I'm planning to use frequent flyer miles for a trip to Italy later this year, and have been researching various routings and dates. I happened to look at getting two one-way tickets, instead of a round-trip ticket, and noticed that the cost in money for my particular trip is about $160 dollars cheaper if I get two one-way tickets. Is there any pitfall to doing this? I can't think of any, but wanted to get the collective wisdom here.

Thanks,

Celia

I've often done this. Sometimes it's less expensive and more convenient to use two different airlines, too. If you're using FF miles, that's obviously not a consideration. The only pitfall I can see is you'd have two confirmation numbers, one for going and one for coming back. I think I'd tolerate that mild inconvenience for $160.

It may be a little annoying, but if it works out cheaper I would definitely use that option.

Not a problem at all, no downside and may even give you a slight advantage if you can find one of the legs in a higher class of service. You don't say which airline, but on United I was able to find a date with economy outbound and business return at the saver rates.

Thanks, travelers! I appreciate your advice.

Celia

Although note they will be considered two separate tickets so if you cancel and your airline has a fee for redeposit of the miles you will pay that twice.

RIght.

I've done this many times and for me a great advantage has been booking business class saver tickets as soon as the airline opens up the seats--by the time we are 335 days out (or whatever the limit is) for the return leg, the outbound seats are already snapped up.

Booking one way each, I can grab the seat for the outbound flight as soon as tix open up, and then grab the return 2 weeks later or whenever they open up. Also, can use different airlines.

If on the same airline, pretty sure I've been able to combine the trips on one confirmation #.

I'm glad this has worked for you, but that's not the way airlines allocate seats for mileage redemption. There's not a set amount of seats set aside for awards on any given flight; instead seats are put into award inventory throughout the 11- or 12-month booking period, depending on how the airlines' yield/revenue management computer programs determine things are going for that flight. They do this based on numerous data sources - historic loads, competition, various internal costs, pace of sales... and unless you're a star graduate of Hogwarts you're not going to be able to outsmart these algorithms.

Now some airlines (e.g. British Airways) tend to release a couple of seats in premium cabins for award redemptions at the beginning of their booking period, but not on all flights by any means. Then, over the next few months, one or two seats might trickle into award inventory, and when those go more might be allocated, again, depending on how the flight is performing as determined by the robots. Other airlines, e.g. American Airlines, are notoriously stingy with releasing award seats until the last minute; ironically it's easier to get business class seats a week or two before the flight than it is ten months before the flight. Unfortunately most people can't run that risk.

As for the one-way vs. round trip award, most major airlines have long since eliminated round trip awards; now almost everything is on a one-way basis.

My point was that one way booking is not only possible, but at times advantageous.

You may not be able to use online check in with a one way ticket.

I would assume each segment has its own identifier so why couldn't you use online check in?

Oh come on, unless you have a discrepancy in your online profile or are flagged for the dreaded "SSSS" (Secondary Security Screening Selection) there should be no reason why a person with a one-way wouldn't be able to check-in on line. I've done it many times on several different airlines.

The last time I used my United Mileage Plus miles, I booked one-way tickets and it worked out fine. It was much easier to book good flight times, when I did them individually.

If using Mileage Plus, try to use other airlines than United. Lufthansa, for instance, provides a MUCH nicer in-flight experience. At least, that is what we have found.

The reason is that some airlines take seriously the requirement of some country's immigration laws that you need to prove you have a way out of the country at the end of your 90 days. They don't want to be stuck with the expense of sending you back to the origin country if you're denied admission.

Maybe you haven't been to any of those countries. The ones I'm familiar with are in South America as a rule.