Open jaw or Round trip?

Old Oct 13th, 2011, 05:04 PM
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Open jaw or Round trip?

Hi everyone! My daughters and I are going to visit Munich, Venice, Nice and either Colmar for a couple of days where our relatives are from, or maybe Amalfi. We have been to Europe once before, and when we went last time we flew round trip to Paris. Our last stop at that time was Florence. When our trip was over, we flew a budget airline back to Paris and then caught a flight home to New York. I am an avid reader and follower of Rick Steves travel books. The thing is, he always says that its best to fly "open jaw" which would be great because of the multiple itineraries. However Rick says its cheaper to fly that way. I have checked with travelocity and even directly with different airlines and they all were much more expensive to fly into one city and out of another. Does anyone know why Rick Steves says its cheaper when I have consistently found it more expensive to fly that way? Am I missing something or could Rick Steves possibly be wrong about flying open jaw? Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you!
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Old Oct 13th, 2011, 05:41 PM
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He is not wrong, in general, but of course YMMV.

I hope that you are not searching for one-way fares. That would make it much more expensive.

Also, I suggest that you book your open jaw ticket intercontinental trip as one ticket. Then book the intra-Europe tickets separately.

Supposing that you might like an itinerary for USA-Nice and returning from MUC. And you want to fly from Nice to Venice.

Then do a multi-destination search and put in USA-Nice and MUC-USA. Find the fare with a roundtrip USA-Nice with the outbound trip on/about the day(s) you want. Compare that with a roundtrip fare USA-MUC. Add the two roundtrips together and divide by 2. The open-jaw should be about that much.

If you want to give a specific example or two I/we can take a look.
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Old Oct 13th, 2011, 05:44 PM
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OTOH, it is possible that you could add the Nice-Vence leg on the same ticket and get a better price than buying the open-jaw and one-way separately.
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Old Oct 13th, 2011, 05:48 PM
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An open-jaw ticket could cost more than a simple round-trip one. What you save by going open jaw is the time and money of getting back to the point in Europe where you arrived. On your previous trip, if you had flown home to New York from Florence, that would have been an open-jaw ticket, and you wouldn't have had to spend the time and money to get back to Paris.

Weigh these things and see what works out best for you.
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Old Oct 13th, 2011, 07:20 PM
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It really does depend on (1) where you start, (2) where you are going, (3) the order in which you visit places, and (4) when you go.

For example, a search on kayak.com for the dates of November 11-25 and flying from Atlanta gave the following results for the cheapest flights:

ATL-NCE-ATL = $1093 (Delta/KLM)

** ATL-MUC-ATL = $957 (USAirways; Delta = $970) **

ATL-MUC/NCE-ATL = $1009 (Delta/KLM)

ATL-NCE/MUC-ATL = $1055 (Delta)

So the round trip ATL-MUC is cheapest for those dates — if you don't care which airline you use. Wanting to stay with a certain airline or alliance can change things, of course.

ATL-NCE is most expensive, and the open jaws are in between. But notice that going to Nice first is $46 MORE than going to Munich first!


The same search from Los Angeles returned

LAX-NCE-LAX = $1009 (Delta/KLM)

LAX-MUC-LAX = $1001 (Delta)

** LAX-MUC/NCE-LAX = $982 (Delta/KLM) **

LAX-NCE/MUC-LAX = $1028 (Delta)

So in THIS case, the open jaw MUC/NCE is least expensive, the round trips are in the middle, and the open jaw NCE/MUC costs the most (again, $46 more than MUC/NCE). And coincidentally, this example turns out to use the same airlines, so it is a more straightforward comparison than most.

If you change the dates (for example May 11-15, 2012) or cities you will get a different set of dynamics as to what is cheapest and on which airlines.
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Old Oct 13th, 2011, 09:05 PM
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A $46 or $98 difference is really not "much more expensvie", IMO.
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Old Oct 14th, 2011, 03:26 AM
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ricksteves.com is right about lots of things

I love his money belts and grafitti board tips for scams

but he is wrong if he states anywhere that open jaw saves

they generally do not and can be quite a bit more.

Go a lot RT flights from US to MXP in italy or FRA DUS MUC

always cheapest for me on sites like

cheapoair.com

kayak.com/buzz

AA.com in particular has great FF miles deals my wife and

I opened 1 AAdvantage CCs got 80000 FF miles booked 2

FF miles trip all expenses paid but for tax and closed the

we do this a lot have not paid full fare in years and we go

over 1-2 X per year... best prices are found on Tuesday PM

in late Jan other great tips like this on fatrcompare.com

I do think Rick is right about open jaw being more convenient

So you have to cost it out and decide.. seat61.com regional

train like a local dirt cheap everywhere especially Italy.

Happy Planning!
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Old Oct 14th, 2011, 03:32 AM
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farecompare.com sorry for typo

Another great way to save is to fly cheap RT to LON

then ryanair.com easyjet.com booked in advance on sales

from 1 british pound/tax into Treviso/Venice

then regional train open jaw does not cost more generally on

euroeconos. skyscanner.net whichbudget.com best sites

You must book in advance prices shoot up sky high day of...
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Old Oct 14th, 2011, 03:33 AM
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flybaboo.com

from NCE to VCE a good way to go

train a long slog from personal experience.
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Old Oct 14th, 2011, 07:41 AM
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My own experience with intra-European flights, if only needing to go ONE WAY from city to city, is to buy a RT ticket instead of one way, and just not use the last half of it. I saved a lot of money doing that. If you plan to NOT use the last half of a RT, check out the return date pricing, because if you can 'return' (but not really using the tkt) a couple of weeks later, you can get a discounted ticket for that segment of the RT price! I know because I've done it. DH and I needed to get from AMS to ZRH but not from ZRH back to AMS. By booking the date we needed and then selecting a far out 'return' date, I saved at least $50-60 per ticket for us.
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Old Oct 14th, 2011, 09:40 AM
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I had just the opposite experience with intra-European flights for my trip next month. For each of the three legs I needed to book, it was cheaper to buy one-way tickets than round-trip. And a quick check of current fares reveals that is still the case.

When I was preparing to book, I watched the fares for a number of days as I was trying to nail down my travel dates, and then once I had decided on the dates I was able to plan my purchases. In one case I snagged a one-way ticket at less than half the typical one-way fare (it went down one day, I bought, and then it was back up the next - but even then still less than round-trip). In another I let a good fare get away from me and ended up paying more than I might have, but also still less than the round-trip fare.

Maybe it depends on the city pairs you need and/or your travel dates/season.
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Old Oct 14th, 2011, 07:34 PM
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Thank you everyone for all your great advice! I see now that a lot of it depends on the days you are flying and the different cities you are flying into and out of as well. I guess it's just something you have to play with and grab the best fare when you see it. I am also going to consider the hassle and expense of getting back to that "round trip" airport as well. Yes, I love Rick Steves travel products as well!
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Old Oct 16th, 2011, 09:00 AM
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The answer is... it depends. You're figured it out you just need to comparison shop the various itinerary options. Open jaws can be no more expensive than a simple round trip (I've never known it to be actually "cheaper" unless you count the expense of returning to your original arrival airport). But often similarly priced.
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