Frequent flyers help please

Ok my son has been asked to come back to LA for the summer to meet with more agents to get his career started (yay Amir).

Ok there are 5-6 of us going. So booking the airline is not the problem. the problem is One mother is coming back the next day. Amir's dad is coming back that Friday, 1 of the other kids going is coming back 1 week before the rest of us.

How can we book this and all be on the same flight going to LA?

Easiest way is to have a TA book it. Or, if you want to do it yourself, just book separate reservations for each of the various schedules, then call the airline and tell them you want to be seated together. If you do it early enough, they can usually accomodate.

can you just book all of your flights separately, and just pick the same outbound, but different returns?

if you all book the exact same flight, yes. just coordinate. you may not be seated together if you're on different reservations though. if you can coordinate, you can try to choose yours seats at the time of booking to be close, and then try to switch on the plane.

you do run the risk of the first couple people booking flight #123 (for example) then when the rest go to book, the fare has increased or something.

another option is to just book a 1 way flight out, all on the same reservation. then everyone can book their own returns. you'd have to price it out though - it might be a lot more expensive.

if you don't want to deal with the hassle of it all (i'd make people book their own flights! lol) - you could ask a TA for help. just send them the names, dates, times, etc.

just make sure you and Amir book together so you're on the same reservation - I assume you're traveling at the same times.

yes he and i are coming back the same time. OK now it will look at cheap tickets and then go to aaa to see what specials they will give me. got one more week to get my ish together.

hmmm - not sure, i've never looked into airline deals for groups or anything, so i am not sure. it will be tough online since it's not a group traveling together, ya know?

Catherine, if you don't want to use a TA, you can call CheapTickets 1800# and one of their reps will help you do the booking - it is not that big a deal to have different return flights. that is cool about Amir!