1 way ticket
 

Hi everyone,

I could really use your help and advice on this....
My wife and I went on a Europe vacation earlier this year. We had roundtrip tickets with United Airlines. We were in Austria we got a call that our dog was sick so we had to cut our trip a week short and pay for a brand new flight back home with a different airlines. We still have a one-way ticket returning from Prague that we have to book by January. Our problem that we are having is that all of the one-way tickets going to Europe mostly double and sometimes triple the cost of a roundtrip ticket. Does anyone know a way around this? Would United allow me to combine my one way ticket with another and give me a similar price to a round trip?

Thank you.

What fare class did you book under?

Did you have trip insurance?

You need to confirm with the airline but if you cancel your ticket, you should have the balance on file with them to use towards a new ticket.

You need to talk TO the AIRLINE. We cannot answer for sure. As mentioned above, do you have a credit that can be used toward another ticket.
Also, did you inform United you were in the predicament you describe. If you just didn't use the leg, it may be null and void.

<i> If you just didn't use the leg, it may be null and void.</i>

This is a VERY IMPORTANT thing to know.

I agree, check with your airline but just in case your tickets are still valid and you still need one-way flights have a look at Norwegian Air. They're a low cost airline that fly from various cities in the US to Europe (including Prague) and they allow one-way tickets. They can be very cheap.

Here is their web site:
http://www.norwegian.com

OK -- If you still want to use your remaining flight home . . . Besides Norwegian and a few other airlines that sell reasonable one way fares, another option is to buy cheaper round trip tickets (preferably from a different airline that you aren't tied to via FF miles). Then you can simply toss that return flight.

This is assuming you can't work out something with United.

This is very confusing because it appears that OP did indeed tell United and somehow got a delay on using those funds until January, even though the booked flight was obviously early and has taken place. So now he has to reuse the funds by January. There are usually deadlines on those type of things.

What isn't clear is why it must be a one way flight from Prague, but it sounds like they got a delay in the same itinerary and permission to rebook that particular flight later. Which is pretty amazing. Otherwise, I would have expected it jsut to be a credit with a change fee but it could be used on any ticket.

I think the obvious answer is you have to talk to United, not us, as it isn't even clear what has happened and the conditions of reusing the funds.

I think the OP is pretty clear - they have a flight home they must use by January.

They are looking for an inexpensive way to get TO Europe, so they can fly back on the ticket they already have credit for.

The last sentence in the OP just muddies the water and seems to be just wondering what United might do -- sure they can contact United.

But the rest of the OP spells out the issue . . . and we've given a couple of strategies for getting to Europe cheaply.

I have only cancelled flights as a whole, so no first hand experience with this airline on what happens when partial trips are taken. I can see the airline's view. They have no intention of giving back any part of the round trip ticket to prevent people from booking cheaper round trip and cancel the return to get one way ticket at discount.

I doubt there is a rational way to use what remains on your itinerary.

To buy a one-way ticket from the beginning, you either have to use one of the few point to point priced carriers - Norwegian, Iceland Air, etc. While you can also buy yet another round-trip, it is really same as if your current return ticket never existed.

I also doubt any chance of combining your current ticket. It is same as giving you a market value for your remaining ticket which the airline has no intention of doing unless it was part of the original condition of carriage. Legacy carriers exact money out of your for anything benefiting you.

As said.. cheap one way.. possibly Norwegian.. or cheapest round trip you can find and forfeit return or make it so far in future you may just do this again.

Fly to Europe on WOW, or Iceland Air, or Norwegian - if they don't get you to Prag use Skyscanner.net to find a cheap flight within Europe, or get close and use the train. Make the most of this situation - celebrate being back already even though not originally planned. Lemonade out of lemons, that kind of thing.

Insufficient info to advise - exact fare class booked/terms& conditions are required to advise.
Some fare classes allow you to apply the unused fare value to another itinerary, usually within a specified time period. Others require you to use the same origin/destination.

OP - your best bet is to contact United. Everything else here is conjecture.

Thank you all for your help and advice. My wife and I are very apprectiative. I don't know if it will help but I would like to shed a little more light on our trip in hopes that it will help our dilema. We had planned our 5 week bucket list trip to Europe with it scheduled to end in Prague. We had an amazing time! Unfortunately in our 4 week while we were in Austria, we found out that our dog was very sick. We decided that we would fly back as soon as we could back home to Hawaii. Unfortunately, United did not have flight out that same day so we took the soonest one which ended up being with Korean Air. I think I ended up paying almost $2k for my wife and I. United said that we can still use our return flight from Prague. However, I noticed that one way tickets to Europe are almost triple the price! Are my tickets basically trash? Does anyone have experience with United making excepetions allowing someone to combine their one way into a roundtrip price? Does it even make sense to use this ticket? Thank you.

OK -- why do you have to fly to Europe with United?

You have tickets from Prague - right? You want to get TO Europe to finish your holiday and then fly home on those tickets - right?

>> However, I noticed that one way tickets to Europe are almost triple the price! Are my tickets basically trash?<<

Did you read all the responses? There are budget airlines that sell one way flights -- Norwegian, Icelandair, etc. OR you can buy cheap R-T tickets on any airline and only use the outward bound leg.

OR - contact United and ask THEM what you can do with the ticket/credit you already have.

<i>There are budget airlines that sell one way flights -- Norwegian, Icelandair, etc. </i>

From <b>Hawaii</b> to Prague or Vienna?

Michael, we are looking to go from Hawaii to Prague. Or really anywhere in Europe as long as we leave from Prague.

Try Kayak.com and specify a one way trip. I doubt that you will get it for less than $900 per person.

I doubt it makes sense to try to use what remains on that ticket. The best would have been if you have bought a roundtrip back to Hawaii to get you back closest to Prague, for example, Vienna-Hawaii-Vienna if not much more than what you paid for your one-way(?) flight back to Hawaii on KAL which would have dovetailed to your remaining UA segment back from Prague.

Falling short of this, without access to a budget point-to-point carrier, it would cost just as much trying to use that UA ticket as if you bought a whole new round trip to Prague without a hard travel time deadline.

I suspect it would also just be cheaper to buy a RT ticket and forget about the United one. Or buy a cheap RT to somewhere and don't take the return, that's not a bad idea.

The best deal I could find one-way was the budget German airline Condor which flies nonstop from Seattle to Frankfurt for only about $420 in midweek January. Hawaii is so far away, I think it might be more fruitful to look at tickets from the mainland to Europe from easy cities for you to get to from Hawaii (which is basically another day's travel, anyway). I know you get get from Honolulu to either LAX or SEA nonstop for abut $250. So that would be an additional $670 one-way from HNL to FRA.

YOu could get to Prague from Frankfurt without too much trouble, maybe go to Berlin or Dresden then the train is only a couple hours trip south to Prague.

Condor, the budget German airline, flies from SEA. Norwegian, the other budget airline mentioned above, flies out of LAX. You can get a oneway flight on Norwegian from there to Berlin for about $650. Norwegian flies to Amsterdam from LAX for only about $240 1-way in January, but that's only $370 in May. It isn't clear when you want to go, flights in Spring and Summer are going to be more expensive than winter, of course. May is a nice time to go, however.

So maybe $370+$250 or so = $620 for the ticket in May wouldn't be a bad price compared to buying a RT from HNL to PRG in May. And it's nonstop from LAX to AMS. United charges about $1650 RT HNL-PRG in May, for comparison, Lufthansa about $1425.

YOU could see a few interesting cities between AMS and PRG. Again, a train from AMS to Berlin takes about 6 hrs. Of course, there are plenty of cheap flights from AMS to PRG. Easyjet, my favorite budget airline, flies that route nonstop for only about US$50 1-way.

>>From <B>Hawaii</B> to Prague or Vienna?<<

I meant they could get to Europe in general . . . not Prague/Vienna specifically. Once on the ground in Europe there are many inexpensive ways to get around.


Even landing in London or Amsterdam-- there are budget airlines to everywhere.