Most times you are correct that prices generally drop when it’s 9 months out. However, there are some exceptions. As kids finalize spring break plans, they start buying tickets so it’s all algorithim supply/demand pricing.
Sometimes international business class tickets dont drop in price either and they just get more expensive
Earlier this week, I saw what looked like a good deal for getting to Argentina for our Antarctica trip (it’s a looooong flight, to a hub from sfo then a 9-10 hour flight to BA, so business class makes a big difference), so I jumped on it, on American - the United flights were around 50% more. (I checked with chartgpt haha who also said it was a really good deal for that route and to “grab it” lol). Literally the next day, there was only one fare at that price left (with a 1hr connection which I’m never going to do for a date-sensitive landing)…the rest, including the itinerary we booked, had jumped to around the same as the United price, and well beyond our price point for flights.
When we went to Japan for spring break last year, the coach seats were already ridiculously expensive so I booked refundable (not much more in cost) to take advantage in case the prices went down. I think we booked about 6-7 months ahead. They only went higher from when we booked. That said, it was still cheaper to get to Tokyo than for @nervousmom8 to get to Punta Cana…. (Thankfully we got exit row and bulkhead seats on the Tokyo flight so we had some space.)
Incidentally, we are staying at the Andaz during comic-con - I was lucky in snatching the booking while they still allowed part payment with points for those days, but even at full, comic-con loaded rack rate the Andaz was still about $150 cheaper for a (standard/small-ish) suite than the Hyatt Place in college town for a room! Just for some context. Anyway I have decided to stop thinking about it until we see if C26 actually gets in because more likely that I am worrying over something that’s not going happen.
I booked three days straight of psycho-ed testing for D26 over spring break so she can go to college with an updated report and get the accommodations she needs.
She is THRILLED, let me tell you.
Still, the time between now and spring break is absolutely nuts for us, so she’s going to want to sit in bed over spring break and play Pokemon.
(Those prices are crazy!)
Is she thinking about joining a Pokémon club at college? I must say I never quite understood until the last year or so how many older teens or even adults are still so into Pokémon. C26 is quite young in many ways so it’s kind of a relief to see that this isn’t some kind of immature outlier vs what (at least some) other college kids will be into. I have noticed that when we go into example the Nintendo stores, a lot of the clientele looks like college age kids to D19 kind of age (though D19 and friends are into board games rather than Pokémon etc).
Thanks for sharing this, I had assumed they all had their dates released and we just didn’t know because D26 did not ED.
Spring break will have the admitted students visits I asked about earlier at both the beginning and the end, so no trips other than with us to visit schools. D26 and friends are talking about doing a trip at the end of the school year.
We just had D26s meeting with the RIT DSO office!
Just a warning- it was not what we were expecting- it was intense. We were not prepared.
(You may already have experience with this- this was our first go)
We went into this meeting with the assumption that it was going to be very collaborative group effort. Nope!!
Reminded me of an IEP meeting where we were fighting for the accommodations and they were the gate keeper’s vs helpers.
They were very polite and professional- but again- not what we were expecting. I had to take over for D26 (which I hated doing) but she was not able to read the room on what they were asking of her. (take someone with a communication disorder and then put pressure on them to communicate seems odd for an accommodation meeting 
)
She got what she was asking for and is now prepared for the next time she has to go to one of these- but dang!!! It was a rough half hour!
We have to schedule another one with the DAS office now for hearing related accommodations. Hopefully that goes smoother since she is now prepared!!
In our household, my husband is the one who is still into Pokemon… 
D26 has 14 schools that she won’t hear from until March. Most of the ones we haven’t seen yet are not driveable for us. Not sure what we’re going to do.
I think we may schedule a trip to MN (Carleton, Macalester, St. Olaf) and buy flights even though we haven’t yet heard from Carleton. And maybe plan something for Ohio (Kenyon, Oberlin, Wooster) at the beginning of April (during our spring break).
Not sure what to do about Grinnell, which I think she would like to visit if she gets in. And I think we’d only visit California if she gets into Pomona, which is very unlikely so I don’t want to spring for plane tickets at this point.
The rest (New England, NY, PA) we can drive to, so I guess we’ll play those by ear …
She might! Although she’s typically playing the games on her Switch/Switch 2 – I have no idea if those are collaborative or not. My D22 also plays, and she claims she can see how many hours her sister spent on the newest game they both got for Christmas – but I don’t think they’re actually playing together?
(I don’t pretend to understand how it works.)
They are also both deep into Zelda, and still Minecraft as well – although D26 tells me that she and her sister are into very different sides of the Minecraft streamer fandom. I have no idea what this means, LOL.
But D22 has a close friend who runs a Minecraft server out of his dorm room, and the whole friend group plays on said server. D26 sees this and is hoping to meet the same sort of people in college. (I suspect if she lands at a tech school, there will be no shortage of those kinds of people. 
)
Oh dude. If it’s okay, I’m going to DM you about this.
I have a colleague whose husband competes in Pokémon tournaments all around the world. It pretty much dictates their travel plans for the year. And they’re in their 40s! They seem to have a blast—Pokémon is for all ages 
We have two breaks, one in February and one in April, so no official spring break. These ever so conveniently fall around the same time as Cheersport and Worlds, so Atlanta and Orlando constitute our breaks. Good times. Last year, I took my son somewhere warm for a few days after Cheersport for a few days, but not sure we’ll logistically be able to make that happen this year due to work obligations/travel. Looking forward to being able to go somewhere besides those two places next year.
But yeah, $2300 is ridiculous. I’m not even sure what could be going on to make it that expensive.
Sorry to hear this. We did not have that experience at all with DS for undergrad or grad school. Good news is that once everything is set up it should all go smoothly. Hopefully once the student’s accommodations are set up and recognized as being appropriate and necessary, there will be more kindness and cooperation displayed. It is important that the student is comfortable working with the DOS office.
My husband plays D&D every other weekend.
Seems like you are in a similar boat to us. 4 of D26s top five schools are ones we don’t hear from until March. We also have some similar locations/schools, though our trip planning is the opposite. D26 applied to two of the Claremont’s which are both supposed to be targets for her (obviously not Pomona), so I will buy flight for there. But we’re in CA and can use points, so not a big risk. The east coast reach is one we have to wait on (and I don’t even know when their admitted students day is yet).
We have a similar problem - my daughter has applied to too many places to consider visiting or even make visit plans. And like you -we won’t hear from most of them until March. I think we are just going to have to make trips in early April and hope for the best!
We don’t have a Spring Break at all per se. They do get a couple days off in February and then one day in April. The senior trips are usually planned for the week after graduation, and usually within driving distance (typically Ocean City, MD).
In our household, that person is me!