Does anyone know the international rules for Roundtrip ticket purchases? Do they differ from US rules?

If you purchase a RT originating in Europe but don't use the return, is there any penalty to the passenger?

Thanks!

kakalena

I have no idea but my guess is that they will really come looking for you in this day and time.

Gretchen, at first I thought you were joking but then I realized what you meant. That a foreign national would be lost in the States.

No, the passenger is a US citizen not a foreign national.

continuing my search for an answer...

kakalena

Do you mean like when one buys a RT on the Eurostar to go from London to Paris because it is cheaper than a one-way ticket, and never use the return? (We've done that)

There might be different "rules" for US travellers than Europeans. Europeans can easily move between countries who belong to the European Union, whether for travel or for work or to establish residence.

yes, ladyofl smilar to that situation...

If you buy a Roundtrip air ticket in the States for a trip from Europe to the States and you are a US National and you will remain in the States.

I don't know what the airlines rules are in Europe. I know what the US domestic rules are and the airlines frown upon it. Have no clue regarding international rules.

I'm looking for a technical answer here not anecdotal per se.

Thanks!

This comes up from time to time...

In effect, you are violating the terms of transport established for the ticket you buy. These restrictions are set up to try to get the right mix so that business travelers are forced to pay full fares and subsidize the remaining leisure travellers who are in effect using the excess capacity. Hence such things as Saturday night stay over required (to discourage business users) and round trips being cheaper than one ways but with more restrictions etc.

That's the theory. In theory, if you buy the ticket with a credit card, given up computer time, they could conceivably charge you the full one way fare. In the USA, back in the era of travel agents doing airline tickets (perish the thought today), sometimes the travel agent would receive a debit notice from an airline charging him or her the one way fare and putting the onus on him to collect the difference (travel agents are supposed to follow airline tariffs)....

That's all theory...in practice in this day and age nothing happens.

But you know airlines, train cmpanies, are always looking for means of extra income. Some efficiency expert is liable to come along one of these years and point out to them they are losing millions in revenues by passengers cheating on their tariffs and develop systems to charge people pulling these stunts if you will.

But such systems do not exist today and are unlikely to exist in the near future.

So if you are truly a 100% honest person (who is?) you wouldn't pull such a despicable stunt (just kidding)...but if you go into a restaurant and order a special meal you know one with an appetizer, main course and a dessert and you don't eat the appetizer and then they charge you a la carte price, well it's really the same thing isn't it.

Now if you're tired of reading this long explanation, let me summarize it. Go for it...99.9% sure nothing will happen but don't say you weren't warned.

xyz123.

I know that the domestic airlines rules forbid it but I wanted to know if the international airlines did the same.

For instance, we were given food vouchers during a recent weather delay in Munich when the US airlines would have only given us food vouchers if the delay was due to their fault (mechanical, staffing etc.)I was told that the international airline rules were different than the US rules then.

I guess you are saying that the rules are the same for both in this case.

Thanks!

You're right...I can't vouch for anything but airline tariff rules tend to be the same and if it was that easy everybody would be doing it.

Again, I doubt extremely if anything could happen. I've done it with eurostar and not had any problems and I admit I haven't read the tariff rules.

So I wouldn't sweat it but I doubt if anybody on this board at least can give you a definitive answer.

Don't show up for the return. No need to worry. No one will do anything to you, unless you're doing it all the time and the airlines has your FF number.

People miss flights all the time for all kinds of reasons. Stuff happens. You obviously don't make a habit of this so no airline is gong to penalize you for missing a flight.