Weddingbee boards

@kiddosc: I am planning to buy tickets on Southwest to visit my sister when her baby is born. Southwest is the only airline I know of that lets you get credit for a cancelled flight. Whenever you cancel a flight, the credit immediately is deposited into your account - you can then go and buy a new ticket a few minutes later and enter the confirmation # for the other flight in the box that asks if you're applying credit from another ticket. The only thing is that if you do this really close to the date, the new flight may be a lot more expensive. The only way around that (that I know of) is to buy multiple tickets and cancel the one(s) that aren't needed, saving the credit for another trip down the road.

Also, if your parents have frequent flyer tickets, this would be a good time to use them. Many of them do not charge change fees or have minimal change fees (depends on the airline).

Finally, they could buy fully changeable/refundable tickets, but often they are super pricey.

ETA - Priceline sometimes has good last minute fairs but you can't control the times, only the day and the airport. 

Nothing that I have found, we are running into the same issue.  It is so varied as to when the baby can and actually will arrive.  We aren't counting on much help right away, but do want my husband's parents to see their grandson as soon as possible.  They literally live all the way across the country from us, so driving is not an option.  Mine are only a couple of hours away, but I'm still not expecting them to be around for a long period of time.

We are basically going by that our boy has been consistantly a week ahead in growth, so are planning my husband's paternity leave and his parents visit by that, about a week before our due date (I'm small so if this kid is huge, hopefully it will mean an early induction, and not waiting a week past my due date). 

They have booked with Southwest, so at least they advertise no fees to change the flight, but I'm sure there will still be a fare difference that is hefty if it needs to be done.  

@regberadaisy: Southwest credit - so it's not a refund, the money is just held for you to use at a later date. It may have a 2 year expiration date.

ETA - maybe it's a little sneaky (?) but I always check Southwest fares after I purchase a SW ticket... if the price goes down (which happens sometimes), I cancel my original ticket and use the credit to buy the cheaper ticket. The difference stays in my account and I apply it to my next trip...

@regberadaisy: I just looked at SW's rules. The unused flight credit has to be used within 12 months. The same person has to use the credit - it can't be given to someone else. The itinerary can be completely different though, so they'd just have to be planning to go somewhere within 12 months. SW also sells fully refundable tickets ($ back to original form of payment) but those tickets are more expensive than their cheaper "wanna get away" fares.