[saigehen]

ok I know the airlines have adoption specials... but they are really a bunch of crap... for those who have traveled... did you buy your childs ticket when you left the country(kazak) and if so.... how much was it and what airline did you take. Who did you use?

The one way fares I have been quoted...even adoption specials out of Almaty... are around 4000 per child and we are looking to bring two toddlers home. How could we ever afford that? So an agent told me that we could purchase their tickets over there to come home at a discount. BUT WHAT IS THAT DISCOUNT? Isnt that risky?>

I did figure out that I could purchase a roundtrip ticket home for the boys and it the same price as our ticket instead of paying a one way fare. Problem being it is hard to change an outbound flight if we need to (can get very expensive) and what if the boys dont end up coming home with us...and we have two tickets in the wrong name
HELP HELP HELP
I have like 24 hours to figure this out...anyone who traveled home with toddlers tell me what you did please!

[JuleQuin]

When we came home in Dec. 2005, we paid $275 out of Almaty. Checking tickets before we left, it would have cost us $800!!!!!!!!

Check with your agency, mine gave me the awesome advice to book there and save the $$$$$$.

[JenniferKaz]

I bought my ticket over there because we did not have a name when we left America.

I flew Lufthansa, booked through United, and it was about $900 in June.

I flew on the adoption fare, and stupidly bought my son's ticket on the adoption fare too. That was a problem because they had to issue paper tickets and mail to it my home in America.....apparently United did not see the flaw in their plan being that I was in Kazakhstan (they pronounced it KaZAKuhstan repeatedly). So it was another $50 to $100 for my husband, who came home after court, to Fed Ex the tickets over.

My son was just under 12 months and I bought him his own seat. For one leg of the trip we had a bassinet which was awesome since it was the middle of the night and he slept,so the empty seat was just used to store all my stuff for easy access during the flight. The second leg he was wide awake and I was not able to get a bassinet, so he screamed the whole flight, and the empty seat I bought for him was just a buffer between us and the unlucky lady on the 3rd seat.

[Haymamma]

I've heard many buy their ticket home while in Kaz. That is what I am planning to do. A lot easier since you know better over there when you will be traveling, not to mention cheaper.

[channett]

Sorry about such a late post to the originial question, but I hope this helps other prospective parents. We used Golden Rule Travel - Eldo Miller is the Kazakhstan specialist. He can get a good deal for adoption travels and can book last minute. He is also able to make any changes to your trip home if necessary.

One thing that really helped my 2 1/2 year old daughter on the trip home was a bag of Teddy Graham Crackers. She was not used to using a seat belt since she had probably never traveled in a car, and FYI they don't believe in using seat belts in Kazakhstan. (This makes for an interesting car ride at times!!) After I belted her in, when she began to complain I would give her a few Teddy Grahams. This seemed to work wonderfully. In fact I had everyone around us tell me how wonderful she traveled.

I know that this trick wont solve all the problems of traveling, but it really helped us.

Good luck in your journeys to find your special child!

Connie