In the not-too-distant past, the only way to get a discount fare for a round trip was to book a round trip “super-saver” fare. In fact, many travelers would book round trip tickets even for one-way flights, because it was less expensive.
Southwest Airlines never required round trip travel for their lowest fares and soon other airlines, including the big legacy carriers, followed. Now, passengers have an option: book two tickets or one ticket. The choice travelers make can result in a big difference in the price they eventually pay.
1. Does it make any difference? Check with the carrier involved. Ask if their tickets allow passengers to change one flight on a ticket without affecting the other flights. In general, newer airlines like Southwest and JetBlue are more flexible than legacy carriers.
2. How likely might a segment of the trip change? Of course, no one really anticipates changes. But, sometimes an outbound might be certain and the return date is iffy. Sometimes travelers realize in advance they might have to add a stop in one direction or the other.
The advantage of a single ticket that is written with both sections of the round trip is that there is only one change fee if travelers change the whole thing. Plus, a passenger will only pay one penalty to reuse the ticket if the trip is canceled completely. Whereas, two or more tickets have two or more fees.
The disadvantage of a single ticket is that changing just one segment can result in an expensive recalculation of the entire fare — even the segments the passenger doesn’t want to change.
3. When might any changes happen? As maddening as the airlines treating two one-way fares on the same ticket as one ticket can be, the advantage is that travelers can usually change the return, AFTER DEPARTURE, without having the required advance notice, paying just the change fee and not the last minute fare.
So, for example, if a traveler is flying from Boston to Los Angeles roundtrip and decides at the last minute while on the West Coast to stay a day longer, they might only pay, say, $200, if there is space still available. With two tickets, the traveler would pay a change fee AND the higher last minute fare.
4. Book flights on separate Passenger Name Records (PNRs). This is more work when trying to keep an itinerary together and viewable in one place, but even separate tickets on the same record can cause problems when there are changes.
For example, last year a client had a San Francisco to Houston to Dallas to San Francisco on United. Because he knew the Houston to Dallas ticket might change, I booked two tickets. As it turned out, he ended up driving so I canceled that segment. But, United wouldn’t let him check in online for the return because the system saw the original canceled ticket and STILL thought he was flying flights out of order. (Yes, I realize this defies logic, but we are talking 1970’s technology.)
And Virgin America, for a different example, will not allow anyone to check in online if other airlines are in the same record, even when there are separate tickets.
5. Are the separate tickets for one-way travel or for connections? Separate tickets for connecting flights create a whole additional set of issues. With two tickets airlines may not check your luggage through to a connecting flight, and they are less likely to help with missed connections. In this case, flying with separate tickets can be dangerous.
Now, in a perfect or at least logical world, airlines would just charge penalties for changing flights travelers are actually changing. They would allow passengers to cancel unused segments with no greater penalty than losing the cost of that particular flight. In the airline world we live in, however, it’s best to be proactive and protective.
