FLIGHTS

Flights are an important part of your mission trip when you're traveling to another country! Our general policy is that Global Encounters will book all team members' flights and, if you are raising support, donations can apply to the cost of the tickets. We work hard to find tickets that are a good balance of price and schedule and will also do our best to help you with any travel difficulties along the way. Here are the exceptions to the general rule:

Global Encounters will book all team members' flights with the following exceptions:

  • Airline employees/family of airline employees - if this is you and you can get a great deal on your tickets, go for it! Just keep in mind that since we can't access anything about your ticket, if you run into any problems, you will need to solve them yourself. We won't be able to help much.

  • Extra travel before or after the mission trip - we can still book these tickets for you if it just needs simple adjustments, like going early or staying late. If you are planning a multi-country itinerary, though, you will need to book your own tickets.

  • Frequent flyer miles award tickets - if you have enough miles to book a free international trip, that's awesome, but since this would be through your account, you will need to book the tickets yourself. (Note: you can still earn frequent flyer miles on the flights Global Encounters books for you.)

If you book your own travel, the following policies apply:

  • Confirm all schedules with the office BEFORE booking your tickets.

  • If we need to schedule extra transportation to pick you up from the airport or drop you off for your flights, we can make the arrangements, but you will need to reimburse Global Encounters for the cost. We won't charge for this if we can pick you up and drop you off at the same time as other team members.

  • We STRONGLY encourage booking directly through the airline and NOT through a consolidator website such as Orbitz or Expedia. Problems are much easier to resolve when working with the airline.

  • If you need Global Encounters' staff to work on corrections, cancellations, schedule changes, refunds, etc. we will charge $20/hr for the service. Just a note: some of the flight problems we have corrected over the past several years have required over six hours of staff time per ticket. We do not charge for this service if we booked the tickets.