Do you offer group flights for your programs?
What is the advantage of taking a group flight?
Is the group flight a good deal?
Who arranges the group flight?
When can I sign up for my program's group flight?
I applied to your program early, so can I sign up for the group flight early?
Is the group flight a charter flight?
Is there a domestic group flight?
Where does the group flight depart?
Why isn't there a group flight for some programs?
Are group flights optional?
Is there a return group flight at the end of the program?

Do you offer group flights for your programs?
Yes! As a service to our students, we arrange group flights for most of our programs. For our Egypt programs, the group flight is mandatory.

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What is the advantage of taking a group flight?
A group flight gives students the convenience of having an experienced travel agent make their flight arrangements, as well as the reassurance of airport pickup upon arrival abroad. Flying together as a group also allows our students to meet each other before beginning the IFSA-Butler orientation.

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Is the group flight a good deal?
We think so. Though a group ticket is sometimes more expensive than an individual ticket found on the Internet, taking a group flight may save a student money in the long run, because group tickets include low-cost date or routing changes. Individual plane tickets generally incur change fees that can amount to almost half the cost of the original ticket. In addition, for Australia and New Zealand programs, our group flight travelers do not have to pay extensive domestic baggage fees.

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Who arranges the group flight?
An experienced travel agency makes group flight arrangements on IFSA-Butler's behalf. The agency works with various airlines to negotiate each group flight's cost, number of seats, ticket change fees and more.

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When can I sign up for my program's group flight?
Details of the group flight are generally available 2-3 months before a program's start date, and students are able to sign up at that time.

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I applied to your program early, so can I sign up for the group flight early?
Because of the nature of most airlines' group contract policies, we are not able to provide specific group flight details, such as the flight number or exact cost, earlier than 2 or 3 months before departure. However, we work hard to secure enough seats to ensure that students who want to take the group flight can do so, provided they contact the group flight travel agency by the published deadline in the IFSA-Butler predeparture newsletter.

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Is the group flight a charter flight?
No. The group flight is a group of seats on a regularly scheduled commercial flight on a major airline.

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Is there a domestic group flight?
Our group flights are for the international portion of travel only. Our students come from throughout the United States, so we do not have enough students in any one location to offer domestic group flights within the U.S. However, our group flight travel agency is happy to help students with domestic flight arrangements.

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Where does the group flight depart?
Our group flights depart from various major cities throughout the U.S., depending on destination. Typical departure airports are Los Angeles for Australia and New Zealand programs; JFK, Newark or Boston for programs in Ireland and the U.K.; New York or Chicago for Egypt; and Houston or Miami for programs in Latin America.

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Why isn't there a group flight for some programs?
Airlines require a minimum of 10 participants in order to offer group travel. If a program does not have at least 10 students who are interested in the group flight, we are not able to offer group travel for those students.

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Are group flights optional?
Group flights are optional except for our programs in Egypt, whose group flight is mandatory.

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Is there a return group flight at the end of the program?
No. Even students attending the same university abroad have different exam schedules, plus many choose to travel after the end of their program, so we are not able to offer group travel for the return flight home.