<p>ebeeeee, The nice thing is that it does not cost much to take the “T” to Logan. My son also seems to think that he can live on air, yet on some level he recognizes that his bank account balance has gone down, and is realizing that he has had to spend money just to survive. He did not think that he would really need money for college b/c he knew that his room and board was taken care of by us. I made him bank most of the money he earned over the last 2 summers, and he did not understand why. He now understands that he will need to be employed this summer just for pocket money for everyday expenses(yay, this is an achievement)!</p>
<p>northeastmom, absolutely re: summer job. DS worked continuously from 14 on…this fall is the first time in years he hasn’t had a job. He took half his bank account to school in Sept. and spent money like crazy. He will take half the remaining half in January and leave the rest with us. My nerves can’t take this travelling with zero cash again. I know he can figure it out and he is a seasoned traveller but I still don’t like it.</p>
<p>As a former “professional” traveler, I will not try to defend the airlines. I have hundreds of travel tales…</p>
<p>However, most of the US flag carriers are, or have been, in bankruptcy. All of their workers have taken a hit in pay. What is amazing to me is how many will go the extra mile to try to help out a traveler with a problem.</p>
<p>My biggest suggestion is to treat the airline workers with politeness. Getting in their face if the quickest way to turn them off.</p>
<p>I am now paying about $200 RT for Detroit to New York and about $550 RT Detroit to London. How are they making any money at that number? I will never figure out their pricing structure.</p>
<p>ldmom06~</p>
<p>Not to rub salt in a wound <em>lol</em>, but S arrived last night TEN MINUTES EARLY!!! 
Surprised? You bet! </p>
<p>~b.</p>
<p>
Oh YEAH!!! I’ll second that! :)</p>
<p>Yea, travel with $0 doesn’t appeal to me either. I MUCH prefer our kids to have $ or at least a credit card to handle unexpected expenses when traveling. You never know what may come up. As an adult, I have flown with $.10 in my wallet & didn’t find that at all comfortable myself.</p>
<p>D had to consider that whole juggling of flights issue, as her destination ariport had major power issues and was backed up. Her 8PM flight was delayed to 9PM, to 930PM, to 1030PM, then they posted it as 1AM…thanks be that Southwest has such great customer service, they scheduled her on a flight the next day, but it was not until the evening and made stops, so long. They also let her stay registered on her original flight, she elected to wait at the airport until midnight and see if the flight would go, it went at 1130PM, she was trilled-though there had been many tears and tizzy fits in earlier calls. She finally got home at 5AM and slept all the next day, but she was just happy to be here and it has been fun and laughter ever since.</p>
<p>Yea B and somemom and everyone…! I’m so happy to hear all the little ducklings are getting back to the nest safely!! </p>
<p>And my d did virtually as some of you described, brought her UNC One card home, left her debit/credit card at school and had about $50 in her pocket. After a little faxing back and forth with the hotel, we were able to get her checked in without a credit card. </p>
<p>Btw…on the pricing structure UMDad. Continental flights IAH to RDU roundtrip were almost $600 about a month ago. Go figure that one out! But, fortunately, we reap the rewards of the hubby being on the go so much…haven’t paid for a flight yet, haven’t been billed for a heavy bag yet (and they are ALWAYS heavy) and she gets through security quickly with his Elite status. We don’t have any ‘pull’ with United however…dh only flies United as a last resort, so he has very few miles banked.</p>
<p>My niece was lucky–her flight arrived on time, so she was able to catch a connecting flight that left 25 minutes later & arrive earlier than expected (before her luggage, which they picked up the next morning). She & family were VERY happy! She made friends on every leg of the trip :)</p>
<p>HImom - that was the one smooth thing about my d’s trip…the luggage was checked through to Houston and was automatically put on that 8:00 a.m. flight the next day. Thank goodness for tender mercies…lol!</p>
<p>UMDad - offtopic…did you see the youtube I posted earlier? Looks like this kid wants UMichigan…and I hear they want him right back. He’s already the topic of conversations on UM football blogs. ;)</p>
<p>ebeeeee, My son travels with less money now, b/c his own savings is low now, and he hates to ask us for money. He also was not expecting to be paying frat dues when he was in hs. He has now decided to pledge a frat. That is pretty expensive!</p>
<p>digmedia, why SuperShuttle to Stanford? Caltrain runs at least once/hour from Millbrae to Palo Alto, BART takes you from the airport to Millbrae, and Stanford shuttles meet the trains at the PA station. In my experience SuperShuttle is no faster than public transportation because they load all Peninsula passengers on the same van and to make your way down to the Palo Alto or Mtn View area you’re going to be treated to visits down small streets in San Carlos, Atherthon, and a few other places along the way.</p>
<p>But that wasn’t the main reason I posted. I’m only an occasional air passenger and over the years have been stranded, had flights cancelled, etc. Once, for example, I was flying SFO to Boston and carefully booked a direct flight. But the flight had a mechanical problem so they put me on a Northwest flight with a connection in Minnesota. Only they didn’t actually book me on the 2nd leg to Boston … Took a few hours to straighten that one out (it was United, BTW). I’m sure every traveler has a host of stories that can top the ones I have.</p>
<p>Which brings me to the point. I’ve enjoyed air travel a lot more once I decided it was just a way to get from point A to point B, dropping any pretense of the schedule predicting what time I’ll be there any more than my horoscope predicts my future. It’s the airline industry’s answer to the “serving suggestion” illustrations on the boxes of food at the store; great if it comes out like that, but don’t really count on it 
I think of published schedules as really just giving the day of arrival with a “no-earlier-than” tag, with the real possibility of being up to 24 hours off. When the flight gets there on time (and to be honest they often do) I’m happy at my good fortune, but I’m not surprised if it doesn’t. If I <em>really</em> need to be somewhere on a certain day I’ll fly in a day in advance and spend an extra nite there upfront. If I use the room, great, if I’m stranded for a day along the way I’ll still get there when I need to (knock on wood!)</p>