jasmine3

my family and I are planning our first trip to Europe this summer. Someone told me that I should do an "open jaws" ticket (we were planning on flying in to munich and then leave out of switzerland). I am trying to do this online on the airline websites and seem to have trouble booking. Do I have to work through a travel agent? thanks for any help.

scatcat

You must click on multi-city or on Cheaptickets click on "expand search options", then click on multi-city

rachclem

I would also look at booking a round trip ticket through Munich, and another through Swizterland. Sometimes you can find a really cheap round trip, cheaper than a one-way even, and who's going to stop you from just not flying home on that Munich return flight?

rkkwan

An open-jaw is almost always cheaper than two roundtrips. Buy two roundtrips? Makes no sense. Plus you need to buy a the second one as a Switzerland-US-Switzerland ticket or else you can't even get on.

rachclem

Well you yourself said it, "usually", but in fact there are seat sales sometimes where a roundtrip would turn out cheaper. I would suggest going to any travel agency and they'll be able to look at resources the public can't access (there are net rates, viewable by agents only, which can be $3000 cheaper than the cheapest publicly published fare).

mjs

I will have to say that I have never seen two RT tickets in economy that were cheaper to buy than a simple open jaw. Usually the open jaw price is similar to the average of two RT tickets. Sales of unrestricted fares or business or first class tickets might be different but even these fares work better as open jaws than as two round trips when I have priced them. Have not a clue about the $3000 cheaper issue that travel agents can get as I have never paid anything close to that for airfare to Europe anytime.

Clifton

Absolutely, if you find a fair sale, it'll be for a round trip.

If you're shopping fares straight up, it can vary. Depends to some degree on what carrier you're looking at (for instance, if it's AA and you wanted to fly into London and back from Prague, there will have to be another carrier involved as AA doesn't fly to Prague. Most likely in that case, there'd be a BA or Czech flight involved, which *may* add to the cost. That said, even when there are multiple carriers and an open jaw, I've seen and booked tickets that were less than the cost of round trips to either destination city. You also have to factor in what your cost and effort is going to be getting back to your first destination with a r/t, which may make the open jaw worth it. Depends on the itinerary really.

rkkwan

Can you find combination to save $3,000? Yes, sure. A full-fare one-way to Europe is often about $2,000 or slightly higher. Buy two and you pay $4,000.

Then find two super-cheap roundtrip fares at $500 a piece, and you save yourself $3,000.

But like everybody's saying, why would one buy two seperate one-ways at full-fare? Maybe someone has a reason for it, but <b>absolutely not</b> for the OP.

The suggestion is just too absurd.