Plane ticket PSA

[creekland]

For anyone not used to trips home, etc, and with kids who fly, this is a PSA to be looking at Christmas tickets now.  MAKE SURE they check out when their finals are first - check the syllabus, not just a course catalog.  Some profs do their own thing.

 

I was just able to get middle son a ticket home for $90.  If I waited until their "early buys" were either sold out or timed out the same flight would cost me $240.  $90 is far less expensive than we could do the trip driving.  $240 would put driving cheaper, but 12 hours on the road isn't always "fun."

[Giraffe]

The deals are now, definitely. Looking for DH's ticket home too.

[Kareni]

Try not to book your child on the last flight of the day returning home.  During a college visit, my daughter's first flight arrived too late for her to catch her connecting flight home, and she ended up spending the night in the airport before catching a noon flight home the next day.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Laura in CA]

Good advice! Thank you, Creekland & Kareni. This is definitely new territory for us, and the reminder is much appreciated.

 

Surrogate son (at UCSC) is an easy drive or bus trip away. Ds1 is a 12+-hour drive away -- same length trip as yours, Creekland! Yes, definitely not always "fun" ... plus our route goes over the Sierras, which in December could require chains, delays, etc. ... making it much, much longer and infinitely more harrowing ... We are looking into flights right now!

[Gwen in VA]

I'm envious that some routes have special deals. I asked dd to look, and she said the current rates for around Christmas start at about what we paid in early December for her trip home last Christmas! Oh well!

[creekland]

If possible, check out the budget airlines that do not show up on Expedia and similar websites.  You have to go to their site yourself.  The one we like the best is Southwest.  They still allow 2 free checked bags along with far cheaper flights.  They don't fly into our closest airport, but it's only half an hour longer to get to the one they do fly into.

 

Air Tran is another, but they don't allow free checked bags.

 

Head to the airport website for the airport closest to your student and see what airlines fly out of there.  If there's a budget airline (or two), see where they fly.

 

It likely won't work for everyone, but when it works, it's a nice cost savings.

 

I just plugged in the same date/time in Expedia to compare.  The cheapest they offer is $142 and 1 stop.  Southwest had nonstop for $90.  That's more than a 50% increase in cost if I hadn't known to check Southwest's site itself.  Southwest just does not subscribe to the "group check" travel search sites.

[Giraffe]

I always check the airlines' websites directly and Expedia. The airlines almost always win. And Southwest doesn't participate in Expedia.

[creekland]

 And Southwest doesn't participate in Expedia.

Most (maybe all?) budget airlines do not.  This wasn't something I realized until a couple of years ago when someone clued me in.  I'm just passing on the info in case others also do not know yet.  ;)

 

Back in our "economy is good" travel days we just went to Kayak or Orbitz or Expedia to check for decent flights - then would usually go to the airline to actually purchase the ticket unless it was a special package.  Since then, I've found we love Southwest...  I still check one of the search engines, but have yet to use one for flights since finding the budget lines.

[Miss Marple]

Also check STAtravel.com  It's a student discount travel site.  Often the prices are significantly lower than one can get using traditional travel websites.  We booked my son's trip to England through this for about 1/2 the other listed fares.  I do a lot of Priceline.com name your own price tickets which has also proved quite useful.  

[AK_Mom4]

For anyone not used to trips home, etc, and with kids who fly, this is a PSA to be looking at Christmas tickets now.  MAKE SURE they check out when their finals are first - check the syllabus, not just a course catalog.  Some profs do their own thing.

 

I was just able to get middle son a ticket home for $90.  If I waited until their "early buys" were either sold out or timed out the same flight would cost me $240.  $90 is far less expensive than we could do the trip driving.  $240 would put driving cheaper, but 12 hours on the road isn't always "fun."

 

Gosh - I wish I could fly DD19 home for $90.  Or even $240!  Round trip (I'm watching closely) is over $750 right now.  Arrrgggggh.

 

 

Actually I can't complain - we don't pay any of her college expenses, so we do pick up the airline tickets for her for Christmas and summer break.  And she gets to come home for Thanksgiving this year because she earned enough miles for $5 tickets.  I got those this morning - moving early on it since there are very few mileage seats available.