Return cheaper than a single??? LON-NYC
 

OK. Planning to use my Continental miles to book a business class flight back from New York (its with Air Canada one of their partners) on a Saturday.

Excellent, so I though just book a one-way to go out on Wednesday = £700.

Return cheaper than a single??? LON-NYC
 

"paulfoel" wrote in message
news:20281732.638.1320781103227.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@vbay19...
OK. Planning to use my Continental miles to book a business class flight
back from New York (its with Air Canada one of their partners) on a
Saturday.

Excellent, so I though just book a one-way to go out on Wednesday = £700.

The price of a return going on Wednesday (same flight) and returning Sunday
is £350 !!!! Dont understand.

Could I book the return, and my free miles flight, use the outward then just
not use the return I paid for? Or would Continental suss something was up
here and disallow it?

=============================

Why not buy the round trip and use miles to upgrade?

Return cheaper than a single??? LON-NYC
 

paulfoel wrote:


one-way to go out on Wednesday = £700.

The price of a return going on Wednesday (same flight) and
returning Sunday is £350 !!!! Dont understand.

I didn't think that airlines still did that, but it was somewhat common
in the past that the cost of a return ticket was cheaper than a one-way
ticket.

Could I book the return, and my free miles flight, use the outward
then just not use the return I paid for?

I'm not sure how your miles come into play here, but you can always
abandon the return flight of a round-trip and not suffer any
consequences from the airline.

Or would Continental suspect something was up here and disallow it?

How can they disallow it?

You buy a 2-way return ticket knowing full well that you don't intend to
use the return. They don't know that. You fly the out-bound leg as
scheduled and you're done. You abandon the return leg and Continental
(or rather, Air Canada) has an empty seat they can give to a stand-by
customer.

Return cheaper than a single??? LON-NYC
 

Fly Guy wrote:

How can they disallow it?

Because it's in the tariff for the fare you purchased.

You buy a 2-way return ticket knowing full well that you don't intend to
use the return. They don't know that. You fly the out-bound leg as
scheduled and you're done. You abandon the return leg and Continental
(or rather, Air Canada) has an empty seat they can give to a stand-by
customer.

Theoretically they could bill or charge your credit card for the difference
between a return and one way fare. Reality - as long as you aren't a frequent
flyer on their airline, nothing will happen. Try to collect miles for that
flight though and you may find your account forfeited.

Return cheaper than a single??? LON-NYC
 

Theoretically they could bill or charge your credit card for the difference
between a return and one way fare. Reality - as long as you aren't a frequent
flyer on their airline, nothing will happen. Try to collect miles for that
flight though and you may find your account forfeited.

I would be most interested to hear of an actual case where this
happened, i.e., losing miles for flights someone actually took or
other retaliation for missing segments.

FOAP rumors don't count.

R's,
John

Return cheaper than a single??? LON-NYC
 

Costs more this way with co-pay costs for the upgrade

Return cheaper than a single??? LON-NYC
 

Apparently there was a court case in the US where an airline took someones miles off them. Passenger won.

Return cheaper than a single??? LON-NYC
 

Apparently there was a court case in the US where an airline took
someones miles off them. Passenger won.

I would be very interested in actual reports of people losing miles or
money or anything else, rather than third hand rumors.

I've looked and never found anything beyond someone said someone else
said ... etc.

I have heard cases about nested back-to-back flights but that's different.

R's,
John

Return cheaper than a single??? LON-NYC
 

On 11/8/2011 11:38 AM, paulfoel wrote:
OK. Planning to use my Continental miles to book a business class flight back from New York (its with Air Canada one of their partners) on a Saturday.

Excellent, so I though just book a one-way to go out on Wednesday = £700.

The price of a return going on Wednesday (same flight) and returning Sunday is £350 !!!! Dont understand.

Could I book the return, and my free miles flight, use the outward then just not use the return I paid for? Or would Continental suss something was up here and disallow it?

There is no requirement to use the return flight. You might want to call
and tell them, once you reach your destination, that you are staying
longer than you had planned and will use the return some other time and
pay the change fee.

Return cheaper than a single??? LON-NYC
 

SMS wrote:

Could I book the return, and my free miles flight, use the
outward then just not use the return I paid for?
Or would Continental suss something was up here and disallow it?

There is no requirement to use the return flight.

You need to read the original question more carefully.

We all know that a transportation company can't force you onto (or into)
their vehicles just because you bought a ticket.

The question is - can an airline retro-actively change your ticket
price (and hence put an additional charge on your credit card) when you
fail to make your return flight as specified on your return ticket? The
additional charge being the difference in cost between a one-way vs
round-trip itinerary.

The fine print on many tickets seems to indicate they have taken this
scenario into account and they claim it as their right to do so (to
charge you).

The question remains - do they *really* do this - at least on a regular
or systematic basis?

You might want to call and tell them, once you reach your destination,
that you are staying longer than you had planned and will use the
return some other time and pay the change fee.

Many people in this situation (and I believe the OP as well) are really
only seeking a 1-way ticket, but they notice that a return ticket costs
less (sometimes much less) and so they buy the return ticket with no
intention of using the return flight. So your advice in that situation
is meaningless.

I would even argue that it's best NOT to call the airline after your
out-bound trip is completed and say that you're not going to make the
return flight, because by telling this directly to an agent (who is
sitting at a computer looking at your booking) it's obvious that you run
an extreme risk of them pressing the right keys that WILL result in your
itinerary being converted into a 1-way ticket and being billed
accordingly.

You've got nothing to gain by making that call.