Using Half Of A Return Ticket

[dmk]

Since one way airfares are so expensive, I was wondering what would happen if I booked a return flight and didn't show up for the return flight.

I was thinking of doing this for a Transatlantic cruise. Has anyone done this before. Are there any penalties or repercussions?

[GalOverCs]

When we lived in Germany I twice bought a round trip ticket and used just half. Actually once I called the company and told them in advance I would be unable to use it. They gave me a credit and were able to resell my seat. So I ended up with a cheaper ticket AND a stateside one way ticket!

If you buy the round trip it is worth really playing with the "Return" dates and finding what time of the year is cheaper.

[dmk]

When we lived in Germany I twice bought a round trip ticket and used just half. Actually once I called the company and told them in advance I would be unable to use it. They gave me a credit and were able to resell my seat. So I ended up with a cheaper ticket AND a stateside one way ticket!

If you buy the round trip it is worth really playing with the "Return" dates and finding what time of the year is cheaper.

 

Thanks, Claire. I think we will give it a try.

[montekat]

When we did a transatlantic last Sept., we used the cruiseline air option. It was cheaper for us. Others who lived nearer certain airports were able to get cheaper fares on their on. It worked out fine for us, plus transfers from the ship to the airport were included.

[elodie]

Nope, there are no repercussions. If you try to get a refund or credit the airline may charge you a penalty, but if you just don't show up for the return flight...oh well. :)

 

I did that myself once when I needed to get home and discovered that the one way fare was actually more than a return. I just booked the return, went home and that was that.

[Merlin139]

There is another way you could always sail oneway in the April, fly back and then use the other halfe of the plane ticket to fly back across the Atlantic and and sail back in the Oct/Nov.

 

My wife are considering this for 2009. I priced this up for us for 2008 and it was very good value. We would obviouly be doing it the otherway around as we live in the UK.

[dmk]

There is another way you could always sail oneway in the April, fly back and then use the other halfe of the plane ticket to fly back across the Atlantic and and sail back in the Oct/Nov.

 

My wife are considering this for 2009. I priced this up for us for 2008 and it was very good value. We would obviouly be doing it the otherway around as we live in the UK.

 

We have in mind to do exactly that! We are booked on a Transatlantic going Eastbound in November. We are waiting for the new itineraries to come out for the spring TA in 2008. I suppose we will get some idea of these sometime between this April and June.

You are right about the excellent value.:D

[ali-ali-oh]

We are doing the opposite trip and I have found (believe it or not) that it is cheaper to book a return flight (Manchester to Orlando) with Virgin than one way - £200 difference in price as they had an offer on at the time. I called to ask whether this was possible prior to booking and the agent told me that if I told him that was what I intended to do when I called to make the booking he could not sell me the ticket, if I didn't mention it it would not be a problem. He told me that I could genuinely be concerned that the cruise might get cancelled and therefore wanted the peace of mind of knowing I would be able to get home and that was why I was booking a return ticket.

The tickets were non transferable/refundable when I booked so I couldn't change the booking to later in the year etc, but it was still worth it.

[tinlizzy]

Don't necessarily feel bound to a return to the same place.

 

You can book an open-jaw round trip. For instance Orlando to Manchester then Manchester to NYC for a cruise out of there. You can fiddle around with dates and airports and price these using the Multi-flight link. An open-jaw is priced as a round trip - half the price of the first round trip then half of the last - i.e. Orlando to Manchester $400 - Manchester to NY $280 then the price of an open-jaw would be $340. Or course waiting so long between flight would mean the ticket has less restrictions and may cost more.

 

Look at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/

 

Those folks are the "cruisecritics" of airlines.