<p>What airlines/methods have worked well for other abroad students? </p>
<p>We need to purchase tickets very soon for DS's spring abroad in Singapore (NUS). He needs to be there Jan 8th or 9th. His May return plans are TBD. It seems that one-way would be allowed. But it's pricey. We are considering United RT, but their rebook fee is $300 in the likely event that he travels after finals.</p>
<p>Posting in order to subscribe to thread. Don’t mind me. :)</p>
<p>I’ll be leaving for two semester abroad trip within the next 6 months and then another in a year. Am in great need for these hints.</p>
<p>I ended up going through a travel agent because the return home for my daughter who is in Europe this fall had to be ‘flexible’ since academic schedules weren’t set until after she arrived/attended orientation there, and I found out through the agent that people don’t really buy a one-way and then hunt for the return home flight. If she had to change the return date, there would be a fee, but at least she had tickets going each direction. </p>
<p>Also, my kid didn’t want to switch planes a bunch of times for fear of losing her luggage (which has happened to both of us in different occasions, including once when she returned from Europe with family). Thus, since I knew she wanted non-stop so there wouldn’t be much cheap stuff around, I just went with the agent. </p>
<p>One idea is for you to check with the program your DS is attending. I know that my daughter’s program did recommend/list a couple of discount student travel sites to check on for tickets in the orientation/travel information they sent out.</p>
<p>Good luck. I agree that it can be overwhelming to hunt for tickets at all the sites and figure out which deals are best, etcetera. And…it’s not cheap, is it? :)</p>
<p>A one way can work, if you are willing to take the chance on the price for the return – although it is not much of a risk. For international flights we have had good luck using Student Universe, better than for domestic flights actually.</p>
<p>Most countries want to see a round trip ticket for students doing an abroad. I’ve been watching the ticket prices ever since my son applied for his abroad and finally jumped in them last week. For my older son, we got them through STA travel <a href=“http://www.statravel.com/home[/url]”>http://www.statravel.com/home</a> mostly for the more lenient ticket change options.</p>
<p>Thanks for the hints. For others looking, I also started a Parent Cafe thread referencing this one <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1582771-hints-airline-tickets-semester-abroad.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1582771-hints-airline-tickets-semester-abroad.html</a></p>
<p>We decided to do United round trip ticket. STA seemed to imply airline fees on top of their low rebook fee. We will likely need to change return ticket ($300 fee), but it can be from a different airport. It would still be less than two one-ways.</p>
<p>Some airlines offer flights with flexible return dates (up to a year from initial departure date). I know Lufthansa offers a ticket where the return date is flexible. It’s more expensive to purchase in the first place, but you get one free or really cheap change of the return date built in. Might be worth checking to see if other airlines have something similar.</p>
<p>I was able to buy a ticket for my grandma that offered an open return date and a solid departure date. She went to Hong Kong and went through Korean Airlines, for reference. I’m not sure if they go to Singapore. It was a little more pricey by about $50ish.</p>
<p>I also always buy around Tuesday and Wednesday morning at 3-4am (I check both PST and EST) because it seems ticket prices are the lowest at this time.</p>