General opinions on buying a round trip ticket but only using one way?

I'm moving back to the U.S. permanently.

Can I buy a round trip flight and just fly one way and not show up for the other part of the trip?

As you can imagine, a one way ticket costs £200 more than a round trip ticket. Even more ridiculous is that the cheapest one way tickets cost £800 and have 20hr travel time with 2 layovers (a direct flight to where I live is only 8hrs). When I searched for a round trip ticket, they offered a direct flight at a much cheaper price... Only £600.

Anyway I have scoured the Internet for people's opinions and reviews about doing this. Some say it's fine and you can get away with it if you only do it once or twice. Others say the airline can fine you(I don't really believe this, how can they charge you without your consent?) or cancel your reward cards or refuse to let you fly with them again.

My biggest concern is- when I don't show up for the return flight, can they fine me or chase me down somehow?

And my other concern is how would this effect me in terms of border control? Would anyone be able to tell that I had purchased a round trip ticket? Would they be suspicious (in either the U.S. or UK) that I purchased a round trip ticket but I am telling them I am going back for good? (Plus my visa is expiring in 3 weeks and I'm moving home before then)


Thanks for the input!

You should be fine. I've booked a round trip ticket a couple times when I only needed a one way ticket, due to the cheaper price. I flew with Delta both times and just called them to let them know that I needed to cancel my return ticket. No fines or anything. They instead treated my cancelled ticket like an unused ticket, gave me a ticket number and told me that I had six-ish months to rebook my return flight, or else I would lose it.

I never had any issues at the border either  No one asked me specifically about my travel plans i.e. why I had a round trip when I only needed a one way, so I didn't say anything. If for some reason they do I guess you can just explain that it was cheaper to book a round trip, and you intend to cancel the return portion.

In all the time I've been on this forum I've never heard of anyone having any issues because they didn't take their return flight.

The only time I've seen it become an issue is when someone has booked an open-jaw flight and doesn't take the last leg. In these cases the cost of the flight is reduced and the airlines don't like it if you don't complete the journey at all. But these flights are not just a simple return flight.

When I moved over in February 0f 2014 I had a round trip ticket. I even told the IO that I was moving over and joining my husband. She only asked where he was, and other visa related questions.

I didn't use or cancel the second half of my fare and nothing untoward has happened to me! I even visited my family this year with the same airline and there were no issues.

When I moved over in February 0f 2014 I had a round trip ticket. I even told the IO that I was moving over and joining my husband. She only asked where he was, and other visa related questions.

I didn't use or cancel the second half of my fare and nothing untoward has happened to me! I even visited my family this year with the same airline and there were no issues.

My experience has been about the same, except I came over in October of last year and I haven't gone back to visit family yet.  The odd thing was, in the past British Air has always sent an email before a flight to remind me it was coming up etc.  That happened on both legs of my 6 month visit here the first half of last year, and for the flight back in October.  When the time came around for the "return flight" I'd scheduled when booking, there was no email at all.  I still wonder if they knew I wasn't planning to use that return ticket....