he flight component plays a critical role in the success of your travel experience. So often though, the concret details of your flight dates, routing and airline remain a veiled and understated tour element. The final details may be revealed only at a late stage when travel is imminent and there is no longer the possibility for the group leader to express their preference or possible dissatisfaction with circuitous routings or date changes.

Shouldn't you be allowed to know what you are purchasing? Are you being put on a charter flight? How many plane changes are involved? What are the lay-overs between flights in any city? These are all standard questions that you would ask if buying a ticket for yourself, which only makes them more relevant when selecting an option for a group for which you have responsibility!

KNOW YOUR FLIGHT ROUTING AND CARRIER... At Casterbridge, we are proud of the flights that we provide for our groups and of the fact that all information is made available to our groups at the earliest possible juncture, which is usually the time of booking. Our Flights Department always finds the best routings and best flights for our groups, non-stop flights whenever possible. We always avoid at all costs airport changes such as one between La Guardia and JFK. We never use charter flights. We only use scheduled flights on major carriers (such as British Airways and Qantas) and will even do our utmost to accommodate your preference for a particular routing or carrier.

HAVE YOUR TOUR DATES BEEN GUARANTEED?... Sadly, many educational tour operators reserve the right to change your tour dates up until 2 and 7 days before travel and, worse than that, will only give you the definitive tour dates around 3 weeks prior to departure! It is not difficult to imagine how disconcerting this can be for tour participants, students, parents, principals and school boards alike. There are even instances when the whole tour might be cancelled prior to departure because not enough other groups have signed up on your itinerary around your preferred dates!

With Casterbridge Tours, your dates will be unequivocally guaranteed at the time of booking, and you will not be subject to the worry or inconvenience of late surprises or inexplicable date changes and cancellations.

With our emphasis on the best routings and your tour dates and flight details confirmed at the time of booking, our flights service is quite simply unique and unequalled in the educational and cultural group travel industry.