We do believe that it is wise to fly into one city and out of another to maximize your time. This is what we have always done.

Why so many roundtrippers that backtrack?

I think it's because in most if not all circumstances it's cheaper to buy a round-trip ticket. In this case I don't think maximizing time is the objective, just saving money.

Cost no doubt is a factor for some travelers, but the circumstances of your itinerary have to be factored in. In some cases even the extra cost (sometimes quite nominal) for the open jaw would be less expensive than paying for train, or some other means of transportation, to get back to the city you arrived in to do your roundtrip home.

I suspect that many people are just not aware of the possibiity of booking open jaw. Also, the Web sites most people use to make their bookings do not make it very obvious that you can also look for open-jaw fares.

There is no penalty in pricing for booking open-jaw over roundtrip. Total price is simply the sum of the individual trips. Each can change, due to fare availability. But it's not that they tag on a fee for flying open-jaw.

I've done open-jaw for most of my recent European travels.

People travel in different ways and for different reasons.

"Backtracking" isn't always a minus for some folks and not everyone wants to maximize their time as you might.

Other factors may also play a part such as a rental car which would entail a hefty drop charge if turned in somewhere else; non-availability of the open jaw itinerary when using FF miles; non-availability of a particular airline or partner out of a potential departure point, etc.

Open jaws is rarely more than a RT - once you pay for the extra to get back to your starting point - unless you're flying into London and taking discount airlines from there.

I think a lot of people just don;t get exactly how it works - and are afraid it will cost a lot more.

It depends on where you are flying to/from. USUALLY there is little if any difference between flying open jaw and roundtrip. However, sometimes there is a big difference.

We flew open jaw Washington DC to Prague and then Berlin to DC last year. It cost us $250 more per person than roundtrip DC/Berlin would have--even with the extra train trip back to Berlin a roundtrip ticket would have saved us money. But on this trip time was more important than money to us.

We often have to travel RT because our FF program won't let us do open-jaw tickets. It is not tied to one airline, we can fly on any airline, but unfortunately no RT's. With 4 of us flying it is definitely worth the train and possibly one hotel night in order to get 4 free tickets.

The person getting a RT ticket is not necessarily backtracking. For example, one could land in Paris, rent or lease a car to see France, go down the eastern side of France to the Provence, go over to the Dordogne, and then return to Paris without at any time having back-tracked. And in both directions getting there can be as interesting as the ultimate destination.

The availiblity of non-stop flights may also be a factor. An extra leg on the train might be a good trade off for having a non-stop flight.

Or, people may spend their trip in one area of a country and so there isn't really any backtracking to speak of - Bavaria come to mind. We spent 2 weeks there and I think were never farther than 3 hours from Munich. We did a loop with Munich as our begining and end points.

Yep, I'd do one if it makes sense and the other if that worked better. For instance, if spending time in Umbria and Rome, there's no necessarily anything to be gained by flying home from Perugia, when it would possibly entail a small plane, lengthy layover or hurried connection, etc. I'd just begin and end the trip in Rome. (Even then not necessarily backtracking: could drive through different towns each way.)

But if I wanted to do Rome, Assisi, Florence, Bologna, Parma ... then I'd fly home from Milan!

I've done both round trip and open-jaw and it has nothing to do with price or not understanding the options. My reason for one over the other is based on my itinerary.

Booking round trip doesn't mean backtracking and I can't imagine why the OP would think it would. On my last trip to Europe, in 2006, my husband and I flew in and out of CDG. We start the trip by taking the train to Dijon and renting a car to travel around Burgundy. We then drove to the Black Forest region of Germany, then back into France for a few days in Alsace, before ending our trip to Paris. No backtracking involved and driving through the countryside was a wonderful experience.

Diane

I can see that not all RT is backtracking.

Author: Michael ([email protected]) made a good point.

there are many factors that play a part when we are planning our travels. What works for one may not work for another.