<p>I have been watching prices fairly closely. I noticed that for the route that I need to purchase prices began to rise yesterday, and I noticed a couple of flights indicated that they were sold out at the lower airfare. I ended up being lucky enough to be able to snag a RT ticket at the lower fare from a different airline than the one I had my eye on. My first choice had a sudden price increase.</p>
<p>But unless you know your child’s schedule or they get the whole week off booking a flight now might be a bit iffy. My daughter was able to leave Tuesday instead of Wednesday, it was very worth the extra $50 to me. Not only was she home a day earlier, it also made it less stressful with both plane traffic and delays and also car traffic getting to and from the airport.</p>
<p>My opinion is to wait until your child has completed their first week of classes and make sure they ask the appropriate professors when they can leave.</p>
<p>Good point, amtc. Actually, my son will be off for the whole week and he has a class schedule already. I double checked with admissions to see if that absolutely would be his schedule prior purchasing airline tickets. If my son decides to change his schedule for some reason, I can’t see why the flights that I booked would not work for him.</p>
<p>My son also has a long a weekend off in October. I did not purchase tickets for October because prices won’t rise rapidly at that time, and I don’t know if he will want to stay on campus rather than fly home. I will give him a choice.</p>
<p>A good idea would be to set up a search on Yapta to track airfares on specific flights & dates. I am finding airfares are quite high right now. No clue if they will drop over the next few months. One fallout of the recession is fewer flights, so when demand picks up for the holidays, expect to pay higher prices.</p>
<p>nj2011mom, Yapta seems interesting. I never heard of it before. Thanks. </p>
<p>I am satisfied with airfare that I am paying, as I have been following the fare for months already. I did notice that fares with one airline that I was following jumped about $75 RT overnight (on the route I was watching). That was a signal to me, to book at the lower rate with another airline! If the fare falls over the Thanksgiving period, and I doubt that it will, it won’t be much of a fall from the rate that I have locked in.</p>
<p>I’m still waiting for Southwest to open up the T’day dates. Right now you can only book through Nov. 5th.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Southwest does not work for us. I wish it did!</p>
<p>I booked D’s Thanksgiving flights in February. The price might not have been rock-bottom, but it was reasonable and I was able to get the non-stop flight I wanted at the time I wanted. I figured that was worth an extra $50 - $100. I worry more about the airfare when I’m booking for the family (4 tickets) than when I’m only booking one ticket.</p>
<p>Only downside - I’ve gotten 4 emails changing her flight times since I booked it. Her return flight now leaves 1 1/2 hours earlier than it originally did, had I known that was going to happen I might have put her on the later flight. Her flight home now leaves 2 hours later, which will be a good thing if it turns out she has a class that afternoon.</p>
<p>lafalum, if they change the time, can you exchange the flight for one with a time that is better without incurring fees, assuming a seat is available for the same price? For example, could you exchange the flight going back for one that leaves 1.5-2 hours later since the airline changed the return time (if available)?</p>
<p>lafalum: I have had this issue with schedule changes on airlines; if you call and tell them that your daughter HAS to be home for an event on that Sunday and that they were the ones who changed their schedule (not you) they will probably let you book on the later flight without a change fee…</p>
<p>we had this happen last year when we were attending a family function in California…not sure if there is a cut-off of when they will waive the fee though ( in other words, do they have to change their schedule by 2 hours? 1.5 hours? etc)</p>
<p>This is actually a cheap lesson for me about not scheduling the flight 3 hours after a last class! Thanks for the heads up about flight time changes. I never even took that into consideration.</p>
<p>There’s only 2 non-stops from our city to her campus on Sunday, the afternoon flight she’s on and an evening flight. I don’t want to switch her to the last flight of the day - any delays and she’ll miss the shuttle van the college runs to her campus (and the airport is 45 minutes away from campus… don’t wanna pay that taxi fee!) She was supposed to leave at about 2:45 and now she’s leaving at 1:20 - not a big deal, but I just wanted every possible moment at home with her (especially since I think she’s planning on spending every available minute with her BF… assuming they stay together of course).</p>
<p>I know, it sounds awful–but consider letting your child stay at school for Thanksgiving instead of flying home. The airports are jammed, delays are common–and they’re coming home a few weeks later, again…</p>
<p><<cringes in=“” horror!!!=“”>></cringes></p>
<p>Lafalum: that wasn’t directed at you… It was a general comment. After my son spent two whole days of the four days he had off coming home for Thanksgiving his freshman year, he swore he’d never do it again. And that made sense to me.</p>
<p>This is why I am very happy that son’s school gives them the whole week. My son is not flying back on Sunday for the reasons stated by dmd77.</p>
<p>Honestly, by October I will be counting down days til I see my son. It would be too hard for me to deal with waiting that extra 3 weeks. Also, to be completely honest, I really like the feeling of sending him back to school knowing that I will see him again 3 weeks later and that he’ll be home for 3 weeks. LOL, his grandmother jokes about the school year becoming shorter and shorter while the tuition climbs.</p>
<p>interesting idea; maybe we will spend Thanksgiving wherever our daughter attends school; that way, we can arrive early and leave late…she will probably have a break in October when she can come home; may not be a bad idea actually?</p>
<p>definitely something to think about…hmmmmm</p>
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<p>I know that my son would hate this idea. He would deal with it, but under great protest. He knows his hs friends will be home from college and he will want to socialize with them. He will also want to be in our home, having missed it. He’ll want me to cook and he’ll want to take a few hot showers in his old bathroom, and sleep in his old bedroom. The main reason for his being unhappy will be not seeing his friends from hs.</p>
<p>Oh, and I know all of this because we were thinking of going somewhere for Thanksgiving, other than having it in our home. That’s not going to happen.</p>
<p>I had my son come home for Thanksgiving last year. He was a freshman, and I think he would have felt awful if he stayed at school. Getting home allowed him a chance to unwind before he had finals and it reminded him that we all loved him. Maybe that extra expense wouldn’t be necessary in his sophomore-senior years, but it was very important for his first year.</p>
<p>Now that we’ll have both of our kids in the same area, we’re flying there for Thanksgiving. Our schedules are far more flexible, and we’ll enjoy going someplace sunny. Our freshman D is a little sad that she won’t have that chance to come home and see friends, but she’ll be home a few weeks later, so this should be fine.</p>
<p>I agree that fares seem higher now. Certain routes I’m interested in have far less competition than in the past, so prices have shot up.</p>