Weadles

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.

StCirq

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.

Traveler863

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.

Weadles

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!

Patrick

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!

xyz123

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.

Traveler863

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!

Gardyloo

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.

m_kingdom2

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.

Garfield

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.

xyz123

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.

Patrick

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!

xyz123

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

m_kingdom2

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.

m_kingdom2

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.

Gardyloo

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.

Traveler863

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.