Booking 2 one way tickets instead of round trip

Good afternoon everyone...:)

I am looking at booking flights for my upcoming cruise out of San Juan. I was looking at prices to fly from Toronto to San Juan on expedia and seen to fly down on Delta and return on United Air had great flight times, connections and an excellent price.

I prefer to book directly with each airline (just my comfort preferance, no other reason) so if tomorrow I book a one way flight down to San Juan with Delta Air and a one way back to Toronto on United Air, will I have any probems not having a "round trip" flight on the same airline? I can't see there being any issue with Customs or anything else, since we would have our return tickets, I just want to be sure before I book and pay for them.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

We've done one-way fares many times and never had any problems. And also like you I prefer to book directly with the airlines rather than a 3rd party. :p

I've done it, both domestic and international, with no problems. Immigration is usually just concerned with you having a ticket OUT of their country when you arrive. It doesn't have to be the same airline, or even to your home country...just the heck out of theirs ;) For example, I am a US citizen and flew Chicago to London, and stayed in London for the night before connecting on. I just had to show that I, indeed, did have an onward ticket to Oman and did plan to eventually leave their country in a timely manner.

One thing to just keep in mind is that with two tickets means two change fees should something arise. Say your outbound is United and return is Delta, and you find yourself needing to change your flights - each airline would charge $150 (or so), meaning your change fee would be $300 per round-trip, not $150 as it would be with a standard round-trip ticket.

One thing to just keep in mind is that with two tickets means two change fees should something arise. Say your outbound is United and return is Delta, and you find yourself needing to change your flights - each airline would charge $150 (or so), meaning your change fee would be $300 per round-trip, not $150 as it would be with a standard round-trip ticket.

In the OP's case, most likely they would not have a "standard round trip ticket." The fares and fare bases for a round trip ticket using Delta one way and United the other way is almost 100% certainly a combination of two one-way tickets anyway. Each fare basis has its own rules for changes and therefore would most likely incur two change fees.

I have booked two one ways before and never encountered any problems.

I have even done it with the same airline too. Bought one way tickets to San Juan 331 days before departure and bought one ways home 331 days before my return. This was with Delta and I was needing to fly to San Juan on Dec. 26th returning on the 3rd of Jan. Had I waited for my return to become available the cheap seats for the departure would have already been gone:D. I was a bit stressed waiting for the return dates to be released but it worked out just fine.

I have even done one way with different airlines for different segements of a trip. To get from Beijing to Xi'an to Bangkok through Guangzhou (the shortest, most direct and cheapest flight) I booked Air China to Xi an, China Eastern to Guangzhou and China Southern to Bangkok. For whatever reason trying to do it through one airline was not working. Though I am most comfortable buyi ng from the airline in this case it was easier and cheaper to buy from American Expedia using credit card (no foreign transaction fee for buying foreign airline). Expedia much cheaper than Chinese travel agent. Bottom line have to look at lots of different ways to get there and back and buy what is best for your pocketbook/schedule etc.

Try looking at ITA software to see all the possible ways to come and go. Sometimes the schedule does override the price -- thus a great fare on the 5:30 AM flight is not the one I will choose:rolleyes:

You will have no problem whatsoever. Looking at one-way fares is a really smart thing to do. Whenever I fly, which is often, I always look at one-ways vs round trips and frequently one-ways come out on top!

In the OP's case, most likely they would not have a "standard round trip ticket." The fares and fare bases for a round trip ticket using Delta one way and United the other way is almost 100% certainly a combination of two one-way tickets anyway. Each fare basis has its own rules for changes and therefore would most likely incur two change fees.

Thus the whole reason I brought up that there would be two change fees instead of just one...it's definitely not a standard round-trip ticket. Delta will charge their change fee, and United will charge theirs.

Thank you all very much for your replies. I never thought about the 2 seperate charges if we need to change our flights, but other than that, I'm glad there are no other issues.

Thanks again :)

Thank you all very much for your replies. I never thought about the 2 seperate charges if we need to change our flights, but other than that, I'm glad there are no other issues.

 

Thanks again :)

I don't know if this will apply for your routing, but booking two one ways will sometimes result in you not being able to check-in online, as the country to which you are traveling requires you to have a return ticket, and they want to see that return ticket before you check in.

Did this last year with two one ways for Aruba, and although they were both on the same airline, we were forced to present our return tickets at the airport before being allowed to check in.

Thank you all very much for your replies. I never thought about the 2 seperate charges if we need to change our flights, but other than that, I'm glad there are no other issues.

 

Thanks again :)

and remember... there is no change fee with Southwest..

and remember... there is no change fee with Southwest..

and further remember... Southwest does not fly to either Toronto or San Juan.