One of D’s favorite schools has offered to pay for her flight to visit them. We live on the west coast, this school is in the midwest. Some of her other candidates are on the east coast, she will need to visit them before she decides. Can she accept school A’s offer for a ticket to Chicago but leave a week between arrival and departure and then book a ticket from Chicago to NY (or whatever) in the interim? (It may actually be cheaper to book to the east coast through Chicago, but I don’t know if there is a way to break up the flight to take advantage of that–not a big traveler.) School says we need to send them the receipt - they will reimburse for the flight. TIA!
I would check with the school.
We will, but I just wanted to see if this is a thing that people often do/have done. If schools expect it, I will feel less awkward in bringing it up.
I would tell if you it worked for us, but, I’m embarrassed to say, I can’t remember if we ended up asking any schools to cover airfare for a trip that included visits to other schools. I certainly understand why you’re interested in doing so.
If they are willing to pay for a round trip, which I assume they are, it should not matter that the legs of the trip are a week apart. But for the sake of being scrupulously transparent, I would tell the school of your proposed plan and ask if they object.
We did a slight modification of my son’s flight. We live in the west coast and was flying to a university on the east coast to go to their university scholars weekend (he’s there right now, in fact.)
They wanted to book him on a red eye flight that had a layover in another city. There is one direct flight a day from our city to the city where the university is - and it meant that he would not have a place to stay on campus the day he arrived.
We’d made arrangements for him to stay at a friend’s house. The university wanted the name and address for the person that was keeping him overnight. I think their point of view is that they were paying for ticket and felt responsible for him while he was there. Once we provided them with the details of his extra day, they were willing to book the flight we wanted. We also had to pay the slight difference between the two ticket options, since one was within the university’s budget and one wasn’t.
So I’d say it doesn’t hurt to ask but don’t be surprised if they are a bit reluctant at first. I volleyed back and forth via email about 8 times, working out the details. Of course we were only asking for an extra day…!
Also, after we booked his flight, he narrowed down his final list of options to two schools. We briefly discussed having him not take the return flight home and instead fly to another state but decided the logistics were too much of a pain. So lucky him- he gets back late Monday then flies out early Wednesday for another school visit a few states away from where he is now. We made sure to sign him up for frequent flier miles.
Honestly, I don’t think you’ll save much by having the school pay for her ticket from home to Chicago, then you pay for ticket from Chicago to second school and back to Chicago, and then the school from Chicago to home. Most tickets cost the same from, for example, LA to Chicago as from LA to NYC or Chicago to NYC, so you are going to pay for one round trip ticket anyway. Now, she would save time if it is more convenient to go from Chicago on to NYC or Boston or wherever she’s head, but not much in money.
Another thing you need to be concerned about is connections. If she’s taking a plane back to Chicago to connect with the original ticket to home, and the second ticket is not linked to the first ticket, and if a connection is missed, the airline isn’t responsible for the missed connection. Most will help rebook the second ticket, but not all.
I’d ask the school if it’s okay. They may agree to pay for the ticket to Chicago. You could book a 3 leg ticket Home-Chicago-NYC-Home. That’s what I’d do.
I agree about the relative prices (I’ve seen r/t to Boston cheaper than Chicago. ) In this case, I may ask them to cover her flight home from Chicago, which would help, given that we can’t just do one round trip. Part of the problem is that I have to go too, given the east coast itinerary.