open jaw tickets/one-way/Italy
 

The posters on this site recommend open jaw tickets which I understand are one way tickets that avoid doubling back to depart from your arrival city. These of course are more expensive than round trips from the same city. Anyone have an easy way to search for these tickets because when I go to the big travel sites,I have trouble comparing prices as you have to select a couple, save them and then try to preview on one page to see what is the best deal, time, etc. Yes, I know this sounds insanely pathetic but I am a novice.

HI
I would describe them this way: round trip tickets from home to one city, and from another city to home.
They are NOT necessarily more expensive than to and from one destination city, especially if the same airline goes to all places.
Expedia is just one place that allows for searches such as these.

All my airline shopping tends to be done on AA.com with American. But there they let you click "multi city" which gives you separate places to insert two different cities. I have sometimes found with them that I can fly into London and home from Paris for less money than either city is round-trip. Don't ask me why.

Hi pheasant,

I'm not sure I understand your problem.
"I have trouble comparing prices as you have to select a couple, save them and then try to preview on one page to see what is the best deal, time, etc."

When I do this sort of search, I find something that looks good, copy and paste it (along with the URL) to WORD and then see what the best deal on my list is.

Thanks for the help. Duh, did not think to save in a Word document. Such a novice.. Still trying to sort through all the postings to make a decision on a fully independent trip. I guess it would be nice to get off the airplane and have a plan and an efficient use of the days to see the most in each city. Still think a guided tour group in the larger cities is how we should go the first time but would like to branch off for some side excursions in between. Rome, Florence, Siena?, Cinque de Terre, Venice in 10-14 days the first few weeks of March. Anyone suggest a semi-independent tour that would fit the bill or shall I search the best flights and just jump in with both feet?

My understanding is that open jaws fares are usually half the round trip price from/to each destination. If a website doesn't allow an open jaws search, just search the round trip for the two cities you're interested in (ie. SFO-LHR; CDG-SFO) add the R/T fares together and divide by two. If you find one that's in the ball park, call the vendor and check.

The much simpler answer is DON'T USE any website that doesn't allow you to search for open jaws itineraries.

You can not safely assume that the open jaw fare will be half the round trip price to each destination. The best way to find these prices is to do a search for "multiple destinations" or some similar phrase on the airline website or on a site such as Travelocity. Sometimes the fare ends up being much more expensive than half the round trip to each city, and sometimes, as another poster said, it might be less.

Hi pheasant,

If you sat down and planned out what you think you would like to do and when you would like to do it and told us about it, we could help you a lot more.

I agree, the price for open-jaw tickets are not neccessarily more expensive. We have flow BA into Rome and out of Venice for same price as in/out same city.