A single group booking or separate bookings – the pros and cons

We all know the situation of travelling with family or friends. For convenience sake, we make the booking in one go, and aren’t bothered by the fact that we have a single reservation. But many people also regularly travel together in a business context, with colleagues or customers. How do you feel about virtual strangers being able to see your passport details or those of your employee? These days, with almost daily reports of personal details being stolen, one can’t be cautious enough.

When people are travelling together, we normally make just one booking. This has clear advantages: it’s convenient and efficient, you prevent certain issues, and in most cases it’s cheaper. In the event of overbooking, the airline will leave the group intact. In this way, you avoid the problem that some people in the group are not allowed to board, while other group members do get on. The same applies to flight changes and other unexpected situations. A group travelling together can also be more certain of their seats being close together. In addition, there’s a financial benefit: one booking often means just one fee. However, a group travelling together in one booking also has a major disadvantage: travellers can see each other’s personal details!

How do you deal with data privacy in your travel policy? It’s important to be aware of the pros and cons of a single group booking compared with separate bookings. If you aim to comply with data privacy, the only solution is to make separate bookings for each individual passenger in the group. This ensures that people can’t see each other’s details. However, it does mean paying multiple fees for multiple bookings. When making the booking, let your Travel Consultant know if you want a split booking. And to make sure you don’t miss out on the above-mentioned advantages of a group booking, mention that these people are travelling together. Your Travel Consultant will then add a remark to each booking, which enables the airline to see that people are travelling as a group. If you make the bookings yourself through our online booking tool AirGo, they will automatically be made separately per traveller. For low-cost flights, however, you need to make separate bookings yourself

Do you have any questions about splitting up bookings? Just contact your Account Manager or the Travel Consultant of your regional VCK Travel business travel agency.