Team NorCal Group Flight Plans for Dallas and Colorado for Summer Tournaments
Bill Glazier
Many of you have asked about our flight plans for Dallas (US Lacrosse Southern Region Championships June 8th-10th) and Colorado (Denver Shootout and Vail Tournament June 15th-17th and June 18th-21st).
We have booked seats on several flights to each destination which you are free to take advantage of and reserve for you or your player.
You can book the flights for Dallas here: https://tomahawks.wufoo.com/forms/team-norcal-2012-airfare-sfodfw/
You can book the flights for Colorado here: https://tomahawks.wufoo.com/forms/team-norcal-2012-airfare-sfoden-vail-and-denver/
Some thoughts on group air travel in general and these fares:
1) You are NOT required to fly on these flights. You may well find a cheaper individual fare on the same flight online. Airlines have become pretty aggressive at trying to price groups seats higher than individual fares. We have found what we think are pretty competitive fares on direct flights to our destinations, but you may be able to do better yourself.
2) The advantages of flying on the group flight include: 1) flying with the majority of the team, 2) coaches and chaperones to watch out for your child, 3) we are able to check all long poles in a single oversize carryon and avoid incurring excess baggage charges, 4) you are assured a spot on the bus from the airport to the hotel and return (since it is waiting primarily for the group flights to arrive) and 5) you have some refund protection since we can do name changes on most flights up to 48/72 hours prior to departure.
3) You are free to not use these flights at all and arrange for you and/your child to take different flights/airline. We will do our best to meet your child at the airport and get them to the hotel if needed. In Dallas, it should be simple since the hotel has an airport shuttle bus that works 24/7. In Denver, for the Denver Shootout, it is no issue because the hotel we are staying at is within 3 miles of the airport. In Vail, it is a much bigger challenge, since Vail is a 2.5 hour drive from Denver. If you take a different flight that arrives about the same time as the group flights, you are welcome to ride our bus to the hotel. If you book a seat on one of flights on your own, you are guaranteed a seat on the bus to the hotel, and we will of course chaperone the player and check in equipment for them.
4) We do not have enough seats for everyone, because history shows that not everyone travels on the group flight. Some arrive early, leave later, have frequent flyer miles….. If you want these seats, you should take them sooner rather than later. Very sophisticated trading programs run airline pricing these days, and once flights start to get full, the prices rise dramatically. Priority is first to players, than parents. These fares are available now from us, but may or may not be available later – if we do not get much interest, we will release the seats, if we sell out, they will be unavailable. To be honest, right now we have fewer seats than I think we will need, and I am trying to get more, but I am fighting the pricing algorithms of these airlines, which are pretty good....
Here is what we have:
DALLAS
Price per ticket is $399. One name change is included up to 30 days prior to departure for Virgin, up to 48 hours beforehand for AA.
Thursday June 7th, 2012
American Airlines Flt #1528
Dep. SFO 445pm
Arr. DFW 1005pm
Virgin America Flt 720
Dep SFO 550P
Arr DFW 1100P
Sunday June 10th, 2010
American Airlines Flt #1415
Dep. DFW 640pm
Arr. 820pm
Virgin America Flt 717
Dep DFW 735P
Arr SFO 925P
These tickets are otherwise nonrefundable.
We will assign people to the flights to make sure individual teams get to travel together. You can request that you travel with specific companions and we will honor those requests. We will have a bus meet us at the airport and take us to the hotel upon arrival, and have a bus take us back to the airport on Sunday.
COLORADO
We have three different group flights, some on Frontier and some on Southwest. The price per seat for all flights is $349.
Denver Shootout (Kids playing only in Denver and NOT in Vail) - The HS Select team will be playing in the Denver Tournament which starts Friday June 15th, but most will not be playing in Vail. Therefore they can go home on Sunday at the end of the Denver Tournament, the 17th
Frontier 668 SFO 15JUN2012 840A DEN 1203P
Frontier 667 DEN 17JUN2012 920P SFO 1059P
Denver Shootout and Vail Tournament (Kids playing both)- The HS Elite team will be playing in both the Denver and the Vail Tournaments, so they need to leave on Friday the 15th, and can return Thursday the 21st
Frontier 668 SFO 15JUN2012 840A DEN 1203P
Frontier 667 DEN 21JUN2012 920P SFO 1059P
Vail Tournament Only - The Youth Teams (U15, U13, and U11) will only be playing in the Vail Tournament. Therefore they will leave on Sunday the 17th (SFO-Den) and return to SFO on Thursday night the 21st.
Frontier 650 SFO 17JUN2012 615A DEN 943A
Frontier 667 DEN 21JUN2012 920P SFO 1059P
Southwest 333 SFO 17 June2012 555A DEN 925A
Southwest 107 DEN 21 June 2012 950P SFO 1130P
For Colorado we are able to do one way fares – at half the price of a round trip.
We will arrange for 15 passenger van
transportation for all our of our groups to get to their hotel destination for
the Denver and Vail Tournaments and return to the airport.
We reserve the right to place kids on either Southwest or Frontier. Our objective will be to 1) use Southwest as much as possible since bags are free on Southwest, and 2) Keep the teams together for the flight there and back. If you want to make sure that your player flies together with another player or adult, please tell us in the comments on the form.
These fares are nonrefundable, however, we are allowed to do one name change up to 72 hours prior to departure.
GO TEAM NORCAL!
Thanks,
Bill Glazier