We live in the deep midwest and had one in CT and now one in the LA area. With both kids I flew with them on a visit after they were accepted, and discussed procedures and potential problems during the flights. D1 had to fly out and move herself in, but I drove to Chicago so she would have a nonstop flight - good to start things off well. A local shipper worked with me to get the boxes there at the right time - he said don’t pack big ones that are hard to carry at the other end. Other flights involved a layover, but we had scouted out a hotel near O’hare, and one time when she missed her connection, I just called the Best Western and got her a room - it’s a hotel where a lot of pilots and stewards stay. There was an airport shuttle to get her there.
D2 is further away and we have no relatives there. If she is stuck somebody will take her in. If not, I will work at directing her to a train to get her to my friend’s house in San Francisco. Airfare is not too awful, because you know the school’s schedule in advance. Developing some savvy travel skills seems like a good thing.
My D3 is far and she texted me yesterday that “something was wrong with the electricity” in her apartment and she was about to leave for a few days to do field research. Oops. She probably only needed to flip the circuits but by the time I saw her text she had left.
No one else has keys. If she had called me instead of texting I would have answered. Her refrigerator is off.
Live and learn, kid. If she was even 2 hours away I would be tempted to go there and fix it but it’s probably better for her that I can’t. She did call the rental agency so maybe they can handle it. Always have an extra key with a friend!
Getting stranded at an airport, or missing connections is not the end of the world. DD has slept at Midway Airport, and gotten caught at Ohare as well. She has missed connections in Vegas, Denver, and Dallas. In all cases, she was fine.
When she needed to return to college, we always flew,her a day early just in case flights got cancelled.
For the Christmas break this year, she is flying back December 31…her classes start January 2. She wants the buffer of time just in case.
Our S went to a private U a 5-6 hour plane away. 3 terms later, D joined him st that same U. Both have had long term chronic health issues, so we were slightly apprehensive but it worked out fairly well and both blossomed there. S is now 5000 miles away but we see him more often than he was in college. He also sees and visits D fairly often.
Being a connecting flight away from home is useful for building up travel skills and learning to think on one’s feet. I would caution that when timing is REALLY critical, it’s wise to build in a lot of timing buffers, because plenty of stuff can go awry. Flying back a day or two or three before classes resume is a good idea, where feasible. And it’s better to have a boring wait in an airport than miss your connecting flights. We have a number of viable airlines and connecting airports, and are slowly learning which are most and least problematic, and what their various pros and cons are. (A connecting airport where you also have friends/family can be a plus.) 7 trips in to this adventure, we’ve only had one major travel snafu, and were able to work it out.
For thanksgiving this year my D could fly to Europe cheaper than it cost to come home!
She’s out of college now and will not come home as it’s really expensive and her vacation time is limited. Thanksgiving is the worst.
If we had to do it over again, I don’t think that D would have gone so far away. She is shy and it was hard for her to connect and find friends who were willing to host her over the fall break and thanksgiving. We didn’t have the money to afford for her to come home. It’s so expensive to fly to her city.
My niece goes to school in Washington, D.C. and flys home all the time. It’s a short direct flight and cheap. We should have investigated this better.
S could fly to foreign countries from DC cheaper than HI, so he has been to several and is very happy to have the opportunity. He’s been to Iceland, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Germany, Japan and Thailand.