<p>For those who have children far away in college, where do you find good airfares?</p>
<p>I am fortunate in being near Islip MacArthur airport. Parking, security and checkin is very quick. Southwest has good fares if you book well in advance.</p>
<p>Southwest has flights from La Guardia too, but it doesn’t have direct flights to St. Louis and sometimes they aren’t much cheaper for us since we lived in North Jersey.
What do you do with the one-way trips? My S will need one in May.</p>
<p>Check out studentuniverse.com. They do one-way!</p>
<p>us airways allows one way fares as well.</p>
<p>You could figure out what day he’ll be returning to school and buy a roundtrip ticket (first part–coming home, second part–going back). He should know by now what day school starts and should find out soon if he hasnt already when returning students can move in again.</p>
<p>In my mind it sounds like a good plan but I don’t know how feasible it is for you.</p>
<p>I have booked lots of one-ways for my kids with Southwest, Jetblue, American and US Air with no financial penalty. If you can use LGA, they will probably have the most reasonably priced options. I usually check on Expedia and Kayak to find the available flights and then book directly with the airline.</p>
<p>My plug for Southwest:</p>
<p>Southwest is a dream to deal with when you have a change of plans. My daughter’s college is near St. Louis. She either drives or flies back and forth but since she does it with friends she often doesn’t know what she is doing until a month before coming home. In the fall she thought for sure she had a ride back to college but her friend backed out three weeks before they were due on campus - right after the New Year. By that time the best prices for Southwest were gone we ended up paying for the highest priced one way fare - $179 (inclusive) from PHL. A week before she was to leave another friend suggested that she come in for New Years eve. I was able to call Southwest and in five minutes changed her flight without any price change. </p>
<p>Even if you have to cancel a fun fare or an internet only fare, you get credit for that ticket and can use it another time. I also like how when you call them you get a real live person.</p>
<p>JetBlue can be very reasonable–better for people for whom JFK is convenient than for people living near Newark Airport though.</p>
<p>D books own flights and uses the internet to compare prices. (She uses my credit card, tho - Sigh!) She has booked many one-way fares on SW, US, DL, CO, JB, NW, wherever the rate was cheapest. Never a problem. although her luggage seems to get tagged for search behind the scenes everytime. (Love those little notices they put in your bag. She is getting quite a collection of them! There is a link to what kind of ticket and when purchased. One time, our flight was cancelled, we were sent home, and were rescheduled to go out next day. We were both pulled out of line for more thorough search. Let them search - we have nothing to hide.</p>