I posted this on my other thread but thought it might get buried. AerLIngus is having a sale for summer from Europe to the US We are flying Boston to Paris and when I put in two one ways - Bos to Paris and then Paris to Boston, it was cheaper than round trip because of the fare sale Europe to the US. What I want to know is if this is kosher/allowed to book two one ways instead of round trip? I can't think of any reason why not, but I am no expert. What do you think?

I've done this in the past.

That is very weird as I've never seen a situation where that was true.

I'm no expert, either, but I don't see why it would be illegal to buy two tickts that are for sale (or against their rules, whatever you call it). First, anyone could do that legitimately if they bought a one-way fare and then decided later on they wanted another ticket to go the other route. How could they forbid that? Now, I guess you're saying airlines can do all kinds of things and could penalize you if you bought both at the exact same time and it would make a RT ticket that could cost more, versus buying at two different time periods. I suppose if you really wanted to be assured of that, you could buy them at different times, even if a day apart (or few hours). YOu could risk the fare not being available that way, I suppose. However, it sounds like you intend to do that anyway if you are using two different websites. maybe you're not, usually you do have to do that to get Europe-US one-way routes.

I don't think you will be admitted to a European country with a one way ticket. I don't know if showing a return ticket suffices for satisfying this.

Gretchen - i think European Customs only wants to see you have paid passage back home so they are not stuck with you, etc. But security is apparently intense now for anyone buying a oneway ticket they say.

See my response on your other thread.

I have YET to enter ANY European country and had an official ASK me

do you have a return ticket?

may I SEE your return ticket?

should I CARE about your ticket?

I plan on calling AerLingus to see if this is workable. They have been very accomodating in the past when we wanted to take advantage of a fare sale to Dublin and then continue on to Rome. They said no problem to getting the fare sale to Dublin and then continuing on to Rome.

No problem traveling to Europe or the US on a oneway ticket. We and many other people do so often when we take a transatlantic cruise one way & fly the other way.

The US security issue is such as the underwear guy paid CASH for a oneway & did NOT check any luggage - obviously not a tourist!

Enjoy your bargain & thanks for the info - will tell my daughter about it. She plans to travel to Italy this fall.

Julie

Are you comparing apples to apples?
It is not clear if you are comparing "advertised" one-way prices which have little to do with the "purchase" prices.

The prices I checked were on the Aerlingus website. Punched in one way Bos-Paris. Got a price that was a bit above that leg of a return flight ticket. THEN punched in a one way Paris to Boston and got the less than $300 fare. So, total is less than round trip. So this is in their own search function for purchasing tickets. But as I said, I will call and ask first because previously there was no way to book the sale fare from the US to Rome and get the sale fare to Dublin. By calling they were able to book this and it was very reasonable. Clear? (As mud!!! Hahaha)

One snag you might run into is a policy (some airlines, fares, websites) that will not sell a trip originating in Europe -- in this case, your return flight -- to someone using a US website. But why not try? Good luck.

I don't think it's true that you have to have a roundtrip ticket to get into Europe. I've had two one-way tickets simply because I bought on two different airlines and they didn't have any agreement to combine them. And somehow it wasn't exhorbitant to do that, as it sometimes is. I think when I've heard about that policy, it was solely that you had to have a return ticket, not that it be ticketed as a RT on the same airline. They can't force people to do that.

you know, now that I think about it, I've never had anyone ask to look at my airline ticket upon arrival in Europe, either. They look at your passport, that's all.

It's a moot point now. When I called Aerlingus it turned out that they just lowered their price to Paris by $200 per ticket so I pulled the trigger and got a Boston to Paris and back ticket for mid-June for $820 each for four people. I am happy!

Sounds like a good deal, rbnwdln. Good for you. Enjoy.

Julie