<p>Good point, RacinReaver. We do the same thing. My daughter often changes her SW flight from one day or one airport to another. They make it extremely easy to do.</p>
<p>Don’t know if these dates work for you, but worth a look
[Discount</a> Airline Tickets, Affordable Flights, & Low-Cost Airfare from Travelzoo SuperSearch](<a href=“http://www.travelzoo.com/supersearch/?cp=SBUS0212&catid=1013]Discount”>http://www.travelzoo.com/supersearch/?cp=SBUS0212&catid=1013)</p>
<p>I wish SW had better fairs out of our area. Their fairs usually are more expensive unless you are checking 3 or more bags 
.</p>
<p>Southwest has Fairs? I love Fairs! ;)</p>
<p>kathiep-yes, all the time, big carnivals outside the terminals—:).</p>
<p>I live near Manchester, NH. It’s about a 3 hour drive to Burlington, very pretty, all highway and next to no traffic. We love Southwest out of MHT.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great suggestions. It used to be so simple to book a trip. Each piece of the trip can be put together numerous ways. I also have to talk to my H and see if saving a few hundred dollars is worth several hours of driving on each end. My H loves saving money but I think he hates driving and flying out of LAX even more.
He is spoiled by our local airport. We print the boarding pass out at home, if he is doing carry on we can leave our house 45 minutes before the flight. I can drop him off at the curb which is basically at the gate and he is through security in just minutes.
One thing this is showing me is that if she ends up in Vermont it will be expensive traveling back and forth.</p>
<p>mom60 - There is a Mega bus that services Burlington and kids use it for the breaks. It goes to Boston, NYC and a couple of other places. There is also an Amtrak. While it may take more time to travel, it’s not that expensive. My son is on the train right now to NYC and from there will take a bus to PA. I agree that it’s not an easy travel site but I was happy to find that there was public transportation available, besides air. My older son had the same distance but drove it the whole way.</p>
<p>If the planefares are comparable, I’d suggest you land in the U.S.
If you need to make a driving choice such as this, I’d choose Concord NH (or anyplace inside the U.S.) just to avoid time spent in line to cross the Canadian border. Also, does everyone have a current passport? </p>
<p>The above difference is 50 miles, but if you’re unlucky at the border that’ll wipe out your advantage. Assume a 15-20 minute border slowdown of every car (best case) or 40-60 minutes gridlocked (worst case) waiting to be interviewed from inside your car. </p>
<p>You can control for some border-crossing variables by scheduling to cross not in rush hour. Other variables you can’t help, such as Homeland Security quiet alerts known only to the American border guards. These happen…a lot~! </p>
<p>Having used SNA (6x) and LAX (once) I don’t fully understand my son’s aversion to LAX, but that might also relate to time-of-day and rush hour scheduling. I figure LAX is as bad as people say. Can someone drive you to the airport, as a favor? I’m guessing your H would deal better with LAX if he’s not driving, and there’s no car parking involved.</p>
<p>You say one thing all this is showing you is how difficult this will be getting to Vermont from where you are. I would think logistics/cost are reasonable issues to consider when choosing a college.</p>
<p>There are certainly trade-offs! Just keep in mind it’s the student, not you or H, who endures most of the transportation stress for 4 years. The airfare costs might be worth it if you get a better tuition package further away. </p>
<p>Easy for me to say, though. I enjoyed driving 10 minutes to the Buffalo airport to wave off S-2 to California. It was easier than an 8-hour personal roundtrip to Western Massachusetts (no viable public transportation links) or driving to downtown Buffalo’s Greyhound station to wait for a bus from central Ohio. None of it is easy, really. Good luck with the planning, and stay positive.</p>
<p>paying3tuitions-I agree that flying through Canada will not be worth the border crossing. the problem with LAX is that you never know how long it will take to get through security and to your gate. It can be minutes or it can be an hour. Same with traffic. It can take 2 hours from our house to LAX if there is no traffic,plus the 2 hour drive back for whoever drove you to the airport. The airbus is available but it is not cheap.The problem is with both cases you never know so must allow time for delays. Thus making the travel day very long. H doesn’t mind LAX if he connects through there. It is only the hassle of getting to and into the gate area of the airport. SNA or Long Beach are fairly easy airports to judge timing at. For us they are both a longer drive from home and the flight availability is less, same with Burbank.
When we all 4 or 5 of us fly together and it is to an out of the way destination we usually use LAX. Sometimes that means having to stay in a hotel at LAX for an early departure. Otherwise we much prefer to use our local airport unless the savings is significant.
Sevmom- She is only looking at schools she have received merit money. She will be the one who has to decide the tradeoffs. If Vermont is her choice she will know that she won’t be flying home for short holiday breaks.
I am putting the air travel purchase on hold till Tuesday. Hoping that the fares come down.</p>
<p>Yikes on your proximity to LAX, and thanks for your careful explanation. I picked up a few tips just from reading your paragraph.</p>
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<p>Another smart tip. Do you happen to know if there’s a time of day when the fares tumble? I had heard noon PST/3p.m. EST, but I’d like to really know for future reference. It seems our Sun-2 is making LA his forever home. :)</p>
<p>paying3tuitions (are you still paying for all three??), I’ve heard that too so did a quick google search and this site [Cheapest</a> Days to Fly and Best Time to Buy Airline Tickets](<a href=“http://www.farecompare.com/travel-advice/tips-from-air-travel-insiders/]Cheapest”>Cheapest Days to Fly and Best Time to Buy Airline Tickets | FareCompare) confirmed it.</p>
<p>Youngest graduated last year, so now I have 3 proud college graduates! I did learn too late not to choose a name with a built-in expiration date. Same issue for names such as ■■■■■■■■, HarveyMuddBound, and so on.</p>
<p>Another “paying 3 tuitions” is my brother-in-law who had 2 daughters in college when he began a 4-year B.A. program at age 50. They sat at the table doing homework together, a very moving sight. His FAFSA application was a slam-dunk. All graduated well.</p>
<p>kathiep, thanks for the link. Here’s another interesting tidbit:</p>
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<p>Here is an article about the best time to buy domestic tickets. I have sometimes found that the fares drop on Tuesdays for only a few hours.</p>
<p>[When</a> to Buy Airline Tickets and More Travel Advice](<a href=“http://www.farecompare.com/travel-advice/when-to-buy-travel-advice/]When”>When to Buy Airline Tickets and More Travel Advice | FareCompare)</p>
<p>I just opened the mail today and she received an invitation to fly in for a visit. They give two date choices and one of them is the day they were planning on visiting. I don’t know details yet but if they help with a bit of the airfare I will be a happy Mom.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Yay!</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Do you have any airmiles? I just tried to buy a last minute ticket on Delta for a funeral yesterday. Their bereavement fare was over $1700. I guess when they give you the price, it makes you cry, therefore the term “bereavement?” No discount on that one. But the last minute airmiles cost was only 50K, and that was even for first class both ways. Surprising.</p>