Travel Fares?

Adoption fares are NOT usually the lowest fares. The discount is off the "rack rate" (that is, the highest price that is offered for a class of service, before any discounts), and not off the fares you see on the Internet, which are already discounted heavily. Many times, you will find a lower rate by going out on the Internet and looking at sites like Expedia and Travelocity, or sites sponsored by individual airlines. The one thing that's good about some, but not all, adoption fares is that they "may" allow you to get "unrestricted" fares instead of "restricted" ones. An unrestricted fare is one where you don't pay a penalty if you have to change the date or time of your flight, or if you cancel completely. Restricted fares are those that impose penalties if you have to move your flight back a week or stay longer in country, or if you have to cancel completely. Since adoption timetables can be uncertain, and problems can occur, many people opt for either unrestricted fares or fares with the fewest restrictions possible, even if they cost a little more. Sharon

We used Golden Rule travel and were very happy with them! We got a great rate (cheaper than I could find). We did have a couple extra layovers but the price was so good it was worth it.

We found that by CALLING (not using a travel agent or the web) we got a better adoption rate from a few airlines. However, PAT tours found us a good deal on SAS which was unrestricted for the kids and restricted for us, so if we had changes, we'd have to pay only for our own tickets. You may have to make a reservation for yourselves and "associate" a one-way reservation for children rather than try to do it all on one, to get the best deal.

Here is my advice, you will have to find your own airfares. We found cheaper by getting the child a round trip ticket (he just never used the second half to go back to Poland) And when I did have to change my flight because of issues with paperwork causing me to need to stay longer, my husband (who had already gone home) was able to get it changed over the phone on his end rather than me trying to do it in Poland. Here is my biggest advice. If you can't get a direct flight, do your plane changing in Europe, not the US, you want your first landing in the US to be your final destination. Because you have to go through the immigration line, and not the citizen line (because the kids are traveling on Polish passports, not us) it can take a while. So if you have a layover in the US you want to give yourself plenty of time for that, but a long layover makes the trip longer and it may be hard with kids. So I planned so that I had a shorter layover in Europe and then when the immigration stuff took a long time, I was not worried about missing a connection. Just keeping the child from getting bored, but also knowing that once we got through my family was waiting and I could rest!

You don't have to go through the non-citizen line. USCIS put us through the U.S. Citizen line, no problem. The embassy told us to pick the line which was shortest, and the officers on the ground in the U.S. did the same. Now, that said, the process IS longer because the kids are non-citizens. Depending on their ages, too, you may have to do biometrics, which can take a little longer. It's VERY good advice, however, to make your first landing in the U.S. your final destination. It's far, far easier to change planes in Europe or Canada or wherever than it is through the United States.

I have heard both non-citizen and citizen line. I've resigned myself to "wait and see" when I get there and try to talk them into letting me into the shortest line.Great advice on the final destination--I hadn't thought of that when we ordered our tickets but it really doesn't matter after all as we live in Oklahoma and, trust me, there are no direct flights to our airport from Europe or Canada. LOL I'm pretty sure I'll be happy just to be in the US with my new little guy. We have almost four hours between flights and I am hoping that that is enough to deal with Immigration and customs.