<p>I would like to buy the tickets for my D to come home for thanksgiving and X-mas breaks as soon as possible. Obviously the earliest I buy them the better prices we can get.</p>
<p>Does anyone know how soon the students will know about their schedules, exams etc? Would we be able to buy the tickets right after orientation, or would we have to wait until closer to the Holidays?</p>
<p>Here's the academic calendar for the next school year - USC</a> Academics - Academic Calendar - Academic Year 2008-2009</p>
<p>TGV Break is Nov 27-29, so if you want to leave before the 27th, while classes are still in session, I think you'd have to wait until the student gets the syllabus from the professor so you can see if there is an exam or paper due that week then make the choice for yourself based on that.</p>
<p>Here is the Fall 2008 Finals schedule for USC. With your D's schedule you can figure out when she will be done.</p>
<p>Schedule</a> of Classes: Fall 2008: Final Examinations Schedule</p>
<p>From what I have been told, you can safely assume that she will not have classes on 11/26 in the afternoon. Even if the professor does not cancel classes on 11/26 in the afternoon, very few will be heartless enough to hold it seriously against the student if they do not show up for class. </p>
<p>However, it is not so safe to assume that buying early will save you money. There are some relatively unambiguous indications of a serious gap between the current price of oil, and what economic indicators are saying about the future price of oil: Whither</a> the Price of Oil? - Thoughts From The Frontline - InvestorsInsight Publishing While I am not a big fan of macroeconomic predictions, I have been reading John Maudin for enough years now to be fairly convinced that he knows what he is talking about. The trouble with this analysis is that, while he is likely to be right at some point in the future, it is not clear when that will be. Still with all the wild swings in the price of oil over the past month or so, airfare prices are likely to be just as unstable. For example, for us fares for Parents weekend went from $270 to $200 back to $270. On the other hand, tickets to leave LA on 11/26 and return on 11/30 have been holding steady at $400 for nearly a month now, possibly because many of the deep discounters have not yet published their fares for November. </p>
<p>You might find these websites useful:</p>
<p>1) farecast.com
2) farecompare.com
3) kayak.com</p>
<p>"From what I have been told, you can safely assume that she will not have classes on 11/26 in the afternoon."</p>
<p>Freshman year my daughter did have a 4-hour 6:00 p.m. class the Wed. night before Thanksgiving. That was a once-a-week class. However, it was more lightly attended than usual (no surprise!).</p>
<p>Last year her class was cancelled Wed. afternoon before Thanksgiving; it was a class held multiple times per week.</p>
<p>Just FYI --</p>
<p>Tonight fares on American dropped over $60 for our desitantion, from over $420 with other carriers at not too convenient times to $360-ish with good times (early eve on 11/26 and early eve on 11/30). The weird thing is that American's own web site does not show this fare, but Expedia does.</p>
<p>Do you know if Expedia and Orbitz charges a service fee and if they do, how much is the service fee? I also noticed on travelzoo various hotel specials which imply that some hotels are really looking for business.</p>
<p>I think those services charge $5 per ticket (or each way - not sure). I've often found deals there that I can't find on the airline websites, and sometimes the other way around. One excellent and less-known website for fare searching is itasoftware.com. You choose search airfares and then "log in as a guest" to access the search functions. You cannot buy tickets from this site, but it shows you every known option for almost all carriers (Southwest being a notable exception). </p>
<p>For the winter break, I've already purchased the ticket home, and am just assuming S will have a final on the last day possible. He may not, but I'm sure he can find some way to fill his time.</p>
<p>My son flies out of a smaller regional airport (City of 100,000) we rarely see deals and if you don''t by early you are screwed. Early on is decent so I don't complain too much. I spend about $420 per round trip ticket.</p>
<p>FauxNom, thanks for continuing to share travel tips with us. The weird thing is that neither itasoftware.com, nor American's own web site shows the fare I am referring to. Not only are they not showing the fare, their search engines do not even offer the particular flights I booked on Expedia. Yet, after booking on Expedia the reservation and the flights did show up under my D's frequent flyer account on aa.com. Go figure... I am still trying to find a way to take advantage of this disconnect, now and in the future. Practically all airlines have a "low fare guarantee" on their own websites, where they say that if you find a lower fare elsewhere on the exact same flights, they will refund the difference and add a $50 certificate to boot.</p>
<p>mdcissp: Expedia charges $7 per ticket, not too bad. Most of the time this can be avoided by booking directly with the airline.</p>
<p>Groovy - Right, I forgot to mention that itasoftware doesn't show what's available on the independent booking sites. I've had the same experience as you with Expedia, but typically on trips where they combine multiple airlines. Sometimes the prices for multi-leg trips have been half of what's available on the airlines' own sites. It's worth tinkering around with! I'm happy to share my travel tips - makes me feel like I'm not totally wasting my time as I go about my obsessive researching :)</p>