Your Thoughts on Using Only the First Half of a Roundtrip Ticket?
 

I'm having a terrible time finding decent connections that don't cost a fortune or take forever between Nice and Barcelona.

What are the chances that my credit card will be charged for the unused second half of a roundtrip ticket between the two cities once I complete my trip?

100 percent.

You're saying you're planning to just use the first half of a round trip ticket and throw the other half away? The chances of them coming back at you are ZILCH, ZERO, NIL, NONE.

The chances of them doing that are about the same as their delaying the flight when you don't show up, coming to your home or hotel, kidnapping you with rope, handcuffs, and gag in mouth, and drag you screaming to the plane to MAKE you take the flight you signed up for.
Is that clear enough?

Just call the day before and tell them that you will not be able to use the return ticket.

Patrick, s/he's not asking about retaliation, she asked if her credit card would be charged for the flight if s/he doesn't take it.

I didn't word the question correctly. What I meant to say is what are the chances that my credit card will be charged the much higher price for a ONE WAY trip if I don't use the second half of a roundtrip ticket?

Weadles, now that I understand your question - in my experience knowing travelers that have done that - no you will not be charged for a one way ticket. However, the people I have known that have not taken the return flight have called 24 hours ahead of time to the airlines and advised them that they could not take the flight due to illness etc.

No doubt someone else on this board can give you even better advise.

What is your travel date and what do you consider a fortune? Have you tried going to alernate airports such as Girona?

I know it's counter-intuitive, but you might look at Easyjet's morning flight from Nice to London Stansted, connecting to their early afternoon flight to BCN. Depending on the day, you can probably swing both flights for under US$100-$150. Decent shopping at STN while you're there. www.easyjet.com

I don't know the answer, but I can clarify the question. Often a round-trip ticket (in the US: with a Saturday stayover) is substantially cheaper than a one-way ticket, so you can save money by buying the round-trip, and not using the second half.

Years ago, for trips in the US NOT involving a Saturday stay-over (very expensive), my company used to buy two round-trips. As an example, they'd buy a Monday trip Boston to Houston, returning in a week, and a Wednesday trip Houston to Boston, returning in a week. Then they'd throw away both return tickets. This was called "Back-to-backs".

Eventually the airlines started billing them after the trip for the Monday - Wednesday round trip that had actually been the effect of what they had done. The company then continued to do the same thing, being careful to book the two round trips on different airlines, so the airlines couldn't detect it.

Eventually, the airlines started sharing information, and even that stopped working. But my understanding at the time was that while the airlines would go after businesses and travel agents who wrote back-to-backs, they wouldn't go after individuals.

But that was years ago; my information is out of date, and I really can't answer the current question.

- Larry

Buy the roundtrip. Throw away the return ticket. Do not call the airline. End of story & nothing to worry.

I have had the experience rkkwan just talked about. I don't think travel agents are supposed to sell you round-trip tickets when you intend to use only the first leg, but mine did. I flew from Copenhagen to Paris and had no intention of returning. Nothing happened. Boots

Rkkwan has it short and right.

On one of my trips I bought a round trip from Amsterdam to Los Angeles. On the eastbound back to Amsterdam I had a change of planes in O'Hare. That was close to where I wanted to be, as I had planned. I got off and drove home.

I've personally done it on numerous occasions....buy the roundtrip, fly the 1st half and blow off the rest. I've never had an airline come after me. Now these experiences are with US carriers not AF or IB or whoever you are flying with from NCE to BCE. Its very unlikely they'll take the time to figure all that out, you'll just be a no show and that will be that.

Back when there were travel agents who actually sold airline tickets (remember when airlines paid commissions to them) airlines routinely sent out threats against 2 what they considered violations of the tariff rules.

1. Back to back ticketing which was described above; although I legally don't think they have a case. Who is to say when one round trip begins and the other ends.

2. Hidden city tickets. You know for example New York - St. Louis might be more expensive than New York - Los Angeles so you buy a ticket New York - Los Angeles with a stop over in St. Louis, get the lower fare and get off the plane in St. Louis. You couldn't, of course, check baggage.

They had the leverage that they could issue debit notices to the travel agents and to the best of my knowledge some actually did.

Never did they mention buying a round trip ticket and using only 1/2 of it.

After all, people get sick.
People change plans.

I don't think they could ever prove that you intended to beat their sick asinine fare rules (can you imagine the gall of charging more for a one way trip than a round trip)....

I don't think there is any way they can charge your credit card in that situation (just like I think the threats about back to back ticketing were illegal on their part anyway)...

The same thing happens on Eurostar. You can get a return ticket for as little as £59 yet the cheapest one way is well over £100...

Who the hell do they think they're kidding.

So don't worry about it, they won't charge your credit card in this case.

Anonymous, I thought you were joking about the 100% chances. Weadles is asking about buying a round trip ticket and paying for it, but then being charged some unknown amount more by her credit card because if she HAD bought a one way ticket it would have been that much more. I stand by my clear and firm answer I already gave. There is no chance in hell they'll come back and charge you a different price for the ticket you already bought. Essentially you didn't show up for the return flight you paid for-- big deal. What if you had gotten sick, overslept and missed your flight, or even died and couldn't make the return? Do you honestly think they'd hunt you up and charge you for missing the flight?

But for what it's worth, I wouldn't call the day before and tell them you're not taking it, as that's telling them you WERE taking advantage of the situation, and if anything they will insist on rebooking you for a different return time and probably charging you for a change in flight. Just don't show up!!

Patrick...

The airlines have always claimed that it is important to protect their tariff rules as they are intended to maximize their revenue and they reserved the right to charge for any violation.

As I pointed out, their main concerns for years were back to back ticketing and hidden cities although technically buying a return ticket intending only to use one part is a violation of the tariff rules and they claim legally they could do it.

I do know of several travel agencies that received debit notices for these activities and saw all sorts of correspondance from the airlines to travel agents threatening them if they carried out such practices.

They also have the leverage of frequent flyer miles also.

Now the question is whether they would. The reality is they probably won't do it as this not a vast problem to them as was back to back ticketing carried out by many businesses.

So I would agree with you, the chances are practically 0 that they would charge somebody's credit card and I would certainly not hesitate to do it.

But do be aware, it is conceivable (albeit not likely) that if this became a problem, airlines would try to pull this garbage on their customers because you are technically violating their tariff rules.

I hav donw this in the US and in Europe. Never a problem. Last year my husband had to leave Italy a day earlier than the rest of us. I checked in at the airport without him- but on the same reservation. I think I mumbled something about his checking in later or may have said he had to stay in Italy an extra day and was going to buy another ticket. Any way, we didn;t have a problem.

Last year a friend of mine needed a one-way ticket from Ireland to Austin. She found it would be much cheaper to buy the RT and not use the return portion. Nothing happened when she didn't use the other portion. I have known other people who did this and nothing happened to them either.

Hi weadles,

You have already paid for an RT ticket. They have your money.

If you want to be courteous, call and let them know that you will not be able to return due to personal reasons. You needn't say anything more.

Thanks for the good advice. One of my friends here ( travel agent in NYC) is advising me not to take the chance, but since there are no decent connections between the two cities, and the one-way fare is well over $1200 (!) per person, I'm going for it.

I did this for flights for four of us between Rome and Marseilles a few years ago - the price was less than half of what it would have been for one-way tickets. I agree you have nothing to worry about - just toss the return tickets and don't tell the airlines anything.

I agree with Patrick and StCirq, don't call the airlines to advise them you aren't taking the return flight...you'll only raise the red flag by doing that. I know all of us like to do the courteous thing but in this case just be a no show. Unlikely the airline will track you down.

Thanks very much for all the great replies. I'm amazed at the limited options available for travel between Nice and Barcelona, especially in the summer when there's high tourist traffic between the two cities. Too bad I'm not a long-distance swimmer!

xyz, thanks for being a voice of reasson, and yes, I'll admit that if you booked through an agency or through a company travel office, that there is a tiny, tiny fraction of a chance that they might want to come back and bill you. But certainly not as an independent person booking a single ticket.

Let me rephrase my statement. Forget about wanting to dump the second half. But imagine that you really did want to travel round trip, and through some accident on the way to the airport, or illness, or oversleeping, you DID miss your return flight. Then to get to your destination you had to buy another ticket on another airline, or take a train, or rent a car instead. Do some of you seriously believe they would still come after you and MAKE you pay more because you missed your flight? Get serious!

Let me give you the airline view of this and before you jump all over me I agree the chances of the airline really going after you are practically non existant.

Having said that, the airlines look at the purchase of a ticket as a contract. They have published tariff rules, you contract to meet certain conditions and they contract to provide transportation. If you don't meet the conditions of the contract, they have the right to charge you the appropriate fare. Basically, believe it or not, you agree to this contract when you purchase a ticket (even if on the internet it is buried in the conditions you agree to before buying the ticket).

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was no internet. People went to the corner travel agency to buy tickets. You did not pay for this service, the airlines paid the travel agency a 10% or more commission. Gradually, these commissions were lowered to 0 and it drove many travel agencies out of business. The airlines rather than paying commissions to travel agents simply did their business on the web even going so far as to make some discount fares only available on the web.

Now when there were travel agents, the airlines had a large degree of leverage. They debited the travel agency for violations of their tariffs. These notice were called debit notices and they issued them by the score. The travel agencies were stuck in the middle; the airlines could revoke their right to write tickets on them if they didn't pay the debit notice and it was up to them to try to get the situation rectified by charging their client. Of course can you imagine the chaos that resulted.

The airlines specifically mentioned in their warning to travel agents not to write back to back tickets, not to use hidden cities and not to circumvent the tariff rules by writing 2 return tickets (incredibly enough it was far cheaper to buy two discounted return tickets than one one way ticket)...

Now with a lot going on over the web and with airlines afraid of alienating customers, they don't have the same leverage as once they did. Somebody pointed out how they nailed a corporate travel agency for writing back to backs....they have begun threatening frequent flyer miles for shenanigans as they call them such as this.

So, yes I am practically 99 44/100 % sure nothing will happen if you throw away the return portion but there are legalities one should be aware of.

xyz,
You are absolutely right. Good writeup.

I had a family member once who got upset over the fact that her daughter on a flight back from Europe missed her connection at JFK, due to t-storms, and she would have had to spend the night in NY but the mother opted to drive to NY to get her. Well long story short she insisted the airline owed her for that last leg her daughter did not fly.

I had to explain to her, #1 weather related delays or interruptions are not the fault of the airline and #2 you buy a ticket from point A to point B and that is how the fare is calculated, it could be 1, 2 or 8 segments, that doesn't matter...and that the airline could if she did call and raise hell they could actually in turn charge her more should the price had been more to end in NY vs. her scheduled destination!

I will repeat my numbers. Best NCE-BCN RT price in June according to ITA is US$264, on British via London. Iberia, the only nonstop, is showing $679 one way, $381 round trip. So if you want to go the cheapest direct route, you fly to London, or you spend $117 more for a RT ticket that you then toss after the one leg.

OTOH, Easyjet's NCE-STN-BCN combo (only able to price through March but there's not much seasonal difference) is around US$55 each leg (converting Euros and Sterling at today's awful rates) thus around US$110 total.

By my rough calculations, that's a savings of at least $160 over the throw-away BA RT ticket, $270 on the IB throw-away, and $570 on the IB one-way. I will also point out that the seats on Easyjet will be no less comfortable than economy on IB, it will probably have a better shot of being on time, and you can use the savings for an extra day's food/lodging/booze/car - whatever - in BCN.

Intra-Europe travel on these niche routes by major airlines is a stunning ripoff; frankly I would not be at all surprised to see some LCC running direct flights on this city pair by next summer.

My dear, you've bought the ticket and you can do as you damn well please.

If you were, unfortunately ill and unable to fly it's no different to actively choosing not to fly, you've still upset the airline's seating schedules. However, these are modelled on a base Poisson distribution i.e. they expect a certain proportion of passengers not to turn up anyway.

If you buy something in a store that's been underpriced, do they charge you the difference a month later when they realise their mistake? All transactions are final, and they cannot legally charge your card for failing to fly, you've purchased an option to fly, not an obligation.

As for phoning in advance, they're an airline, not a friend.

Last year I wanted a one way flights from London to Bucharest and then from Moscow to London, as two o/w cost was to be about $700CND for each leg. By booking single open-jaw London-Bucharest, Moscow-London, total cost came to just over $400.

Another interesting on is Vancouver to London, cost $1300; Seattle to London with connector flight to Vancouver joining the same Vancouver to London flight, cost $1000.

M_KINGDOM...

Again, understand, I am not here to argue practicalities or what seems obscene.

I once likened the absurd airline rules to going into a restaurant, ordering a steak a la carte and being told it was cheaper to buy the entire dinner consisting of an appetizer, main dish and dessert. If I don't eat the shrimp cocktail, the restaurant says you violated the contract and must pay the a la carte price.

Yes, it's asinine and illogical but to say the ticket is yours and you can do what you want is technically and legally not correct. You in effect don't buy transportation, you buy a contract. You agree to obey the airline's tariff rules, they agree to provide transportation from point A to point B provided you meet the requirements you agreed to.

The ticket, unfortunately legally, is not yours to do with what you want.

Again, there is a legal and there is a pragmatic. Do I think there is much chance of the airline charging your credit card...a most emphatic no. Is it conceivable (1 in 1000) they could, yes. Would I fear doing it (i.e. using a return ticket for a one way trip)...a most resounding no.

xyz, I think you've made your point, but please realize that you are talking about contracts between airlines and agencies who sell their tickets, or possibly big corporations who deal in quantities of tickets. Again, we are talking here about a single person buying an unrelated ticket. There is NO WAY an airline could PROVE that there was intent if you didn't use the second half, unlike there might be a way to prove intent if an agency or corporation did it repeatedly. Two different situations.
I defy you to tell me that if they tried to say you did it deliberately they could prove that you didn't just happen to oversleep and miss your flight! Now, maybe if you did it a couple dozen times in a year, then yes, they could prove something was up, but not a single incident!

Intent has nothing to do with it...you are in violation of tbhe tariff rule and conceivably (but most unlikely) you could be charged.

I'd be curious to know if there has ever been a case of an airline charging an individual a surcharge for not flying their full return ticket. I very much doubt that this has ever happened as it would cost the airline more in legal fees and bad publicity that it's worth.

In fact I remember a recent conversation with a BA booking agent, I was changing tickets (return) for some reason, and I told them that i wouldn't be flying home on the return but was booking it as it was cheaper than the single.. they didn't question this action and supported my decision as sensible.

Earlier brain cramp made me neglect another obvious approach for the OP.

If you're coming from North America and flying transatlantic on any <b>one</b>world carrier - British, American, Iberia, Aer Lingus (for the moment) or Finnair, you can buy a &quot;visit Europe&quot; visitor pass for one-way flights on oneworld carriers within Europe. You have to buy a minimum of 2 segments (thus CDG-NCE then NCE-BCN or some such) and pay for them before you cross the water. The cost is distance-based, from a low of US$80 for hops of under 250 miles, up to $330 for flights over 2200 miles. Nice to Barcelona, for instance, is 308 miles, so the one-way cost on Iberia (actually, Air Nostrum, their feeder) would be $110. I believe that's the way I'd go. Look at http://www.oneworld.com/products/det...fm?ObjectID=25

Star Alliance - http://www.star-alliance.com/ - comprising United, Lufthansa, US Air (who?) British Midland and several others, offer the same sort of deal, but with a minimum of 3 tickets being purchased first.

It behooves one to investigate these plans as sometimes you can ride to someplace like London very cheaply, but the additional distance to Italy or France blows the price up big time. With the airpasses, you can make the same trip more affordably.

Regarding black marks on airline records for no-shows, I'd frankly be more concerned nowadays with security issues. The fact that the OP's route is between two countries with valid security and anti-terrorist worries these days would make me think twice about being a no-show. Probably mere paranoia, but try going through any major US airport on a one way ticket these days. Hello, &quot;supplemental screening&quot; - almost guaranteed.

Patrick,
It most definitely is a contract whether its with an agency or with an individual. When you buy an airline ticket you are agreeing to the conditions of that ticket. The airline doesn't need to prove intent should they choose to pursue it, you broke the contract..period. Would that do that? No, its not in their best interests for customer service and not worth their time and efforts. Would they go after agencies bucking the system repeatedly, as they have in the past, yes.