to find the best fit. The booking process for groups is a long one, so you’ll want to find someone with whom you gel and who has a calm demeanour.

While price is an important factor, in my experience, when it comes to group travel, you get what you pay for. A good group representative that you trust and you know will go to bat for you if necessary is equal to the value of finding a great hairstylist. You know what I’m talkin’ about.

Once you have a few groups under your belt, I’d suggest sourcing your own contacts. A good starting point would be to attend one of the big travel shows such as World Travel Market , ITB or similar. Alternatively, attend one of the smaller shows where top tour operators within your niche congregate.

The apple vs. the orange

Once you receive your group quotes from suppliers, you’ll notice they will all look quite  different. Be sure that you are fairly comparing the quotes from each company. Here’s a list of some of the things you’ll want to take into account:

• How long can you hold space with or without deposit
• What is the deposit and is it refundable. At what point is it non-refundable? 
• What are the payment terms
• What is the per person cost
• # of FOCs (see below) per group members
• Do they have round-the-clock support
• What are all the inclusions

I have yet to find a supplier that isn’t equally motivated to sell group travel. It’s a great business model, so don’t just take an opening bid as being set in stone. If it’s a question of one or two points separating competing suppliers from each other, you can always ask for more favourable terms – and you’ll most likely get what you want.

The devil is in the details

A successful group travel advisor has to be organized and luckily, there are a ton of tools to keep you on track. If you belong to a host agency, they may have their own tech tools you can use. I have always used Google docs. You can send out forms via Google docs to collect client information.

You’ll want to keep information such as dietary requirements, medical notes, passport names and numbers, birthdays, – (in case any should fall within the dates of travel) all in one place.

Set expectations with the group leader early

Save yourself bottles of Tylenol by clearly laying down your expectations of the group leader.

Typically, but not always, the group leader is expected to market the group to their following. In return for doing so, their travel costs are covered FOC. 

There is no hard and fast rule on what role a group leader should take. In many cases, the group leader will handle the marketing and the coordination of the group. Depending on the calibre of the leader you have, they may not want that responsibility but someone has to do it and I highly recommend that person isn’t you. 

Get this wrong, and you won’t need a fancy hairstylist because you won’t have any hair left. If it makes sense financially, you can always add in a cost for a group coordinator to help you. However as you are starting out, I would suggest the group leader takes on these responsibilities. As you get more comfortable selling groups, you can always hire a VA (virtual assistant) to help out.

At the very least, be sure to map out your expectations with the group leader verbally and then follow up with what was agreed on in writing. You’re welcome.

Book well in advance

It’s going to take a few weeks of communication with a supplier before you settle on the best itinerary for your group. It just does. Once the planning phase is complete, you’ll want enough time to market the group.

Especially if this is a first-time group that doesn’t already travel together regularly. The idea will need time to germinate. 18 months of planning is a good rule of thumb.

It’s time to market

Often, the group leader will do much of the work in coordinating and finding group members to travel but that doesn’t mean that you should completely move to the backseat. If you are working with a Facebook group, you’ll want to go live to answer any questions.

And even if you didn’t find your group through Facebook, I would still highly recommend that you create a Facebook group specifically for this travel group. 

You may also want to offer a number of webinars via Zoom to walk the group through the details of the tour. Some suppliers will offer this service but if you are booking travel inside of your niche, then I really do think you need to take the stage on these presentations and showcase yourself as the expert. You can use Canva.com to create jaw-dropping presentations to wow the audience.

Start small, go slow and then grow

As mentioned earlier, booking group travel can seem complicated when you are getting started. That’s why I  recommend that you start small and grow this side of your business as you get more comfortable.

Once you do the initial work in setting up your systems, you can replicate the model over and over. Why not? Selling a yoga meditation group to Bali through one wellness influencer could easily be copied and promoted to another wellness influencer. Rinse and repeat…as they say.

Become a crock-pot

The best group advisors treat their groups like a delicious, simmering harvest stew, adding spices along the way to bring out the best flavour. That’s another reason why starting small is a good idea. A perfect group requires consistent attention to keep the interest piqued. 

Once a member signs on, I’d tag them inside your email service provider and then build out an email sequence that drips out teasers and content weekly or bi-weekly until the date of departure. Remember, once you build out the sequence, you can put it on auto-pilot. 

You could do a countdown to departure. You could recommend books to read on the destination, offer packing tips or travel trivia.

Consider additional revenue streams by becoming an affiliate seller for synergistic travel products that would accentuate the experience for your group members. I go much deeper into the world of affiliate marketing in my upcoming course . For now, if you are interested to learn more, you can book an appointment with me below.  I’ll walk you through the process.

Offer a full-service group experience

When it comes to selling group travel, I say, “in for a penny, in for a pound.” The more seamless you make the booking experience for your group members, the more you’ll be remembered. For example, booking group air can be challenging. Sometimes rules for group air don’t even make sense and you might be tempted to let members book their air travel independently. Don’t. 

There are benefits to booking group air with the groups department of an airline but they aren’t financial. Group air is often priced higher than individual airline tickets but you’ll get the advantage of your group travelling together. In addition, there is more flexibility in payment terms when it comes to securing group air seats

Keep in mind you can book up to 9 people on a PNR. It might make sense to divide your group into smaller sub-groups to take advantage of lower seat costs. But more than two sub-groups and most airlines will raise a flag and automatically cancel your group – resulting in you going the group air route whether you want to or not.

And be sure to take advantage of offering group insurance as well. All of these extras not only make the booking experience easier for your client but you’ll end up with multiple streams of revenue.

Take advantage of the travel high – strike when the iron is hot

Selling group travel has many benefits. Not only can you take all your planning and preparation and repackage it to a new group, but you can also take your existing group and offer up the next adventure before they unpack. You don’t have to have all the details mapped out but if you at least have an outline of the next trip ready to go. 

 You’d be surprised by how many will sign up immediately to secure their space. They are still riding the travel high. It’s the perfect time to get them to commit to the next destination.

Exceed expectations and deliver a WOW factor

Finding groups is often the most challenging part. It takes a while to gain the know/like and trust factor with your group leader. But once you have it….ah….you can ride the momentum wave. And you’ll do this by exceeding expectations. 

The most successful group advisors are masters at this. You’ll want to build a few surprises into the tour that will leave the members amazed. It could be a special dinner, an activity, a souvenir or all of the above. The key is that you exceed the travellers’ expectations.  

It’s amazing how even the smallest gestures leave an indelible positive impression. The more thoughtful the surprise, the deeper the connection you’ll build with the group members.

Having a welcome home gift for the group leader is a nice touch too. The cost to retain a client is always far less than the cost of obtaining a new client.

Marketing travel groups help grow your email list

Finally, a spill-off advantage to marketing groups is that it’s a great way to grow your email list. If your group leader has a large following, with the correct offer, you can entice them to join your email list. Even if they don’t all end up booking with you. 

Not to mention those that do travel may come back to you for their non-group travel requests.

The best bit about selling group travel is that once you’ve mastered the finer details, you’ve laid the groundwork and set up systems to run on auto-pilot, you can scale and catapult your business easily into the 6-figure stratosphere.

And we like that!

Again, if you missed my earlier article, you can find it here:  5 Insider Ways to Find Affinity Travel Groups .

If you found this article helpful, give it a share.

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How to create an effective travel management RFP

Finding the best travel management company (TMC) for your business can seem very challenging:

• Getting the right outcome is crucial for tackling your second-largest controllable expense and looking after your travelling employees
• It’s an emotive subject. Employees don’t care much for what printer they use, but they really care who helps arrange their travel
• Selecting your TMC through a request for proposal (RFP) is time-consuming and expensive.

FCM Travel Solutions has written a comprehensive guide to creating the best possible TMC selection process. After competing to win thousands of customers, we’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to RFPs. We’ve seen what works for buyers – and what really doesn’t work.

Successful TMC selection is all about following a series of basic but critical steps. And just like anything else, preparation is key. Time invested upfront will save so much more time, and money, in the end. Most importantly, a well-planned process will vastly improve your chances of signing the TMC that fits your needs best.

We believe there are five simple, yet integral, steps to the RFP process – watch our video to get an overview of these steps:

Before the RFP

Step 1: Get to know the players before the big game

Researching and engaging with travel management companies shouldn’t start the day you go out to tender. There are many ways to improve your knowledge of the TMC sector. Ideally, you should have met every single TMC you are inviting to bid over the previous 18 months, either at your office or theirs.

Other opportunities to meet the TMCs include attending business travel exhibitions and conferences, reading the business travel press, subscribing to their newsletter or magazine, following them on social media or, if you hear about a new product or service that interests you, asking them for a demo.

Step 2: Make sure you really want to go to RFP

Naturally, we’d love a chance to win your business. But we urge you to think very carefully before you go to market. Most organisations aren’t obliged to tender their TMC regularly, and if your travellers and other stakeholders are happy with the service they are getting, there’s a strong case for leaving well alone.

That’s why we recommend you only go through the upheaval and substantial expense of a nine-month-plus tendering process if there is a strong reason to do so.

Step 3: Lay the groundwork for your RFP

Perhaps one of the most overlooked, yet vital steps in the RFP process, is your own preparation.

Before you begin to construct the RFP itself, undertaking the following will create a more streamlined and effective process.

• Consider an RFI - This is where you establish whether a TMC meets your minimum criteria to make it worth further consideration. At this point you are looking for simple yes/no answers.
• Figure out your travel strategy - Review your entire travel programme and decide what it should look like.
• Listen to your people - To determine your travel strategy, and what you want from your TMC, engage internal stakeholders, including bookers and travellers.
• Start collecting data - Providing accurate data available enables TMCs to give the most tailored, relevant and creative proposals. The less data you provide, the more vanilla the competing TMCs’ responses will be.

Step 4: Build a killer RFP

The key to a great RFP is knowing what information to give about yourselves and what information to ask in return from the TMCs:

• State your objectives clearly
• Focus on question quality, not quantity – it’s actually possible to conduct a travel RFP with less than 12 questions!
• Include all the bid information including timelines, service level agreement and instructions for how to respond
• Sense-check your RFP once it’s written to ensure the narrative is logical and there aren’t any duplicate or overlapping questions.

After the RFP

Step 5: Make your TMC selection

In addition to evaluating responses to your RFP, there are other things you can do to aid the selection process:

• Obtain opinion beyond the references provided by the TMC itself
• Site visits are invaluable for getting a feel for the way a company operates
• Get the financials right - there is a range of commercial agreements you can explore. A TMC’s fee will typically account for only 2-4%. However, the lowest TMC fee may not produce the lowest total cost of travel.
• Refer back to your travel strategy and what you’re trying to achieve. It is crucial to remember that your relationship with a TMC extends way beyond the transactional element of booking business travel.

Finally, don’t rush. Based on decades of experience, we suggest allowing a minimum of nine months for the entire TMC process.

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• April 21, 2024

How do online travel auction sites work?

What’s an online travel auction site, and are they legitimate.

There are quite a few online travel auction sites that have come out in recent years.   These auction sites allow you to bid on hotel rooms, vacations, and sometimes even cruises.   According to travel auction site Luxury Link , you can save up to 65% off the retail travel cost by using their service.   Due to the huge amount of savings that you can get, many people are wary to bid and fear that travel auctions are scams.   It is not that legitimate online travel auction sites are scams, it’s just that they do have restrictions and fees that you need to be aware of before you start bidding. That being said, there are scammers out there.   To find out if an online auction site is legit, do a little research.   Any travel auction site worth its weight should be registered with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) .   You can also read customer reviews of auction sites to get a real feel for the business and how they treat their customers.

Where can I bid on hotel rooms?

LuxuryLink.com  travel auctions are primarily for bidding on luxury resort and hotel room stays.    Additionally, Luxury Link auctions off select cruises, but these are rare.   Auctions are generally between 3 to 14 nights.   Thousands of hotel auctions are taking place right now, and several have current bids under $500 for 2+ nights  for 2 people.   In addition to their regular hotel room auctions, Luxury Link offers a daily “Mystery” travel auction with a $1 starting bid .   Know that the bidding escalates quickly and does not stay at $1 for very long.   A vague destination is disclosed, but the hotels name is a “mystery” and may not be what you bargained for.    Nonetheless, you can sometimes snag cheap luxury hotel deals by bidding on these $1 mystery auctions.   To save even more, Luxury Link will give you $100 off your first reservation if you use coupon code LUXLINK100 (which may expire any time).

What if I have a large group or family?

FamilyGetaway.com is a new website, by Luxury Link, that auctions off hotel deals for families, even large ones.  Simply plug in the number of kids in your family to view hotel auctions that will accommodate your entire family.  You can bid on deals for families in popular vacation spots such as Disneyland and Florida.  It’s owned and operated by the same guys over at LuxuryLink.com.   FamilyGetaway.com has their own coupon code: FG100 , which will save you $100 off your first reservation (may expire at any time).

Where can I bid on airfare?

I’ll note that SkyAuction.com (Sky Auction) has airfare-only auctions that do not include a hotel stay.  However, I notice that they currently have an unfavorable BBB rating .   To bid on airfare, there are also what I call pseudo auction sites, like Priceline and Hotwire .

With Hotwire you don’t actually bid at all… so it’s not really a travel auction.  It’s still worth mentioning that Hotwire claims to sell last-minite unsold seats, which they call Hotwire Hot Rates .   These Hot Rates disclose the fare price prior to booking, but the airline’s name is hidden until after purchase.  These flights are not refundable, but they can be great deals on par with auctions.

Priceline claims that you can save up to 40%* off lowest published airfare prices when you choose your own price.   Bidding on Priceline is extremely simple.  You just enter in the price you are willing to pay for your flight , without taxes or fees.   The exact airline and flight times are disclosed only after your “bid” is accepted (and that is, if your bid is accepted).   All “ Name Your Own Price ” sales are final, but Priceline’s best price guarantee helps to protect you.   Priceline’s “ Name Your Own Price ” guarantees that if you notify them of an exact flight that’s cheaper within 24 hours, you get a 100% refund and a $50 coupon off a vacation package booking*.    Each of these sites have their own policies, fees and penalties that you need to be aware of before bidding, which takes us to….

What do I need to be cautious of on online travel auction sites?

First and foremost, there will be restrictions on when you may travel and blackout dates apply.  You can win an auction, but if your desired travel dates are not available you will be forced to choose new travel dates.   Even if your desired travel dates are not “blacked out”, your travel is still subject to availability.  On top of that, travel auctions are typically not refundable.   I really recommend that you only bid on a travel auction if your dates are very flexible, otherwise you may find yourself winning a trip that you cannot take.   You must be willing to read through the policies on the travel auction site prior to bidding, because every site is different.

Do you have tips to begin bidding for travel online?

As every auction site is different and the type of auction may vary, these are just some general auction bidding tips to get you started:

1.     Search for travel auctions in which the bidding is set to expire in less than 24 hours . You can do this by filtering the search results by “ending time”.   These last minute auctions are close to closing and give you a better idea of the real price you may pay in the end.

2.    Scroll down and see if you are interested in any of these last minute auctions. If so, pull up the full details. Make note of blackout dates, travel dates, full name of hotel, and any added perks that you get with your reservation.   Many of Luxury Link’s auctions give you extra perks such as massages, free dinners, tax included, ect. .   Of course, you will want to choose an auction that will give you at least an hour or so to move on to step three…

3.    Visit the hotels own website (make sure you are on the hotels corporate booking site, and not an agency site), and see how much it would cost to book this exact deal directly with them.   Trust me; you don’t want to skip this step. Usually the price is less on Luxury Link, but you need to double-check.   Make note of how much the extras (perks) that Luxury Link is giving you cost in addition to the hotel rate, and weigh the difference.   I mean, if Luxury Link’s price is the same as the hotel but I also get a free massage with Luxury Link, then I’m going with them.

4.    If the price is right, it’s time to watch.   And… wait.   Don’t bid right away, because you do not want to alert other auction bidders that someone else is in.   There are many different theories on how long you should wait, in my personal opinion you should wait until the last 30 minutes to bid.   This will give you just enough time to re-bid if necessary, but it’s not so long that you can’t watch the auction closely.

Do you have some online travel auction tips of your own?  Post them in the comments below.

Quick Links :  Priceline , Hotwire , Luxury Link , Family Getaway , Sky Auction .

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The ABCs of Selling Group Travel

Chasing down each and every travel lead individually is not a good strategy for success. It is far too time-consuming, often with diminishing returns. Instead, many travel advisors have found selling group travel to be a profitable market segment, bringing in far more revenue for the time invested, as well as a steady stream of repeat business.

Why selling group travel works Kim Goldstein, president and travel consultant, Journeys Travel Inc., told Travel Market Report why selling group travel is a smart move for travel advisors: “Group travel is a great way to focus on one segment of the travel business and perfect your process. It can also be very profitable if you have an efficient way of servicing all of the bookings and maximizing your time.”

Furthermore, she said, “You will be able to build stronger relationships with your hotel partners as you increase your bookings with them, in addition to receiving a higher commission percentage with your preferred tour operator as your volume increases.”

For those who are new to the industry, it can be daunting to imagine how they will manage a large number of group reservations all at any one time. However, “that notion couldn’t be further from the truth,” says Will Medina, president, Destination Weddings Expert, LLC.

“With the proper systems and strategy, group travel can be a smooth and seamless process. Identifying the perfect property for the group, negotiating the contract, and communicating the terms are the basis of each group. From there, you can trust your systems to keep those reservations coming in, keep the guests informed, and keep you ahead of your deadlines. Groups are the easiest way to work smarter, not harder.”

Likewise, James Berglie, president, Be All Inclusive, comments: “Of course I'm biased, but I believe in many ways choosing to specialize in groups is actually much simpler than my colleagues selling FIT. While yes, my liability is much higher, I'm able to focus on helping our clients find the perfect resort for their event and in working with just one group leader, once we narrow down the best option for their event, the reservations all flow in quite easily after that, making it a smooth and efficient process as opposed to attempting to go over the entire qualification process with each and every FIT guest.”  

Lifestyle marketing nurtures prospects Marketing strategies for selling groups are often distinct from those used when promoting travel to individuals.

“Our marketing strategies in the destination weddings market are quite different than our colleagues in the FIT space,” explains Berglie. “We don’t focus on product marketing, but instead we focus on lifestyle marketing. Realizing we need to gain traction with our clients well before they are even engaged, our focus is to find the followers who love the beach lifestyle before they are engaged, then nurture that relationship, letting them know what we do with our weddings, but not overwhelming them with non-stop wedding content as they may not be in that stage of their life yet.

“Heck, they may not even be able to afford a vacation yet, so we don’t focus our marketing on ‘selling’ them, but instead we focus it on capturing them as followers/fans. As we appear in their feeds throughout the years, and eventually they get engaged, we will already be positioned in their network as the experts on destination weddings. So it's just a natural transition for them to reach out when they are ready.”

Following suit, Medina’s advice for successfully selling groups is to “nurture, nurture, nurture! We believe in staying top of my mind in our ideal client and group’s minds by ensuring we are nurturing them with all of the necessary information to make an informed decision before the sale and then to stay engaged with us all the way through their travel.” 

He goes on to explain: “Group travel is not a ‘set it and forget it’ strategy. Whether manually or through automation, it’s so important to deploy marketing strategies that keep the conversion moving all the way from the top of the funnel, past the bottom of the funnel, and through travel.”

Medina’s top marketing strategy centers around social media engagement, especially in niche groups on Facebook and Instagram; and leading every interaction to a virtual consultation via Zoom to qualify the client and discuss the travel offers and process. 

Tips from the experts Here are some tips to keep in mind when selling group travel, straight from the travel advisors quoted here, all of whom have achieved impressive success in this niche.

• Take the time to really understand the group contract before you start speaking with prospective groups. Set your terms to protect you so that you’re not faced with a large penalty due to an error.
• Do not waive from the terms of the group contract that you created. Take what the tour operator sends and add to it, in order to protect your agency. 
• Make payment dates earlier than needed as a buffer to ensure that you do not get too close to a cancellation/attrition deadline.
• Don’t try to do it all yourself. Use your systems. Use your tools. Use the strategies that agents before you have used for years to ensure that deadlines don’t get missed and all guests feel that they are the one-and-only.
• Don’t bog yourself down with the minutiae of the day-to-day. Rather, keep your eye on the larger picture of all the moving pieces within your business.
• Get really cozy with the needs of your ideal clients, instead of focusing on posting and promoting deals. Explain your value and help them see how you are the right person to manage the logistics, which will save them time and money. 
• Partner with a mentor or a travel agency that can teach you the correct way of managing a group.
• Use your preferred tour operator to help guide you through the process, most of which offer training to teach you the group process.

If not now, when? Group travel is back in a big way. Weddings are booked two and three years out again. Families are traveling in groups to make up for time lost during the pandemic. Even Corporate America has returned to running in-person events. This is a good time to enter this lucrative segment of the travel industry.  

“Go for it!” says Medina. “Group travel is one of the most profitable niches in the travel industry, and it is an extremely scalable business model. We love selling group travel. Both for the profitability aspect, and also because of the joy I get from seeing families travel together, oftentimes for the first time, and creating those everlasting memories. So if you have the knowledge, and the right systems in place to protect your business, groups will help you build a great business with referrals that will keep coming back to you for years to come.”

FROM THE SPONSOR: Growing your knowledge, and your sales, is now easier thanks to ALG Vacations® new advisor specialist program ALGVPro . Empowering advisors to take their knowledge to the next level with interactive and easy-to-digest modules that let you learn at your leisure while providing you the foundation you need to succeed. Register now and get insider tips on VAX, ALGV brands, programs, and more.

With up to five continuing education unit (CEU) credits at the Travel Institute, discounted agent vacation rate, quarterly giveaways and more, the benefits you’ll realize when you become an ALGVPro are well worth your time. And with new content added regularly, you’ll never run out of new things to learn and earn — or ways to showcase your expertise. Boost your booking savvy and get certified as an ALGVPro today. Visit  algvacations.com/algvpro  and go from “I Don’t Know” to Pro!

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Three Holland America Group brands -- and their cruise tours -- are affected. 

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The Lost Art of Steamship Gossip

Passenger lists used to offer a voyage full of salacious chin-wagging. we could use some of that energy today..

When the British journalist Don Iddon boarded the S.S. United States in 1954, his first act was to locate a copy of the boat’s first-class passenger list. As he read it, his heart sank —sure, Harry Truman’s daughter, Margaret Truman, was on board, and so were a few prominent businesspeople. But the list, as he wrote later and Steven Ujifusa recounts in the book Seductive Journey: American Tourists in France From Jefferson to the Jazz Age , contained a distinct lack of “big names.” Where were all the movie stars?

With the rise of steamship travel in the 19 th century and into the 20 th century, passenger lists were a central feature of any long voyage—a prized preview among passengers of the kinds of people with whom they’d be rubbing shoulders throughout their journey. Lorraine Coons, a historian who wrote a book on steamship travel, told me that in her research she first notices them popping up around the 1880s. These lists, often color-coded by cabin class, were handed out to new arrivals, who invariably scoured them for names of celebrities. It didn’t matter whether your reputation was favorable or in disgrace—anyone with a high profile would make for good entertainment during the voyage. Journalists obtained copies too: When ships departed from port cities, local reporters ran articles listing out all of the most famous names on board.

What made these lists so unique is the sheer transparency they offered. Royals, politicians, and A-list celebrities were named alongside regular midtier passengers, a rare blending of social classes that, in 1910, prompted one writer to bemoan, “The very best people are set down cheek-by-jowl with the nobodies.” But that accessibility was also the beauty of the passenger list. There was no loophole for the richest travelers: If you wanted to ride on the boat, you had to be on the passenger list.

Today we no longer really have a comparison—those cryptic, initialed upgrade monitors at the terminal gate don’t quite scratch the same itch. On airplanes, travelers are reduced to shuffling through first class while trying to surreptitiously spot a famous face. Increasingly, even that has become difficult, as celebrities flee to full-scale private suites and terminals before boarding their flights via VIP programs that whisk them to and from the plane. For the truly intrepid, there is one way to track a celebrity’s travel movements, through publicly available private jet flight data—and the likes of Taylor Swift and Elon Musk have attempted to quash it.

Although a return to the officially sanctioned nosiness of the steamship era is unlikely, in today’s hyperstratified world, where the wealthiest can pay for the privilege of privacy, we could probably use a little bit of that social transparency. Those old passenger lists helped puncture, at least briefly, the classed dynamics of travel—offering everyone on board equal access to gossip. There was no harm in a little bit of intrigue about your fellow passengers. And who knows: Maybe getting our hands on a list of names could make an international flight a bit more bearable today. A little speculation about the other high-powered travelers on board could ease the tension at high altitudes, inside what is historically a pressure cooker of resentment.

In the context of a weekslong steamship voyage, it was perhaps inevitable that passenger lists would become objects of careful study. In the early 20 th century, the glamour of an international voyage got travelers only so far. Once passengers were away from shore, one of their great challenges was to stave off boredom. Some ships offered lectures ; others engineered musical bands out of ship staff; the Île de France had a bowling alley. What activities the vessels didn’t offer, passengers often cobbled together for themselves. Steamship travelers organized theater programs, boxing tournaments, or large balls. At night, they blasted dance music from gramophones.

And so gossip became a commodity. Many passengers took to self-publishing their own steamship newspapers, covering the personal histories of those on board. Some ship newspapers published blind items about passengers. The historian Martyn Lyons discovered that in the margins of one surviving copy of the Tamar Times, a reader had hazarded guesses about which traveler each blind item referred to. Analyses of passenger lists often appeared in these newspapers too. On one ship, a passenger published a single-issue newspaper called The Rolly-Poly, which included an analysis of all the passengers on the list: “Of the women, all are wives except 78 who aspire to be.” Even the elite consulted these lists to choreograph their social interactions, lest they accidentally get stuck in a conversation with someone unrefined.

That the lowly passenger list could become a focal point speaks to just how dull these journeys were. Passenger lists were not Wikipedia entries: They were bare-bones documents, generally offering names and nothing more. A few steamship operators, Coons told me, did also list travelers’ place of residence, but most were strictly limited to names. Passengers were forced to spin out the (perhaps embellished) backstories of the celebrities on board by pooling together their own spotty memories.

Despite these limitations, observers found ways to sleuth out the rich and famous. A name preceded by a title like “Baroness” signaled a person of importance, and so would the size of each passenger’s entourage. It wouldn’t be uncommon for a rich person’s name to be listed alongside “two nurses and a governess.” One passenger list, for instance, noted the presence of “J.K. Smith and valet.” The medical professor William Thomas Corlett recounted the feeling of disappointment in the quality of the guests on board a ship he rode—that is, until he consulted the list. Only then did he note with pleasure the presence of “Herr von This and Herr von That,” as he put it, “together with a sprinkling of Barons and a Baroness or two.”

Not every steamship company loved the passenger list. Some devised ways to keep their steamships as exclusive as possible so that passenger details wouldn’t spread to the public. The S.S. Carolina , for instance, did not let passengers book partial journeys , for fear it would bring in middle-class clientele and lead to leaks of the passenger lists. Basically: You had to afford the whole trip, or you couldn’t board.

Yet the passenger lists that did reach the public have, in recent decades, taken on an outsized importance. Genealogists and historians alike now rely on passenger lists to track how people moved across the world. Amateur genealogists on Ancestry.com regularly take advantage of passenger lists to trace their roots. So does our most famous chronicler of family history, Henry Louis Gates Jr. In retrospect, these documents also charted social transformations: It wasn’t uncommon for immigrants to include a new name when boarding a steamship, or for trans passengers to embrace their preferred gender. I thought a lot about passenger lists while researching Zdeněk Koubek, a high-profile Czech athlete who transitioned gender in 1935, for my forthcoming history book The Other Olympians . In 1936, when Koubek was newly living as a man, he visited New York, and he appeared in the passenger list alongside his new gender: “Mr.”

I’ll allow that passenger lists may no longer make sense in our tech-surveillance world, where even a simple series of names would get scraped by algorithms. But I think we’ve lost some sense of camaraderie without them—lost that thrill of unfurling the manifest and wondering what you might find. These lists could impress, or they could disappoint, but they always entertained. In 1901 Mary Lawrence, a wealthy Bostonian, leafed through the first-class passenger list of the steamship Oceanic . She was excited to see the name of Otho Cushing, an illustrator and cartoonist whose work she knew. “Here at last was one interesting fellow traveler,” she wrote in her diary, according to the book Seductive Journey .

Nearly a decade later, however, when she rode the same steamship again, the list was not so colorful. Lawrence was crushed. “There was not a soul on the passenger list that we had ever heard of before,” she complained. Today Lawrence’s certainty that the list was a complete account of the passengers on board is striking. It didn’t seem to occur to her that there could be loopholes for people who could pay, that you could scrub your name from the manifest if you were famous enough. And perhaps those loopholes really didn’t exist. Steamships had classed cabins, sure, but there was no special treatment for celebrities: At sea, everyone was on the list.

Blinken will be the latest top US official to visit China in a bid to keep ties on an even keel

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China this coming week as Washington and Beijing try to keep ties on an even keel despite major differences on issues from the path to peace in the Middle East to the supply of synthetic opioids that have heightened fears over global stability.

The rivals are at odds on numerous fronts, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, Taiwan and the South China Sea , North Korea, Hong Kong, human rights and the detention of American citizens. The United States and China also are battling over trade and commerce issues, with President Joe Biden announcing new tariffs on imports of Chinese steel this past week.

The State Department said Saturday that Blinken, on his second visit to China in less than a year , will travel to Shanghai and Beijing starting Wednesday for three days of meetings with senior Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Talks between Blinken and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected, although neither side will confirm such a meeting is happening until shortly before it takes place.

The department said in a statement that Blinken would “discuss a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues,” including the Middle East, the war in Ukraine, the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

He will also talk about progress made in “resuming counternarcotics cooperation, military-to-military communication, artificial intelligence, and strengthening people-to-people ties” and will reaffirm how important it is for the U.S. and China to be “responsibly managing competition, even in areas where our two countries disagree,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

The trip follows a phone call this month between Biden and Xi in which they pledged to keep high-level contacts open, something they had agreed to last year at a face-to-face summit in California. Since that call, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has visited China and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has spoken by phone with his Chinese counterpart . Meetings at lower levels also have taken place.

Despite those encounters, relations are rocky. The U.S. has recently become more vocal in its calls for China to stop supporting Russia’s military-industrial sector, which Washington says has allowed Moscow to boost weapons production to support the war against Ukraine .

“We see China sharing machine tools, semiconductors, other dual-use items that have helped Russia rebuild the defense industrial base that sanctions and export controls had done so much to degrade,” Blinken said Friday. “Now, if China purports on the one hand to want good relations with Europe and other countries, it can’t on the other hand be fueling what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War.”

Blinken also has pushed for China to take a more active stance in pressing Iran not to escalate tensions in the Middle East . He has spoken to his Chinese counterpart several times since the Israel-Hamas war began six months ago as he has sought China’s help in getting Iran to restrain proxy groups it has supported, armed and funded in the region.

That topic has taken on new urgency since direct back-and-forth attacks by Iran and Israel on each other’s soil in the past week.

Also high on the agenda for Blinken will be Taiwan and the South China Sea.

The U.S. has strongly condemned Chinese military exercises threatening Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province and vowed to reunify with the mainland by force if necessary. Successive U.S. administrations have steadily ramped up military support and sales for Taipei, much to the anger of Chinese officials.

In the South China Sea, the U.S. and others have become increasingly concerned by provocative Chinese actions in and around disputed areas. In particular, the U.S. has voiced objections to what it says are Chinese attempts to thwart legitimate activities by others in the waterway, notably the Philippines and Vietnam.

That was a major topic of concern earlier this month when Biden held a three-way summit with the prime minister of Japan and the president of the Philippines.

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R.F.K. Jr.’s Environmental Colleagues Urge Him to Drop Presidential Bid

Nearly 50 leaders and activists who worked with Mr. Kennedy at an environmental nonprofit group will run ads calling on him to “Honor our planet, drop out.”

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By Lisa Friedman

As an independent candidate for the White House, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims he would be the “best environment president in American history,” drawing on his past as a crusading lawyer who went after polluters in New York.

But dozens of Mr. Kennedy’s former colleagues at the Natural Resources Defense Council are calling on him to withdraw from the race, in full-page advertisements sponsored by the group’s political arm that are expected to appear in newspapers in six swing states on Sunday.

Separately, a dozen other national environmental organizations have issued an open letter calling Mr. Kennedy “ a “dangerous conspiracy theorist and a science denier” who promotes “toxic beliefs” on vaccines and on climate change.

People involved in both efforts maintain that Mr. Kennedy cannot win the presidency but could siphon votes away from President Biden and help elect former President Donald J. Trump, who has called climate change a hoax and promised to unravel environmental laws and policies.

“A vote for RFK Jr. is a vote to destroy that progress and put Trump back in the White House,” says the newspaper ad that will run in Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Signatories include John Hamilton Adams, who co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council and hired Mr. Kennedy in the 1980s, as well as past presidents and the group’s current president. They implore Mr. Kennedy to “Honor our planet, drop out.”

Mr. Kennedy was a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council for about 28 years, stepping down in 2014.

In a telephone interview on Thursday, Mr. Kennedy shot back against the idea that he might bring Mr. Trump back to the White House.

“President Biden does not need my help to lose to Donald Trump,” Mr. Kennedy said. He avoided directly addressing the actions of Mr. Adams and other former colleagues, saying only that he and his mentor “disagree with each other on politics.”

Instead Mr. Kennedy criticized Mr. Biden as well as the environmental movement, which he said “is making a mistake to settle for crumbs that have been given to us by the Biden administration.”

Former colleagues in environmental circles were unvarnished in their assessments of Mr. Kennedy.

“The Bobby I knew is gone,” said Dan Reicher, a senior energy researcher at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for Environment. Mr. Reicher worked with Mr. Kennedy at N.R.D.C. and said he had a decades-long personal friendship with Mr. Kennedy, including paddling rivers together in the United States and Chile.

Gina McCarthy was the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama and then became president of N.R.D.C. during the Trump administration, only to return to national service as Mr. Biden’s climate adviser until last year.

“If folks remember him as an environmentalist, he is no more,” she said about Mr. Kennedy. “He’s against science, he’s against vaccines, he talks jibber jabber on climate. I don’t know what he stands for.”

Mr. Adams said in a statement: ”I mentored Bobby as a young environmentalist. I do not recognize the person he has become. His actions are a betrayal to our environment.”

The rebuke from Mr. Kennedy’s professional colleagues comes after his brothers and sisters and other members of the Kennedy family endorsed President Biden at a campaign rally in Philadelphia on Thursday. Mr. Kennedy is a nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and a son of the former attorney general and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. Family members have said they are concerned that Mr. Kennedy could tilt the race to Mr. Trump.

Allies of Mr. Trump have been discussing ways to elevate third-party candidates like Mr. Kennedy in battleground states to divert votes away from Mr. Biden. They are looking to underline Mr. Kennedy’s background as an environmentalist in the hope of peeling away some progressive voters frustrated by the fact that under Mr. Biden, the country has produced record levels of oil and gas.

“The path to victory here is clearly maximizing the reach of these left-wing alternatives,” Stephen K. Bannon, the former White House chief strategist who also served as Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman in 2016, told The New York Times earlier this month .

Mr. Kennedy’s views on climate change are unconventional. He agrees with the overwhelming scientific opinion that carbon dioxide and methane, two greenhouse gases, are heating the planet, and that the evidence is visible. “All of my senses are telling me that the warming is occurring,” he said in a video he posted to X in July.

But in the same video, he also said that a “war on carbon” was not the answer and that “this crisis is being used as a pretext for clamping down totalitarian controls.” He said that the actors behind the clampdown were “the intelligence agencies, the World Economic Forum, the billionaire club at Davos,” and that their goal was to make the rich more wealthy. But moments later, he said that free markets would solve the climate crisis.

Mr. Kennedy said he opposed federal subsidies for carbon capture and storage, a technology to capture greenhouse gas emissions from power plants or industrial processes before they reach the atmosphere, where they drive global warming. Mr. Kennedy called it a “useless and huge boondoggle to the industry” and criticized Mr. Biden for agreeing to include those subsidies in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the president’s landmark climate law.

Many environmental activists are also opposed to carbon capture technology because they want the nation to stop burning fossil fuels and instead switch to wind, solar and other nonpolluting energy sources.

But Mr. Kennedy’s agenda does not include any clear policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

On Thursday he said eliminating subsidies for fossil fuels and tougher enforcement of existing laws like the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act would be sufficient to fight climate change. President Biden has tried three times to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies , and each time, Congress has restored them. And in recent rulings, the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court has limited the Biden administration’s ability under existing laws to regulate greenhouse gases.

Mr. Kennedy also said the environmental movement was making “a huge tactical error” in focusing on climate change instead of environmental issues that are less divisive.

He accused Mr. Biden of turning his back on the environment by approving the Willow project, an $8 billion oil drilling project in Alaska; for overseeing record oil and gas production; and for signing the Inflation Reduction Act, which ensures continued offshore oil drilling.

“It’s hard to understand how the environmental movement is now saying that this is OK,” Mr. Kennedy said. “I think we need a bigger vision for the environment.”

Manish Bapna, the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, the political arm of the nonprofit environmental organization, noted that Mr. Kennedy had also criticized the federal subsidies that jump-started domestic manufacturing of electric vehicles and batteries and solar and wind production in the United States.

“Voters who care about the environment shouldn’t be fooled,” Mr. Bapna said.

Mr. Biden has enacted the most aggressive climate agenda of any president. In addition to the Inflation Reduction Act, which is providing more than $370 billion for clean energy over the next decade, he is limiting emissions from automobiles, is poised to cut carbon pollution from power plants and has reined in future oil and gas drilling by limiting the available tracts of land and water that companies can lease.

The political ad does not discuss Mr. Kennedy’s record as a lawyer who helped clean up the Hudson River and started a global movement to protect waterways.

Mr. Kennedy was named a hero of the planet by Time magazine in 1999 for his work with the Riverkeeper organization, among the groups credited with cleaning up the Hudson. As a founder of the Waterkeeper Alliance, he successfully fought to close a New York landfill that was contaminating the water supply and helped defeat dams in Chile and Peru.

Lisa Friedman is a Times reporter who writes about how governments are addressing climate change and the effects of those policies on communities. More about Lisa Friedman

Our Coverage of the 2024 Election

Presidential Race

President Biden’s campaign has featured initiatives aimed at young people , union workers and environmentalists  as well as calling for tariffs on Chinese steel , but it is not clear that they will be sufficient  to rekindle support in those groups.

American voters absorbed their first view of a split-screen campaign:  President Biden sprinting across one of the country’s top battleground states and former President Donald J. Trump sitting in a New York courtroom.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that he had secured a spot on the ballot in Michigan, as more than a dozen members  of his family endorsed  President Biden. Additionally, activists who worked with Kennedy at an environmental nonprofit group urged him to drop his presidential bid .

A Generation Gap: Many older Black voters see moral and political reasons to vote, but younger Black voters feel far less motivated to cast a ballot for Democrats or even at all .

Vice-Presidential Calculations: As Trump sifts through potential running mates, he has peppered some advisers and associates with a direct question: Which Republican could best help him raise money ?

Embracing the Jan. 6 Rioters:  Trump initially disavowed the attack on the Capitol, but he is now making it a centerpiece of his campaign .

Mobilizing the Left: Amid the war in Gaza, the pro-Palestinian movement has grown into a powerful, if disjointed, political force in the United States. Democrats are feeling the pressure .

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Group and Sports Travel

United Groups lets you rest easy with guaranteed group airfare for your family, friends, sports teams and business associates when traveling together.

Sports teams

Groups of ten or more enjoy special pricing and priority benefits when traveling on a common flight to a common destination:

Airport coordinator

A dedicated group airport coordinator and Priority Check-in* Not available at all airport locations

Guaranteed fare

A guaranteed fare for the entire group

Name changes

Flexibility on name changes Subject to terms of your ticketing agreement

Payment flexibility

Flexible deposit and final payment options available for many international destinations

Book group travel now

For a quote on your group travel, visit the link below and complete our easy online group request form. You'll receive a response via email within two business days. Want immediate assistance? Contact our dedicated Group Desk at 800-426-1122 (Monday - Friday)

United offers special benefits for teams of six or more* traveling on the same flight for sports related travel. *restricted to travel within the United States, to/from Puerto Rico & to/from Canada on United operated flights

Names and Ticketing

Traveler names and ticketing due within 24 hours of booking Not including Saturday or Sunday

Change Fee Waived

Change fee waived for team during the group’s travel window Fare difference will apply

Name Changes

One free name change per passenger up until the day prior to departure $100 fee if name change is made the day of departure

Guaranteed Fare

A guaranteed base fare for the entire group

Book sports team travel

Within the U.S. - Contact United’s dedicated Group Desk at 800-426-1122 (Monday-Friday) Outside the U.S. - Contact your local reservations office

FirstEnergy gave $2.5M to GOP governors' dark money group backing DeWine's 2018 bid

In 2018, Akron-based FirstEnergy donated $2.5 million to a Republican Governors Association-affiliated dark money group backing GOP nominee Mike DeWine in a competitive race for governor.

The previously undisclosed money reveals how invested FirstEnergy was in the outcome of the Ohio governor's race between DeWine and Democratic challenger Rich Cordray. At the time, FirstEnergy wanted to bail out two nuclear plants then owned by a subsidiary but faced opposition from Ohio leaders like then-Gov. John Kasich.

Both DeWine and Cordray promised to save two northern Ohio nuclear plants if they became governor, and the company chipped in publicly disclosed money to both the Republican Governors Association and Democratic Governors Association.

But newly released records show FirstEnergy donated $2.5 million in three installments to State Solutions, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit affiliated with the Republican Governors Association that is not required to disclose its donors. One installment of $500,000 is labeled "DeWine;" the other two are listed as "RGA," according to records released by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, Floodlight, Ohio Capital Journal and the Energy News Network.

DeWine met with FirstEnergy executives at an RGA fundraiser in downtown Columbus on Oct. 10, 2018, the Dayton Daily News first reported. Shortly after, FirstEnergy Solutions donated $500,000 to RGA, according to tax records.

FirstEnergy also donated $200,000 to the Citizens Policy Institute, which blasted Cordray for being "Republican Lite," according to released records. Cleveland restaurateur Tony George, a close FirstEnergy ally, was behind the group, BuzzFeed News reported at the time.

In November 2018, DeWine defeated Cordray , 50.4% to 46.7%, as Democrats swept elections across the country. In 2019, FirstEnergy helped Republican lawmakers craft House Bill 6, an energy overhaul measure that included $1 billion for the two nuclear plants. DeWine signed House Bill 6 within hours of it hitting his desk.

When asked if the donations influenced DeWine's support of nuclear energy, DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said: "Gov. DeWine's support for nuclear energy is documented well prior to 2018, including during his tenure as United States senator."

FirstEnergy spokeswoman Jennifer Young said the company was unable to comment on pending litigation. Shareholders sued FirstEnergy after federal investigators revealed an extensive pay-to-play scandal bankrolled by the Ohio utility.

That federal investigation led to a 20-year prison sentence for former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder , a five-year sentence for ex-Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges and the firing of several FirstEnergy executives. Attorneys in the shareholder lawsuit have sought to subpoena records from DeWine and depose Husted , but neither faces any criminal accusations.

FirstEnergy donated $1 million through a dark money group to back Husted's bid for governor in 2017, according to previously released records. Husted and DeWine were competitors until they merged campaigns in November 2017.

Concerns raised

In 2018, the nuclear plants' owner FirstEnergy Solutions was in bankruptcy. So creditors raised concerns about a $1 million payment earmarked to help DeWine's campaign, according to emails exchanged on Aug. 11, 2018. "They cited it is very large compared to DeWine's current fundraising."

FirstEnergy Senior Vice President of External Affairs Michael Dowling tried to allay concerns by explaining that donors can back DeWine's bid in several ways, including giving to DeWine's campaign fund, the Republican Governors Association, State Solutions and the Ohio Republican Party's state candidate fund.

"Theoretically, DeWine/Husted could have a balance of $10M in their campaign account and the RGA could spend $40M in support of DeWine in Ohio," Dowling explained in an email. "My point is that comparing the size of a contribution to the RGA to what the DeWine campaign has raised or what the DeWine Campaign's current balance is can be done, but I'm not sure is logical."

Republican fundraiser Brooke Bodney, who worked with the RGA, confirmed: "All factually accurate."

Meanwhile, FirstEnergy Solutions' David Griffing reassured Akin Gump's Rick Burdick that there was no connection between State Solutions and DeWine's campaign. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld is a powerful law firm that represented FirstEnergy Solutions during its bankruptcy and lobbied for House Bill 6.

The issue was important because exchanging a political favor for a campaign donation would be illegal, a quid pro quo.

"Thanks," Burdick wrote. "Just to confirm there is also no understanding with the DeWine campaign re his position on regulatory relief for nuclear plants related to this contribution."

"Correct," Griffing replied.

Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio .

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Group trips.

A concert tour, team outing or school trip? There are lots of different reasons for a group trip. You can now request a group trip even more easily and conveniently on lufthansa.com and book it at the best possible price.

Your group booking on lufthansa.com

• Individual, no-obligation quote
• Payment within seven days of booking
• Payment by credit card 1 or bank transfer
• The names of group members must be provided up to 14 days before departure. If the names are not available by this deadline, the booking will be cancelled (see Cancellation and Refunds).
• Issuance of travel documents (tickets) 14 days before departure
• 20% of the group can be cancelled free of charge up to the time the travel documents are issued – a minimum group size of 10 people must remain
• Departures from airports in Germany, Austria or Switzerland 2 only (for all other countries, please contact your usual travel agency)
• Only departure and destination locations within the Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa and SWISS route networks that are served by the Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa or SWISS fleets
• Open-jaw flights and solely outbound flights are possible
• Lufthansa flight connections can be combined with a) Austrian Airlines or b) Swiss 

1 Depending on your chosen payment method, an OPC may apply to sales in Switzerland in addition to the price displayed. Please be aware that the OPC cannot be refunded if your trip is cancelled. 2 Only for persons resident in Germany, Austria or Switzerland (for all other countries, please contact your usual travel agency)

Travel for groups of 10 or more people

Simply get in touch with us to receive an individual quotation for your group via email. Please allow a notice period of at least 28 days.

Note: The processing period is currently up to seven days. In addition, please refrain from calling our team and only use our email contact after your booking has been confirmed.

We have compiled the most frequently asked questions and their answers for you below.

What is a group?

A group trip consists of at least 10 passengers who are travelling together and who are entitled to seats. Please note that children under the age of 12 years may only travel if accompanied by adults.

How can I book a group trip?

Bookings for a group who are starting their journey in Germany, Austria or Switzerland can be requested online using the above form.

If your departure airport is not in one of these three countries, please ask your usual travel agency to make your group booking. Travel agencies are kindly requested to contact their relevant Lufthansa service team.

How is the group price worked out?

The price for a group is calculated independently of the lowest online price. It is calculated individually according to capacity and can be higher than the single seat fare sold online. The number of seats available in the aircraft decreases per booking. It may therefore be the case that a seat is still available for an individual passenger at a lower price, but not to a group because of the number of travellers.

How far in advance can I book a group trip?

344 days – for a trip only using Lufthansa flights 344 days – for Lufthansa flights with involvement by Austrian Airlines and SWISS, provided that the return flight is within this time frame.

Can I cancel my ticket if I have been booked within a group trip?

Yes, provided that the required group size of at least 10 people remains and the group terms and conditions permit it.

Will I get a receipt for my ticket?

Your passenger receipt will be available for you to download and print out as a PDF document from 24 hours after your ticket is issued until 30 days after the end of your trip, provided that this receipt has not already been issued elsewhere.

You will find further information here.

How can I add a train ticket to my group ticket?

To book a train ticket, please contact the Lufthansa Service Center or a travel agency. You will receive two separate DB pick-up numbers (one for your outbound journey and one for your return journey). A single Rail&Fly ticket will be saved for you under each of these numbers at the DB long-distance ticket machine. If you are travelling with several other people, each person will receive one pick-up number for their outbound journey and one for their return journey. With these numbers you can print out your ticket at any DB long-distance ticket machine from 72 hours before the start of your journey. There are more than 3,500 such DB ticket machines throughout Germany. You can easily find out where your nearest one is located via bahn.de/railandfly You will find further information about the Rail&Fly offer here (Rail&Fly arriving by train).

Is online check-in also possible for groups?

Yes, as a group you can also use online check-in, including choosing seats via the seat map diagram. To do this, please log in yourself and then use the "Add another passenger" button. You can choose a seat on the seat map for each passenger individually on each route by first clicking on the passenger’s name and then on the seat that you would like to reserve.

Our terms and conditions for group trips

Find out about the requirements for your group trip here

Group trips with flight & hotel?

Would you like to book a flight & hotel as an all-in package for your group? On Lufthansa Holidays we offer you individual quotes for your trip.

Trump group spends big on legal fees, Biden leads at fundraising

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Papua New Guinea leader responds to Biden comment, saying nation undeserving of cannibalism label

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape says his nation does not deserve to be labelled cannibals, and urged the U.S. to clear up the remnants of World War Two littered across the Pacific, after comments by President Joe Biden about his missing serviceman uncle.