One Way or Return Ticket

[dmk]

Has anyone booked a return ticket and only used it one way. We are doing a repositioning cruise and the fares for one way are very expensive...more than a return ticket. I am considering buying the return ticket for one way use.

What could be the worst thing that could happen?

[gizmo]

To make this work, it is going to depend on which part of the ticket you are flying.

 

Example:

If you buy a round trip from Atlanta to San Diego and want to use the return portion only ( San Diego to Atlanta) you cannot do this. If you don't fly Atlanta to San Diego the entire ticket will be invalid.

 

To make it work, you have to do it the opposite way. Buy the round trip FROM SAN DIEGO TO ATLANTA.

[paul929207]

We did this a few years ago. We needed to fly from Amsterdam to Bucharest. One way fares were nearly triple the round trip fares. We bought the round trip and only used the first part. We just threw out the return. Never heard a thing from the airline.

 

As stated above, if youdo this, you must book so that the FIRST part is the one you are using. If you miss a leg, the rest is canceled.

 

Paul

[greatam]

And don't use this method-called "throw away ticketing"-on any airline you have a FF account and a lot of miles.

 

Doesn't happen often, but usually during an airline internal audit, the bean counters find all the returns on tickets that haven't been used. If the ticket date is less than one year, the ticket is a liability to the airline-it has future value. They may or may not pursue the issue. If they do, the easiest way to find you is through your FF account. If they find that you have two/three or more returns outstanding it is pretty obvious that you are using throw away ticketing. They may come after you for the value of the one way fare, freeze your FF account or numerous other things. It has happened.

 

However, if you only do it once in a great while and do not do it on your favorite airline, you should be OK.

[FlyerTalker]

Throw-away ticketing is a violation of the contract that you enter into when you purchase a ticket. Now, none of us here would advocate or endorse the illegal (in the sense of breaking a legal contract) activity of not using the return portion of your ticket.

 

That being said, greatam is right-on in noting that it's the FF account numbers that provides the clearest audit trail for an airline. It's how to distinguish one "John Smith" from another "John Smith" and to establish patterns. It has been reported (and again, we are not endorsing this) that the least likely way to be "caught" is to avoid using your favorite airlines and to never use a FF number. And if doing this on the same routing again, to avoid repeat use of the prior carrier.

 

Actually, with some creative use of open-jaws, you can often utilize that "unused" portion of a ticket in future travels. Just requires some outside-the-box thinking.

[dmk]

I have frequent flyer miles with Air Canada. So if I understand correctly, it is not a very good idea to fly with them. What about if I fly with one of the Star Alliance Partner?. Do you think it is just as risky?

[trinigal]

Actually, with some creative use of open-jaws, you can often utilize that "unused" portion of a ticket in future travels. Just requires some outside-the-box thinking.

 

Hi, can you explain? If the occasion ever occurs, I would like to know for future reference. Thanks.

[JJPNYC]

Now you didn't hear this from me and I'll disavow any knolwedge about it if questioned by the frequent flyer police (and I'll claim that some garden gnome wrote this message), but you CAN claim miles on your outbound flight.

Just treat it like any other old flight and don't do anything about your return trip besides just throwing it away.

 

If you're ever questioned by the frequent flyer police about your unused return ticket, just say something to the effect of "my plans changed unexpectedly while on travel and I forgot to call you."

 

Now if you want to play within the rules and fork over the money for a legit one-way seat, you may want to explore what a business/first class seat may cost. Often times the prices for a one-way business/first class seat is very near to the price of a one-way coach seat. With this you'll basically be paying the same amount of money but you'll be flying in style and won't run afoul of the frequent flyer police if that is a concern.

[FlyerTalker]

Here's a hypothetical example (I have not researched the legality/availability - just to show the line of thinking). You live in Florida and you're taking a reposititioning cruise from LIS to MIA. You buy a R/T ticket to get you to Lisbon. Call that ticket #1. You don't use the return AT THIS TIME, but have it booked for a much later date. Now, you book an open jaw trip, say MIA-HNL-LIS. Call that ticket #2. That is legal, since the open jaw is the shortest leg. This gets you over to Lisbon (by way of HNL), so you can then use the return portion of ticket #1. So, you use the ticket segments in this order:

 

Ticket #1 1st leg MIA-LIS

(cruise home)

Ticket #2 1st leg MIA-HNL

Ticket #2 2nd leg HNL-LIS

Ticket #1 2nd leg LIS-HNL

 

So, for the price of the two tickets, you have a visit to Honolulu and two visits to Lisbon. Most likely, you have a year maximum for the 2nd leg of Ticket #1, so you can plan out some travel parameters in advance and book the two tickets at the same time, getting the correct dates. Or, book far in advance and pay the change fee when you have it firmed up.

 

Now, like all great ideas, this has a bunch of caveats. You have to make sure that you can create a legal routing with the cities you want. Also, you have to be sure that you create legal open jaws (smallest leg being the open one). And you have to stay within the maximum permitted mileage limits that are often in international fare rules. (This works best when you are totally North America, but that still lets you have a bunch of HNL or ANC or SJU options.) It's not something for an amateur to try (no offense intended), but if you are somewhat adept at the researching of the rules and willing to put in the time to hash through this, you can often find ways to get "extra" stops.

 

Of course, YMMV.

[greatam]

Hi, can you explain? If the occasion ever occurs, I would like to know for future reference. Thanks.

 

How well do you know how to "work" the airline system and schedule? If you know how to work it, it is really pretty easy. But for those that don't have this info, here is probably the easiest way. To Europe, Aer Lingus offers pretty decent one way fares. So you could use the return of your first ticket for a European vacation. Other examples:

 

Transatlantic repo cruise-mostly done in spring and fall. You can book your return ticket as far out as the airline schedule allows. Fall 2007-RT ticket to, let's say London. Fly to London, take the cruise to MIA. Next spring, use the other half of your ticket to return home from London. That doesn't work or you don't want to go on two transatlantic cruises?? When the ticket is about to expire, rebook your return flight at a date that is convenient to you. Sure, you will be charged a change fee and may have to pay the difference between what you paid and what the current fare is.

 

My easiest personal example: Cathay Pacific, first class award ticket RT LAX/Hong Kong. I needed to return to the USA earlier than expected. Flew home coach Phillipine Airlines from Bangkok (one ways to LAX are cheap). I wasn't going to get my miles back for 1/2 my ticket and on the day I needed to return, Cathay had no first class/business availability.

 

I fly to Vietnam, via either Narita Japan or Hong Kong about 3-4 times per year. Booked a multicity ticket using three airlines (not a true open jaw)-LAX/NRT/HKG/HAN/SGN/HKG. Cost was about $1300.00 for coach. I paid for the AA upgrade to NRT. So total price, with the long haul in business, was about $1600.00 + 25000 miles. Normal cost for business class is about $3000.00 one way to Japan from LAX. Flew home first class on the second half of my Cathay award ticket.

 

To play off my personal experience, there are often very cheap one way tickets to the Orient from LAX (mostly Bangkok and sometimes Manila). There are also frequently very cheap tickets from the Orient (again from Bangkok) to Europe. So you book a cheapie to the Orient, a cheapie to Europe, then use your return to get home from Europe. You have now flown around the world on very cheap tickets. Hopefully, you have gotten a decent vacation out of it. Some of us fly routes like this strictly for the miles.

[greatam]

I have frequent flyer miles with Air Canada. So if I understand correctly, it is not a very good idea to fly with them. What about if I fly with one of the Star Alliance Partner?. Do you think it is just as risky?

 

Don't put your AC FF number in your reservation. In fact, just FORGET about the miles, UNLESS you plan on using the second half of your ticket. You can book the return as far out as the airline schedule goes. Take a repo in the opposite direction and use the second half. Enjoy!!!

[trinigal]

Hi FlyerTalker and greatam: thanks for the replies, most of which I understood. Appreciate your taking the time to explain.;)

[SmidgenAndBandit]

Be sure to check the cost of cruise air on a repositioning cruise. We added the cost of the deviation to the difference in cruise fare with air and without. We then compared this to R/T fares. The only R/T fares that were cheaper were the ones that made 3 or more stops. Since we had no idea if we would use the other leg or not, we decided to go with cruise air and then pay the deviation so we could pick our flights. And way better than a one-way ticket would have been.

[dmk]

Be sure to check the cost of cruise air on a repositioning cruise. We added the cost of the deviation to the difference in cruise fare with air and without. We then compared this to R/T fares. The only R/T fares that were cheaper were the ones that made 3 or more stops. Since we had no idea if we would use the other leg or not, we decided to go with cruise air and then pay the deviation so we could pick our flights. And way better than a one-way ticket would have been.

 

Yes. I have done that. I always book with air. Then, I look around for cheaper air. If I find it I cancel the cruise air. Last time we did a TA, we also ended ap using the cruise air with a deviation.