RoundTrip Airfare Versus OneWay Fare Strategy

[wrahn2002]

I'm thinking about taking a cruise across the Altantic and then flying back to the USA. The fare for the oneway back is twice as much as a roundtrip from overseas. What is the result of booking a roundtrip back and not using the return ticket? Is this a good strategy? Are there any legal reasons why I can't do it?

 

Thanks for any input.

[beachbrat]

I am facing this dilema now. I am cruising on Carnival Liberty in November.

 

I recently found out that Continental gives up to one year to use the "unused" portion of the flight. There is a change fee of $200.

 

We are thinking of doing the Transatlantic going the other way in order to use up the airfare. :-)

[wrahn2002]

Beachbrat

 

The question is do you need to use the second leg of the air? Since the roundtrip is much cheaper than the oneway, one could purchase the roundtrip and then rip-up the second part of the trip.

[Rudi610]

The risk of doing this is that the airline could turn around and charge you for the one-way fare after you made your tirp. I have not heard of many cases, but there have been a few, especially if you make a habit of this. Too bad there aren't any low-fare transatlantic airlines that price like Southwest and JetBlue do, where you can buy a one-way fare and it is generally half of the round-trip.

[JJPNYC]

The reality is though that you can purchase a round trip and just never use the return ticket. If asked, just think of a reason (got sick is a good one). One tip though is not to use your frequent flyer number when booking the ticket.

 

Can the airline technically charge you the difference, sure if you read the leaglese that's attached to each ticket. Will they, the probablity is slim to none.

 

Only you can make the decision if this is a risk you are willing to take to save the cash.

 

On the flip side, if the difference is so great and you don't feel like taking the risk, see how much a one-way business class seat is. Typically they might be comparable to what you'd be paying for a one-way coach seat. This way you are not "breaking any rules" but are at least getting some value for the added expense in way of the upgraded cabin of service.

[greatam]

JJPNYC is exactly correct. DON'T use an airline that you fly regularly. If you don't fly much, then you really don't have much to worry about. No FF numbers in bookings, don't talk about it, keep a low profile.

 

AerLingus (Ireland's National airline) has one way tickets to London from the East Coast at VERY reasonable prices. You will stop in Dublin on the way to London. You can easily get to anyplace in Europe from London. You can also just book to Dublin. BA, EasyJet and RyanAir, as well as other fly out of Dublin to all of Europe. BA just reduced their intra-Europe fares.

 

If you are thinking of AerLingus, do not try to book from wherever you are in the US to London. Book a separate ticket from your airport to NY, Boston, or Chicago. Any other US departure point is either a codeshare with AA or an AA flight. The price goes up a lot more than booking a separate ticket. I just looked at the AerLingus website-one way-NYC/LHR-middle of July (most expensive time)-under $500.00.

http://www.aerlingus.com/cgi-bin/obel01im1/bookonline/index.jsp

 

A consolidator that has one way reasonable tickets is 1800flyeurope. Again, their tickets get pretty pricey from small US airports to Europe. What you need to do is book a ticket to an INTERNATIONAL gateway. The European bargains are primarily from the East Coast gateways.

http://www.1800flyeurope.com/index.cfm

 

beachbrat

An EXCELLENT way to use the second half of the ticket. Book the return to coincide with a "repo" cruise TO Europe. Not only have you used both halves of your ticket, BUT you have gotten a cruise to boot. And repo cruises are usually bargains in price.

[DC_texas]

While I have never done this on an international flight I have done this MANY times on domestic flights. Back before American discontinued the saturday night stays I would buy two tickets. Each ticket would originate in the opposite city and have a saturday night stay. I would then throw away the return leg of each ticket. This saved a fair amount of money. I of course used my frequent flier number, put in for upgrades, and in no way tried to disguise what I was doing.

 

If you going to do this you might try looking at a multicity reservation. You could try changing the return flight(which you won't be on) to different city. Try picking a hub city with alot of competition(dfw, iah, jfk, atl, etc). You might be able to reduce the flight a little more.

[Andros]

I usually check both. Last year we went to Europe and found great prices on one-way tickets. We flew from Nashville to Dulles and stayed over night. Our flight on Independence( whew close call) was only 79.00 bucks. Our flight to LHR on Virgin was 250 each( booked through Priceline). We stayed in London for 3 days and flew out of Gatwick on BA for 90 bucks each( also through priceline). We got to Barcelona for only 419.00 each. Sometimes they run specials on round trip tickets. We have never bought roundtrip but, if it cost less we would. We only fly a few times a year and wouldn't worry to much about being charged for not using the return flight. Whatever you decide, I hope you have a great time. Andros

[greatam]

While I have never done this on an international flight I have done this MANY times on domestic flights. Back before American discontinued the saturday night stays I would buy two tickets. Each ticket would originate in the opposite city and have a saturday night stay. I would then throw away the return leg of each ticket. This saved a fair amount of money. I of course used my frequent flier number, put in for upgrades, and in no way tried to disguise what I was doing.

 

 

I think you were very, very lucky. I was EXTREMELY surprised when AA EXP desk called me about a ticket I purchased April 2005 for RT LAX/NYC in November 2005. I purchased 4 tickets (they were on sale) for October, November, December and January.

 

After I took care of my business in NYC, I flew to South America on my normal business trip. When I was getting ready to leave Lima, I decided to fly to LAX on the AA/LAN codeshare, instead of back to NYC. So I never used the return-NYC/LAX. AA was VERY inquisitve. They let it go "this time", but told me their new software keeps track of unused returns NOW. And I do not have any credit for the return from NYC, even if I pay the change fee (fare rules and purchase date).

 

I won't be flying AA on throw aways or using my FF number on any of their partners. But Continental, US Air or United-tha's a different story.