@massmom - my D makes the same commute as your S. I’ll never let her fly Spirit after the same delay happened to us on a flight to Florida.
CA to Providence, RI. Our daughter only came home for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. She stayed on campus over spring break. No regrets. Yes, it can get pricey and is a pain sometimes but she flies in and out of Providence so she just has a short Uber ride to the airport.
No regrets, but we had it easy—two hour nonstop flight between major hubs, so competition among carriers and relatively inexpensive flights, good public transportation between the airport and campus, and we live a short 10 minute drive from the airport on this end. We had both daughters home for Thanksgiving every year except during study abroad, plus Christmas for an extended break, and most often for fall and spring breaks except when they had something better to do. Plus DW & I each made at least one trip a year to visit them on-campus. I probably should have bought airline stock to recoup some of the money we spent on airfare, but all in all it was less hassle than having them a 4-hour car trip away.
Just FYI…my kid who went to college 2 hours away now lives 2500 miles away…and two time zones away.
My kid who went to college 3000 miles from home is in the same time zone, but about 1200 miles away. I suspect she will move back to this area when she is done with school.
So…just because a kid goes far away to college doesn’t mean they will love far away. Just because they live close in college doesn’t mean they will live close when they graduate.
I agree about Spirit… they often have only 1 flight/day, but not reciprocal agreements with other airlines. Most peopel we know fly then just once or never at all.
“Big advantage: if D1 wanted to call us at 1 AM her time, it was only 10 PM here! TOTAL win.” - We actually had the best luck when our son was in Singapore on totally different timezone. Go figure>
Yes, you will definitely sleep better if there are family or friends nearby. We had both. My BIL was on Cape Cod (near Boston), and a dear friend from hs was in Boston (and she’s a doctor - that was a warm fuzzy for this worry wart mamma).
Delighted that my kiddo chose a school that is a 1-hour flight away with nearly a dozen flights per day (and that’s just on one airline!) – especially since she applied SCEA to a school that was 3K miles away that would either require stopovers, a long shuttle ride or complex transfers from plane to train.
Regarding coming home summers, my older D has not been home for a summer since she left for college. First summer she did an internship with a nonprofit in another city, second summer and this summer an internship in her college city. I think that was the thing we didn’t expect when she went away. Its too soon to say whether she will ever move back here but she’s met a guy in her college town…
D2 is also in college a plane ride away. She is studying abroad part of this summer and then coming home (home!!) for an internship for the rest of the summer.
Regarding Spirit Airlines–just say no. D’s friend got his flight cancelled after he arrived at the airport–no rebooking, just “here’s your money back” – and had to scramble and pay a bunch to get another flight from his college to a family gathering.
Our kids had lots of airlines and flights to choose among to get between LA and HNL. They could have flown in and out of at least 3 airports easily–4 if they wanted San Diego. It really was and is fine.
S is now happily working in DC and a very comfortable and experienced flyer. He can fly in and out of at least 3 airports and there is a nonstop between HNL and IAD, tho he chooses between that and other flights, depending on cost, convenience and other factors. There are also lots of direct flights between D.C. And other locations he wants or needs to get to.
Thanks for the info re. Spirit. Part of my college research is checking out how much flights are between our city and various college cities. Spirit comes up as soooo cheap. Any other airlines that are awful? I notice that of all the places to fly to from our city (NY), Ohio is very expensive. Any way to get around that? There are so many good schools in OH
D is 8 hours away driving, but a nonstop flight home. Her college is pretty rural - it’s hard to get to and from the airport for her. But she gives out gift cards or pays people for rides and its easy after that.
my tip: We have a chase sapphire credit card. If we book travel through its rewards program, flights are a legit 20% off published prices online. We’ve been thankful for that this first year. She’s flown home 4 times this year; we’ll pick her up at the end of semester. Next year she’ll have a car. Thanksgiving flights were by far the most pricey.
my kid has traveled to school using trains, planes, automobiles and buses for undergrad and flew to grad school… Flying was certainly easier and less time consuming. No regrets about flying because she was flying into major hubs for both schools (fortunately never delayed or stranded)
I like Southwest, but they don’t offer nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Boston, so we start using JetBlue. Those 2" of extra legroom do make a difference on a six hours flight. I opened a JetBlue credit card and 3 flights DD took this year were for points we earn (they offer family pooling).
One kid was a six plus hour drive away. We drove him out in the fall and picked up his stuff in the spring. He flew home for breaks. It was such a great fit for him - I never had a second of regret about it, though I’d have been happier if flights had remained as cheap as they were when we visited!
Other son was a three hour drive away. Again we did the fall and spring drives. He took the train home for breaks. There’s no question it was more convenient, but if he’d chosen to go to his second choice which was much further away we would have been fine with that. Not sure we would have done the driving thing. It’s over 12 hours.
@citymama9 make sure you are checking all nearby airports when flying to/from OH. Airports may not have all carriers but compete with the other airport’s carriers.
Our first two kids went 2600 miles away to college. It’s tough on the parents because we miss them so much, but we are glad that they have both gotten very comfortable in a big city on the other side of the country. They each have grown so much in confidence and they have good friends from very different backgrounds.
@citymama9 - I suppose one could have regrets based on inconvenience, cost, or distance. Which is your primary concern?
Our ds is > 1,800 miles away. He stayed and worked on his campus last summer and will intern in another city in the state where his school is this summer. We fully expect he will want to stay in that state and not come back to ours after he graduates. We are fine with that! As @glido posted above, the confidence level has soared. We went without seeing him for seven months last year (mine is also an only). That was longer than I would have liked, but you do get used to it. While I can certainly understand people limiting college choices based on a budget (and airfare definitely factors into the budget), I have never understood parents who limit their kids from going far away to school for no other reason than they don’t want the child far from home, I am NOT talking about extenuating circumstances related to physical or mental health issues or other specific family needs that would be a reasonable justification for having a child stay close by. I understand that those can exist. But, to me, to limit your kids’ choices because you’re going to miss having them around is selfish (I’m sure I’ll get flamed for that statement). Family members being geographically close does not guarantee emotional closeness. And great geographic distances between family members doesn’t mean a lack of emotional closeness either.
You couldn’t PAY me to fly Spirit. If that is the only choice…pick a different college 
D was 3000+ miles away. There were times when that was stressful, but phone calls and texts and ichat and facetime got us through. The flights were the least of it. Red eye from SFO to Logan became a fact of life. And nothing better than welcoming her home. I wouldn’t change a thing.
One kid within driving distance, one kid flying. No regrets.
I don’t see close by kid that much more often, but do enjoy being able to attend his concerts. We probably see far away kid once a semester and close by kid twice a semester.
I went to college far from home and only called once a week and only came home twice a year, so it seems normal to me that kids go away and stay away. (In the old days it was more expensive to call home and to fly home, remember?)I was the oldest and my parents didn’t come visit me. They had work and other kids to care for. Immigrant H went to college near home and saw his folks often. He thinks it’s crazy that Americans go so far away.
I went to boarding school about an 11 hour drive from home and to college 7 hours from home back in the day. I learned a lot about being independent and handling life from riding on Greyhound busses, arranging ride shares, getting stranded in airports (all before cellphones and technology.) Being from a small midwestern town and navigating Port Authority, Penn Station and LaGuardia as a 16-year-old was eyeopening and sometimes scary. But I was proud of myself for managing. So, when S1 went through his college search and choice, I was happy he chose to go 1,200 miles away, even though it meant we wouldn’t be able to see him play football or visit as often. But, going away was hugely important for our son–he had to learn to manage travel plans, go through injuries and surgeries by himself, and sometimes spend breaks with friends or on campus. All growth experiences that gave him the confidence to go abroad for grad school, move all around the country for jobs. I also wouldn’t change a thing!