<p>Does anyone know what happens if you purchase a round trip plane ticket but only use the first leg of the trip?</p>
<p>My D needs to travel cross country with a definite departing date, but her return date is uncertain and months in the future. A one way ticket cost twice as much as the round trip. It seems unrealistic to pay so much for a one way ticket, when I can spend less and just buy her a round trip and have her not fly back when her ticket says.</p>
<p>Has anyone done this before?</p>
<p>Here are two suggestions:
- If Southwest Airlines flies to and from the origin and destination, book through them. It is much more reasonable when booking one way flights.
- Book the trip with her first leg getting to your destination and make the second leg for a time when you know she will be returning, be it Christmas break or the end of the year. Then if you have to make another flight, the original leg becomes the second leg of flight #1 and the return part of that ticket becomes the origin of trip number 2. That way you aren’t changing tickets and getting hit with major change fees.</p>
<p>I did this back in the last century - in fact at the time it was fairly common. No one will care if your child doesn’t get on the return flight. The airline will have the money, and the may be able to fit a stand-by passenger into “her” empty seat. Everybody wins.</p>
<p>Airlines don’t like when round trip passengers skip flights, not since 9/11. I agree with jandjdad, look to some of the discount fliers like Southwest, Frontier, etc. that sell tickets by the leg to start with.</p>
<p>SteveMA -</p>
<p>Couldn’t she just give the airline a ring the day before the “return” flight and tell them that she can’t make that flight, but understands that she’s losing the ticket? There are umpteen real reasons why that sort of thing can happen.</p>
<p>People do this all the time. Just realize, of course, that any flights after the leg you skip will be cancelled. It’s not a big deal. Sometimes I will call the carrier the day prior and let them know I won’t be able to make the flight, and they are grateful for the heads up. It’s not like they can do anything to you. There’s a million reasons why one might not take a return leg, and they can’t fine you for it. So what if they don’t like people doing that? Sure, they’d much rather you pay $1,000 for that one way fare instead of $500 for the round trip, but that’s their problem, it’s how they set up the system. Sometimes I even add a third leg to a round trip ticket, to some random place because it’s cheaper than the round trip, weirdly enough. Though many carriers are becoming more reasonable with their one way fares.</p>
<p>There are numerous airlines that do book one way legs. You can check other airlines by going to KAYAK . com and putting in your info. It makes me crazy that some airlines still do this RT requirement and charge you more for single legs. I try not to fly them.
I have even emailed Continental to tell them they have lost my business and anyone else’s I can tell to avoid them due to their RT fares.</p>
<p>I’ve done it. I flew home to England after my Dad had stroke and he died 2 days after I got there. My stepmother scheduled the funeral for the day after my return flight (2 weeks later!) and the airline wouldn’t let me change the return date as the ticket was a priceline no changes whatsoever allowed ticket. So I didn’t use that part of the ticket. When I checked out one way flights back they were really expensive but there was a really cheap “special” on a return trip. The girl in the airline office even said just buy it and don’t use the return leg. She did say you technically aren’t supposed to do it, but there were no repercussions and I never heard anything from either airline about it.</p>
<p>If you have a trip with several stops outbound…and you don’t use all of them, you will have issues. But going all the way to your destination and then not returning, well just call the airline and tell them your plans have changed. I personally think that is a better idea than being a no show.</p>
<p>Unless you have a reason to be loyal to a particular airline that only offers RT, to me it makes sense to shop for an airline that tickets one-way. As I recall, airlines with one-ways include JetBlue, Southwest, USAir, United, Delta. I could be mistaken on the last 3 but am sure about the first 2.</p>
<p>If you buy one-way now you don’t have to be concerned for a while about when you purchase the return trip, since you’re a bit unsure of dates.</p>
<p>The joke in our family is that when S-2 began college in Southern California, we bought him a one-way ticket out of Buffalo. Sure enough, that’s where he stayed after college!</p>
<p>For routes serviced by Jet Blue, you could use them (they sell by one-way leg anyway).</p>
<p>I’ve done it in the past year with no problems. I try to make an educated guess for the date of the return leg. As that date approaches you can decide whether the original flight will work, whether it’s cost effective to pay the change fee and rebook, or whether it’s better to dump the return leg completely and buy a new ticket.</p>
<p>From what I have read on flyertalk, the airline will only contact you if you do this on a regular basis; usually frequent flyer business people doing the same route and the same thing with the ticket.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for your responses. </p>
<p>This is a direct flight with no stops, so there would be no concerns about 2nd legs of a trip on a return flight. I need to book with Delta because of a $99 companion ticket offer from American Express that my husband and I plan to use to reduce costs when we accompany her. </p>
<p>I am concerned because- 1) My H and I will be using the return flight and our D’s absence will certainly be noticed as she will not be with us and the 3 tickets will have been purchased together and 2) I thought I heard at some point that an airline can go back and charge your credit card for the difference between the costs of the two tickets if the return fight is not taken.</p>
<p>I have not yet bought the tickets because of these concerns. Maybe I am being overly cautious?</p>
<p>I would book your daughter’s ticket separately from yours and your H’s; that way the reservations are not linked and anything that happens with her itinerary does not affect yours.</p>
<p>If you’re in The US and traveling domestically, the majority of flights are priced on a one-way basis as airlines match the airlines that always price fares on a one-way basis (Southwest, Air Tran, Alaska, and JetBlue). Roundtrip requirements are more often found when travelling domestically on a route without much competition and internationally.</p>
<p>There is really no reason to book your daughter on the same reservation sink linked reservations will accomplish much the same thing, minus a free checked bag for your daughter thanks to your SkyMiles AmEx. $99 companion fares are only good for one person, which would be either you or your husband (one of your and your daughter will be paying the normal price). </p>
<p>Airlines reserve the right to charge your credit card for the full price of the flights flown, but rarely do.</p>
<p>I’m curious as to what route this is that would have a roundtrip requirement.</p>
<p>My advice is always check what the one way fares are – in many, if not most cases, the round trip fare is exactly the same as two one way tickets.</p>
<p>However if you buy round trip, you run the risk of penalties. This happened to me last year, when we had purchased a RT ticket on Delta for winter break. When we found out that my D’s finals were ending early, we booked an earlier flight (on United). As a result, she missed the first leg on the Delta flight (she was already home) and the second leg was automatically cancelled.</p>
<p>Delta admitted that if we had purchased two one-way tickets (i.e., two records) it would have cost the same and the return ticket would have not been cancelled. But rules are rules. To be fair, they waived a lot of penalties (so that it only cost an extra $100). However, it still burned to have paid that much. In this case there was no benefit to buying a RT ticket.</p>