Visa problems

[Ruth Suehle]

Hi, all. It's too late to solve this for this year, but I'm hoping to
crowdsource some answers for next year.

We have booked flights for people based on the itineraries they requested,
in some cases on the assumption that they knew better than we did how best
to get to Prague from their own countries and deal with getting visas.

Because some countries require you to (or at least strongly suggest that
you do) have a flight before you request a visa, we are now quite over
budget for travel due to denied and delayed visas requiring us to rebook
flights on different itineraries. It's not only India, although because we
have many contributors who want to attend Flock from India, it's the
primary problem country in this situation.

As those of us doing the flight bookings are American and rarely need visas
where we travel, this is unfamiliar territory. Can those of you who deal
with visa problems make any suggestions about how to avoid this next year?
Or is it simply unavoidable, and we need to budget in the equivalent of
several extra people's flights for these rebookings?

Thanks!
Ruth