Would you let your sister contribute $ towards plane tickets?

[Anonymous]

She's out west, I'm here. Both married, neither have children. She thinks its boring here so she doesn't want to come here but she offered to pay for plane tickets for spouse and I to come visit. Tickets are about $300 each round trip.

There's a part of me that's like nah we can pay our own way. There's another part of me that's like well if she doesn't want to come here maybe it's ok for her to kick in for airfare occasionally (or, alternatively we each pay half for the tickets).

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I'd let my sister pay in this case.

Do you live in the middle of nowhere, though? How exactly is the east coast "boring," unless you're a toddler and the alternative is like a theme park or something? SMH

[Anonymous]

No, not if we can afford it. Let her pick up some meals.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't mind. It isn't fair for one party to bear all the travel costs, as well as all the time and hassle of it. I pay for my sister sometimes, because she's a poor grad student and it's cheaper for her to fly here than for me and DH and two kids to fly there.

[Anonymous]

Yes, if she's not taking turns doing the traveling, which is tiresome, then she should absolutely take turns paying the airfare.

[Anonymous]

I think taking turns paying for tickets would be fine. Alternatively - maybe find somewhere you both like and can get affordable airfare to and rent a condo/beachhouse or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think taking turns paying for tickets would be fine. Alternatively - maybe find somewhere you both like and can get affordable airfare to and rent a condo/beachhouse or something.

Yes, I forgot to list that as an option but she has proposed that before too. I think whichever way we go on the tickets we will end up doing this a few times as well. I'm human, I would probably resent being the only one doing all of the traveling so a mutual getaway would be nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She's out west, I'm here. Both married, neither have children. She thinks its boring here so she doesn't want to come here but she offered to pay for plane tickets for spouse and I to come visit. Tickets are about $300 each round trip.

There's a part of me that's like nah we can pay our own way. There's another part of me that's like well if she doesn't want to come here maybe it's ok for her to kick in for airfare occasionally (or, alternatively we each pay half for the tickets).

I'd let her pay since she doesn't want to take turns coming to you. I assume you like going west?

[Anonymous]

If she is hosting (you are staying at her house, eating her food, using her utilities) AND you have relatively similar household incomes AND you can afford it, I'd just buy the tickets myself. If you need to rent a car while you're there, I might consider letting her pay one of the tickets, just to even out the expenses a little.

[Anonymous]

No, I'd just buy my own tickets, especially, as has been pointed out, she's hosting and feeding you guys.

If I couldn't afford it, it'd be a different story.

[Anonymous]

No. You're both DINKS. If you and your spouse have incredibly low-paying jobs and they do incredibly well, maybe, but otherwise that's a bit embarrassing.

[Anonymous]

Yes--if you have a good relationship and she won't hold it over your head someday--I say if it was money she would've spent coming to see me anyway but wants to use it on me, it's ok!

[Anonymous]

If she offered to sweeten the deal of you coming, totally! I'd be very thankful and tell her that often. But you know your sister best. Is this something that comes with strings?