tip for one-way flights US>Europe

I had been looking for my one-way flight to london online and was finding the one-ways to be more expensive than a return ticket!  some were up around $800 !!!

There is a happy ending, though, I got my one-way from Miami-London for $194 !!

I went through a friend of my sister's at a travel agency called Auto Europe that book flights, hotels, cars, etc. for trips to europe and got a great deal on the one-way ticket.  Im not sure how their round trip fares compete, but considering the difficult time i was having a one-way, it was a big relief to find a one-way substantially cheaper than the return.

You can contact her for a quote at shelley@autoeurope.com

Single fares tend to be very expensive on all public transport ... probably because it's a specialist market that can stand a higher price being charged.  

Train. If travelling off peak, look at the return ticket options which can work out cheaper than a single.  If you ask, the staff are usually helpful and won't "blow a whistle" on you.

Ferry. Be careful - there are very cheap cross channel ferry days returns, but if you pay for a return and just use a single the ferry companies say they charge your credit card with the difference when you don't return.  Anyone had this happen to them? Did they add a service charge too?  How about paying in cash?

Air. Again, Transatlantic singles are a specialist high price market.  Single ticket holders are probably a bit of a nuisance to the airlines, as those are the passengers who are likely to get stopped at immigration / turned back at the airline's expense, and they are likely to have more paperwork than someone going for a one week holiday.  I have not heard of any "back charging" to people who don't make their return flight, and at one stage we bought a return when we didn't actually have a "next flight" date - think we still have the second half of the ticket in a dusty old file somewhere!

On low cost flights - do "courier flight" services offer one way?  I suspect they might.  No personal experience, but see http://www.aircourier.org/ and http://www.courier.org/ and others.

Edit ... added ...

Lou - have a great flight and everyting else.   Just been reading some of the other boards and see that you'll be coming one way in the next few weeks.  Your family will enjoy it too when they come, I'm sure!

Can I suggest also www.skyauction.com for one-way flights from the US to London?  I've had great experience with them.

I was checking out Sky Auction for one way tickets from Boston to London but was a little hesitant.  Anybody have any problems using this site?  Any good experiences?  The only disclosure I saw that could be a problem was:

"As with all the auctions reservations are subject to the availability of specific classes of service as contracted with the carrier and not every flight or date may be available."

I am pretty flexible but would like to try and use the tickets within a three day period - 9/20 - 9/23.  Do you think this would be a problem?  I guess this is mostly directed towards Peedal since you mentioned you've had great experiences...

My experience with SkyAuction has been great!

First off - at least when I was using them - they don't charge your credit card right off the bat when you win.  I think there's a 3 day delay on it.  And they do that so you can attempt to get the exact day(s) you want to travel, if they're available.  If every attempt is made (by both you and the carrier) to accommodate your travel requirements and it still doesn't work out, then you DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR THE TICKETS!

I wish I could remember which part of the site (maybe a FAQ section?) this was in.  I do remember that I copied it so I could read it at my leisure and make sure of it.  (But that was on my mother's computer in Florida - sorry!)

I used them for round-trip tickets once (Miami to London) and got a great deal.  Then I used them for one-way tickets where there were only 2 available for auction but I needed 3 and they sold me the 3rd one for the same price.  Did that again coming from NY to London.

The reason I have such high esteem for them is this:

The boys and I were in NY getting visas to return to London.  We thought it would take just a day - but it took longer (very long story...).  Anyway, before leaving London to go to NY, I bid on 2 tickets.  I won - and they agreed to sell me the 3rd at the same price, as before.  Seems their office is based in NY (about 5 blocks from the hotel we were staying at).  So whilst we waited for the visas to come through, the woman at SkyAuction and I were on the phone every day because I couldn't be sure of our departure date and she didn't want to issue the tickets until we knew for sure.

Got the visas on Friday - called SkyAuction, she had the tickets issued immediately and we were able to pick them up in person that afternoon after picking up the visas from the Consulate!

Now that was excellent personal customer service - and at a time when I was so stressed out, one more problem would have pushed me over the edge!

Oh - and she was able to recommend an incredible Indian place for us to eat at before we left NY, too!