We all feel your pain and hope to virtually "pat you on the back" to assure you all will work out.

Careful of beating up on airlines. We have been very lucky in the US since deregulation in 78 to have extremely low ticket prices. Airlines on average posted a loss for 6 years only to have profits every 7th year bring them out of the red. Gas used to account for only 8% of your individual ticket- today it accounts for 40%. As much as prices have risen they have not gone up as fast as inflation and all of the nickel and dimming still does not cover the cost of your flight. That's right. Those over priced tickets don't even help the company to break even. I say hurry up and buy these tickets now because it will not be long before companies will start charging what it actually costs them to run your flight.
And remember, if the price is that bad you can always drive.