The good news, I suppose, is that flights for next summer will probably change a couple of times between now and then. You didn't say what airline(s) you are looking at. As far as Tampa is concerned, does your family have free parking in Tampa or can have someone drop them off, or are they VERY close to the airport? Absent that, I'm going to suggest that they look seriously at driving to Miami. We have looked at connecting from either Tampa or Orlando through Miami, and to us, it never seemed to be worthwhile to do. Of course we still have a 1.5 hour drive to either Tampa or Orlando, but by the time we do a connecting flight, we could have just driven to Miami and not have to worry about a connection. Depending on how complicated it is for them to get in and out of Tampa, they should take a look at that.
In general, I would say that if they are looking at AA, and they are like me and want to get something locked in way ahead of time, they should look at booking regular MAIN CABIN, not economy. As of now, if you book Main Cabin, you do get an assigned seat included, but more importantly, IF you want to cancel or change your flight, you can do so without any penalty, to receive back a full FLIGHT CREDIT. So long as you are going to stick with AA, it's a good deal. If the price goes down, you can cancel and re-book with no penalty and receive back a flight credit, which can be used for a future flight. IF they book Main Cabin Extra (which again, costs more than the others), they can get a full credit back to their ORIGINAL FORM of PAYMENT.
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