Fall Break Airport Transportation

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of South Carolina
1

<p>So our freshman son, after 2 weeks away, has told us he wants to come home for Fall break (not in the original plan). We have agreed, but are now dealing with how to get him home to NJ. Best flights are from Charlotte, but how does he get from USC to Charlotte airport? He doesn't have a car, and doesn't know anyone well enough to ask them to drive him 1.5 hours to get there early on a Thursday mroning. Any experience with buses? or other ideas?</p>

<p>Thanks. You have all been so helpful so far.</p>

2

<p>as far as I know there's no scheduled way to get to the Charlotte airport from Columbia.People have discussed this before in a thread here .Does your Son know that the dorms don't close for the break?That many people stay around, or come and go for one night out of the three?When you think of it its really only thursday and friday and a weekend.
Are you concerned at all about why he said he wants to come home?</p>

3

<p>My daughter decided to come home for Fall break last year as well. She was having a bit of homesickness and just felt she needed to come home. I enjoyed having her and it semed to help.
My daughter has not driven to Charlotte yet, so I am not of any help there. She will be flying out of there at Fall Break as well, but she is leaving before Thursday.
Perhaps there is a carpooling board? I would think that there will be some other OOS students going home that could help.
If you haven't yet purchased the tickets, maybe it would be worth the extra expense to use Columbia? It should be very easy to get a ride there.
I know the flights aren't always the greatest though.</p>

4

<p>My advice is to fly, or just get to know people heading to Charlotte very well. A lot of people at USC are from Charlotte, I'm sure there are some in his dorm who could help him out.</p>

<p>Greyhound could be an option.</p>

5

<p>Have him use Facebook to get in touch with others living in his dorm from the charlotte area.</p>

<p>My daughter came home this past weekend for Labor Day. True we live in columbia but it was still nice to have her home before November or December. Sometimes living on one's own in a dorm can be tiring and not what a student expected. </p>

<p>I think some students need to go back home sooner than December if only to get some moral support from their parents, plus a home cooked meal. It depends on the child of course.</p>

6

<p>Hi, We are from New Jersey as well. "Cancob", we were - or I should say "I" was very against her coming home for Fall Break. At any rate, I lost the battle. (Not happy) - Is there an area in Russell that your son can do a posting looking for a ride to Charlotte? If so, he could do one of those "cut" tags on the bottom with his phone or email - he may get a response from that. Also, can you post papers at the Stron also? That might be another good place to post. If for any reason you were to change his flight to Columbia (not suggesting, just offering, I think it is only a $20 cab ride. I know my D was saying she wanted to find some other kids that were leaving on Thursday AM (most of her friends are leaving on Wednesday) to share a cab. - Just a thought - we have come to the decision that we will weigh the differences between time, parking fee at the airport with the difference of cost of flights from Columbia and Charlotte. We would rather travel a little further to get her on this end than have her have to deal with the costs and time to travel to other airports on her end. Again, just a thought.</p>

<p>Back to the subject at hand. My D is flying from Columbia this time. Looking forward, she will also be flying home from Columbia for Thanksgiving....have you looked into booking that yet? We were not able to get a good fare for flights into Newark for Thanksgiving, so she will be flying into Philadelphia for that trip....</p>

<p>The reason I am sharing that info with you is my D mentioned that she had been speaking with a boy from NJ, maybe your son?, that had gotten a better rate from Charlotte for fall break. (She wanted to know if there was a penalty, which there obviously is, to change to Charlotte - maybe this was your son...he was asking about rides) - If you want to pm me his cell # maybe be could share rides or cabs to airport for future. My D has a car on campus. She wll be driving home and back to school for winter break. I know that there is another girl driving back with her, but she may have room for another if your son wants.</p>

<p>"PA" mom, I might have been "had". My D and I had quite a few words about fall break....she told me EVERYBODY she knew from New Jersey, New York and PA was coming home, and that most of her friends were from there and that she was coming home regardless - needlesstosay, she is paying for her $400. ticket with her own money from work, which I am still not happy about. She has a BF here, and I think that is the real reason - it is not us! I did think it was a little silly that USC has family weekend the very next weekend! However, after bringing that up my DD told me that she did not miss us, and that we did not need to come if we did not want to....made us feel "so loved!"</p>

<p>Since we have hotel reservations already, and have already purchased football tickets and paid the registration from the weekend, we have decided that we will still come to Columbia to see her....we do miss seeing her!</p>

<p>Question: Is family weekend always the week following fall break? Just want to get a "heads up" for next year. I think that it is rather poor planning on USC's part though.</p>

<p>Well I have rambled enough! Have a nice day everyone!</p>

7

<p>cece
Fall weekend last year was a month earlier! We decided not to go for obvious reasons, it felt like we had literally just dropped him off.
Don't want to rub salt in the wound but she prob wants to come home for the boyfriend not you especialy with her comments about not missing you....</p>

8

<p>No salt to the wound from you! Already got it from her! Absolutely know it is about the boyfriend....that is why she is paying for her own ticket! Let's just say that this is an "unsanctioned" trip!</p>

<p>Glad to hear that parents' weekend does not necessarily always follow fall weekend! I will definitely check next year before I book though!</p>

9

<p>My daughter is from Phila area and will be flying home for fall break Wed. evening (from Columbia) and flying back to USC on a 6am flight Monday morning. She will have a car down there as of 9/14, but doubt that she could assist your son considering he would fly out of Charlotte. Columbia to Phl was actually CHEAPER than Charlotte to Phila!! Not the same for her roommate from Maryland, however. She may be driving home for other breaks, though. Send me a PM if you'd like your son to be in touch with my daughter about sharing rides.</p>

10

<p>We have decided that instead of D coming home for fall break, Mom is going to take a little trip to the Bahamas, and I'll fly her there. She'll be leaving from Charlotte either Wednesday night or Thursday morning, so if you PM me your sons email or cell phone number, I can have her call him as soon as we finalize our flights. I told D to invite a friends, and they would just have to pay for their plane ticket, but so far everyone she has asked does not have the necessary passport.</p>

11

<p>Thanks for all the advice.
We suggested ds do the Facebook soliciting of a ride. He said he did, but has had no responses.
In the meantime, I discovered that Columbia to Philadelphia is cheaper, so we will probably go that route. We live 90 minutes from Phil, so will arrange to pick him up there.
He will need to find a ride to columbia airport or pay for a cab.
Cece1955, I will pm you with his cell about possible rides. Thanks.
We hope that as he meets more people he will take the initiative to set up his own rides, but this is his first time away, so I am hovering a little.
We are also coming for Parents Weekend, so maybe we will all meet!</p>

<p>You guys have been great.Thanks so much.</p>

12

<p>cancob
Your S should put notices up on his dorms bulletin boards for rides and also the boards in the Russell House. Last year, with all of S's flights home he never had to take a cab.
I just arranged S's Thanksgiving flights to Kennedy (Jet Blue) from Charlotte. He's driving there Tues evening,arriving back Sunday late morning.PM me if you want more info.</p>

13

<p>Cancob, my daughter will be leaving campus for fall break around 4pm on Wednesday to catch a 6pm flight from Columbia airport. She's in Columbia Hall. Does this mesh with your son's schedule? If so, I know she'd be more than happy to give him a ride to the airport.</p>

14

<p>Very Important!</p>

<p>A few days ago I received notice that the flight that my DD was booked on from Phil back to CAE from Thanksgiving break was CANCELLED! US air automatically put her on a flight that was stopping in Washington and then going to CAE. 4 1/2 hours in the air! I think her flight was originally scheduled about 10 AM ish. </p>

<p>I called US Air, they told me there were no seats on the 3:30PM direct flight to CAE. I informed them that I was on their website and that it showed seats. Needless to say, they did not want to put her on the direct flight because rates were higher now then what I originally paid. Bottom line I was rather forceful and she is now on that flight.</p>

<p>If your son or daughter is scheduled to fly from Philly, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, on US Air on the morning flight make sure that you address this.</p>

15

<p>Good job being assertive with them cece! I have had similar problems this past year with flights. We had a non-stop from San Diego to Phila and they switched us to one with a stop and terrible times. I also fought to get put back on a non-stop and was able to get it - after all I paid more for the non-stop flight originally!
Last week I found out that they had switched my daughter's flight for another trip and her connecting flights did not match ( she was scheduled to get in after the next flight was scheduled to leave!) If I hadn't just randomly checked the flight for my calendar we would not have known. I had to call them to have it corrected or she would have been really SOL. It was a case of frequent flyer miles and different airlines not communicating.
Air travel can be stressful!
For future reference - I had to take the connecting flight from CAE through DC ( Dulles) this past weekend and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. They have a Five Guys in the terminal so at least I got a good burger out of it. LOL</p>

16

<p>We live outside of Phila and my D attended in 2005. We also didn't plan for her to come home over break (we ended up using a frequent flier ticket), but I do really think that most students leave campus. Remember that the vast majority are from SC and surrounding states. The school can be overwhelming and your kids might need a break so I wouldn't fight this one. My D transferred out after freshman year - I posted separately on this - 3 of 4 students from her HS transferred out within or after the 1st year..</p>

17

<p>We're from Greenville, but have been up to visit S twice on weekends --just to go out for Sat. lunch, etc. I was surprised to see that many of the students had gone home for the weekend. Many of the campus dining sites were even closed on Saturday. One of our visits was on the day of a home football game . While we saw more campus activitiy that day, if you're not a football fan (S is not) then you can still feel pretty isolated. S has joined a couple of organizations and made friends in classes and on the hall,but his roommate goes home every weekend, and that can leave a student feeling somewhat isolated. I'm sure a good dose of family and "home cooking" over fall break would be a real encouragement to any student.</p>