[graybill]

We just did our first group trip in Oct and it worked out very well.
Our group was 16 at WDW with 11 of us on the same flight.
We used a group reservation for our flight, which was very advantageous to us. I don't know if all airlines have the same policy as Spirit Airlines, but this is how it worked for our group. We made our reservation about 7 months prior to our trip (DVC members will know that 7 months is your booking window for a resort which is not your home resort). At that time the fare was 243.00 per person for the round trip. They required only 25% for a deposit instead of non-refundable payment in full as is the case for normal reservations. The balance was due around a month before the flight. During the time between making the reservation and balance due date, the fares for that flight dropped twice. Both times I called Spirit and both times they honored the new fares. We ended up paying 158.00 per person which was a savings of over 900.00! Because I hadn't paid the balance yet, I only had to pay the difference between my deposit and the total of the new fares. Normally if they were to honor a fare reduction, they would give you a voucher for the difference since you have already paid. As far as seating, they guaranteed that the toddlers in the group would be seated with their parents and said that if we arrived to check-in early, which we always do anyway, we would all be seated together. We did check-in early and were all seated together. The only difficult part was getting all 11 of us arriving in 3 separate cars at the airport close to the same time, because the entire group had to be together at check-in. At 4:45 AM with a 2, 3 and 4 year old it was a little tricky, but it all came together very well. Sorry to be so long winded, but I just wanted to pass on our experience and hope that it might be helpful. I'll post again with our experiences upon arrival in Orlando with a couple of things that we found helpful.

graybill