It's in most airline's contract of carriage, that you have to use ticket
segments in the order they were issued or they will cancel them.

For example, from one airlines contract of carriage:

--------start quote
B) FLIGHT COUPONS WILL BE HONORED ONLY IN THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY ARE
ISSUED, AND ONLY IF ALL UNUSED FLIGHT COUPONS AND AHTE PASSENGER COUPONS ARE
PRESENTED TOGETHER.

---------end



And yes, the spelling mistake is part of the wording of the contract.



They then add:

---------start

C) USE OF COUPONS FROM TWO OR MORE TICKETS ISSUED AT ROUND TRIP FARES FOR
THE PURPOSE OF CIRCUMVENTING APPLICABLE TARIFF RULES (SUCH AS ADVANCE
PURCHASE/MINIMUM STAY REQUIREMENT) IS NOT PERMITTED. UA AGENTS AND
AUTHORIZED TRAVEL AGENTS ARE PROHIBITED FROM ISSUING TICKETS, COMMONLY
REFERRED TO AS "BACK TO BACK", UNDER SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES WHEN THERE IS
OBVIOUS INTENT TO ABUSE AND/OR MISUSE RESTRICTED ROUND TRIP FARES. AGENTS
FOUND ISSUING SUCH TICKETS MAY BE LIABLE FOR THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FARE
PAID AND THE FARE FOR TRANSPORTATION USED. UA HAS THE RIGHT TO DENY
TRANSPORTATION TO PASSENGERS FOUND UTILIZING TICKETS IN THIS MANNER UNLESS
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FARE PAID AND THE FARE FOR TRANSPORTATION USED IS
COLLECTED.

----------end

The contract of carriage from most airlines is dozens of pages (this one is
46 pages), it's way more then fits on a ticket or a website.

It's not a common belief, it's a fact, miss any segment for any reason and
they cancel the rest of the ticket. Plain and simple.











"Fly Guy" wrote in message ...
James Robinson wrote:

Can I use a round trip ticket as a 1 way?

Yes, you can do that. Just make sure it is the first flight
that you take, and not the second. If you miss the first flight,
the rest of you reservation will be canceled.

I'm not questioning the common belief of the above paragraph. But
this made me wonder if (or where) that stipulation is documented /
printed. Anyone care to read the fine print on their latest ticket
and confirm?

Is such a disclaimer visible when you buy tickets on-line (given that
as the majority of tickets are e-tickets there is increasingly no
fine-print on your ticket at the time of purchase because there is no
ticket anymore).