Book Frequent Flier Flights - One-way vs Roundtrip

A few months ago I asked about how to survive a flight to Vietnam from the U.S., and the resounding response was to fly business class. Since then, I've been on a mission to accumulate as many frequent flier miles as I can (mainly by taking advantage of amazing credit card signup bonuses & my husband's ability to charge purchases for work & get reimbursed).

We'll be using United miles to purchase these flights. From what I can tell, there is no disadvantage to booking a round-trip vs one-way ticket (i.e., one-way business class is 70,000 pp, while roundtrip business class is 140,000 pp).

My main concern is the flight from the U.S. to Vietnam, and I already have enough miles to get that one-way ticket in business class for both of us. Our outbound tickets will be available to purchase in 2.5 weeks (11 months before the flight). I'm thinking of booking that flight right away, so I get the prime choice of seats/schedule/saver awards, and then waiting to book the return flight until I have enough miles for business class or decide to settle for economy (either way, this would probably be in March—9 months before the flight).

For those of you experienced with booking award travel—is there any flaw in this plan?

Hi ewizabeff,

I enjoyed your River cruise blog of a few months back:) As for your current post. You might try posting on the Cruise Air board and hopefully one of the experts will reply. Another thought is to check out the posts on Flyertalk. I believe there are topics devoted to the use of frequent flyer miles. If you register (no cost) you can ask your question there also. Good luck....wish I had as many ff miles as you do!

I don't think there is a down side. I just bought two one way tickets for two people with award miles. In our case, we had to do it that way because we are flying to Budapest for a river cruise and coming back to the states on a TA.

Thanks for the idea, Purduemom. I didn't even think about the Cruise Air board. I'll cross post this there as well. Glad you liked the blog—I still have a couple ideas for wrap-up posts, and I'd like to post copies of the dailies, etc ... when I get some time! And re: the FF miles - if you spend a few thousand dollars a month on bills, groceries, etc regularly and you have good credit, it's not hard to rack up a couple hundred thousand miles in 6 months or less through credit card bonuses.

Thanks for the input, cruzzinma. This is a multi-city itinerary anyway (arrive in Hanoi & depart from Ho Chi Minh), so I'm really thinking I can do the one-way tickets and get my departure flight as early as possible.

possible flaws:

-you don't accumulate enough points to purchase the return trip. Buying an international one way flight is soooo expensive .

-If you wait until 6-9 months out to book FF return flight, reward travel may not be available. Or, you have a lot of connections of flights instead of a direct route.

Just something to think about 😁

Possible flaws:

Booking one-ways does not allow you the flexibility of a stopover. They are not allowed on one-way tix.

Also if by chance you need to change a ticket or cancel, your fees are double as they are booked on different ticket numbers.

Given that, if you don't foresee the need to cancel (have insurance that would cover those fees ) or change I would go ahead and book the one-ways as you never know when the seats you want will be available again. I had a difficult time finding business class seats to Venice in October and business class seats from Athens home. I booked one-ways as soon as I found itineraries I was satisfied with.

Hope this helps.

A few months ago I asked about how to survive a flight to Vietnam from the U.S., and the resounding response was to fly business class. Since then, I've been on a mission to accumulate as many frequent flier miles as I can (mainly by taking advantage of amazing credit card signup bonuses & my husband's ability to charge purchases for work & get reimbursed).

 

We'll be using United miles to purchase these flights. From what I can tell, there is no disadvantage to booking a round-trip vs one-way ticket (i.e., one-way business class is 70,000 pp, while roundtrip business class is 140,000 pp).

 

My main concern is the flight from the U.S. to Vietnam, and I already have enough miles to get that one-way ticket in business class for both of us. Our outbound tickets will be available to purchase in 2.5 weeks (11 months before the flight). I'm thinking of booking that flight right away, so I get the prime choice of seats/schedule/saver awards, and then waiting to book the return flight until I have enough miles for business class or decide to settle for economy (either way, this would probably be in March—9 months before the flight).

 

For those of you experienced with booking award travel—is there any flaw in this plan?

Hi,

Grab the outbound flights now. Many FF awards disappear quickly. I did JFK-LHR one way BC award booked early and then waited the 3 weeks necessary to book the return BC FF awards . Grab the flights as soon as available. If you can't/unable to do online call the awards desk directly-there will probably be a per tkt charge but the upside is that you will get the flt and seats (check seatguru-not all BC class seat are equal) that you want.

Have a great cruise

Carole

Don't wait because if you have to pay for one way tickets your are screwed!

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I also endorse booking as soon as the flight becomes available. Warning!!! United, and AA also, do not always make available saver awards seats/tickets within the week or so after the flight becomes available. This is particularly the case on international flights. You may have to use standard award flight miles which are often twice the number. The saver awards will often appear a couple weeks after the initial opening of the flights, if there are any ff miles allocated seats left. Additionally, if it is a United codeshare flight, operated by another Alliance member with its own ff program, a saver award seat may or may not ever be available for UA passengers.

If you book an international flight as soon as the window opens, ensure you have enough miles to pay (with miles) for the standard award on the return, at least in economy.

Good Luck, you'll need it!

Thanks everyone!

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possible flaws:

 

-you don't accumulate enough points to purchase the return trip. Buying an international one way flight is soooo expensive .

-If you wait until 6-9 months out to book FF return flight, reward travel may not be available. Or, you have a lot of connections of flights instead of a direct route.

 

Just something to think about 😁

Not necessarily. On some airlines there is no premium to purchase a one way. Virgin is one.

caviargirl;

The OP is going to Vietnam. Virgin doesn't go there! So, if you would like to recommend an airline going to Vietnam that doesn't charge a huge markup for one way, it might be helpful for her. If she is wanting to use UA frequent flyer miles, she'd better ensure she has enough miles, in bank, to get her home with standard miles. ;)

I'm anxiously waiting for the saver fares to become available for my trip ... should be sometime within the next few weeks, which is fine because United is dragging their feet on awarding my 50,000 bonus miles that I need to book this ticket....

I likely won't have enough miles to book the economy return fare for a month or two, but I'm not nearly as concerned about that. Thanks again, everyone, for your advice.

Good Luck;

As I posted earlier, saver miles on many flights NEVER become available for several reasons.

From your picture, you appear fairly young, so it may not matter as much to you, but the longer one waits to book these days, the more the better seats disappear.

You may well be waiting for saver awards that never appear, and then be stuck paying for a seat in the middle section of economy. You need to watch how the plane the plane is loading, and set an end date to pull the trigger on buying your ticket.

I'm cautiously optimistic, as there are saver flights for the same day of the week many months before my flight. We'll see. I've set my end date for booking as mid-April for my mid-December flight.

I'm young (32), but not as young as my picture. That's from when I first joined Cruise Critic :)

Any updates as to your flights? May I recommend going to Expert Flyer. They can tell you how many award seats are available on flights. You also may want to see if you can get a flight on any airline that is in the Star Alliance which partners with UAL. I haven't looked but you might book a flight on Asiana and get home via Seoul or any other airline.

Good luck

Hi Valley Girl,

We too are resident's of the Shenandoah Valley - live 1/2 way between Winchester and Front Royal.

Bruce

Hi Valley Girl,

 

We too are resident's of the Shenandoah Valley - live 1/2 way between Winchester and Front Royal.

 

Bruce

We are about 20 minutes south of H'burg.

I actually just booked our outbound flight today. We were eyeing an Asiana flight with a wonderful itinerary, but with my luck the award availability disappeared 2 days before I was able to book the flight. So today I booked a flight from Chicago --> London --> Bangkok --> Hanoi on United/Thai Airways.

United happens to be having an award travel sale this month, so instead of the normal 160,000 miles for this flight, it was 140,000.

I'll be booking our return trip in a few weeks after I earn my last credit card/mileage bonus. But sadly, that flight will be in economy. After 20 hours in business class and 2.5 weeks with Uniworld, that will be a downer. But it's better than paying for the flight!

I actually just booked our outbound flight today. We were eyeing an Asiana flight with a wonderful itinerary, but with my luck the award availability disappeared 2 days before I was able to book the flight. So today I booked a flight from Chicago --> London --> Bangkok --> Hanoi on United/Thai Airways.

 

United happens to be having an award travel sale this month, so instead of the normal 160,000 miles for this flight, it was 140,000.

 

I'll be booking our return trip in a few weeks after I earn my last credit card/mileage bonus. But sadly, that flight will be in economy. After 20 hours in business class and 2.5 weeks with Uniworld, that will be a downer. But it's better than paying for the flight!

What???? An award sale?.. I've been watching and checking 5x a day for a flight in September and one way fares are running 150,000 miles in business class. Route is houston to prague which has a few options but return is Basel to houston which has nothing...

What???? An award sale?.. I've been watching and checking 5x a day for a flight in September and one way fares are running 150,000 miles in business class. Route is houston to prague which has a few options but return is Basel to houston which has nothing...

Try returning from a different airport like Zurich. Then take the train from Basel to catch your flight. Basel is a smaller airport and there may be fewer options.

The sale is on the "saver" business class partner awards. Normally 80,000 each way, now 70,000 if you book in September and travel in 2015. I never saw this advertised on United —read about it on a frequent flyer blog—but low and behold, that's the price I paid.

What???? An award sale?.. I've been watching and checking 5x a day for a flight in September and one way fares are running 150,000 miles in business class. Route is houston to prague which has a few options but return is Basel to houston which has nothing...

Depending what day you're leaving, on some dates in September there's a somewhat inconvenient business class flight on Turkish Airlines from Houston to Istanbul (17 hour layover - go see the city quick?) and then on to Prague. That's only 57,500 miles right now - a steal! If you're using the award search on United.com, it's the last one in the list on the days it's available (even though the calendar at the top only indicates economy is available).

Depending what day you're leaving, on some dates in September there's a somewhat inconvenient business class flight on Turkish Airlines from Houston to Istanbul (17 hour layover - go see the city quick?) and then on to Prague. That's only 57,500 miles right now - a steal! If you're using the award search on United.com, it's the last one in the list on the days it's available (even though the calendar at the top only indicates economy is available).

I saw that. Really tempted...there's a nice Marriott 5 minutes away with shuttle service. Can walk a little bit, get over jet lag and be fresh upon arrival into prague...just unsure about Turkish airlines

I've heard nothing but good things about Turkish Air. I have a friend who flew it recently (in economy) and wrote a blog post about it: http://www.nextstopworld.com/2014/06/15/next-stop-turkey/