Downside to buying one way ticket to combine later?

[MOXJO7282]

After getting 1st class for less than $800 last November I'm really shocked at airfare NYC - St. Thomas for 2020 so far. We're looking to go for July 4th and best I can get is $3k for the 4 of us through Delta which we've never used so working on that but also looking at Dec 12th-19th and again airfare is extreme for coach at over $1000 each.

Again through Delta I do see a 1 way tickets for $285 one way for Dec 12 but they don't show return until later in the week. I'm wondering if I should lock down the 1 way tickets and then just secure the return when it is loaded or do you incur a bigger cost by purchasing separately? I'm concerned that if I wait until RT is available maybe I'm fighting for RT with a lot of other travelers because all other airlines are showing really high prices.

Anyone do this? By separating and then combine to RT? Anyone do a split airline for each leg and find that works out? Just trying anything to get reasonable airfare and still hoping pricing changes because NYC to STT shouldn't be so costly.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I do this frequently.

First, most of my travel is on Alaska Air, and there is seldom, if ever, any discount for booking round trip. You see the same fares for each leg of the round trip as you do when book flights individually.

Second, I often cash in some of my frequent flyer miles to apply to air fare On Alaska I can do this in 10,000 or 20,000 mile increments. If I do this using a round trip, I'm limited to 20,000 miles. By booking flights separately, I can use 20,000 miles each direction.

I have an upcoming trip where I was late making reservations, and Alaska didn't have a workable outbound itinerary. But they did have the return flight, and their return was by fare the best and cheapest options. So I ended up booking the outbound as one ticket on American, and the return as a separate ticket on Alaska.

I suggest also investigating your options using Kayak or Orbitz. They sometimes identify some hacker fare combinations that don't appear when trying to book through airline web sites.

Finally, check your frequent flyer award possibilities. Last year I had an itinerary that was Seattle-Raleigh-San Antonio-Seattle. That Raleigh to Seattle leg was a killer, with air fare of almost $1000. So I checked just that leg as a frequent flyer award ticket on Alaska. They offered me a routing on American for 30,000 miles. That was one of the itineraries that was almost $1,000 booking through American. So grabbed that flight. Then the rest of the trip became one way tickets on Alaska from Seattle to Raleigh and then from San Antonio to Seattle.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I always do one way with Southwest, Alaska and sometimes United because RT doesn't seem to matter. Delta seems to still offer cheaper RT from the routes I was looking at. YMMV.

I've never "combined" the one ways but they show up in our account. Not sure what you are suggesting other than you get one change fee vs. two.

 

[bizaro86]

I very often travel on 2 different airlines coming/going, or go two places in one trip (and have 3 flight segments, sometimes with three airlines).

If it isn't cheaper to book a return (which is very rarely the case) I never do.

If it's the same price it's to your advantage to book one-ways. Many airlines will cancel all flights in a trip if you miss the first one. Whereas if booked separately if you had to go a day or two later for some reason your return would be unaffected.

 

[geist1223]

Buying separate tickets One Way vice Round Trip on Alaska works great unless you are using Companion Fare.

 

[jkrich]

The only downside that comes to mind is if you have to cancel or modify your flights there will almost certainly
be a fee. If you have one way tickets and both flights are cancelled the fees will apply to both segments. If you cancel
a round trip tickets the cancellation fee will be applied only once. Since cancellation fees are often $200 on domestic
flights (higher on international)on the major airlines that might be significant.

Despite that we generally think the utility for us to book the one way flights outweighs the risk. You might be able to offset
the cancellation risk with travel insurance.

Good luck in finding affordable flights.

 

[Janann]

I agree with all of the above, but isn't there sometimes a rule in some countries where you have to prove that you have a departure ticket? If the airline can attest that you have a round trip ticket it's not an issue. But it may be a small hassle if you have to produce the online ticket from another airline to show that you'll be departing for home in a week. However, I could be wrong.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Buying separate tickets One Way vice Round Trip on Alaska works great unless you are using Companion Fare.

Correct. When you are using the Companion Fare, it's to your advantage to make the base fare as large as possible.

But you can't combine miles+money with a companion fare. So if I'm not using the companion fare, and I'm doing miles + money, I'll book outbound and return separatrely.

On the three city itinerary I mentioned above (Seattle-Raleigh-San Antonio-Seattle), on the San Antonio leg I was joining up with two other family members in San Antonio. So I booked their flights using a Companion Fare, I then noticed that the return flight was eligible for free first class upgrade on the return. So using the Companion Fare certificate, I purchased an upgradable coach fare on the return flight. I used miles + money to also purchase an upgradable ticket for the return. Then I used my upgrade certificates to put all three of us in First Class.

 

[bizaro86]

Buying separate tickets One Way vice Round Trip on Alaska works great unless you are using Companion Fare.

Companion fare is one of the few times I book roundtrips. Westjet (an airline in Canada) has a similar deal on their credit card, so between them and Alaska I do book roundtrips for companion fare purposes.

 

[b2bailey]

I can't remember the last time I bought a round-up ticket.

 

[Sandy VDH]

I do this often. You still have a departure ticket so proving that is no issue.

If you are contemplating a whole shift to a different month, then round trip might be considered. But it at most you are shifting forward or backward a few days, then it is often easier.

If I am solid in my dates, and paying for a ticket is a good alternative then I will usually buy my tickets via my Chase SR Ultimate Reward points. If I am planning to shift dates around and am uncertain, and it is cost effective, I will use Airline miles as switching dates is really simply. Now switching routing in entirely different matter. I do not recommend that, that is really a cancel and rebook.

Read some online accounts..... https://thepointsguy.com/2017/07/aadvantage-change-mistake-story/