BootsnAll Travel Community

What is the cheapest way to get a plane ticket last minute (as in, within hours of needing to travel)?

Buy one for an earlier date and cancel it (but don't you still have to pay the difference then?)?

Fly standby?

Secret website for last minute flights??

My sister is going to have her baby any day now, but we live in Boston and she lives in Nashville. My mom planes to get on a plane from Boston to Nashville (or Providence to Nashville, whatever) the second my sister goes into labor. I'm going to go down the weekend immediately following, so I'll have a couple of days to book the flight, but still short notice.

Any suggestions??

cheap last minute standby doesn't really exist anymore. To be honest, it's not going to be cheap. If you have miles, you may want to consider using it on that.

You could also drive by car. Roadtrip! (It's only 1,100 miles)

(Fun fact: Nashville is one the of the largest cities in the US that is not served by passenger train.)

Unfortunately, for my miles I have to book 14 days out, and my mom doesn't have any.

As for driving, it's an 18 hour drive. Too long for me to do just for the weekend (I'm driving it in June when I go down for the whole summer) and also too long for my mom to make it down before the baby is born! That is, of course, unless my sister is stricken with a horribly long labour!

I did find decent prices on lastminutetravel.com, after I posted this. Using today's date I could fly PVD to BNA for less than $400... not bad!

You could also book, and then change it if necessary, paying the change fee.

It's too late now for miles, but if she pops out another one...usually the change fee's only 100$ or so.

Or get your sis to schedule birth. It's all the rage I hear

you could try craigslist. People are always selling their miles and free flights they have on there. One of my friends does this ALL the time and it always works out. I used to live in Boston and I know their craigslist is great so you might find something on there.