Finding a ticket
So here's the deal with trying to buy tickets for an adoption. Skip to the end if you just want to hear the summary :)
Some airlines have adoption fares (Delta, Northwest, United, and British Airways were the ones I found). They offer about a 65% discount off the fare, and a 50% discount off the child's ticket.
If you go to Northwest's webiste right now, a round trip ticket from Chicago to Moscow is $700. This is a non-changable ticket. If you have to change your dates, it is a $200 fee. To get the adoption rate you need to get a changeable ticket which is significantly higher. The adoption ticket cost that NW quoted me was $2000 round trip per parent. So even if you have to change your non changeable ticket, it's cheaper than buying an adoption ticket right?
But - when you try to buy a one way ticket for your child to come home. The non adoption rate is $2500 and the adoption rate is $1000. So getting the whole adoption package would come to $5000 and the non-changeable internet package would be $3900. Then if you have to change your dates (more than likely) it would bump it up to $4500 total. Ouch.
So, I tried Aeroflot. They offered a $700 ticket round trip from NYC to Moscow and then a one way for Andrei for only $1200. We still had to buy tickets from Chicago to New York but it ended up being $3200. Much better. So I tried to book it online but they asked for Andrei's passport number, which we don't have. So I tried to call them and that was just a pain. The connection was bad and it was difficult to understand her English. So I gave up on that.
I tried a few other airlines, and could not get a good price on a one way ticket. Plus, it is impossible to book an unaccompanied minor online. And really, you can't tell the internet form that he's not unaccompanied, he's with us, but you can't book the ticket at the same time. Frusterating.
So what I did, and my advice is this - Find the cheapest one way ticket for your child that you can, and then just fly with that airline. I searched on Kayak.com and found a one way ticket from Moscow to Chicago with LOT Airlines for only $900. The round trip tickets for us were $1100. So total only a little over $3000. Also the layover was only 6 hours in Warsaw, not overnight. So I'm on the phone right now with LOT airlines (and have been for about 45 minutes) booking our flights. Then I will be done I hope.
Some airlines have adoption fares (Delta, Northwest, United, and British Airways were the ones I found). They offer about a 65% discount off the fare, and a 50% discount off the child's ticket.
If you go to Northwest's webiste right now, a round trip ticket from Chicago to Moscow is $700. This is a non-changable ticket. If you have to change your dates, it is a $200 fee. To get the adoption rate you need to get a changeable ticket which is significantly higher. The adoption ticket cost that NW quoted me was $2000 round trip per parent. So even if you have to change your non changeable ticket, it's cheaper than buying an adoption ticket right?
But - when you try to buy a one way ticket for your child to come home. The non adoption rate is $2500 and the adoption rate is $1000. So getting the whole adoption package would come to $5000 and the non-changeable internet package would be $3900. Then if you have to change your dates (more than likely) it would bump it up to $4500 total. Ouch.
So, I tried Aeroflot. They offered a $700 ticket round trip from NYC to Moscow and then a one way for Andrei for only $1200. We still had to buy tickets from Chicago to New York but it ended up being $3200. Much better. So I tried to book it online but they asked for Andrei's passport number, which we don't have. So I tried to call them and that was just a pain. The connection was bad and it was difficult to understand her English. So I gave up on that.
I tried a few other airlines, and could not get a good price on a one way ticket. Plus, it is impossible to book an unaccompanied minor online. And really, you can't tell the internet form that he's not unaccompanied, he's with us, but you can't book the ticket at the same time. Frusterating.
So what I did, and my advice is this - Find the cheapest one way ticket for your child that you can, and then just fly with that airline. I searched on Kayak.com and found a one way ticket from Moscow to Chicago with LOT Airlines for only $900. The round trip tickets for us were $1100. So total only a little over $3000. Also the layover was only 6 hours in Warsaw, not overnight. So I'm on the phone right now with LOT airlines (and have been for about 45 minutes) booking our flights. Then I will be done I hope.
Labels: Adoption
posted by Tracy at 5:05 PM
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