My son is at Bama and has not been home for Thanksgiving since freshman year; it is just too short a time period for an expensive flight. I offered to bring him home this year despite the cost, but the travel time to and from the airport, layovers, etc. can make for a long day, so he chose not to come home.
I think the main thing to take away here is rethinking a college that is a plane flight away as being reasonable for travel time. I have seen that comment here a number of times that it is “just a short flight” away, but there is far more that goes into it than just the actual flight.