How do you book a flight with an open return?
 

My niece will be spending her senior year of college in Paris.
She will leave in August of this year and return in May or so of 2014.
Can you book a flight with an open return date?
Just wondering..........
Thanks!

You could just buy a one-way ticket. She'd better be sure, though, that her visa will allow her to enter France without a specific return ticket.

When our daughter spent 6 months in Argentina, neither airline nor Argentina immigration/visa requirements would allow her to fly on a one-way ticket. Each country is different - and we found one-way tickets outrageously expensive - difference between one-way and RT far more than the $200 change fee airline would charge (soon to be $300 internationally for most airlines).

Since it was a US university-sponsored semester abroad, her US school was able to give us a guesstimate of date. Fortunately it worked out. also, in her case she was only able to get a 3-month, renewable once, student visa - so we knew approximate dates by which her legal stay in the country would have to end.

Will niece be returning for commencement at her US university? If so, you would have an approximate end date - even if she chooses to travel or stay a bit longer than her education.

These open-return tickets used to be fairly common and may still be possible if it is for a student but I"m not sure. You need to go through a travel agent that specializes in student travel to see if this can be arranged any longer. STA Travel is the company.

Most students used to book through a student travel agency as they had a deal on changing return tickets without fees when you weren't sure of the return date. My daughter booked through them and when she found out what her real return date would be, she changed the ticket. I don't know if they still do that, but you can contact them.

http://www.statravel.com/home.htm

She will probably want to get the ISIC card for discounts. DD used hers quite a bit.

http://www.statravel.com/discount-ca...ser_ISIC_12Mar

Aer Lingus used to be the only airline that had reasonable one way flights.

US airlines only post schedules 10 months out so there is no way to book a ticket a year out currently.

>>>She will leave in August of this year and return in May or so of 2014<<<

Won't she come home for the holidays? Christmas? Easter break? If staying in dorms, they often close over holidays. Maybe book a r/t ticket US/Paris Sept and return Dec. Book a 2nd r/t for the 2nd semester. I would be surprised if a school would finish in May. European schools operate on different schedules than US. Is she attending a European university or just an American institute that caters to US students? If a real European school, their schedule would be on their website. DD attended two colleges in Spain and the spring semester started end of January/first of February. They had a two week break at Easter and classes finished in May. Finals weren't until end of June as they have a month reading period (study period) before finals.

You can buy fully flexible return tickets that allow you to change the return date with no extra fee. They are not cheap - for cheap you need to commit to a return date. One way tickets are very expensive.

On occasion round trip tickets with very long stopovers (6+ months) will be priced so as to be close to the sum of two one-way tickets. It's the airline's way to hedge against costs (especially fuel) spiking during the interim.

There are several airlines that offer reasonable one-way flights, among them Icelandair, Aer Lingus, Airberlin, and others. It can also sometimes be cost-effective to purchase (for money) frequent flyer miles from the airlines, then redeem them on the spot for one-way travel.

In my years as a student, and in the (OMG so many) years since, I have never, ever been asked to show proof of onward travel when arriving at a European airport immigration kiosk. She may be asked to show proper documentation for her student status, related to her visa, but a return plane ticket? Very doubtful.

Regardless, she should be well coached by her college regarding visa and immigration rules that will apply to France and the Schengen group.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice.
I will pass it along to my sister in law!