Booking Plane Ticket for Interview vs. Waiting on other Schools

[filhodeinferno]

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Here's a good what would you do if you were in my situation:

I have an interview marked for a school on Dec. 11th. I am looking at airfare daily, and prices are holding pretty stead right now. I am also expecting to hear back from a school that is my top choice on first few days of December. If I got into this school, then I would officially be done interviewing. It's really a toss-up on whether or not I'll get in or not.

What would you all do in this situation? Would you just fork over the money and book the flight to interview at a backup school. Or should I wait until the top-choice school gets back to me and possible risk paying 100-200 dollars more for airfare in the event that I get rejected?

 

[PanicAttack]

I wouldn't turn down an interview until I had an acceptance in hand, that's just me. Depends on how many interviews you had, I guess. If this is #18 or something ridiculous, you're gonna get in somewhere, so no biggie.

If this would be your 2nd interview, the question is:
$100-$200 vs. applying again next year?

You might also be surprised by this "backup" school. Maybe not, I don't know what school it is.

Good luck!

 

[calimed214]

Can you buy a refundable ticket? And just get your money back if you get accepted to your top choice? If not, then that's tough -- you might have to pay $100-200 more later on, but at the same time, you'd be losing the value of the entire ticket if you end up not going to the interview... between those two choices, I would just wait to purchase.

 

[BlueElmo]

I would go to the interview. You never know if you got into your top choice or not. It's a few hundred dollars, but I would just swallow it rather than take chances.

 

[calimed214]

I think the OP will find out if he gets in or not before the interview.... but he's asking if he should wait until that point to purchase an airline ticket or purchase one now? Not if he should actually go to the interview or not.. Because in the event that he does get into his top choice, he'll be canceling the interview and thus lose out on the cost of the airfare. I would wait, because if he's 100% sure of his top choice, and ends up getting in, what's the point of going to the other interview.. and potentially "wasting" $ on not only airfare but hotel etc?

 

[FluffyRabbit]

Is P(you getting into your top choice) * Cost of ticket or (1 - P(you getting into your top choice)) * Price difference for waiting bigger?

 

[azrael87]

I would say book the flight. Never put all your eggs in one basket as they say. Look for airlines that will allow you to refund the ticket in some way. Besides, the day you're expecting to hear back from a school isn't necessarily anywhere near when you're actually going to hear back. The decision could be delayed until later in December.

 

[filhodeinferno]

Thanks for the input. Good to have some second opinions. I'll look into buying a refundable ticket, but I've never heard of any airline doing this kind of deal. Has anyone found an airline that has refundable tickets?

 

[partinerns]

Book the flight, do the interview. You never know exactly what a school will be like before you actually go see it. You may be pleasantly surprised by what you see at the school that's not your top choice. If the school doesn't wow you, simply withdraw and help someone else out.

Moral of the story: don't sell yourself short by taking options away from yourself; this whole process takes enough options away from us as is 🙂.

Good Luck!

 

[azrael87]

I'm not sure if there's many good examples of fully refundable tickets. I think a few airlines will allow you to cancel the flight, but retain credit with them so that you can use it for a future flight. I think if you're a TrueBlue member, JetBlue does this. Sorry I don't more about this. I'm interviewing later in the cycle so I'll be finding out pretty soon, I guess.

 

[daisy44]

I would wait...but you know best if you will get into any of the places you've already interviewed at. I canceled 3 interviews 2-4 weeks in advance, and didn't book tickets for any of them. But I also had a pretty strong feeling I was going to get in before then. Luckily I was right and I saved a couple of hundred bucks!

 

[jla314]

i got a credit for an unused ticket with US Airways. what i did was buy travel insurance with the ticket (it cost like $13)...that way, when i canceled the flight, i was covered for the cost of a ticket towards another flight.

if you do this, make sure you read the terms and conditions of the travel insurance - some airlines will only refund you if you cancel on the day of the flight, for whatever reason.

 

[Untraditional]

Priceline.com, name your own price and fly redeye. You can just keep the $200 in the bank until you're sure.

 

[Parts Unknown]

Book the flight, do the interview. You never know exactly what a school will be like before you actually go see it. You may be pleasantly surprised by what you see at the school that's not your top choice. If the school doesn't wow you, simply withdraw and help someone else out.

Moral of the story: don't sell yourself short by taking options away from yourself; this whole process takes enough options away from us as is 🙂.

Good Luck!

Best advice. 👍

 

[TeamZissou]

If you fly using southwest you can cancel and you get your money back as a credit with them and can reuse it almost any time WITHOUT having to buy insurance and such. Very useful in canceling and rescheduling without losing out on money through fees.

 

[GoBeers]

why don't you just reschedule your interview?

I had a Dec. 11 interview too (probably at the same school as you) and am also waiting for one of my top choice school's decision.

I just called the school to change my interview to january 8. no big deal.

 

[URHere]

Thanks for the input. Good to have some second opinions. I'll look into buying a refundable ticket, but I've never heard of any airline doing this kind of deal. Has anyone found an airline that has refundable tickets?

If you are currently a student, check out studentuniverse.com. Their prices are typically cheaper than anything you can find through orbitz, airline sites, etc and most flights are fully refundable until a few days before your trip.

 

[nabeel76]

I would book the flight. Like somebody else has already said, you might not hear back from the school when you expect to and then you'd be forced to buy a super expensive last minute ticket. The refundable ticket route also seems like an option and if you do hear back prior to that date your set, you can cancel the ticket.

Another strategy would be to see if you can call the school and change the interview date and push it back 1 or 2 weeks to buy yourself some more time. That way you can buy your self some time and you'll probably know about the other school by then. Not sure how that would affect your chances at this school though if you do this, I would ask around.

 

[NotSur]

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