Round Trip Cheaper Than One Way -- OK to only use outbound ticket and burn return?

It is a violation of the ticket terms. Of course, people miss nor
refundable flights all the time for a wide variety of reasons.

Thornhill wrote:

(I'm guessing that this has been posted before, but I could not find a
recent thread that dealt with it.)

While planning a trip to Europe this fall, I've found that in some
instances, round trip tickets between European cities are
substantially cheaper than one-way. Some times the savings is over
$500. So if I buy round trip tickets and only use the outbound ticket,
is that legal? Are there penalties for missing the flight? Even if
it's ok to do, will I get flagged by the European equivalent to the
FAA and get stopped by security on subsequent flights, especially if I
do this twice during the same trip? Given the sometime huge price
difference, it makes no sense why anyone would buy the one way ticket.

(I'm guessing that this has been posted before, but I could not find a
recent thread that dealt with it.)

While planning a trip to Europe this fall, I've found that in some
instances, round trip tickets between European cities are
substantially cheaper than one-way. Some times the savings is over
$500. So if I buy round trip tickets and only use the outbound ticket,
is that legal? Are there penalties for missing the flight? Even if
it's ok to do, will I get flagged by the European equivalent to the
FAA and get stopped by security on subsequent flights, especially if I
do this twice during the same trip? Given the sometime huge price
difference, it makes no sense why anyone would buy the one way ticket.

"Thornhill" wrote:
While planning a trip to Europe this fall, I've found that in
some instances, round trip tickets between European cities
are substantially cheaper than one-way. Some times the
savings is over $500. So if I buy round trip tickets and only
use the outbound ticket, is that legal? Are there penalties
for missing the flight? Even if it's ok to do, will I get flagged
by the European equivalent to the FAA and get stopped
by security on subsequent flights, especially if I do this
twice during the same trip? Given the sometime huge price
difference, it makes no sense why anyone would buy the
one way ticket.
~~~~~~~~~~~
I suspect that after you did it once and your 2nd-R/T ticket
was on the same airline, you'd could well find your 2nd-R/T
cancelled or at least required to reconfim your reservation. If
you were allowed to board the 2nd flight and you did it again,
you might thereafter find yourself on their do-not-fly list.

I think that you'd have a fighting chance of doing it 2x without
such consequences, if you used two different airlines and used
someone else in your party to buy the 2nd set of tickets. I'd
also call the airline B4 the return leg to say, "Something's come
up" (so someone else can use your seat). =R=

On Jun 12, 7:38 pm, "Rog'" wrote:
"Thornhill" wrote:
While planning a trip to Europe this fall, I've found that in
some instances, round trip tickets between European cities
are substantially cheaper than one-way. Some times the
savings is over $500. So if I buy round trip tickets and only
use the outbound ticket, is that legal? Are there penalties
for missing the flight? Even if it's ok to do, will I get flagged
by the European equivalent to the FAA and get stopped
by security on subsequent flights, especially if I do this
twice during the same trip? Given the sometime huge price
difference, it makes no sense why anyone would buy the
one way ticket.

~~~~~~~~~~~
I suspect that after you did it once and your 2nd-R/T ticket
was on the same airline, you'd could well find your 2nd-R/T
cancelled or at least required to reconfim your reservation. If
you were allowed to board the 2nd flight and you did it again,
you might thereafter find yourself on their do-not-fly list.

I think that you'd have a fighting chance of doing it 2x without
such consequences, if you used two different airlines and used
someone else in your party to buy the 2nd set of tickets. I'd
also call the airline B4 the return leg to say, "Something's come
up" (so someone else can use your seat). =R=

I would only do this once, and on a different airline that I'm flying
in and out of Europe on. My main concern, is somehow getting stuck on
some kind of do not fly list, and then having to put up with a lot of
crap to fly out of Europe.

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 22:55:35 -0000, Thornhill
wrote:

(I'm guessing that this has been posted before, but I could not find a
recent thread that dealt with it.)

While planning a trip to Europe this fall, I've found that in some
instances, round trip tickets between European cities are
substantially cheaper than one-way. Some times the savings is over
$500. So if I buy round trip tickets and only use the outbound ticket,
is that legal? Are there penalties for missing the flight? Even if
it's ok to do, will I get flagged by the European equivalent to the
FAA and get stopped by security on subsequent flights, especially if I
do this twice during the same trip? Given the sometime huge price
difference, it makes no sense why anyone would buy the one way ticket.

You might try to get return dates to be beyond the next outbound
segment you plan to use.

On Jun 12, 8:33 pm, R Brickston rb20170REMOVE.yahoo.com@ wrote:
On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 22:55:35 -0000, Thornhill
wrote:

(I'm guessing that this has been posted before, but I could not find a
recent thread that dealt with it.)

While planning a trip to Europe this fall, I've found that in some
instances, round trip tickets between European cities are
substantially cheaper than one-way. Some times the savings is over
$500. So if I buy round trip tickets and only use the outbound ticket,
is that legal? Are there penalties for missing the flight? Even if
it's ok to do, will I get flagged by the European equivalent to the
FAA and get stopped by security on subsequent flights, especially if I
do this twice during the same trip? Given the sometime huge price
difference, it makes no sense why anyone would buy the one way ticket.

You might try to get return dates to be beyond the next outbound
segment you plan to use.

But is there some kind of master airline database that will see I'm
flying within Europe a month after I fly out, and then flag me?

On Jun 13, 5:55 am, Thornhill wrote:
(I'm guessing that this has been posted before, but I could not find a
recent thread that dealt with it.)

While planning a trip to Europe this fall, I've found that in some
instances, round trip tickets between European cities are
substantially cheaper than one-way. Some times the savings is over
$500. So if I buy round trip tickets and only use the outbound ticket,
is that legal? Are there penalties for missing the flight? Even if
it's ok to do, will I get flagged by the European equivalent to the
FAA and get stopped by security on subsequent flights, especially if I
do this twice during the same trip? Given the sometime huge price
difference, it makes no sense why anyone would buy the one way ticket.

Yes, this has been posted before. Most of these posts go to
rec.HowCanICheatThe SystemBecauseI'mACheapO.travel

"Thornhill" wrote:
R Brickston: You might try to get return dates to be
beyond the next outbound segment you plan to use.

.... or beyond the OP's return to the States, eh?

But is there some kind of master airline database that
will see I'm flying within Europe a month after I fly out,
and then flag me?

Like they would know that you would not parahute back
in for the sheer joy of using that R/T segment? AFAIK,
each airline uses its own DB to flag no-shows on its own
flights, but its possible that if you're taking a code-shared
flight, you may show up in the DB of both the airline with
the flight # you booked and the airline operating the flight.

BTW, I'll be flying O/W on Condor (Frankfurt-Santorini),
and Aegean (Mykonos-Athens, Athens-Frankfurt) and the
R/T's for those were considerably more expensive. =R=

On Jun 12, 11:32 pm, "Rog'" wrote:
"Thornhill" wrote:
R Brickston: You might try to get return dates to be
beyond the next outbound segment you plan to use.

... or beyond the OP's return to the States, eh?

But is there some kind of master airline database that
will see I'm flying within Europe a month after I fly out,
and then flag me?

Like they would know that you would not parahute back
in for the sheer joy of using that R/T segment? AFAIK,
each airline uses its own DB to flag no-shows on its own
flights, but its possible that if you're taking a code-shared
flight, you may show up in the DB of both the airline with
the flight # you booked and the airline operating the flight.

I suppose the TB guy is proof of how little Big Brother is actually
keeping an eye on airline passengers.

BTW, I'll be flying O/W on Condor (Frankfurt-Santorini),
and Aegean (Mykonos-Athens, Athens-Frankfurt) and the
R/T's for those were considerably more expensive. =R=

Is it me or have the cost of O/W tickets between European cities gone
up in the last year? In 2005 I flew Milan to Berlin and Berlin to
Amsterdam, both direct, for $150 each. Now for similar distances/
cities, prices are $600 to $800, but some of the R/T's are in the sub
$200 range. Flying from the US to Europe seems to be about $150
cheaper though.

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 22:55:35 -0000 'Thornhill'
posted this onto rec.travel.air:

(I'm guessing that this has been posted before, but I could not find a
recent thread that dealt with it.)

While planning a trip to Europe this fall, I've found that in some
instances, round trip tickets between European cities are
substantially cheaper than one-way. Some times the savings is over
$500. So if I buy round trip tickets and only use the outbound ticket,
is that legal?

As per an earlier thread, it probably violates the airline's Ts&Cs.
But hey - who cares? It isn't you who introduced unfair ticket pricing
policies. If they catch you out, challenge them to sue you and they'll
quietly evaporate.

Just make sure you don't tell them what you're doing and cover your
tracks as far as possible by using different credit cards and airlines
for each segment etc.

Are there penalties for missing the flight? Even if
it's ok to do, will I get flagged by the European equivalent to the
FAA and get stopped by security on subsequent flights, especially if I
do this twice during the same trip? Given the sometime huge price
difference, it makes no sense why anyone would buy the one way ticket.