<p>Southwest just today opened its bookings through Jan 4, 2015. Classes re-start on Jan 7, 2015.
Here are links to the Fall 2014 and Spring 2015 academic calendars:
<a href=“http://registrar.ua.edu/academics/academic-calendars/fall-2014-academic-calendar/#tab=tab-1”>http://registrar.ua.edu/academics/academic-calendars/fall-2014-academic-calendar/#tab=tab-1</a>
<a href=“http://registrar.ua.edu/academics/academic-calendars/spring-2015-academic-calendar/#tab=tab-1”>http://registrar.ua.edu/academics/academic-calendars/spring-2015-academic-calendar/#tab=tab-1</a>
Oh, and this might help you too! Finals schedule for Fall 2014: <a href=“http://registrar.ua.edu/academics/final-exam-schedules/fall-2014-final-exam-schedule/”>http://registrar.ua.edu/academics/final-exam-schedules/fall-2014-final-exam-schedule/</a></p>
<p>Thank you!!! Just booked the flight home with points! Roll Tide!</p>
<p>Just curious what dates you selected for the breaks. My daughter will be a sophomore and I remember in freshman year nothing important went on the days prior to the fall and thanksgiving breaks. She could have come home a lot earlier those weeks. This year she will have a Monday night lab and I don’t want to mess anything up by bringing her home earlier.</p>
<p>My post was geared more towards those looking to make Winter holiday bookings. My S has his last final on T night of finals week, so he is flying home the W before Winter Break officially starts. He got lucky in that regard. We flew him home for Fall break last year, but being only a few days, not much was accomplished at home, and he was itching to get back, quite honestly. This past T’giving, we actually flew down to see him instead, which was a nice twist on the event. As the years go by, sadly, they want/need to come home less and less…</p>
<p>Regarding what you will miss if you take off early for breaks…I can recommend the student email the professor ahead of time to get the syllabus or to chat about what you might miss IF you were to take off early. You are not asking for permission, per se, but you might get a feeling out the profs of how lenient they are about a missed class during a break week, before you actually commit to a flight booking. My S did tell me that if a section of a class meets 1x per week, on a Monday, the entire schedule does seem to take into account the many M holidays there are - he always wanted a M lab class for that reason. That’s his theory - don’t know if it is true in reality. </p>
<p>Well, I don’t know how each professor will feel and you would need to check with each one, but I don’t think it sends the right professional message to the professors to do so. Sure as parents, you would like your students home earlier but they have a job to educate themselves. Some professors use class participation and class attendance as part of the grading package, why risk a slightly lower grade by missing classes? </p>
<p>You also want your students to participate in activities and clubs which may keep them busy past the normal class schedule.</p>
<p>In my opinion, you should let them finish out their academic week, and then fly them home. However, bear in mind that by the time school breaks roll around, they may not Want to come home simply because of other time commitments. Give them a chance to settle in and see how things are going before scheduling flights. After a while, ask them what they would like to do. Not every student will need to come home for every break. After all, most students need this time to establish their independence.</p>
<p>I am not advocating that students miss classes by leaving early for breaks.</p>
<p>^^^I didn’t think you were, I was just giving a heads up to parents.</p>
<p>In general I have found that it is no problem for my daughter to miss certain classes and the professors are very understanding. </p>
<p>I am not saying that it is a problem. I just think that for some students, especially the STEM students that classes should not be missed. Again my opinion based on personal experience and observations.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. I just got an email from Southwest tonight, too. Looking at the calendar, I guess I did not realize that the Thanksgiving break and end of Winter break were so close. I know, it is obvious, but with all the application, etc, I just did not think it through yet. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I cannot imagine not having my son home, especially this first year, but to fly home for three or four days, and then return to classes and finals, and then fly out again around December 13, is a lot of flying 
Do a lot of out of staters (particularly freshman) fly home for both Thanksgiving and Winter Break? Anyway, thanks for the Southwest link. I better make a decision quickly before they sell out :)</p>
<p>My son is an incoming Freshman from Delaware. He has already stated he is not coming home for Thanksgiving because he wants to go to the Iron Bowl on Thanksgiving Saturday vs Auburn. We are flying him home for Fall break in late October instead. That breaks up the semester a little better anyway rather than him traveling twice within a two week period.</p>
<p>2 years ago when my son was a UA freshman, Fall Break was much earlier (I think October 2nd). As he was a freshman I figured he would come home for Fall Break and Thanksgiving (although we ended up going out there for Fall Break). Last year since Fall Break was so close to Thanksgiving, I gave him a choice. Since winter break was 2 weeks after Thanksgiving, it just made sense for him to stay for Thanksgiving. He was miserable, but basically because the Iron Bowl was at Auburn and the campus was pretty empty (and I think he missed the activities at home.) This year I just gave him the choice again and he said he will again come home for Fall Break and stay for Thanksgiving, basically because this will be his one and only Iron Bowl at UA. Because its at Alabama, there shoudl be plenty of kids on campus, and they probably will have a Thanksgiving dinner at the Ferg like they did 2 years ago. Now my soon-to-be freshman will be staying too…I am just hoping that I can get him that B package so he can go to the Iron Bowl game too!</p>
<p>It’s not really a matter of a student being able to handle flying home twice in a two week span as people do that all the time; it’s a matter of cost in relation to the benefit of coming home for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving travel can be very expensive. In my case, roundtrip airfare and shuttle to Seattle typically cost $700 over Thanksgiving and I’d be spending over 24 hours traveling between the two cities. That same $700 could be instead be used towards school expenses or a short vacation for 2-3 people to Las Vegas or San Francisco at another time during the year.</p>
<p>Professors typically won’t mind if students ask about the class schedule in and around the Thanksgiving holiday. Many, but not all professors will purposely schedule tests for the week before Thanksgiving so students can take off early if needed.</p>