r/t vs one way flight

[TriumphGuy]

We have a TA cruise booked on Nieuw Statendam for next April. We are planning on spending a week in France post-cruise before flying home to Chicago. One way flights seem to be ridiculously priced, for two even in economy it would cost more than the cruise.

We are not frequent fliers, we fly as little as possible these days. In the "old days", we would simply buy a round trip ticket and not show up for the return flight. Is this still allowed and has anyone done it on an international flight? Flights r/t to Chicago are a third of what a one way fare would be. 

Not looking to cheat the airlines, it would seem to me that a no show would be sold as a standby at the gate to whoever needs it. 

Just wondering if this is a common practice still, or not.

[ksmaxey]

Have you checked with HAL flight ease?  We are doing the other direction and our flights from DTW to Lisbon and then from boston to DTW were 460 total for economy. 

[CJcruzer]

This is where I find HAL’s Flight Ease really pays off, on one way transatlantic flights.

 

In addition, once you have a booking, you can put in another destination city, i.e.  Rome transatlantic, you can put in Florence, etc and also get prices.  What you cannot change, on your own without contacting HAL, is your home gateway city.

 

 

[iancal]

We have done quite a few one way flights.  We have used cruise line air.  We have also purchased one way tickets from on line consolidators (and quite often the cruise air tickets would be the same fare code as consolidator tickets).  There are also a few airlines that do not penalize for one way fares.     The last time we did this was on a couple of tickets to Istanbul. We got fares from a consolidator on BA that were a few hundred dollars less than the then current cruise air fares.   You need to shop and to look at alternative departure cities.

[TriumphGuy]

I checked online with Flight Ease and was not impressed, but perhaps I need to call and talk to a real person. That website is incredibly difficult to use! 

We need to get to FLL, I was thinking I could book that portion on my own cheaper than Flight Ease. Then Paris back to Chicago. 

I will call them and see what they come up with. 

Thanks.

[Randyk47]

7 minutes ago, TriumphGuy said:

We have a TA cruise booked on Nieuw Statendam for next April. We are planning on spending a week in France post-cruise before flying home to Chicago. One way flights seem to be ridiculously priced, for two even in economy it would cost more than the cruise.

We are not frequent fliers, we fly as little as possible these days. In the "old days", we would simply buy a round trip ticket and not show up for the return flight. Is this still allowed and has anyone done it on an international flight? Flights r/t to Chicago are a third of what a one way fare would be. 

Not looking to cheat the airlines, it would seem to me that a no show would be sold as a standby at the gate to whoever needs it. 

Just wondering if this is a common practice still, or not.

 

The airlines got smart to that practice and now will charge you after the fact for the difference.  

[*Miss G*]

20 minutes ago, CJcruzer said:

What you cannot change, on your own without contacting HAL, is your home gateway city.

 

I have never had a problem changing the “home” airport within my HAL account.  I have a choice of multiple airports I can fly from, depending where I am at that point in time, and never had a problem.  Are you referring to something else or am I missing something?

[*Miss G*]

29 minutes ago, TriumphGuy said:

One way flights seem to be ridiculously priced, for two even in economy it would cost more than the cruise.

 

I went to Google Flights and chose a random date in April and the prices seem reasonable to me.  Also try Hopper.

 

 

[Hawaiidan]

30 minutes ago, TriumphGuy said:

We have a TA cruise booked on Nieuw Statendam for next April. We are planning on spending a week in France post-cruise before flying home to Chicago. One way flights seem to be ridiculously priced, for two even in economy it would cost more than the cruise.

We are not frequent fliers, we fly as little as possible these days. In the "old days", we would simply buy a round trip ticket and not show up for the return flight. Is this still allowed and has anyone done it on an international flight? Flights r/t to Chicago are a third of what a one way fare would be. 

Not looking to cheat the airlines, it would seem to me that a no show would be sold as a standby at the gate to whoever needs it. 

Just wondering if this is a common practice still, or not.

It has been,,,, and the airlines are not happy   If you do it once you may not get caught.  However , airlines like UAL now have a  revenue protection/abuse  division complete with computer programs to scan thousands of  no show fares.   People have been caught and had to pay.

The easiest is to  join a  FF program,    get an affinity UAL  credit card and earn enough for a free 0ne way  30,000 mile ticket coach.    Or buy the miles at  $750 for (30,000 mile)    However with signup bonus you will get some 20 to 50,000 miles   just buying gas and groceries for a month or so.   and only need to buy $250 worth of miles.       even if you fly rarely  and ever intend to in the future years in advance, your most unwise  not to  build some miles for the future....  make you  everyday purchases work for you

[I_r_a]

Hey TG,

 

> In the "old days", we would simply buy a round trip ticket and not show up for the return flight. Is this still allowed and has anyone done it on an international flight?  <

 

You can still do it.

 

Call the airline a few days before the return flight.  You might be able to get a credit.

 

Enjoy your trip.

 

Ira

[CJcruzer]

1 hour ago, *Miss G* said:

 

I have never had a problem changing the “home” airport within my HAL account.  I have a choice of multiple airports I can fly from, depending where I am at that point in time, and never had a problem.  Are you referring to something else or am I missing something?

 

I apologize if that info is wrong... I was once told this, however I have never tried to change my homeport - as it is a great gateway for direct flight, to Europe, Asia, etc.   

 

I have saved quite a bit of money on one way tickets to/from Europe with Flight Ease.

My future Japan cruise, I could do much much better booking direct with airlines, but that is a roundtrip ticket.

[CJcruzer]

The benefit of Flight Ease is, if you are buying a FLEXIBLE fare, you can keep checking for sales on airlines, Flight Ease etc - as you do-not have to pay the airline ticket until payment date of cruise.  

 

I have done this in the past, and then found a sale on a particular airlines, booked it - and cancelled my flight ease hold with HAL.

 

Esp3cially if there is only one direct flight a day scheduled, it’s nice to have that on hold with flight ease - 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2019 by CJcruzer

[doublebzz]

2 hours ago, Randyk47 said:

 

The airlines got smart to that practice and now will charge you after the fact for the difference.  

 

58 minutes ago, I_r_a said:

 

 

You can still do it.

 

Call the airline a few days before the return flight.  You might be able to get a credit.

 

Enjoy your trip.

 

Ira

So which is it - appears to be a difference of opinion?  I have employed this tactic in the past before Flight Ease which I agree offers attractive one way fares.  I would always notify the airline I was cancelling;  you then have a year to rebook the return flight.  I would just let the year run out and never heard anything more from the airline.  For those moralists who think I'm cheating, I would ask what moral or ethical justification is there for charging many times the cost of an unneeded round trip ticket for one way or the other insidious fees airlines have placed on their fares.

[iancal]

Last time we needed a one way to Rome we actually picked up a low cost flight to Porto, Portugal and a low cost cost flight from Porto to Rome.    We had spent a wonderful week driving throughout the Douro Valley.  We had not planned to do that but we are certainly glad that we did.

 

This past March instead of paying an arm and a leg to fly one way from Sydney to Canada we broke it up.  Picked up a low cost Jetstar flight to Honolulu and then another flight home from HNL two days later.   It was a nice break.  The airline ticket savings by doing it this way paid for our hotel accommodations.

[Randyk47]

14 minutes ago, doublebzz said:

 

So which is it - appears to be a difference of opinion?  I have employed this tactic in the past before Flight Ease which I agree offers attractive one way fares.  I would always notify the airline I was cancelling;  you then have a year to rebook the return flight.  I would just let the year run out and never heard anything more from the airline.  For those moralists who think I'm cheating, I would ask what moral or ethical justification is there for charging many times the cost of an unneeded round trip ticket for one way or the other insidious fees airlines have placed on their fares.

 

https://www.delta.com/us/en/booking-information/fare-classes-and-tickets/ticket-rules-restrictions  Here’s Delta’s prohibited practices.  Other lines have similar rule statements.   On a frequent flyer forum there are numerous reports of the airlines taking action against flyers.  I fly primarily American and Delta and have substantial miles banked with them that I’d prefer not to lose.  

[TriumphGuy]

OP here - I was able to book ORD-ATL-FLL (Delta)and CDG-ORG, (Delta/Air France) premium economy seats with a non-stop from CDG-ORD, through FlightEase. Flexible air, don't need to pay til final cruise payment. Price was $2276 total, r/t for both of us, which I think is reasonable. Better than the $5000+ results I was getting.

I will check back from time to time, if I can score Business Class for not much more money, I'll go for it.

Thanks for the help.

[Moriah]

4 hours ago, Randyk47 said:

 

The airlines got smart to that practice and now will charge you after the fact for the difference.  

 

What? How in the world do they do this? 

[ger_77]

4 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

 

I have never had a problem changing the “home” airport within my HAL account.  I have a choice of multiple airports I can fly from, depending where I am at that point in time, and never had a problem.  Are you referring to something else or am I missing something?

Another vote for Holland America's Flight Ease.  We've rarely flown out of our home airport; we like to get into a large hub city the day before and fly from there; as a result, we've used Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal as home airports without a problem.  I just tell the Flight Ease folks where we want to fly from and they take it from there.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[Randyk47]

7 minutes ago, Moriah said:

 

What? How in the world do they do this? 

 

Do what?  Computers track reservations and flights.   You don’t show up for the return flight and they know it.  Most people buy their flights over the Internet either directly or through a TA.  They have your credit card number so can under their contract adjust the charge.  The other option, and they sometimes do both, is cancel your frequent flyer status and void your miles.   

[Moriah]

2 minutes ago, Randyk47 said:

 

Do what?  Computers track reservations and flights.   You don’t show up for the return flight and they know it.  Most people buy their flights over the Internet either directly or through a TA.  They have your credit card number so can under their contract adjust the charge.  The other option, and they sometimes do both, is cancel your frequent flyer status and void your miles.   

 

wow..I suppose it says all this in the "fine print" when you buy a round trip ticket? I've never taken only one leg, but I've heard that people do it because of one ways being so expensive. Very interesting...

[Jammu2]

$289 pp TAP Portugal. Serms a bargain.

 

$651 pp Icelandair

[TriumphGuy]

3 minutes ago, Jammu2 said:

$289 pp TAP Portugal. Serms a bargain.

 

$651 pp Icelandair

Yeah, but we want to use carriers we know and not some outfit that you read about leaving people stranded, or worse. I also don't want to be crammed into a seat for 12 hours with no leg room.

Never heard of TAP, and Icelandair has lousy reviews. 

Maybe I expect too much but a little comfort on a transatlantic flight is worth paying a bit for.

 

[Jammu2]

Indeed. Good luck!

[CJcruzer]

56 minutes ago, TriumphGuy said:

Yeah, but we want to use carriers we know and not some outfit that you read about leaving people stranded, or worse. I also don't want to be crammed into a seat for 12 hours with no leg room.

Never heard of TAP, and Icelandair has lousy reviews. 

Maybe I expect too much but a little comfort on a transatlantic flight is worth paying a bit for.

 

 

We flew TAP to Lisbon and it was not bad,    Icelandic Air we have never been on, I know the low budget offshoot WOW airlines was bargain basement, no frills and has since  ceased operation.

 

I worked in airplane supply industry 40-50 years ago, and I remember TAP was in existence then.  Must be doing something right to have stayed the course.

 

I always check on www.seatguru.com the aircraft and seating plan of a flight.     

[cowmilker]

We've flown Icelandair, from Copenhagen to Washington, DC.  It was fine.  I can't remember details because it's been several years ago, but just the fact that I don't remember much about it means that nothing was bad.