In our instance the boat only wanted to deal directly with one individual who had taken the group leader position, and only wanted one check from the group. Just like Cornfed stated.
Discovery "was" taking individual bookings for these charters. I booked on that trip directly with Discovery, not thru Dale. Dale did not book the whole boat, he was booking spaces as he got the money according to my contact at the shop. If you recall the thread on NCWD about this trip, Dale got extremely po'ed when I booked directly with the shop. After his terse post not to book with the shop, I PM'ed Dale and JasonB about the attitude. Dale did not respond, but Jason did promptly with a friendly, dont worry attitude. I can only guess he was mad because I was foiling his evil plot if it was a blow. I figured why should he have an attitude if he didnt book the whole boat as anyone could call the shop and get on the boat.
The reason I booked with the shop was I did not trust Dale since I did not know him, mainly it was because of his ripping off Paul Hudy's copyrighted material. I emailed and PM'ed him and of course he did not reply. I also Pm'ed the powers that be here at SB and questioned how he couild be a web master here when he was blatently ripping off others material. I figured if he could not even answer PM's and email about this issue and PM's about the trip then I sure would not trust him with my money.
Mike
