Thanksgiving travel - should I book a one-way ticket?
 

A familiar situation for parents of college kids. Dtr will be flying home (Raleigh/Durham to Boston) for some period of time over Thanksgiving - and start dateis not known to her yet. Usual fare for this route is $225-300 RT. In past it has always been the heading home part of the ticket that presents a time problem - they never actually know until Oct/Nov when they can actually leave school and the time home is so short that a day or 2 makes a huge difference. Last year we booked Mon-Sun and found she could actually leave school the Friday before the holiday.

I found a one-way fare non-stop BOS-RDU for the Sunday afternoon after Thanksgiving for $150. Since there is 99% certainty she will return to school on this date, what are your thoughts about booking trip as 2 one-way tickets - buying this one now and waiting on the other? She will have some flexibility on the trip north - so I am hoping I can catch another one-way deal on a separate one-way ticket for that part of the trip.

Sunday after Thanksgiving is traditionally a busy day so if you can get a return ticket back to school I would take it ASAP. There is going to be alot of service cutbacks after September so if you find a fare that you think is right then grab it.

I agree with dutyfree. And that's not a bad fare at all for one way.

gail - we have the same issue. But just curious - hasn't the school already published their schedule for the fall? Or does she have to deal with exams?

The university will have set its calendar, but individual courses won't have a syllabus ready yet. The question is what activities courses have going the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, which I assume are scheduled class days. As someone who used to teach at the university level, I always found it amusing and annoying when students assumed they could take those days off, no quetsions asked.

Dtr is sophomore. University is excellent about listing when Thanksgiving break starts and ends, along with all sorts of official warnings to both parents and students about penalties for skipping classes, etc. Dtr also has syllabus for each class. So last year we followed all the rules and found that at the last minute (a week or 2 prior to Tgiving) individual professors cancelled, made optional, etc the final class prior to holiday - so she found she could actually leave 3 days earlier than was the official date. And friends reported that by Tuesday, campus was a ghost town, even though classes are held thru 6 PM Tues. Some professors wanted to travel as well! Since she is 1000 miles away, a day or 2 matters.

gail - thanks for clarification. Our daughter will be a senior and she hasn't experienced those last-minute issues that yours has (don't know whether that's good or bad) - they just seem to plug away until the last day. Maybe that's because they have the whole week off, so they know what their schedule is the Fri before. And she is 1,500 mi away so I sure understand how nice those extra days are.