Southwest offers LAX->PHL on its own web site, but not non-stop on the date that I tried. Price was also higher, but the included checked baggage (as opposed to added fees starting at the first checked bag) may offset that for a family moving a kid to college.
We booked round trip out at start of school…back at Christmas.
Back to school after Christmas, and home for the summer.
Our kid didn’t come home for thanksgiving or spring break…ever.
Our kids never came home for spring or thanksgiving while students. The last two years, both have chosen to come to HI for Thanksgiving. It works for us, tho it does surprise us. I think S is weary of the cold in VA.
The above, both expense and hassle, is why we never even considered sending our kids to colleges that couldn’t be reached via car or train. (Living on the east coast, we certainly had enough schools to choose from within a reasonable distance.You like the idea of California sweetheart? Fine, get your first post-graduation job there.) To say nothing of the time lost getting to and waiting in airports, delayed flights, etc. Really something to be taken into consideration when looking for that perfect “fit”.
Don’t book winter break yet. You don’t know what her exam schedule will look like. I remember being frustrated when I was done with all of my work for a course, but I still had to wait an extra 3-5 days doing nothing on campus. You should wait until she has her schedule for any finals and then book.
Also, if you haven’t already, it’s worth it to sign up for a rewards program with an airline. 3 RT tickets and a one way, that could end up being enough for a free ticket, maybe even two.
I recall once having booked S’s ticket home for the holidays only to be belatedly informed that it had to be changed because he’d be in the middle of a final during the flight! Boy, was I mad at him about the change fee we had to pay!
^Yes, but the problem with that, Cali, is they won’t know that information until classes start and that means they can’t book it as part of the round trip ticket they need now.
@ClaremontMom True, but they don’t really need a round trip ticket now.
We just booked our kid’s flight home the evening of the last exam day.
Yes, true…Given that they’ve already bought a one way, they should wait for that return trip.
“did research this a bit and found some people who claimed that some airlines may “ding” you. for this practice if you make a habit of it – losing frequent flier miles for example. I don’t know how true that is”
I’ve thrown away the last leg of tickets on a few occasions, esp coming from overseas. It’s really only a problem if you were to make a habit of it - like weekly or monthly - and there’s a pattern that’s clearly established. For the “casual” traveler, I wouldn’t worry about it. You won’t trigger the system. And besides, who is to say you didn’t get sick in the ladies’ room and “miss” the final leg?
I have been watching prices for our college move in travel and I don’t see any difference in pricing between two one way tickets and a round-trip. I determined the lowest one way ticket for my travel is $131. I was able to buy one way ticket for our return after move in for this price and for our Thanksgiving travel to Boston one way. Still trying to catch lower price tickets for our travel to Boston in August and our return flight in November. Some schools might have discount program for students. I know that my D’s school has partnership with few airlines and gives about 10-15% discount for student only if booked using school portal.
When using miles, I book a lot of stuff as one ways. After all, what do I care if I fly someplace on United and return on American?
We learned our lesson one holiday. S booked D on a R/T ticket but she was ill and didn’t want to fly back. The change fee was higher than the amount S paid for the return flight, so we just tossed that ticket and have since only booked her last minute one way flights using miles or points. It has worked much better for us.
Sometimes you can get a refund of change fee if you have an MD note and are ill, but you have to jump thru hoops and the rules didn’t appear to apply for the return portion of your trip, just prior to starting the entire trip.
My son’s first spring in Boston they had 5 snow days which extended that semester. Although we knew the final exam and move out schedule, it all changed because of the weather. Even graduation dates changed that year. One way trips on JetBlue has turned out to be the best plan for us.
College student schedules were the #1 reason our daughter always used Southwest airlines. We would book the vacation fares as soon as they popped up, knowing that we could change them and get credit if they went higher or if her schedule turned out to be different than we thought.
I think some folks already mentioned kayak for the “hacker” fares. In addition, you might want to check out this guy’s website. United and Orbitz tried to sue him.
https://skiplagged.com
http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/29/news/united-orbitz-sue-skiplagged-22/
“Hacker fares” shown on kayak.com are round trips made by combining separately bought one way fares. Often, these are on different airlines, but sometimes buying two one way fares on the same airline is cheaper than buying a round trip of the same flights.
Airlines do not object to such “hacker fares” (since you are buying the tickets and flying all segments of such tickets) as they do to “hidden city” fares that skiplagged.com promotes. Note that “hidden city” ticketing carries additional risks beyond the airline objecting, such as rerouting after flight cancellation (e.g. if you bought A->B->C intending really to go to B, but the airline reroutes you to another flight A->D->C, then you will not be able to get to B). In addition, you would not be able to check baggage unless B happens to be a customs checkpoint in an international flight, since it will be delivered at C.
Southwest whenever possible. Best flexibility and no “penalty” for booking one leg at a time. You can use cancelled travel funds for up to 12 months. Even for travel where we know RT dates, we just book one way because it is easier to change them that way. However, for overseas travel, RT flights are often booked even if just using one way because it is way cheaper that way.
When we took DS to college, it was cheaper to book him RT. So we selected seats for all three of us on the return trip, thinking that DH and I would have the window and aisle with an empty seat in between (after all, we’d paid for it!). But when DS didn’t check in, they gave that seat to someone else on standby. That person didn’t mind swapping for the window or aisle, so we (DH and I) ended up together, but I still felt cheated not to have all three seats, since I’d paid for them.