<p>I made our kids reservations for Christmas back in February or March and am glad I did. I like peace of mind and didn’t care as much about getting the “cheapest” flights. At some point, you just have to bite the bullet & do what you feel is at least reasonable. There is a lot to be said for sleeping soundly at night. LOL</p>
<p>Hawaiian Air is fine as far as I know & even is hiring & expanding right now; can’t imagine they will let it fail as it is one of only two major carriers which still serve our state (Go! operated by Mesa is the other). Everyone was shocked when Aloha failed as there was literally NO warning and so many people were affected. It has taken a long time for folks to recover from that jolt combined with ATA stopping at the same time. Our economy took a huge hit!</p>
<p>I also made my kid’s reservation for Christmas early in the year. What troubles me is that, in recent years, after we have made the reservation, American Airline will change the second leg of his flight, sometimes a couple of times.</p>
<p>For example, the connection time is about an hour and 45 minutes on our original plan. American Airline changes it so that the connection time becomes only 45 minutes. If the flight for the first-leg is delayed due to whatever reason (It is winter travel so it could happen), my kid may not be able to catch the flight for his second leg. If the next avaliable flight is pretty much booked, I am not sure whether Airline will help him get into that flight. It is well known that during the Thanksgiving or Christmas season, it is safer to stick to your original flight. Once you lose your seat, it is not easy for you to get another seat on any flight.</p>
<p>I am very unhappy about this practice. I feel that I am ripped off in the following sense: When I make the reservation and purchase the ticket, I may pay less if I choose the flights that have only 45 minutes of flight connection time. The airline company changes my original flight with a better schedule to one with a worse schedule.</p>
<p>I wasn’t sure if DS was flying or hitching a ride home for Tgiving last year so I didn’t even think about getting flights until several weeks befpre. I was really surprised at how many seats there were and how reasonable the fares were. Maybe a risky strategy for some, but there certainly are deals to be had closer to the travel dates.</p>
<p>(BTW–DS and I were on our last college visit spring before last. Got in late on a Friday, turned on the local news, found out our airline had just closed up shop. It was an interesting weekend trying to get home, although at least we didn’t get stranded on another continent like some had.)</p>
<p>Thanks for this thread- just booked D’s Thanksgiving flight on Southwest today for $215 roundtrip. I am sure I wouldn’t have thought about this until all the good flights were gone.</p>
<p>Pay it forward - there is a lot of stuff I would have missed if it wasn’t for the parents on CC.</p>
<p>Also as a reminder, parents with incoming seniors - don’t forget to book hotel rooms now for graduation. We’ve already reserved two ways - one if Grandma comes (at the closer hotel with the shuttle so she can come and go as she likes), one if she doesn’t (at the further nicer hotel with the free parking but no shuttle).</p>
<p>And naturally I will continue to monitor the reservations for the next 8 months to see if the prices go down…although we’re hoping by next spring to have enough points saved. Actually, Grandma does have the points so she will probably volunteer to “cover” the rooms if she comes.</p>
<p>Of course we’ve got our fingers crossed that DS actually will graduate next May…:eek:</p>
<p>Yes, thanks for this thread. It convinced me to get my DS’s ticket now. Going out is ok, but I always forget that it’s the return on Sunday which is almost impossible if you wait too long!
He sort of freaked out when I told him that the outbound flight leaves at 6:30am. He reminded me that his school, although only 45 min away, is in another time zone from the airport. Which means that it’s 5:30am his time that he has to plan for. Oh well.</p>
<p>My favorite AA story. We booked a ticket through Travelocity for DD one time. They changed one leg of her flight which was not really an issue…except that her first flight got INTO Denver AFTER the second had departed! Did you ever try to deal with Travelocity on these issues? Don’t bother, they are NOT helpful at all. I finally called the airline directly…they don’t usually make changes on Travelocity purchased tickets…but the agent saw the stupidity in having someone arrive AFTER their connection departed…and changed DD back to the original flight. The AA agent had NO IDEA why Travelocity would have made this change. We never have booked through them again…go straight to the airline…and yes, I KNOW we might be missing out on a good price, but it’s just not worth the hassle.</p>
<p>I have never flown on Southwest before, but I had booked a flight to fly to d’s Parents Weekend early in October. Now from reading these posts, I’m wondering if I can cancel this flight and re-book it with the new reduced airfare. Am I right that:</p>
<ul>
<li>I would not get $$ back for the original flight</li>
<li>but I can “postpone” it until a later date (up to a certain date limit)</li>
<li>but I can’t have that flight put in another name (i.e., d can’t use it later)</li>
</ul>
<p>I’ve been exploring the Southwest website but it isn’t yet clear to me how flight cancellations work.</p>
<p>ChiSquare- It is very simple to rebook with your cheaper fare. The difference can be used for a future booking. If you bought online click travel tools. Click cancel air reservation. Plug in the info. Follow the screen instructions. The you just reenter the same flight number, same day, same everything. If you are lost then call 1-800-435-9792.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that if you have a Frequent Flyer account with SW, there are no cancellation & rebooking fees, but haven’t had personal experience & don’t know whether this is still the case.</p>
<p>Thanks, Batllo. That little bit of instruction was enough to prompt me to do it. However, midway through it I realized that the ‘deal’ actually wasn’t cheaper than the price I had paid earlier this summer, once taxes, etc were factored in.</p>
<p>A colleague of mine booked a bargain flight home for his daughter last year – and then discovered that the airline required her to show the credit card used to book the flight before getting on the plane – a problem because it was Dad’s card, not hers, and Dad was on the other side of the country.</p>
<p>Has anyone else run across this problem? If it’s a common one, then maybe it would be better for flights to be booked using a card that the student has in his/her possession rather than one that only the parent has.</p>
<p>We just flew USAirways and the check in kiosk allowed one to check in using the purchase credit card OR the passenger name.</p>
<p>I should think that, even if the kiosk only takes a credit card, it should be possible to check in through the airline agent (ie, real person). </p>
<p>And it also just occurred to me that my daughter has flown alone using JetBlue without the purchasing credit card and had no problem.</p>
<p>Marian,
My son flies all the time and it’s always on my dime
Never had that problem. The self check in kiosks take credit card or you can actually swipe your driver license on the ones here in CA or you can punch in your name. Curious to know what airline it was.</p>
<p>Himom, still the case with SW at least in my experience. I recently saw the fare drop on flights I had already booked. SW issued me a credit for the difference. I’ve also had to change flights and had them not charge me. For the most part I am now done with American and their expensive bag charges and outrageous rebooking fees.</p>
<p>Yes, when we booked at ticket for S using my credit card, I had to go to the United ticket counter (fortunately in HI was OK rather than having to go to CA where S was & there was a ticket counter at the HI airport where I was for a different flight) & show them my ID & my credit card & say that yes, I did purchase a ticket for S & here was his itinerary. They entered the info in the record that I had presented myself at the ticket counter with ID & CC & that he was good to proceed. I had to do this before the 1st leg of his trip. </p>
<p>It is always a bit more complicated when you are buying tickets for someone else with your credit card – for your protection you have to satisfy the airline that you really ARE authorizing it and it is not fraudulent. It’s good to check with the airline you’re booking on so there are no unpleasant surprises. I called the airlines when it said S had to present the credit card & explained the situation & asked what the options were to avoid having to mail him my credit card.</p>
<p>I now think about this when I decide what credit card to use when booking a flight. Most airlines are fine and don’t care that the credit card doesn’t match the name on the ticket. I was surprised that United required me to present the credit card & my ID to allow S to fly (it’s the first time in all the flights I’ve booked over the years).</p>
<p>The United requirement must be new, because S1 (college junior) has flown many times over the past two years to and from school on United. And I always purchase the tickets. Not only is his first name different, but our last names are different as well. As far as I know, he just uses the confirmation number to check bags at the airport (reg check-in is always done ahead of time). Luckily he’s flying NWA/Delta this Thanksgiving, but I will need to check into this further before booking the winter holidays (and I know there’s no problem with NWA/Delta because he took four flights this summer without showing the credit card).</p>
- there is a lot of stuff I would have missed if it wasn’t for the parents on CC.</p>