<p>Good to know Pizzagirl. I mostly fly jetblue but sometimes have to use other other airlines.</p>
<p>Recent college grad D booked flights home today for Thanksgiving–using her own miles!!!
Woot! Interestingly, she found a flight from Midway to SFO for 12,500 miles on Wednesday- yay! Of course, she couldn’t find a flight out on the Sunday, but was able to fly out on Saturday for 25,000 miles. And of more interest (to her) was that the 25,000 was the same in coach or First Class…hmmm…which do you think she chose??? </p>
<p>I’m kind of reluctant to write this… as I assume it may be an oversight by United—but I hope someone else can nab the other seats in F.C.</p>
<p>This will be her first time coming home for the holidays as an employed person–makes this Mom so happy she still wants to spend it with us!</p>
<p>We booked D’s flights a few weeks ago. The have Monday through Wednesdau of Thanksgiving week off, so she will be coming home the Friday evening before. The Friday flight was quite inexpensive but the Sunday return was much higher, even with the lowest level on Southwest.</p>
<p>
Rodney, could it be that you booked this year’s tickets on a Tuesday? Some airlines drop some seat prices every Tuesday afternoon, and they get picked through in the next 24-48 hours. They seem to raise prices again around Thursday.</p>
<p>paying3tuitions, I heard something on NPR last year which confirms your experience. The expert said that Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the days to book. He also said that, in general, you’ll get the lowest fares 4 to 6 weeks before you fly. (That might not be true for holiday travel.)</p>
<p>It seems like United’s reservation software has been glitchy since the merger with Contnental. We had major problems with a booking in April. I used it recently and it was better but still encountered a glitch.</p>
<p>pay3T: I always book tickets on Tues or Wed; that was a trick I figured out about 3 years ago…</p>
<p>and for those of you who use Kayak, yes, it makes sense to check it there and then go to the airlines website…</p>