One-Way vs Round Trip Enquiry

Hi all,

As you all probably know, more often than not, when wanting to fly just one-way, a return trip is usually a significant amount cheaper. Why this is? I don't know.

However, are there any fines/penalties/prosecutions that come with purposely missing the return leg? How do people normally get away with this?

My wife is going to be flying over in the next few weeks (hopefully), and we're looking at flight choices.

Kind regards,

Ben

It's not been a problem for me before although if she's worried about it, one thing she could do is book the return for a possible date when she may wish to take a trip back to the US for a visit - that way, she could use the return leg later on (and possibly pay to change the date if she doesn't know exactly when she will use it) and wouldn't have to worry about not showing up for the flight.

On the other hand, if you were to miss the first leg of the flight and then try to take the return leg, they will assume you are not travelling at all and will cancel the return leg, re-selling your seat to someone else.

I've heard rumours, and they're just rumours, that they will hunt you down (so to speak) and make you pay the difference between the return and one-way costs. I can't see this being realistic.

And yes we have thought about this. However, every trip out of the UK will always be a return now, so taking the return leg will put things out of sync.

I think we'll just take the risk. Is it worth informing them you won't be able to make the return, or just not turn up? I'm thinking the latter

I've heard rumours, and they're just rumours, that they will hunt you down (so to speak) and make you pay the difference between the return and one-way costs. I can't see this being realistic.

Before I posted my reply, I did have a quick look online to see if there were any problems with missing the return leg, and I also came across something about the airline being able to charge the difference, but I don't know that it's actually something that happens in reality. Plus, they would only be able to do that if they could track her down.

When I was living in the US, I bought a return ticket to move back to the UK, and just didn't use the return portion back to the US again. That was in 2004 and nothing ever happened because of it. Initially I had booked a return going from the UK->US->UK but was only planning to use the second US->UK part, but it was when my mum talked to the airline that they told her I couldn't do that because if I missed the UK->US part, they would cancel the second leg. So, I got a refund on the ticket and purchased it going the other way US->UK->US and just didn't use the second part.

And yes we have thought about this. However, every trip out of the UK will always be a return now, so taking the return leg will put things out of sync.

Yes, that is a good point and something you would have to consider - plus, it's often more expensive to fly from the US to the UK than the other way around (strangely).

I think we'll just take the risk. Is it worth informing them you won't be able to make the return, or just not turn up? I'm thinking the latter

I wouldn't say anything to anyone, just don't turn up for the return leg. If they know in advance that she won't be travelling back to the US, they may try to charge her for a one-way or something similar.

For what its worth...I bought a return ticket for as far in advance as I could when I came on a student visa...then when we decided we'd get married I tried to cancel the return portion of the flight online but it said I couldn't and had to call...I didn't want to try and call the US number it was giving me so I just ignored it. The day of the flight came and went and I didn't think anything of it.

Three months later a booked a return flight from London to Vegas and back with the same frequent flyer number, credit card, everything and the flight was without issue. I've never been charged or even received notification about missing that flight.

On and Delta is the airline I had booked through both times.

I hadn't heard they could charge you for the difference...but I'm pretty sure if Delta was going to I was pretty easy to find considering it's all tied to my Skymiles account.