<p>If you are flying your student to their colleges in the next few weeks how soon are you purchasing their tickets for future return?</p>
<pre><code> D2's outbound in August- for her return scheduled late the day her university academic calendar says final exams end.
But obviously I have to get her back to school in January for ? return over Spring Break??? All subject to change.
Wonder what has worked for other families?
</code></pre>
<p>Bought son's Fall Break ones, and his Christmas Break ones. Two sets of roundtrips. Christmas final day of finals and return day before class resume in Jan.</p>
<p>But we are driving him up initially.</p>
<p>DD flew out 2 weeks ago, one-way ticket. She is flying to a close friend's house for Thanksgiving, that will be a round-trip. Fly her home at Christmas roundtrip same as son. She will return to school before classes resume. Depends on spring break, what we'll purchase. </p>
<p>Ding! for Southwest runs on my laptop 24/7. Son is flying American, cheapest I could find and she flew out Delta, but will probably fly home Southwest.</p>
<p>I could be a travel agent for as many tickets as I buy and how much I spend on the internet looking for tickets!!</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>If I get a really good deal, I want to fly out to visit DD for the Balloon festival!</p>
<p>Katwkittens - are you talking about Abq??</p>
<p>I bought tickets to go back to school right when I got home for the summer. For Thanksgiving, I've been looking at tickets, but haven't bought them because I don't know when I'll be getting out (most professors cancel class on the day or two before Thanksgiving, but there's an off chance that there might be a might be a midterm then) and because they're really expensive right now. Last year I bought my Thanksgiving tickets in mid-September. When I started looking for tickets last week, the cheapest price was double what I paid last year. Between last week and today, the prices have already dropped $80.</p>
<p>As for Christmas, most people don't have finals until the very last day, but you won't find out your exact final days until you get your course syllabus, so I'll probably be booking my tickets sometime in September as well</p>
<p>Last year, I bought D's tix for arrival, Thanksgiving and Christmas in the early summer. We scheduled last day of finals. But some profs do computerized, timed tests that they can do in their rooms, etc., and some assigned a paper instead, etc., so D wound up having to stay on campus for 4 extra days when she could have been home. This year, we did RT to school, then return Thanksgiving, and we are done OW back from Thanksgiving. Then, we will book Christmas once we have a better idea of her exam schedule. We might have to pay a hundred more, but she will be home on her schedule.</p>
<p>We bought DD a one way ticket to get her to school (and it was not expensive). We have already purchased her round trip tickets for Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. I would suggest booking straight through the airline online.</p>
<p>
This is my fear. I guess I need to get over it.</p>
<p>we bought our to be freshman tickets to come home Thanksgiving as everyone in the whole country flies those same days. We are waiting to buy the winter ones until we know about her finals schedule. Hopefully we weren't wrong buying the Thanksgiving ones- we did it for Tuesday afternoon!</p>
<p>We have Thanksgiving ticket, but not Xmas. T-giving is SUCH a busy travel season. To get the right dates you have to book now. Be aware that, at least for us, the airlines may change the flight times between now and the trip, but it will at least be the same day! Last Xmas US Air literally changed my son's flights 13 times. Makes it a little hard to ensure they won't miss a class or two on departure day!</p>
<p>Bought ticket for fall as a one way ticket from CA to Boston cheap on Southwest. Son is not coming home for Thanksgiving. For Christmas right now I am using a complicated system which I don't necessarily recommend. I want to use mileage points so I am booking and holding flights from Boston to LA and back to Boston. So..I book a flight, hold it and it has be confirmed by 8/8, on 8/7 I go online, book another flight using mileage points that has to be confirmed by 8/16, let the first flight go and so on and so on...Until he gets to school first week and finalizes classes. Then we will know exact finals days and can confirm flights. It is a pain to remember when flights are about to be canceled by American's system but I find that it has become increasingly difficult to use mileage points and if I wait until Sept. when I know dates for sure I won't get the flights. ugh</p>
<p>are tough to formulate. 4 years ago we/son only knew when the school started and when the last day of spring semester finals. We purchased RT based on that information. As for XMAS and Spring breaks, we/he couldn't determine until he knew what the final schedules were. So for the first XMAS he discovered that his last final was the 2nd day of finals. He then scheduled his second RT from school to home in early Dec and return to school in mid Jan. He had a month at home. </p>
<p>His senior year he knew he a final on the last day for fall semester, because by that he already knew what the class schedule/professors by end of spring of his junior year. So a RT was made ASAP to accomodate August arrival and Dec leave. But by Thanksgiving, one of his profs said there would be no final only a project due on the last day of class. This left him with the only one final which occurred on the lastday of finals - a ten day gap. Rather than have him stay at school during those ten days to irritate his friends, sleep, eat, and spend money without motive, we told him to buy RT just to accommate that final; He arrive at school in late morning, took early afternoon final, and dinner at home. </p>
<p>In some instances he got a RT with the going confirmed and the return date unconfirmed. </p>
<p>Scheduling is tougher now because of the reduced number of flights and fewer frequent flyer tickets. Purchase as soon as you know and be prepared to accept night flights, long layovers, and odd routings. After a few trips, it was much easiler for him to make the trip arrangements- all we had to do is take him to the airport or pick him up.</p>
<p>I've been burned buying tickets early. Both of my boys went to schools about 7 hours away from home. Good airport access, however. Husband or I usually rent a car for one way and take the student and his stuff when school start. We return to the airport, and fly home. S2 is on a JetBlue line so the one ways are very reasonable. I will be paying about $90 for the rental car, and $78 for the one way home. We do the reverse at the end of the year.</p>
<p>Ticket for the kids during the year have caused us headaches. Thanksgiving is worst because everyone is trying to get somewhere in that small time span and there is not much leeway. My kids' schools lets out on Tuesday which is at least better than the day before Thanksgiving. Going back can be a nightmare. I usually book them Saturday night or the very first flight out Sunday.<br>
It's guess work with the calendar in hand. Classes let out early, kids find things they want or should do and they want to leave at a different time. It is a headache, and we have had to pay the $100 charge to change a ticket a number of times. Get your Tums and Advil out during those times, too because flights get cancelled, things happen. We were out on a lovely boat ride when we got calls from both of our sons who were not going to get back to college that night because of airline issues. Because kids don't have the experience dealing with these complications, it is highly likely that they are put on the bottom of any priority list unless they are proactive. I suggest budgeting $100 more per flight, in case changes have to be made. Also, as Weenie points out, flights are changed quite a bit between booking time and boarding time. Especially when you book early. I have stayed on top of the scheduling, and remind the kids of any changes. Usually there are so many things going on, last minute jobs that need to be done, and it can be a time of extreme stress for the kids. They could use a parent travel agent and personal secretary.</p>
<p>I must confess to acting as my son's personal travel agent. Since I'm paying for the ticket it seems like a good idea. I don't even tell him of the schedule until the last minute (because the airlines change it so often). </p>
<p>Many schools will have the final schedule available when the kids register for classes. Sometimes it's just a little code somewhere. Bug your kid to sleuth that out. Either that, or fly them out the very last day. </p>
<p>Good point from cptofthehouse about that Sunday after T-giving. You want to book your kid on the earliest flight possible. That way they have all day to make up for bad connections or whatever.</p>
<p>P.S. After US Air lost all my kid's clothes last Christmas (which were lost permanently) he got smart and only carries on a very SMALL amount of stuff now. Remind your child that they have spare clothes and toiletries at home, and a washing machine!</p>
<p>If you have frequent flyer miles, book as early as you can. They are quite cheap to change, sometimes free. We've always booked last day of finals, and our son has always been glad to have the time to get organized and clean up for the next semester. Once he called to change to two days earlier--the morning of the day he wanted to leave, and that was a free change.</p>
<p>Good point about flight changes. DD's flight home in December has already been changed once. HOWEVER I got on the phone to the airline and explained that she could NOT get to the airport at 4am for a 6 am flight because there was no public transport at that hour. They changed her flight to an 11 am flight...perfect. I suspect I'll be doing this at least one more time between now and December. My flight home in Sept has been changed four times since I booked it in May. I finally resolved THAT one with the airline directly this week. That is why I suggest you book online through the airline directly. Otherwise you are beholden to the automated phone systems of a third party vendor...and it gets complicated because THEY have to call the airline. I figure now...30 days out, I shouldn't have any more changes for September...I hope!!!</p>
<p>It all kind of depends on where the kid is. I've booked my daughter one-way on Jet Blue -- then for winter break I'll book a round trip home. </p>
<p>I'll start fare watching in October, but roundtrips are pretty flexible as long as I avoid the days that everyone flies. She's got a good friend she can stay with in NYC if there is an issue about dorm access over the break, so we've got some flexibility there. One year when my son was attending college in NY, he told me he wasn't coming home for spring break, but then decided to surprise me by booking a flight on his own at the last minute and showing up on the front doorstep. I wasn't really all that surprised to see him, but I was surprised to learn that his fare was even cheaper than what I could have booked in advance -- basically there between major cities with many flights, there are usually plenty of good last minute deals -- so you can afford to wait. The best thing to do is to fare watch over time so that you know what is reasonable, and then once dates are firm, grab what you can at that rate. So, for example, I know that I ought to be able to get round trip fare to NY for around $350 -- anything under $200 is a good deal, more than $375 or so, I should keep shopping.</p>
<p>Frosh D flew up one-way, then she had round trips for Xmas and spring break (didn't even try T'giving, too complicated). Trip home was a round trip with the return in this Sept. Last year I made her reservations way too early, so this year I will try to wait until she has attended all her classes before I do Xmas flights - this is hard because it will be about Sept 23 before I can make the flights.</p>
<p>She is just about ready to do her own arrangements, I'm trying to teach her all the tricks I've learned. We don't live close to a major airport, and neither is her school, so the arrangements can get complicated.
For T'giving this year, I may try to surprise her with a trip to the grands' house - how late do you think I can wait to make plans for Boston to Atlanta???</p>
<p>Depends on how much you want to pay Cangel!</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Late for me in this case would be Sept 1 ;)!</p>
<p>We made plans for Disney World over Thanksgiving, a few years ago, and I made all of the arrangements waaaay ahead of time. I did get very cheap tickets, arriving Tuesday night and leaving Sunday morning. Then one of my kids could not leave Tuesday night, and my husband decided to also stay and to fly with him. I was informed all of this at the last minute, so I was trying to book two tickets for the Wednesday before T-giving about a week before. Anything I saved on the tickets for the whole family went up in smoke to get them there that day.</p>