American Airlines Group Booking

American Airlines Group Booking – Group & Meeting Travel Policy and Benefits

Life is a journey. And the journey turns into a blessing when you have company. In the journey of life, we often travel from one place to another; sometimes for food, for work or for plain leisure. And more often than not we end up traveling alone. But there are times when we have people around us, and luckily, we end up traveling together. These people could be our friends, family or colleagues, or they could be our classmates, fellow performers or sports group members. We could be up for vacations, weddings or ceremonies, or maybe there could be meetings, events or performances. But we must admit that traveling is so much fun when it’s done in a group. Group travels are, beyond doubt, more enjoyable, exciting and memorable than solo trips. And whenever we travel in a group within the country or outside, we don’t want to compromise on the fun. We all want hassle-free travels where every travel need is taken care of.

And that is where aviation companies like American Airlines come in handy. They come up with group package deals comprising of perks, benefits and attractive discounts, so that we get the best group travel schemes in the market, and they get a meaty chunk of business. It’s a win-win for all. Needless to say, they have well-written group booking policies to ensure a fair deal for both of us. The American Airlines Group Booking policy is also one such set of guidelines that work as a guiding manual for all group travel stakeholders. Excerpts from the policy with all relevant details are provided below.

The American Airlines Group Reservations policy

The American Airlines Group Reservations policy is a simple set of rules and group booking guidelines. It is a collection of specific group-related terms and conditions, features and benefits, group travel rates and discounts and the complete step-by-step group booking procedure. All the components of this group reservation policy are discussed one by one in this article.

The Terms & Conditions for American Airlines Group Reservations

1. i. As per American Airlines Group Reservations guidelines, passengers are eligible to get group travel benefits under the American Airlines group booking policy only if there are at least 10 members in a group who are either traveling to the same destination on the same flight from a single source of origin, or to the same destination on different flights from multiple sources of origin.
2. ii. Passengers are allowed to book multiple tickets with American Airlines but the same would qualify for group reservation benefits only when there are at least 10 people buying tickets together. In other words, groups of passengers with even 8 flight ticket bookings are not entitled to receive group travel benefits under the American Airlines group travel policy.
3. iii. The minimum requirement for group travel booking goes down to 7 passengers provided all 7 group members are booked in the premium cabins. The American Airlines group booking terms consider and refer to the Premium Economy, Business Class and First Class cabins as premium cabins.
4. iv. Only electronically purchased tickets qualify for group travel benefits. The tickets may be purchased online, through American Airlines approved agencies and contractors or by calling the American Airlines local reservations phone numbers.
5. v. All group and meeting travel bookings with American Airlines come under the purview of the Secure Flight Program. As per the program guidelines, American Airlines is required to collect Secure Flight Passenger Data (SFPD) for each passenger traveling with the airline. Group coordinators or travel agencies working on their behalf must add the SFPD for all individual group members during reservation.
6. vi. If one or more group members are registered under the American Airlines AAdvantage® program, they would accrue mileage when they undertake group travel with American Airlines.
7. vii. AAdvantage® members entering group and meeting travel contracts with American Airlines are also eligible for upgrades as per the AAdvantage® program rules and guidelines.
8. viii. As per the American Airlines Group Reservations policy, all group ticket prices are exclusive of taxes, levies and surcharges. And passengers are required to pay these extras over and above the group ticket prices at the time of group ticket booking or the flight’s scheduled departure.
9. ix. As per the American Airlines Group booking terms, passengers are liable to pay extra charges for all excess, overweight and/or oversized baggage and equipment at the time of departure. For certain itineraries and certain types of aircraft, separate baggage restrictions may apply.
10. x. For group bookings through American Airlines authorized agencies or contractors, passengers must pay any agency handling charges that may apply over and above the American Airlines quoted group ticket prices. Agencies as per the guidelines are required to disclose the same to the passengers.
11. xi. Passengers intending to undertake group and meeting travel with American Airlines and benefit from the airline’s lucrative group travel offers must fill up and submit the online group quote request form first and wait for anofficial response from the airline. Tickets can be booked only after group price quotes are issued by the airline and sent to the group coordinators’ email addresses.
12. xii. All group travel price quotes provided by American Airlines to passengers who havesubmitted requests for the same are subject to the availability of seats at the time of booking. Any delay in booking could result in the revision of quoted fares and discounts offered.
13. xiii. Under the American Airlines group booking policy, any flight credit issued by the airline after the cancellation of the flight may be used for group reservations in the future subject to certain conditions.
14. xiv. The American Airlines group price quotes don’t include ancillary costs such as the cost of travel insurance, on-board food and entertainment in the quoted fares. Such products or services are available at extra applicable charges over and above the quoted ticket fares.
15. xv. Under the American Airlines group booking policy, passengers are permitted to hold or block seats for up to 11 months prior to the scheduled departure without adding the names of individual group members. Passengers are allowed to add individual group members’ names at a later stage on or before the specified date mentioned in the group contract if the names of all group members or event attendees are not known at the time of booking.
16. xvi. American Airlines allows name changes or corrections on group tickets free of cost but only up to 48 hours before scheduled departure.
17. xvii. Since American Airlines is anOneworld® member, all its group booking benefits are applicable to all Oneworld® destinations.
18. xviii. For school groups where minors are involved, there must be at least 1 adult accompanying every 20 minors in case of non-stop itineraries. The ratio is 1:15 if the itinerary involves connecting flights.
19. xix. All outbound international group travels originating in the US must commence on the same day. If additional members are added to the group at a later stage, their outbound journeys should also commence on the same date as the original group or no more than one day before or after such date.
20. xx. Groups at the time of group travel booking confirmations should pay or commit to pay American Airlines the following deposits depending on class against each group member in valid local currencies, Economy - $100, Premium Economy - $150, Business - $200 and First Class - $400.Groups are not required to make such deposits if the booking confirmation is made less than 30 days prior to the scheduled departure.
21. xxi. Deposit payment deadlines mentioned in the group booking confirmation must be taken seriously.
22. xxii. As per American Airlines group booking terms and conditions, groups may decide to make periodic or incremental payments and clear the outstanding balance before the final payment deadlines by contacting American Airlines.
23. xxiii. Groups must pay full group ticket fares to American Airlines and clear any unpaid balance at least 30 days before the scheduled date of travel or the date of commencement of the first leg of travel if it consists of a round-trip.
24. xxiv. The American Airlines group travel policy strictly mandates that no group reservation would be ticketed until the group fare is paid in full along with all applicable taxes, fees and charges.
25. xxv. All kinds of changes including changes in individual passenger names, travel dates, times, itineraries and fare classes are permissible free of charge for groups until 90 days before the date of journey or the date of commencement of group travel under the terms of American Airlines group booking policy.
26. xxvi. Any group reservation made or journey undertaken with American Airlines as per the guidelines of the American Airlines group booking policy is subject to the American Airlines general conditions of carriage, the applicable fare rules and restrictions.

American Airlines Group Travel Benefits

Group travel with American Airlines is fair and simple. There are no complex schemes, complicated product descriptions and difficult guidelines. The benefits of American Airlines group travel policy are as follows,

a. Refundable Fares: Under the American Airlines group travel policy, all zone fares are refundable subject to other applicable conditions. Zone fares refer to the group travel fares pertaining to travels that originate in a specific zone consisting of the following countries, the United States, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America or the Pacific.

b. Guaranteed specialrates: Group fares with American Airlines are special, discounted and pre-determined. The airline has a simplified and transparent pricing strategy that allows it to guarantee reduced fares for all group travelers. For meeting and vacationplans, special rates are calculated for amenities as well.

c. Automatic seat assignment: American Airlines auto-assigns seats to groups at the time of confirmation of booking, allowing them to hold those seats and pay at a later date within a specified deadline. This means that groups get automatic seat allotments just by committing to the group travel contractseven before making group booking payments.

d. Flexible ticketing: American Airlines offers a flexible ticketing timeline facility to passengers who have made reservations under its Group & Meeting Travel scheme. This feature allows groups to change the flights’ scheduled dates and departure times before the validity of such tickets expires.

e. Advance Booking: Passengers can book group tickets with American Airlines at least 330 days in advance. That means they can hold or block the seats in a flight for up to 11 months prior to the date of scheduled departure.

f. Flexibility to addNames: As per the American Airlines group booking norms, it is not mandatory to mention individual passengers’ names at the time of booking group travel tickets. So, groups enjoy the flexibility of preparing a final list of traveling group members or event attendees and adding their names to the reservations within a specified deadline mentioned in the contract. This saves them the hassles and costs of passenger name changes later on.

g. Flexibility to change names: American Airlines allows one name change or correction per ticket absolutely free of cost for groups after ticketing is done until up to 48 hours prior to the flight’s scheduled departure. For all subsequent name changes, applicable name change fees are levied.

h. Flexible commitment timeline: Groups are allowed to book tickets and hold seats before committing to the contract and pay at a later stage within a specified date.So, with American Airlines, group bookings always enjoy a flexible payment timeline. Usually, this commitment timeline is up to 14 days.

American Airlines Group Ticket Rates

American Airlines guarantees special prices calculated on both fares and amenities for groups consisting of a minimum of 10 members. The airline has a simple yet dynamic pricing strategy that effectively and transparently determines the American Airlines Group Rates after rigorous consideration of several dynamic factors. Factors such as itinerary, destination, date and time of travel have a key bearing on the group rates. It is a complex data-driven process where price matching is done after analyzing fares offered by competitors for the same destination, group size and fare class. The group discounts and rebates are the results of the constant interplay between demand and supply, consideration of passengers’ booking history and even the very purpose of the group travel. American Airlines does all of these and promises the best rates and discounts to group travelers. With American Airlines Group Discounts and special group rates, passengers can rest assured that they have been offered some of the most competitive group rates in the market.

How to book group travel tickets with American Airlines?

Group booking with American Airlines is a quick and easy process. It involves two easy steps – submitting the group quote request form and completing the booking process after receiving the group price quote from the airline. There are many ways to complete these two steps. Some of them are mentioned below along with the step-by-step procedure.

1. Online group travel booking

Online booking is by far the easiest method of group travel booking. With this method, passengers don’t need to go anywhere or contact anybody for group ticket booking with any airline. Tickets can be booked hassle-free anytime from the comfort of the passengers’ homes. All that is required for this are a user-friendly website from the airline and a good internet connection. And the best thing about American Airlines group booking is that it has a perfectly navigable website with easy-to-follow call-to-actions. With such an efficient website, passengers can easily fill up and submittheir group quote request forms and complete the booking process themselves once they receive the group price quotes. The steps involved are mentioned below.

1. i. First, type www.aa.com on your browser and press enter. This would open the home page of the official website of American Airlines.
2. ii. Come straight to the footer section of the home page. Check out the ‘Help’ column on the left-hand side. The first option under the ‘Help’ column is ‘Contact American.’ Click on that. You will be directed to a new page under the heading, “American Customer Service.”
3. iii. Scroll down and come to the “Products and Programs” section. You will find a hyperlink there named “Contact Group & Meeting Travel.” Click on that link and you would be directed to the “Group & Meeting Travel” page. Here, under “Special Rates” you will find another hyperlink named “Request a group rate.” Click on that link.
4. iv. Now, you will be directed to a different “Contact American” page. Here, you will find two boxes with dropdown menus named ‘Topic’ and ‘Subject.’ The topic should be “Group or meeting travel” and the subject should be “Request quote.”
5. v. Click on the blue ‘Next’ tab below. This would open the group quote request form. Fill up the form with details about your intended travel. Add any comment if you wish at the “Your Message” section and, finally, click on the ‘Submit’ button.

You can also land directly on the page with the following link,

Once you submit the group quote request form, American Airlines would send you a group price quote to your email address, based on which you must complete your online group travel booking process.

2. Group booking through phone call

You can also book group travel with American Airlines by contacting customer care. call the AmericanAirlines Group & Meeting Reservations Desk on thededicated toll-free number 1-800-221-2255from Monday to Friday every week between 7a.m and 10.30p.m (Central Time) and between 7a.m and 8p.m (Central Time) on weekends, and mention all your group travel requirements to the American Airlines representativewho would fill up the group quote request form and submit the same. There is also a dedicated phone number for Meeting Services which is 1-800-433-1790. Once the quote request form is submitted, you will be sent the group price quote to your email address in a quick time after which you can complete your group ticket booking with American Airlines. Thecontact numbersmentioned above are applicable only to US and Canadian customers. In case you are from any other country, kindly find your local American Airlines Group & Meeting Reservations Desk Contact number from the official website of the airline. The rest of the process is the same as stated above.

3. Group booking through a travel agent

American Airlines Group travel tickets can also be booked through authorized travel agents and contractors. Visit your nearest American Airlines authorized travel agent and provide him with details such as your group travel requirements and your intended date and time of travel. Also, you need to provide him with details like the full name, DOB and gender of all group members who are going to travel.

AmericanAirlines group travel cancellation policy

American Airlines has a well-structured cancellation policy that addresses in detail every possible cancellation case scenario that may occur during group travel booking. The key points mentioned in the AmericanAirlines group travel cancellation policy are as follows,

1. i) All tickets booked under the American Airlines group travel booking policy are non-refundable.
2. ii) At any point of time before the date of the journey, if the total number of group members falls below the minimum required number mentioned in the American Airlines group booking policy, the group booking along with the reservations and tickets may be canceled altogether and an applicable fee may be collected.
3. iii) Failure to pay the full booking amount on or before the specified deadline mentioned in the group booking confirmation might lead to the cancellation of the entire booking.
4. iv) If any group cancels the entire group booking after making the initial deposit but before 90 days or more from the departure date, American Airlines will deduct a holding fee amounting to the combined deposit amounts of 3 group members who paid the lowest deposits.
5. v) Even if partial cancellation happens before 90 days or more from the departure date, American Airlines would deduct the holding fee and refund the rest of the deposit amounts with any additionalunticketed paid fare amounts if applicable.
6. vi) If more than 10% of group members cancel their tickets between 89 and 30 days prior to the commencement of travel, American Airlines retains the entire deposit amount but refunds any additional unticketed paid fare amounts if applicable.
7. vii) If any group cancels bookings within 29 days of the commencement of travel, American Airlines would deduct the full base fare along with all American-imposed fees from the booking amount and issue a debit memo or collection notice against the group if the deposit amount is lower than the collectible amount.