Hi everyone - next summer I'm planning on going to Europe with a plane ticket that was supposed to be used for a trip elsewhere but that trip got cancelled, etc. So anyway, I'm planning on flying to Venice around the middle of June (I can't really change this, since that's when my summer vacation is). My question is about "open-ended" tickets. I'm sure there's a technical term for this, but I don't really know it. If I fly into Venice, I know I can fly out of another airport (say...an airport in Paris). But can I fly into Venice, out of Paris, and not have a set date of departure from Paris? It would probably be early/mid-August, but I don't know how sure I could be of the date. Do these sorts of tickets cost more money? Or should I just buy two one-way tickets? Thanks if you can help!

What you're looking for is an "open jaw" ticket. If both legs of the journey are pre-booked these don't necessarily have to cost any more than using the same airport for arrival and departure. However, your problem comes when you don't have a set date for returning. In this case you will need a fully-flexible ticket, which will probably cost a LOT more than a non-flexible one.

I would suggest you do a bit of shopping around to get an idea of what prices are available for the various alternatives.

Okay, thanks, maybe I'll have to break down and set a date after all. I'll look around.

Since you apparently already have the plane ticket or a reservation record with a particular airline I would suggest calling the airline involved and asking them what their fare rules are.

If you really want that open-ended (return date not fixed) ticket, you can get it for $2000 more than you'd pay for the fixed-date ticket.

When you see the airline ads that say "fares each way based on a round trip purchase", the fares also apply to an open jaw ticket. In your case, the open jaw is in Europe: travelling to Venice and returning from CDG (Paris).