<p>It seems a little early (maybe), but with all this airline unrest and the fuel costs should I jump in right now?</p>
<p>Southwest for example limits how much in advance you can purchase. I purchased my Dec. flights in July…so I don’t think this is early at all.</p>
<p>weenie~
I have already bought my son’s (and his Thanksgiving one too!). ~berurah</p>
<p>Just purchased Thanksgiving. Not sure when D’s last final will be. That makes it hard. I don’t think it’s too early, though.</p>
<p>Have bought Tgiving and Christmas home on Southwest, January return date not yet available. The sooner the better for Christmas holidays.</p>
<p>Bought and returned, weenie, Katrina style! </p>
<p>ASAP, I wonder if you can’t find out about that last final. At Tulane, once you had your schedule, you could see exactly when the finals for each course were. In fact, that was part of the scheduling process, so you could avoid two on the same day, if you wanted. </p>
<p>That said, there’s still some guesswork involved if you book early - will they want to leave school the very minute that last exam is done, or stay a bit longer? Will they want to go back the night before classes begin or a day or two earlier?</p>
<p>When we thought he was going to be in New Orleans, we decided to take the chance on a couple of guesses, knowing we might have to pay the re-book charge as he fine-tuned his plans the first year. Figuring future years, he’d know the ropes more and we could plan better <em>crosses fingers</em>.</p>
<p>thanks, jmmom. She might be able to find out her final dates - last year she thought she knew, we booked it, and then the prof. moved the date up so people could go home earlier. :rolleyes: She had to stay at school two unnecessary nights and was bummed.
I should definitely get her thinking about it, though. Sometimes they just have papers, and they can be done ahead of time (or emailed from home, which she has also done)</p>
<p>We were going to buy a one way ticket for our D when we took her to school in Mass. (we live in Texas), but discovered that it’s a little cheaper to buy a round trip, so we bought the round trip ticket, used the first leg to take her to school, and the return leg is for her trip back for Christmas break. Then when we send her back at the end of January, we’ll buy another round trip and have the other half for spring break.</p>
<p>The airlines hate those of us who do this.</p>
<p>We did that with the ticket in May - and used the return to go back to school in September.</p>
<p>I find it works just fine…for folks who need to book close to deadline.</p>
<p>A in B out
B in A out</p>
<p>Purchased using air miles. Her return to school form Thanksgiving is first leg, the return is coming home for Christmas. Haven’t done January yet, because am unsure when she goes back because Amherst has interterm. She says she will be staying home, but that may change. Either way, she won’t be going back until later in January after the rush, so am not worried.</p>
<p>Buy your tickets asap, but be positively sure about exam schedule. We thought we knew d’s exam schedule from the listing on the school website, so we went by that and bought the ticket. Then classes start and she finds out that all of her exams are research papers and semester long projects that she can finish and turn in early. We were pressured to hurry up and buy tickets because the price increased $400 over a one week period so now we are having to use an airport 2 hours away to get a reasonable flight. Next year we will wait and buy tickets after the first day of classes.</p>
<p>Did it yesterday. I am glad we hadn’t done the New Orleans yet. Her new school breaks at Thanksgiving and she doesn’t go back till Jan 2. She won’t be thrilled that she we didn’t book her direct on the first flight but the price difference was to large. She is flying into a small airport so I wanted to get it done as quick as possible.</p>
<p>OK. Bought the ticket! Thanks!</p>
<p>We bought tickets last year for one quarter, only to find D wanted to stay AFTER her last exam because there was two days of parties. She couldn’t because a change would have been big $$.</p>
<p>I must say that, other than SW, there seem to be good air bargains up until about 1 month before a holiday. For instance last year, in late October, we snared a good Chicago-Boston-Chicago fare for a Wed out, Sun back of only a bit over $300, if I recall correctly. In November, we booked a Christmas return for just over $200, both on AA.</p>
<p>Of course this year, we have a better solution. We now live about 6 blocks away from her school.</p>
<p>I just found out last week that I won’t be able to go home for christmas, my parents can’t afford the flight anymore, and being an International student I’m a long way from home!</p>
<p>Next time I’ll be home will be in the summer.</p>
<p>Bought the homeward bound SW ticket last week–Ontario to Providence for $89. Waiting for January seats to become available. Called SW to find out when mid-January tickets might be posted, but it’s a closely guarded secret.</p>
<p>Wow little mother. I sure wish we lived near a large airport. I won’t even post what one has to pay for a Santa Barbara to Denver flight.</p>
<p>mom60–
We were able to get that fare only after D made sure she didn’t have anything on Friday. Flying home on Saturday would have been $100 more (it’s a one-way fare) since the lowest fares were unavailable. (Btw, it’s Ontario, CA–not Canada.) It does help to be near three large airports–Logan in Boston, TF Green in Providence, and Manchester Airport (NH). Logan’s the most convenient time-wise, but the other two are only about an hour away.</p>