I had a question on how much money is saved by NOT doing an open-jaw flight?

I had wanted to fly from SFO into ROM, then PAR back to SFO...but a friend has told me that it would be better to just fly in and out of the same airport and just take an overnight train between Rome and Paris. What a pain! But saving money is a huge priority for me and DH (struggling grad students).

Would appreciate your thoughts!

I've found it cheaper to fly open jaw (into one airport and out of another) in Europe. Have you priced both?

I agree with Statia. I nearly always fly American into London and home from Paris (once from Madrid) and have usually found out it is less than at least one of the cities round trip. I don't think there is a hard and fast rule, you just have to keep checking the alternatives, just like finding that certain dates may be considerably cheaper than other dates.

We're flying open jaw from ORD to Florence and back home out of Rome. I priced them both open jaw and round trip from each city and they were the exact same cost on Luftansa...

Ah! Thanks so much - I've been pricing them both and right now it's cheaper to fly in and out of the same airport, but I have hope that I can just do the open jaw! YAY! Thanks guys

I would rather spend a few more dollars to fly into one airport and out of another as this saves so much time. I fly open jaw and have been happy doing so.

We fly open jaw quite frequently and, usually, the cost is the same or less. It is priced based on the full fare to each city. Rome is generally more costly than Paris so I would assume open jaw would be less than RT Rome but more than RT Paris.

You aren't expecting it to cost the same as the RT to the cheapest city are you? Of course it will cost more because flights to/from two different cities are never going to cost exactly the same amount.

I think your friend is wrong, but all you have to do is check the fares to find out.

Christina, although I usually get my flights with FF miles, last year for fun I checked the cost to buy the flights after I already had my tickets. On the AA website when I entered the same dates for round trip Miami-London, and round trip Miami-Paris, both were actually higher than the open jaw version into London and out of Miami -- go figure!

Duh, make that last statement "into London and out of Paris"!

Jus a silly question.....how did someone in the travel industry come up with the term 'open jaw'? I've always wondered.

Just, not jus.

Many travel "terms" make no sense.....would you like a single open jaw or a double open jaw?Is it allowable with that fare?on and on and on and on...............

Actually it's all Caps: JAW which stands for "Journey At Will", meaning that you have a choice of destinations.

(I wonder if anyone will believe this definition I just made up?)

Sounds logical, Patrick. Of course, we'll believe it! We Fodorite's believe anything.

Wendy:

You should price out the options.

In March we flew into Budapest & out of Vienna, with the train from Budapest to Vienna.

Our airfare was the same rate as if we'd have gone to/from Budapest and slightly more expensive than the to/from Vienna option.

But the cheapest combined airfare/train total to get to both cities was the one we took (as 1-way train rather than return train).

So if its both cities you want, don't forget to add in the $$ to get between the 2 cities once your there and to asign a 'value' to lost time if you have to travel back to the first city for the flight home (as the second 14 hours on the train means less time to see what your there for or that you need to stay an extra day).

Hope this helps,

Z

WendyWhy, you're missing part of the expense in your calculations if you do fly in and out of the same city. You will have to backtrack, which means that there will be an extra train/air ticket involved, and also a loss of a day or so of your vacation. So when you price an open-jaw ticket, and the ticket is $100 more, in all probability you will still be saving money. Just a thought.

Open-jaw = < (like a pac-man )

Sounds good to me, Patrick!

well you learn something new everyday. I have traveled many places and have never heard of open-jaw.