<p>S and D are both far away at schools. S came home one Thanksgiving because he had the week off and wasn't coming home for Xmas holiday, but otherwise he found other things going on during that time. The last two years he and friends cooked their own Thanksgiving dinner together, even accommodating the vegetarians in the crowd. D found friends nearby (and got her dog fix as a bonus!). That left H and me alone over the holiday. We took the dog and went camping. Spring break has never been a come home issue - always felt it was a time they should go somewhere with their friends. S hasn't been home one summer yet (graduated this past spring) and D is saying she will probably stay around her school next summer as well. Many of her friends who went elsewhere for school are saying the same.</p>
<p>S is on a non-stop Southwest route...r/t ticket in April was $136. DH is driving him out in September with all his stuff, and the plan is to find storage on campus or go in with dormmates on a storage cube nearby for over the summer.</p>
<p>We rack up a lot of frequent flyer miles (via credit card and DH's frequent work travel), so those have come in very handy for the college search process. Holiday travel, though, is expensive any way one looks at it.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd allocated $1200 for travel expenses for us (on the opposite coast). MIT said $400. Both of those figures are about right for us. Chicago allowed nothing.</p>
<p>My D went to school in Vermont and we live in PNW. Hard to count up how many flight were cancelled/changed/delayed. The worst was the 36 hours flight back to school spring break. Took many hours on the phone and an overnight alone in Chicago by her lonesome 19/20 year old self.
We also nearly missed her graduation due to weather and transfers. I begged, had a tear run down my cheek...and we got there in the end but what stress. And we really did almost miss it.
Our S has a direct flight only rule for his college search. NO transfers. It is too hard.</p>