Here's the situation:

Wife is pregnant and due in August. Wants to have her mother come to visit right after the birth (but not there FOR the birth). We live in SEA and her mother lives in ALB. I'm pretty sure that we'll just have to spring for a full fare ticket when the time comes, but was wondering if there is any value in monitoring the full fare tickets for a while and seeing if we can get a "good" deal on one now, then cancel the flight and just book it later, when necessary.

I'm pretty sure that this strategy won't work, because we'd have to pay the difference between what we initially paid for the "fake" ticket and the cost of the ticket that we actually book (or the price could even drop). . . but is there perhaps some means of doing this I'm not seeing here that could save us some $$?

This is one of the rare situations where a mileage award ticket makes perfect sense. If you have elite status, airlines often open up additional award ticket availability. I have redeemed 25k AA miles for coach award tix where the alternative is a walk-up coach fare of $1,000 or so one way.

Not enough miles for an award ticket? No elite status and the airline wants double miles for a rulebuster ticket? Buying full fare? WN is the best option for ALB-SEA, as Southwest sells last minute tickets for reasonable fares, at least when compared to other airlines.

That's a tough one. If you don't want her there for the birth, you best wait... Sometimes its nice for a couple to have a few days of privacy with the new baby before bombarded with family coming to stay ^ but everyone has their own feelings about that.

That's our thought. Want her coming out a few days post-birth. Will likely just try not to burn through my miles during the summer so that I have enough to spare for her in August. . . or there's always WN.

I'm 100% sure I'm going to get in trouble for saying the following...

If you can't even afford to fly your monther-in-law in for the birth of her grandchild... you probably can't afford to have the child in the first place.

When I gave birth, I already had the college fund locked away in a non-revocable trust fund.

Well, I wouldn't say that you're in trouble, and I applaud your financial planning. But I'd think that that same financial planning / conservatism would make it easy to understand why we wish not to spend $$ on a full fare ticket if we don't have to. Isn't at all that we can't. Just that we'd rather not and, like you did, we're planning ahead.

I'm glad most people don't think like this, or the human race would have gone extinct long ago.

What?? It seems like this comment above is more for your own self-applause than anything else. Owenzelig's wife is due in August so I'm astounded that anyone would say such a thing.

If family want to fly out to visit, I think it's atrocious to assume that the expectant couple should foot the travel expenses. A revocable or non-revokable trust fund is irrelevant to family travel.

i would say it the other way around : You REALLY SERIOUSLY want your maother in law at birth ???????????

The more responsible thing to do would have been to wait until you finished college before giving birth....

How nice of you to fly Grandma out to see the baby! I wish you a happy baby, healthy mom, and speedy delivery.

I was glad to have my mom around during my three children's arrivals. But she is one in a million, inobtrusive yet very willing to babysit.

KathyMoore, dear, it's not the college fund that's a problem. College is easy to do. It's the car insurance for teenagers that you need to sock away money for. When the baby learned to drive and we had five cars and three teenagers (and a motorcycle) on the policy, I thought I was going to have to live in a cardboard box for a while!

Wow...that is a very harsh statement. I think it would be kind to say congratulations and you wish them to have a healthy child.
Hey...who knows what people's financial circumstances are...I'm seen/heard about too many single uneducated girls chosing to have kids. Now that is something that is much more troubling then a married couple wishing to find an economical way to have their MIL out after the birth!
Just FYI...my husband and I dated for many years.. then got married. Because some of my friends were having trouble concieving, I thought it would be best to start trying right after the wedding. Well..needless to say I was not one of those people who had a problem getting pregnant.
We rented a townhouse until my daughter was 1 1/2 then bought our first house.
She is now 10 and has 2 sisters 7 and 2. All will be going to college and we live in a nice community etc.. so it is not always the best to wait until you are financially set. It may be too late to have kids at that point for some. If we had waited until now to start a family (we are financially stable at last!) my husband would be 63 when our first kid graduated Highschool!!! ouch.

LOL
That's funny.

Quite frankly, I'm speechless I hope you understand how ludicruous this statement is...

As stated previously, it is not a matter of "afford", it is a matter of spending more money than you need to.

Kathy.... if you were able to do this at 23, then I applaud you...

otherwise, I wouldn't trade having my first child enter college when I am only 41 years old... for having the college fund locked away in a non-revocable trust.... I much prefer to be able to hopefully have GREAT grandchildren some day !

and ya know... if your kids had to pay for some of their college, that isn't the worst thing either... when you are paying private school tuition that exceeds 12K per year from K to 12th grade for 3 kids....... we'll lets just say that college is the least of my worries....