Open airline tickets used to cost double what a coach class ticket costs. Refundable, meaning , without a change fee ticket also costs more than a regular coach class ticket. Change fees start at $50 a ticket and go up from there. They give you a year to rebook. I was a travel agent for 4 years......but would I buy an open ticket. No. Change fees are fine with me. I'm holding 2 tickets now that I did not use. Note: You have to call the airline before the flight to let them know your not using them & you want to hold them for 1 year.

LOL Well, lindsey, obviously it can be done....having an itinerary and not memorizing or committing the airline to membory for four months. My friend also also missed the news about the bankruptcy. That happens on sheep ranches. Even if she had known the name of the airline, it wouldn't have done her any good. Her money was gone and that's a shame. She works very hard for what she earns. I used to have a great travel agent but she retired. She booked our honeymoon, several anniversary trips and the big one to Hawaii on our tenth. But could a really good agent foresee this happening? With the exception of one trip, each was booked several months in advance for the best savings. We've considered booking an Alaskan cruise for early next fall but now I don't know. With the rising cost of not just fuel but everything else, even the most solvent airline could be out of business in just a few months. What's the name of your agent IG? Would she book for a person clean across the country? LOL Lori

Poor Snidely, living west coast and flying to any island in Hawaii nonstop in only five hours! LOL We have at least a 14 hour travel day from Chicago. It's worth the hassle to have the long leg (nine hours) in first on a 767 -- especially if I can lie nearly flat and be able to sleep on the redeye returns. I'm OK in a coach seat for about three hours before I start sighing. Fran -- There's only 'coach' and 'first' on our flights Chicago-Maui, but the 'first' is more like what's called 'business' on transatlantic flights. I see that our fake return has us on an old MD80 Chicago-Dallas, but on a B321 on the return. That aircraft seems to have three classes, and we will be in 'business' as far as I can tell (pairs of slightly canted seats along the aisle). The 'first' cabin has single seats along the central aisle. Coach is three and three facing forward. Rob -- No, I didn't hear the pitch for flying US Airways, but the very first message asks if I want to hear all about the merger. (Not.) Your boss probably has a gazillion miles, and they want to wipe them off their books. When I select a coach flight online I do get prompted to "Upgrade to First for only..." Then I see I can pay twice the price of coach if I want to buy First. (Not.) We are retired Seniors whose miles come from CC purchases and miles flown once a year Chicago-Maui (8K roundtrip). At our stage in life we aren't buying (charging) a lot of things, but we've managed to keep enough miles in the kitty to use them for upgrades on our annual winter trip. It's only become a struggle to find the upgrades in recent years. (We aren't profitable or important to the airline -- not frequent flyers.) I attribute the problem to there being tons of newly retiring Boomers -- more competition for the upgrades and some willing to buy first outright. Thanks to you all for letting me vent! Remind me that you've already heard it all if I go nuts trying to get our returns set for March 2016 -- when the AA calendar opens.

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