Travel Oddity: Buying one-way tickets.

My long-overdue-to-go houseguest is finally going this Wed (WEEEE!) so today I was looking for a one-way plane ticket for him from London to San Francisco. The best I could come up with was an AerLingus flight with one stop that lasted almost 23 hours all-told and it was $900+.

I remember reading years back that due to incomprehensible pricing policies, round-trip tickets used to cost less to purchase than one-way but I figured with the days of the internet, that kind of cost insanity would fall by the wayside. But on a whim, I did a quick search anyway.

BA direct flight from LHR leaving Wed but purchased with a return leg the following week? $699.11! 

There was tons of selection too in the similar price-range.  Yowza.

Do you think there'll be any penalty if he doesn't end up using both legs? I think I heard somewhere of airlines trying to charge you later if they realize you've only used one leg (I assume additional charge on the CC) but that does sound a bit far fetched. I could always book the return several months later just in case though.

I have never heard of an issue with not using the return ticket

I have never heard of an issue with not using the return ticket

Neither have I. In fact, when I moved over to the UK, the airline actually recommended that I buy a return ticket, rather than a one-way one, even though I'd only be using one leg of it.

Mort if you go on expedia.co.uk and click for flights only then go down to the bottom of the page and click on one way flights then enter destination and date you will find there is a flight leaving Heathrow on Wed at 06:40 Aer Lingus with a connecting flight in Dublin 1 hour and 40 minutes later all for the price of £381.04

That's the one I was talking about actually. It was showing up as more expensive on my searches for some reason.
But that is a one stop flight and I bought a round trip on non-stop BA for like 18% cheaper than that. Weird, huh?

But that is a one stop flight and I bought a round trip on non-stop BA for like 18% cheaper than that. Weird, huh?

all depends on the time of year, airline prices vary so much throughout the year it's crazy.

Cripes thats expensive! I managed to get a ticket direct from LHR to SFO from www.airline-network.co.uk at Christmas...direct flights...much cheaper...

returns are cheaper for some reason....my partner used to buy returns from london to US....then once back in the states he would call the airline to notify them he was not going to use the return ticket....you don't have to fly back on the return as long as you notify the airline..otherwise there will be a lot of pissed people waiting around for you to check in!

of course this is not the case if you are british and you have stated on the visa you fill out on the plane your return date...

My long-overdue-to-go houseguest is finally going this Wed (WEEEE!) so today I was looking for a one-way plane ticket for him from London to San Francisco. The best I could come up with was an AerLingus flight with one stop that lasted almost 23 hours all-told and it was $900+.

I remember reading years back that due to incomprehensible pricing policies, round-trip tickets used to cost less to purchase than one-way but I figured with the days of the internet, that kind of cost insanity would fall by the wayside. But on a whim, I did a quick search anyway.

BA direct flight from LHR leaving Wed but purchased with a return leg the following week? $699.11! 

There was tons of selection too in the similar price-range.  Yowza.

Do you think there'll be any penalty if he doesn't end up using both legs? I think I heard somewhere of airlines trying to charge you later if they realize you've only used one leg (I assume additional charge on the CC) but that does sound a bit far fetched. I could always book the return several months later just in case though.

Every time I've moved across the Atlantic (5 times now!) I've bought a round-trip and only used one leg of it. No problem at all.

Blah.  I'm going through this right now.  Moving home to San Francisco for good in June but having to buy a r/t ticket.  I want to fly with my dog on Virgin so I don't really have a choice with airlines.  My ticket is costing over £500, thats just ridiculous!

Blah.  I'm going through this right now.  Moving home to San Francisco for good in June but having to buy a r/t ticket.  I want to fly with my dog on Virgin so I don't really have a choice with airlines.  My ticket is costing over £500, thats just ridiculous!

Virgin is sometimes more for one-way, sometimes less. I can never predict when one or the other will occur. I bought myself a ticket to Vegas and I wanted to buy a one-way and then decide on the return leg later, and while the RT cost £434, OW was £465.

But one good thing about Virgin is that they don't charge you extra if you want to say fly in Vegas and fly out of New York like I'm doing. Nifty.

Buying a return instead of a one-way and only using one leg is fine - providing it's the return leg and not the outgoing leg that you will not be using.

A few years ago I had been planning on purchasing a round trip from London to the US, but because I was already in the US, I was going to only use the return leg. However, when I called the airline, I was informed that while it was fine not to use the second flight, if I didn't turn up for the first leg, they would cancel the whole trip (they would assume that I wasn't travelling at all). So in the end, I had to book a round trip from the US to the UK and just not use the return leg.

You could book the return leg for a time when they might want to go home. For instance I booked mine for around Thanksgiving and I actually got to use it.

Just be aware that you should NOT try this trick on Cross Channel ferries (UK to France).  If you buy a "24 hour return" ticket to get across from Dover to Calais, and another "24 hour return" for 2 weeks later from Calias to Dover, you'll find that the ferry company has stored your credit card details and they will charge you an upgrade on each of the two tickets, so you end up paying 2 single fares.