Study Abroad Flight Issue

Parent Cafe
1

Freshman daughter at a Midwest school will be on a 10-day study abroad program in Europe, ending on Dec 23. We live in NJ, and her flight back stops in Philadelphia, where they have a three hour layover to change planes, to fly back to the college. I contacted the college to say we would like to pick her up in Philadelphia, to save her the hassle and cost of having to fly to the Midwest, only to have to then get on another plane to fly back east. We were told that this was not possible, since the group airfare rate they purchased was based on a roundtrip between the Midwest City and Europe, and that they like to keep the group together until the official “end” of the trip.

Has anyone ever run into this problem? I was just wondering if I should keep pursuing this, or drop it – thanks for any advice!!

2

Are you asking if she can just break away from the trip in Philly and not use the rest of her ticket? It is sometimes possible if they have gone through customs and if she only has carry on luggage.

3

@NNJMom If you are going to pay for the RT ticket @ the group rate anyway and your D would simply not be flying the last leg of her itinerary, then that seems totally appropriate and the school is being overly rigid. If you want to try purchasing her ticket yourself to exclude the last leg, then I can see why the school balked. If the former, I think I’d call the Dean of Students and have a conversation. The dean will have the authority to ask the program head to ease up on the demand that everyone fly together every single leg. If that fails, then honestly I think I’d simply show up at the airport in PHL and pick her up.

4

I have had trouble with connections so have left the airport to rent a car or hop on a train at the equivalent of PHL, and I have simply forfeited the rest of my ticket.

I would guess that your D could leave the airport after going through customs and immigration without any issue in spite of her ticket. This would not work if it were not the last leg of the trip, however.

The bigger question is whether it will cause problems with the school and their supervision requirements. I think you should pursue it. The only issue I can imagine you would have is if weather rerouted you to another aitport, such as Dulles. She would then continue to the Midwest without a flight home having been booked.

5

This surprises me. When one of mine came back frim China (and followed by break,) they split the final leg arrangements to make sense for kids living in different parts of the US. Any discount would be based on the total booked. Ime, not one passenger missing the Phila to Midwest leg.

Who’d you talk to? I don’t know how badly this really affects discounts for this particular group.

6

Thanks for all the replies! To answer some questions, we have purchased the RT between the college and Europe. The flight back consists of two legs - Europe to PHL, then PHL to college (different airlines). I have been in contact with the “Study Abroad Coordinator”. And yes, I have definitely considered just showing up and bringing her home - but I don’t want to cause any problems either.

7

Similar situation for my kid. School is in SC, we’re in Philadelphia suburbs. Itinerary was Germany to Newark to Charlotte. She spoke to the faculty member in charge of the trip and said she’d like to get picked up in Newark rather than continuing on to Charlotte where the trip formally ended. At least one other student did the same. The faculty member talked to the travel arrangement people and they issued their tickets so EWR was the final stop. That way her luggage was taken off the plane in EWR (as others have mentioned, yor D can’t just toss the ticket for the final leg if she has checked luggage, as that will be ticketed through to the Midwest airport).

Maybe if your D approaches whoever is in charge, they’ll understand the logic of her request and can “overrule” the policy of the study aboard office. In my D’s case, the faculty member ran this particular trip every two years and seemed to have a fine reputation, so maybe he had some extra clout–but it’s worth having her ask.

8

Sounds like the person you are talking to lacks imagination and problem solving skills. It just doesn’t make sense to say no. I’d kick it up a level if that is all you are getting as a response but I’d have your daughter try to steer the ship. A well thought out, logical email might help (not sure how you approached it the first time). Sometimes making a case in writing and explaining the logic of it all can be beneficial.

9

Agree with all the previous comments. I’d just add if you don’t get “official” blessing, you can always have your D talk to whoever the chaperone is for the trip. I’m assuming there’ll be some official school representative travelling with the group and taking a headcount at each stop. Your D can just ask them if they’re ok with you picking her up at the Philly airport and hopefully they’ll say yes.

Luggage might be an issue, but typically you’d collect your bags and clear customs in the airport where an international flight lands. Then you re-check it to the domestic connection. That would be the perfect time for your D to meet you in the terminal and the school’s chaperone could even see for themselves that she’s meeting her parents.

10

When my daughter studied abroad, she just ditched the flight in the layover city. That was actually in Europe, where she was on her own - she just got off the plane in Frankfurt, left the airport and got on a train to Paris. She had previousliy made other arrangements to ship her large luggage home, so she only had carry on with her. She did let others in her group know what she was doing, so no one would freak out when she didn’t show up to board. Of course there was no refund for the last leg of the trip (Frankfurt to NYC) – and she didn’t expect one. If anyone was upset about it later, I never heard about it. She spent the rest of the summer traveling around Europe.

My daughter’s study abroad program was through a different college than the college she attended, so there really wasn’t anyone she was going to have to deal with post-trip.

I think my daughter had asked about other arrangements at some point and probably been told that it wasn’t possible to arrange in advance.

11

What is international arrivals/connections area like at PHL? To our horrified surprise this past summer, we found that we were entirely past security at BOS after clearing customs and dropping off the one checked bag for forwarding onto the next flight. Not only did we have to catch a bus to another terminal, but we had to quickly re-organize the duty-free liquor into a relatively sturdy carry-on bag and get that checked before getting ourselves back through security.

12

I supervised a study abroad program one summer, so I am voting for going through “official” channels in as polite a way as possible to get your D reticketed to end in Philadelphia.

I know it seems like a trivial matter to just have your D grab her luggage and leave when she gets to Philadelphia- but a staff person is likely going to lose his or her job when the “count” at the final airport doesn’t match up with the “count” when the group boarded in Europe.

Crazy? Yes. Your D is an adult. But these programs are specifically marketed as being run by the college and supervised by the college (even when they hire ringers- as I was- to supervise). Someone’s job is on the line here, whether or not that person is actually on the plane with the students, or just managing logistics from another location.

You can’t imagine how stressful it was dealing with every family’s personal issues- joining late, leaving early;kid shows up with $1K cash because “my parents don’t believe in credit cards-so here’s my spending money for you to take care of”; kid showing up with five different medications in a big ziplock bag, no prescription bottles or dosage instructions, nothing on the medical clearance form about allergies, should they be taken on a full stomach/empty stomach, are there side effects?; kid who refuses to do the prepaid meals with the group and then the parents go ballistic when they see the credit card, etc.

Do some nice, well meaning staff person a favor- get your D’s itinerary changed and approved in advance by someone with the authority to change it, and know you haven’t stuck the travel staff with one more headache which could end badly.

What if there’s bad weather and the flight gets rerouted to Montreal, with the final leg directly to the college? Is your D going to get off in Montreal and walk home? No of course not. But the airline has zero obligation to get her to Philadelphia, OR to help her rebook without it costing her $400 extra because she doesn’t have a ticket which allows her to get off in Philadelphia. The rules governing who pays for what (like the meal vouchers, hotel room, etc.) are pretty clear- and if you are going to mess with your ticket, you lose the protection of the airline.

And trivial matter- but if your D’s suitcase doesn’t make it onto the original plane in Europe, the airline is required to get it to the final destination. Period full stop. So that suitcase won’t go anywhere NEAR Philadelphia if the next flight out goes through a different city. And if the suitcase sits in an airport at her college city for two weeks, and eventually “disappears” the airline is not required to reimburse you for the contents- their obligation was to get it to that airport- and they’ll have a scan and photo showing that they did. Your obligation was to pick it up in a timely manner which you did not do.

Get her rebooked to Philly and avoid all these potential hassles!

13

@blossom brought up so many good points. But if you re-ticket, aren’t you going to lose the savings of a RT ticket? In the US, we are getting use to one way tickets being the norm cause of airlines like Southwest and JetBlue setting that tone years ago and not charging more for them, but for overseas flights, round trips still rule the price tag for many airlines. Not that this has to happen, but I have one that travels a lot and we re-ticketed a return from an overseas flight to do something similar to save a connection/flight, and his bag continued on a world tour on its own. We sorta new that was a risk. But did get it a week later.

14

Ime, the price advantage is advance booking the return.
I agree you can’t just grab your luggage and disappear. But you could make Phila the terminus. If you can find permission.

15

Armed with all of this good information, I will contact the college again and try to get her re-ticketed to end in PHL. Or…maybe I will ask her to do it in person! Might be more effective (and a good learning experience).

16

Is she coming from Ireland? Both Dublin and Shannon have US customs in their airports and that greatly simplifies your arrival in the US. Stockholm and other cities have applied for this but I’m not sure whether it’s up and running yet.

The main thing to consider though is making sure any checked bags show up in Philly so she can collect them!

17

^^Yes, it might simplify customs but then the luggage will be checked through — unless this kid can do carry-on-only for a 10 day trip. It’s a life skill!

18

Luggage won’t be checked through if she’s clearing customs in PHL. She’ll have it in her possession for that process and be expected to give it back to the airport to get it checked through to the final destination. The “catch” will be if the origin airport does this.

19

Carry on luggage is the way to go! I never check a bag even when gone for weeks.

20

We did this on a HS trip. The umbrella program was rigid, but the individual supervising the kids was not, so we spoke to her. We told her our plan and when she saw that we did in fact show up and take our kid in person, so she made it work. She worried kid would be alone in a foreign airport, told us this concern, and so we knew if we didn’t appear to claim kid he would be flying home. I would think a college program would be more flexible.