When I search for a flight for more than one person I usually search the flight for one so that I can easily have the total amount per person.
I wonder if there are cases in which searching for more than one person would result in a cheaper fare per person.
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What I know is, price might be less when you are booking for a group, and a group for the airlines is 9 people or more.– Nean Der ThalCommented Oct 21, 2014 at 19:45
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If you travel with children, their price might be less (have seen them knock 10% off the price), so the per ticket ends up smaller.– IdaCommented Oct 21, 2014 at 20:07
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1On full-fare tickets, when booking with some higher end travel agents (eg American Express), it's sometimes possible to get reduced rates when booking two tickets. Last time I looked, it basically brought the cost of two fully-flexible business tickets down to not much more than two non-flexible business ones, which is a large discount, but one not all that useful to many travellers...– GagravarrCommented Oct 21, 2014 at 23:23
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5 Answers
They are unusual in the West, but there are some airlines that offer cheaper seats when booking for multiple people. In particular, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific both offer "GV2" and "GV4" fares, available only to groups of 2 or 4 passengers respectively. For example, in this randomly Googled travel agent page, the single passenger price for a Singapore-Chennai/Kolkata return is S$700, while the GV2 fare is $600 and the GV4 fare is only $500. These show up automatically when booking online for the appropriate number of people, no travel agent needed.
Of course, even in SQ's case, these fares are not offered on all routes or all flights. When they're not, you may still be better off following Alessandro's suggestion and booking separately to get the best possible fare classes.
And before you ask, despite living in Singapore for >7 years, I was never able to figure out what "GV" stands for! Probably "Great Value" or something equally naff.
answered Oct 21, 2014 at 21:40
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"GV2" is a combination code -- G for group, V for value, 2 for 2 people. From this answer. Commented Oct 22, 2014 at 1:35
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1@RossPresser Fare classes are single letters: GV2 is 'Q', GV4 is 'N'. Commented Oct 22, 2014 at 2:58
The main case where the price-per-person will be different when searching for more than one person is when there is only one seat left at the cheapest fare. In such a case, the search engine (or at least every one I've ever seen) will search for the cheapest fare where all passengers can travel at the same fare. That might mean bumping all passengers to business class, or taking an entirely different route.
For sufficiently large groups, you might be eligible for a group discount, too, but I think you won't find those discounts on most online search engines. You'd likely need to go through a travel agent.
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2Makes sense. I want to add: I've been a flight search engine developer (Spain, Portugal, Brazil), and - during countless tests against various airline and OTA APIs - I never once recall seeing a cheaper price when booking multiple passengers. Theoretically, of course, there could be group discounts. Airlines have different pricing policies. For example, I recall one "family-friendly" Brazilian airline that offered lower prices for children, although they still occupy a full seat.– fekleeCommented Oct 21, 2014 at 19:55
My experience confirms Flimzy answer, so I won't repeat that.
I would like to add a suggestion to get a cheaper price per person: when such situations arise just buy tickets separately and then share the total equally between each person. Try to find out which is the number of available tickets at the lowest fare and buy them in one transaction, then buy the others at higher fare. For example Ryanair website tells you how many seats are available with a given fare.
If you are quick enough (and maybe have 2 credit cards at hand) you can save some money.
I've personally used this trick a few times :-) but cannot guarantee that it will always work.
answered Oct 21, 2014 at 15:54
I can confirm one scenario where it makes difference - when you travel with kids. We used it this summer when travelling to Europe and it knocked off around $200 for the kids tickets. But not all airlines do it. But if you search e.g. on Kayak, there is under dropdown next to Search button this list of options:
- Adults 18-64
- Seniors 65+
- Youth 12-17
- Child 2-11
- Seat Infant under 2
- Lap Infant under 2
You can specify number of passengers for each age group and and then the price that Kayak shows is average price per passenger (so e.g. when price per adult only is $1400, with kids Kayak will start show $1300 per passenger) - and it also allows you to sort by it.
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In fact for French families travelling within France with Air France (I know that is a lot of restrictions), you can benefit from specific discounts: "Special fares are available when you travel as a family or with children on flights in metropolitan France. Parents/grandparents with at least one young child/grandchild (from 12 to 24 years of age) or a student (25-26 years of age). You must show proof of family relationship upon boarding: a French livret de famille or an official document showing the relationship."– VinceCommented Nov 8, 2014 at 5:33
It does change. Airlines sell tickets in blocks, so lets say one block cost $300 per ticket and next block is $400 per ticket.
Assume you want to buy 2 ticket but there is only one left in $300 block then you will be paying a total of $700 as the second one will be priced at $400 - meaning $350 per ticket!
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10If you want two tickets, and there's only one $300 ticket left, most airlines would actually sell you two $400 tickets at $800. Commented Oct 22, 2014 at 0:50