[vickibunni]

I hope someone can help me with this question. We found some pretty cheap airline tickets through an online well known booking place. We are waiting though to hear if our travel dates are approved before booking them. Sometimes we don't hear back about approved travel dates for a few days though depending on how busy our agency is and how long it takes them to get back to us. I hate for these tickets to go up in the meantime though. The tickets out of our preferred airport have been over 600 for a long time now. I just checked this morning and they are $398 with ALL taxes included. I would hate to miss out on this travel deal if we don't hear back right away from our agency. I don't want to book them though and find out that these dates wont work and we can't see our baby during these dates. I know with discount online places that you cant put like a 24 hour hold on them and that is why online places have the tickets for so much cheaper. Is there any travel agents who can get these same great online rates, but who can put tickets on hold? Has anyone ever done this? The flight is through Delta. Not sure if that makes a difference or not. I was also hoping to wait a few days before we booked since I just had my second back surgery again recently and I am not sure if I will be recovered enough yet. Is this something that the travel insurance would cover if we bought it? If we booked and bought the travel insurance and then I wasn't recovered enough from my surgery would that cover something like this or would it only cover a last min heart attack or something more severe for the travel Insurance to work? I really really want to make this second visit trip work out for us. I have been so depressed between having two back surgeries in 6 weeks. It seems as if we are NEVER going to get out of PGN. I just don't feel like I have the strength to go on in this adoption. We have been waiting 96 days now in PGN. We were in for almost 11 weeks before we finally got kicked out for a more updated medical for the baby. Our medical would be updated if they weren't taking so long. Our new resubmit date isn't until July 11th. So it is going to be a really long time until we will even hear anything. NOTHING has gone right with this adoption. We waited for over 13 weeks just for DNA auth. We got stuck in the slow family court. Nothing has gone right for us. I just don't know how much more of this I can take. I miss her so bad. My 2 year old cries for her most nights. Asking me when "Her baby" can come home. My back problems and the pain from it have been so horrible and then you put all of this adoption stuff on top of it and I don't know how much more I can take of this. just don't know how I can make it through this without my heart breaking into two every single day. I just don't understand how some can get home babies so much younger than ours. It is just so unfair. I know that things take time and I know that not everything in life is perfect, but cant we even get one little break in this process? It especially kills me when my 2 year old cries for her baby sister. I really really think that visiting again would give me a bit of my hope back and I need that so badly right now. If anyone has ANY ideas at all I would really appreciate it. Money is tight, otherwise just booking the trip and taking our chances would be a no brainer.

Thanks for any and all help because I am feeling very desperate right now,
Vicki

[Aidensparents]

We were able to book thru Delta on an adoption plan and they give you up to a year to play with the tickets. We had to change them 3 times before our pickup trip. I would personally go to the airport with your info on the price and see what they can do about the adoption discount and so forth.

[vickibunni]

We cant just go to the airport and see about the tickets because the airport is almost a 4 hour drive for us. This would not work for us. How did you get the adoption fare? Did you have to do this in person? Is it expensive? Sounds like it would cost a lot more than the $398 web fare special they are having. I really really want to go see her again because I just miss her sooo bad. Thanks for any additional help.

[Rhody]

We just did this, so I can tell you, yes, the adoption fare tickets offered by the airlines are more expensive than what you might find on Internet sites.
I guess the advantage is you can change them without penalty. Because we had to make plans quick for pickup, they ended up working best for us.
You might want to call the airline first, that's what we did, and talk to them about it. We were able to place a hold on the tickets for like 48 hours, but we had to go to the airport and provide them with a copy of our 171 to prove we were adopting. (I'm sure you could arrange to fax it too.)
Also, our son's lap seat tickets could not be issued electronically for some reason, so we did have to go there to pick it up, and provide his DOB, name, etc.

[scoobs]

Vicki, please pm me where you found the great deal. We are in Wisconsin too and are planning a visit trip in September. The prices we were quoted through Delta are much higher. Are you flying from Milwaukee or Chicago?

[luv2teach2]

I would never get the adoption fair on Delta, it was 360$ on the ticket I just booked on Delta yesterday for my pick-up next week, and the ticket I got is refundable. I originally booked on Tuesday and the fare was $700 and then yesterday I saw the fair went down almost more then 200$ so they re-booked me. The adoption fare would have cost me over 800$ (although you can change with with no penalty but the cost is pretty much added in). It is a matter of preference, but I always go for the cheaper flight

[JillnChris]

Call the airline that you are booked on. Most likely your tickets are non-refundable but you can probably pay a fee to have them changed to a different day.

[DPline]

My understanding is that the adoption fares can only be used for pickup, not visits. Yes, in some cases, flights can be changed for a fee, but it all depends on the details of the ticket type and through the online sites might be very different than buying through the airlines. I would think you would have to contact the site, or read the fine print of the tickets to know for sure.

I am going to PM you with some place else you might try.

[yaddakal]

We just booked regular tickets on Contiental's website. I called the girl at Continental and we found it was cheapest to book the seats at the offered discountated rate, then if our plans change we will have to pay $100 pp penalty, and then we could take any continental flight anywhere within one year. It sounds like a lot, but the refundable/adoption rate tickets were about $1800 for the two of us! Yikes!

I would call the airline.

Good luck, Kerry