<p>We’ve faced it with our DS, also our first to go away to school. It can be scary for a parent at first, but on the bright side I will say it helps them grow up and be more independent as they handle these situations. Cellphones allow you to help and monitor situations, which helps ease the worry. Watching my son navigate these issues makes it easier for me to know he will be able to handle travel issues for a semester abroad next year.</p>
<p>My kids always seem to come up with some nasty problem with some unusual twists in them. I hate having t deal with the airlines. My rising college freshman will be going to a school 7 hours away and I am probably going to rent a car/van one way, drive him there and do a one way return via plane. Hopefully he’ll get rides home with others from area colleges and there is Megabus, Greyhound, Amtrak and also the university has buses coming this way during school breaks. I have friends in that city too, and might just fly there on some breaks and rent a one way for son and me to drive home. That way I can deal with the airline myself. I’ve found that they do not treat the kids as well as seasoned adults. What they did to my son this month was shameful and as a result, I’m in no big hurry to reimburse them for the undeserved reimbursement they gave me. Serves them right to be out the money.</p>
<p>DD2 goes to school in Portland. The last trip home her flight was canceled. When she called me on her cell phone I directed her to the airline customer service counter for rebooking (the idea of NOT having the last flight home is good). She handled it well and now knows what to do.</p>
<p>Portland’s airport is “sick”!</p>
<p>The United Rule about the Credit Card has caused my son trouble twice. He flies out of Chicago into either Newark or Phili. On two occasions when coming home, they wouldn’t let him in. The first time he called and I almost had to get on the phone with the attendant but my son was smart enough to ask to speak to a supervisor and the supervisor had to put in an override code or something like that. So the next time it happened, my son says - don’t you just have to override the system - I’ve been thru this before. And the attendant did it after asking another attendant about it.</p>
<p>I always do worry though if you get a stickler for the “rules”, they may not let him on.</p>
<p>The only advice I can offer is that when we moved him in, we didn’t drive out, we packed 6 suitcases and went southwest. I used those space bags and sucked the air out of everything. You’d be amazed what can fit into 6 suitcases - an entire dorm room.</p>
<p>Then this year - he had a few things that he left with my cousin and came home with two suitcases (on southwest) and when he went back to school in Sept - he went back with two suitcases (on southwest again).</p>
<p>I then just UPS boxes out to him whenever he needs something.</p>
<p>Whenever he travels home for Thanksgiving, Winter, Spring Breaks - it’s only a carry on and then he flies the cheapest flight I can get.</p>
<p>And if you get him a credit card - you might as well get him one that offers free miles to begin with - like 20,000 - 30,000 free miles. That’s a free or cheaper flight right there.</p>
<p>With regard to the credit card thing, we’ve been told you have to have it at check in, but not for the return trip. Haven’t tested that.</p>
<p>This thread is a reminder to me of how spoiled rotten we are in Chicago. Between our two airports, we have nonstop flights to virtually everywhere, including small airports like Hartford (for my Wesleyan sister) and Providence (for my Brown sister). Next week, my mother and I are going to Palm Springs via Denver because that’s what was left, and it feels absolutely bizarre to me to have two flights on an outbound leg.</p>
<p>Gotta laugh (or cry). As I sit here reading this thread I get a text from S1 telling me he has arrived at the airport. I put on my super mommy cap and log onto Flight Aware. Crap!!! Not only is he on the last flight of the day, but the website tells me that the inbound flight has not yet left. First thing I do is text S1 and tell him to nab an outlet so his phone and laptop are charged. Then I creatively ask him if the dorms are shut down over Easter. I pop onto the Delta site and see there are still seats for the morning flights. Okay good…we have a back up plan. Another text from S1 - wifi at airport is not free, can I buy an hour? Sure… I hop over to the Greyhound website. Yup, he can take an overnight bus. Back I go to Flight Aware. Incoming plane has taken off. Back up plans are in place, but hopefully not needed. Whew! :p</p>
<p>(Had I simply not checked, all would have been fine and I could have avoided my whirlwind tour through the transportation world)</p>
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<p>It has caused D2 problems before, too. I can’t remember where she was coming from, or where she was going, but I got a panicked phone call saying the airline wouldn’t check her in because the ID didn’t match the credit card. What the agent did offer was to refund the ticket to my account, then charge her credit card right there, for the exact same amount. Sounds really, really stupid to me. I wonder how many customers United has lost over this one. Lots and lots of parents charge their kids flights to the parents credit cards. I haven’t heard of another airline doing it.</p>
<p>Not just a problem for kids. H bought family tickets; we came back separately.</p>
<p>
I used my credit card to buy air tickets a lot of times for my kids and they did not have any problem. I always printed out the email confirmations that had my name and the passenger names for them to carry.</p>
<p>^In the last year?</p>
<p>^^ Not in the last year with United. Sorry I don’t know United specific rules.
AA, Southwest, JetBlue, US Airways are the ones I usually use.</p>
<p>Caught us by surprise last Thanskgiving. I was hoping your solution might work!</p>
<p>My best advice is that your student will be travelling long distances to college, see how many more miles they have to fly before they get elite status. This only works if you choose the same airline or its codeshare partners each time. Since I’m flying the 2000+ miles between my home and my school multiple times a year, it is well worth earning elite status as the benefits make my life easier when things go right and even better when things go wrong.</p>
<p>Case in point: I’m at a small airport and my flight is delayed and will eventually be cancelled. Rather than wait in line 2 hours for an agent, I call the elite phone line, where an agent picks up almost instantly (no 20 minute wait or disconnection due to high call volume), asks me what flight(s) I’d like to be put on, and then assigns me my preferred seat and checks to see if my first class upgrade is going to clear. A few days later, I get a personal apology from the airline because they had closed the elite check-in line in order to accommodate passengers from the delayed flights.</p>
<p>Regardless of one’s airline status or non-status, I join the others in suggesting that:
- The airline ticket is purchased with a credit card that has the student’s name on it
- Sign up for flight alerts via text message
- Program the airline’s 1-800 number into their phone
- Always pack some food, cash, and a credit/debit card, along with a cell phone charger
- Know alternate flights or look them up online while at the airport
- Be nice to the airline employees. They are working hard to help accommodate everyone. Sometimes, they might even pull some strings like giving you a first class upgrade and a nicer hotel room (happened to me before I became an elite passenger.)
- If the delay or cancellation is the airline’s fault (mechanical problems, no crew, no plane), kindly mention Rule 240. While the name of the rule has changed since the airlines were deregulated in 1978, most airlines (not Southwest) still have it and airline employees know it by heart. It requires them to place you on whichever airline’s flight(s)
will get you to your destination the quickest, provided those flights have an available seat. - Remain calm. Everyone will get to their destination. If a flight delay or cancellation makes your trip worthless ie you miss an important meeting at your destination, tell the airline that you now have a “trip in vain” and they will refund your money and get you back to your departing airport, if required.</p>
<p>Oddly enough, I was flying during all the snow storms in January and many airports throughout the southeastern US were closed. Originally not wanting to inconvenience the people I was visiting by making them drive 90 minutes each way to a larger airport, I booked a ticket out of the nearby airport that had 4 connections (I left late in the afternoon rather than at midnight, but arrived at the same time). To make a long story short, both flights on the easy 1 connection route from the larger airport were cancelled and I would likely have had to wait for 2-3 days for a flight. Lucky for me, my first 4 flights were on time and my 5th flight was only 30 minutes late. My “crazy” itinerary ended up being a very good choice.</p>
<p>When we lived in China and my daughter was flying home from college for the summer she had the great idea to stay up all night since she had to leave for the airport at 4am. She fell asleep at 330 and slept right through the phone alarm and the taxi driver calling her. She woke up and tried to get to the airport but missed the flight. At the check-in they talked her into booking a later flight at a cost of “only $700” which she thought was ok - she forgot that we had already paid $1400 for the flight! My husband called and straighted it all out - she just went home and flew the next day but she ended up with bank fees on her account because the $700 went out for 7 days before it was credited back.<br>
SO-
- not a good idea to stay up all night before an early morning flight
- dont let the desk staff pressure you into paying more money
- CALL DAD if there is a problem
- charges on debit cards are not automatically credited back</p>
<p>I probably shouldn’t have read this thread! Now, I’m a nervous wreck about what could happen as my daughter flies to/from school! My husband and I rarely fly and prior to my daughter’s trip this past fall, she had never been on a plane. When I called the airline to see if my husband could accompany her to the gate, the operator asked sweetly, "oh, how old is your daughter? Ummm, 18!? I was a little embarrassed 
This operator said yes, but the person at the airport initially said no. Then, as my daughter was getting her driver’s license out, she was shaking so badly, that they relented! After that, she managed fine. She had no trouble getting the bus from the airport to school. Now, it’s my turn (haven’t flown in many years). I wonder if they’ll let my husband go with me to the gate… :)</p>
<p>^Awwwwwww…</p>
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<p>Sorry, I want the credit card points. I don’t want to give them to my kid who will take ten years to earn enough points to be worth something, when I can do it in 1-2 years. I think anyone should be able to purchase a ticket for someone else, as long as the ticketed passenger has correct ID.</p>
<p>You can get the credit card request pop up for either part of the flight. Not a problem when going back since I can accompany him but coming here it is a problem. And this is a new problem that cropped up this year with United. The customer service reps are all in India when you call, and they don’t have a clue of what the story is. Yes, we had it reversed once, then this time we could not. We had to cancel and then rebuy the ticket which put a double charge on the credit cards and it takes a week to reimburse. Their records were so messed up this time with all of the changes that I don’t think they even knew what flights he took. They tried to tell him that he bought another ticket if he was here since he was not on any flight here.</p>
<p>I hate, hate, hate dealing with the airlines.</p>