I would like to begin considering the airline ticket for travel home at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I understand how to do the return trip (needing to be back on base by 7pm) but I am unclear about the departure from campus. Can anyone give advice regarding the times to pick flights? I especially need to understand the "day" that a cadet is released. Thanks.
While DS was at USAFA, this applies to all the SA's for travel....you really need to wait to see what your schedule is. I know it goes against everyone's grain to not get tickets early, but for SA cadets you have to wait.
First of all, you need to make sure you make it through the summer -- not wishing anything bad on anyone, but things happen. Unless you purchase a refundable ticket, you will be out $$ if something happens.
Then there is your schedule matching with departure times, bus schedules, etc before you can plan anything. We had DS do all the planning and just paid for the ticket -- he knew what would and wouldn't work.
For Thanksgiving it's really tough as you don't have much time off; Christmas is a bit easier as you have more time off -- but even then things can change. For one, you need to find out your finals schedule - at USAFA you could leave after your last final, and often it was earlier than the last days of finals. One year we got a great deal on a ticket back to USAFA after Christmas, only to find out a few weeks before that he needed to be back earlier than the flight got in because he had squadron duties he had to be there for. So, we bit the bullet, paid the $$ and changed his flight, but we had to send him back a day earlier and he stayed with a local COS friend.
Not knowing where you live, I assume you are not bus distance away from USMA as you mention flights, but here in DC area, the WP Parents charter a bus to bring cadets home for the holidays -- makes things easy for everyone.