6 Months – 9 Months Out
- Book group plane tickets. This only works if you have ten people or more, but I found it the very best way to book flights early enough to get a low fare but before everyone is really ready to commit. The major airlines all have group booking options and all of their policies differ. I will outline how these bookings generally are handled, but please refer to the airline’s actual policy. Group plane tickets generally work like this:
- You can book a block of tickets for a specific flight at a specific rate. (Sidebar: I have found Southwest is the best at trying to get you the lowest rate.) To book these tickets you have to pay a deposit. This deposit is usually refundable up to 90 days before the flight so you can guesstimate how many you think are going. You do not yet need to know passenger names, just a number.
- Reserve your lodging. Utilize your connection on the ground to help you with this part. We have been blessed that this has totally been handled by our ministry partner, so I can not discuss in detail this process. Do your research to make sure that a location works financially,
3 Months – 6 Months Out
- Collect a deposit. Let those who are interested and committed to go know that you must collect a deposit for the trip by a designated time. The amount and the date will be determined by your process with the airline (see previous section). The deposit should cover the airline I have learned to make this deposit non-negotiable. We can work with people raising funds, but if you lose the deposit to the airline because they back out, at least you don’t lose that money because you have their deposit.
This article about how to plan a group mission trip originally appeared here, and is used by permission.
