Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Get Your Guests to Your Destination Wedding for Less

Words by Jennifer Stein

Words by Brett Snyder

My guess is that if you’re reading Destination I Do's blog, you’re not planning on a traditional wedding. Even non-traditional weddings require guests (uh, well, some do), and those guests need to get to wherever you’re having your wedding. That can be pricey, but there are some ways to get prices down.

Maybe you’re getting married while skiing in Chile, or perhaps you’re surfing in Australia. The reality is that a non-traditional destination wedding can often be much tougher to get to than the usual church ceremony with your family in Kansas. When it’s tough to get to your wedding, that means it can be expensive as well.

I suppose Australia isn’t the best example right now since you can get some incredibly cheap deals ($700 or $800 round trip from the US), but you get the point. Anything you can do to save some cash for you and your guests will be welcome. Let me introduce you to the world of CAMS.
You may have heard that airlines offer group rates. The problem with group rates is that they require the entire group to fly together. Now, if you and your guests all live in the same place, then that’s great news. You can fly together and maybe save some money if your group is large enough (usually 10 or more) at a minimum. But more often than not, people are scattered and coming from various places.

That’s why airlines created CAMS fares. That stands for Conventions and Meetings. Granted, you may not think of your wedding as a convention or a meeting, but the premise is the same. People are coming from a variety of places to get to a single destination. You can get some good deals if you have enough people. Here are some resources for different airlines.

AirTran EventSavers – Requires 10 or more people
American Group & Meeting Travel – Requires 10 or more people
Continental MeetingWorks – Requires 20 or more people
Delta Meeting Network – Requires 10 or more people
JetBlue Meetings Travel
United Meetings Plus – Requires 25 or more people

For more information on Cranky Flier, click here