Ethics Question: Buying a Round Trip Ticket and Planning to Use Only Half.
 

I've been reading the thread about trying to get three people in a hotel room for the price of two and agree that it is unethical. So, consider this question, please. I have found a round trip airfare that is less expensive in total than the one-way price. If I purchase it and simply fail to use the return portion, am I being unethical? After all, I did misrepresent my intentions with the initial purchase. To defend this position, I would probably argue that instead of using something I'm not paying for, I am instead paying for something that I won't be using. Still, something about this plan doesn't feel quite right. What is your thinking about this situation?

If you buy a RT ticket, fly one-way, call the airline to let them know you're not flying back so they can take another passenger on-board... how's that for ethical behavior?

Don't know why they make a one-way more expensive than a round trip. It isn't fair to the consumer. I don't think there is anything wrong with protecting your pocketbook if you aren't cheating someone else. You can't be cheating the airline because you are getting less service than more service.

Maybe there has been a problem with having to fly the return trips with an empty plane.????

Think more people should buy round trip tickets and use only one-half if it is cheaper - maybe the airlines would take notice and change their pricing.

You're doing the airline a favor - they don't have to haul your carcass both ways, thereby saving fuel.

2 different things imo.

Your scenario you are purchasing something then not using it.

Sneaking a 3rd person into a hotel room is using something but not paying for it.

If an 18-year old looked much younger and purchased a child's ticket, is that unethical?

Airlines divide their market into segments, and price tickets according to which category a person fits. The user of a return ticket fits into a different category from the one-way traveller, and the one-way traveller is seen by the airline as a better revenue source than the return traveller. By passing yourself off as a return traveller, you are telling the airline that you are something other than you are, and that is no different from the 18-year old travelling on a child fare.

And, ethics apart, you might have a practical difficulty if you want to use the same airline again.

There is no more an ethical issue in using half of a ticket than there would be if you didn't show up at all.

Besides, the people in the airline's Operations Research group know full well a certain number of people will do what you propose. The higher OW fare is a just a trap for typical corporate travel departments that don't know or care that there's a way to game it.

It's not an ethical issue.

Passengers who fail to use their entire ticket become objects of intense interest to authorities in Europe. You could find yourself encountering difficulties in the airport for your return flight, and perhaps sooner.

UNCalum

I don't think this is an ethics question at all. You are paying the full value of a round trip ticket. If you properly advise the airline that you will not be taking the return flight, you should not have any problem with that airline in the future. We do this for business travel all of the time.

However, my husband once had a round trip ticket out of SFO to Vancouver, Canada. While in Vancouver, he rented a car and drove back across the border into the US for a meeting in Vancouver, WA and back to Vancouver, CA for a flight to Atlanta. It was too many crossings for them to track and they missed his return back to Canada somehow in the rental car. He was trying to leave Canada twice without re-entering is how they saw it. It caused a delay and a copy of the round-trip rental contract, but it did get sorted out.

If you phone and say you're not using the return portion they <i>might</i> try to re-price your ticket to the full one-way fare, which might well be higher then the round trip. Your ethical call might well backfire.

The airlines assume a certain percentage of pax will no-show; they call it &quot;deliberate overbooking.&quot; So your empty return seat will almost certainly be occupied by a paying customer, one who stood by, in which case the airline has received a benefit from your no-show - they've sold the same seat twice. Chances are the stand-by booked later than you, and thus paid a higher price than you did, so the airline is even farther ahead.

The only times airlines ever come after people who toss the return portion is when they do it habitually. Even then all the airlines typically can do is whack your frequent flyer miles or flag you for &quot;special attention&quot; in the future. But in practice it almost never happens.

Round trips cheaper than a one-way got that way as airlines tried to discourage pax from using the competition on the return portion. It's a bit arcane, but we're talking about airline revenue management practices and models. That's a subject that makes everyone scratch their heads, even the airline people. Don't go there.

I would not worry about it.

We've discussed this here before...

Technically, you are in violaton of the airline's tariffs. It is in effect a contract, the airline agrees to provide you transportation provided you meet certain conditions of the tariff; in this case a return trip (round trip)...

Years ago, when most tickets were booked by travel agents (remember them), travel agents were warned that this practice could lead to debit notices to the agency putting the onus of collecting on the agency...the operative word being could. Don't know how many debit notices were actually issued for this issue..

In theory, if the airline had the computer capacity, they could absolutely charge your credit card the full one way fare, the operative word again being could. Don't know how often they've done it.

So, chances are you will get away with it. Whether it's ethically correct is a matter of interpretation....but there's always the chance airlines can crack down on it.

Incidentally, this is also true of using eurostar between Paris and London...I often have to make a one way trip from Paris to London and usually, the cheapest way to do it is to buy a same day return and burn the return portion. Have done it numerous times and have never had a problem but am fully aware that some day they might catch up with this.

I agree with Faina. If they try to reprice your ticket, try to fight it, and then let it go if you lose.

What if you booked a couple of flights on two different airlines between two cities, because you didn't know what your schedule would be? Is that unethical because you couldn't possibly be on both flights at once? No - you paid for a ticket, and you can not show up.

Whether or not it causes suspicion at the TSA is something else, but probably not an issue. And certainly, you need to make sure that there are no extra portions of your flight after the missed flight that you would need.

By the way, just because it is in violation of the airlines' rules, doesn't mean it is unethical. They aren't necessarily synonymous.

Most people NEED a round trip ticket. The small percentage who don't are not a worry to the airline, as least not to mine. That's why flights can generally be overbooked at least 20%.

And we have paid out DBC maybe only twice this year so far.

Oh for goodness sake, if you get sick and miss return flight, or miss your train etc.. they are not going to freak out,, they are going to say, tough patooties to you ,, you missed out...
so.,what difference does it make if you don't show up but are not sick etc.. none in my opinion. They over sell anyways,which is CRIMMINAL as people get bumped sometimes, and that sucks.

For goodness sake - I recall one occasion when I was jibbing at the cost of a one way ticket, the airline offered me a cheaper return ticket knowing full well I wasn't going to use the return journey! The preferred to sell me something rather than nothing!

When booking a round trip fare and only using only half, you are consiously deceiving and airline by skirting their rules and paying them less for the actual product you are using

By telling a hotel you are 2 people in a room and really are 3, you are conciously deceiving the hotel by skirting their rules and paying them less for the actual product you are using.

I am not passing judgment on either scenario. In fact, I have done the airline thing. But if you are asking if there is a difference ethically, I fail to see any

I don't see how it's unethical in the slightest. The airlines are being unethical with their ridiculous pricing. And like someone already said, if you got stuck in traffic on the way to the airport and missed checking in for your return flight, you can bet they already have a standby passenger sitting in your seat. They're not going to wait for you.

No, it's not a problem. Either they'll have an empty seat and save money, or they'll be able to fill the seat with someone else and make more money.

I guess it's about at ethical as overbooking a flight and then having a full plane delay departure while looking for volunteers to go on a later flight.

I realize why companies overbook flights (only using half tickets, missed flights, sickness, etc.) but it can be a hassle if indeed all the booked passengers actually do fly. My KLM flights from Amsterdam - SEA - Amsterdam were both overbooked.

You know, I am always against people trying to cheat or steal things (like kids who try to alter Eurail passes which is simply stealing), and I think paying for two people in a hotel and sneaking someone in to avoid a triple rate is also unethical. I've never stolen anything in my life, actually, wouldn't have considered it as a child, when people claim they routinely steal things from stores, etc. I simply was raised that stealing was wrong, and never have done it, never cheated on a test, etc.

However -- even I don't consider that unethical as I think that pricing is goofy and you are actually not taking a flight and not using something, and the airlines actually benefit as they can use that seat (since they overbook). It seems like a win-win to me (you win, the airline wins by not having to bump someone and pay out), but perhaps the airlines wouldn't see it that way for some reason.

I will admit I have never done it as I personally have never found such a situation on any flight I've taken, and when I do want to split airlines and not buy a RT, I tend to buy tickets on airlines that price the same one-way as half of a RT, there is no penalty (like Southwest and Virgin America).