spiraluk

Since meeting my lovely fiance I have flown to the US a couple of times so know the rough cost of a ticket. So you can imagine my surprise when I looked at booking my final flight over to the US once I have my interview (6th Sept ), and found that its a extra couple of hundred dollars more to book a one way ticket than a return.

Is there anything stopping me buying a return ticket and then just cancelling the return trip when I get over to the US?

Also, does anyone know why airlines do this?

ljaw2002uk

I have done this on many occasions. There is nothing to stop you doing it with any airline.

Bob

Not really a immigration question this is it...

And as to whats stopping you, well depends on the ticket and the small print, some, especially the cheaper tickets won't allow it and could just charge you extra for the unused portion, though most likely for a one off, they won't. That's not to say that they can't.

As for why, because they have to pay for your return flight to the UK if you got bounced and last minute seating costs a fortune.

spiraluk

Thanks for the replies. The reason I asked here was if it was going to affect my entry at custom when I arrive on a K1 fiance's visa and they want to know why I have a return flight. Just covering all the possibilities I guess

Bob

If you have a K1 visa, they would expect you to stay, get married and AOS.

spiraluk

Which I will be doing. Just want to save a few hundred dollars in the process

discoviking

When you enter on you K1 visa, all the CBP agents at the POE is interested in is your passport and mysterious brown envelope. They could care less if you have a return ticket back to where you came from - or an onwards ticket to Timbuktu for that matter.

Wibblypig

That's what we are going to do Our's works out to be quite a difference as there are 5 of us

Brit In TN

There is nothing at all to stop you buying a roundtrip ticket and then cancelling the return portion after you have completed the outward section. The only time you have to be careful is if your ticket is part of a larger itinerary with other flights involved.

As for why airlines often charge more for a one-way than they do for a roundtrip is that they calculate most passengers are round trip travellers. Therefore if you take up a seat on a one way ticket then that seat will not be available to a potential roundtrip passenger. If it is a full flight the potential passenger may take his business elsewhere and the airline will lose income, unless they've charged you at least as much as they would have charged the potential roundtrip passenger.
Make sense? Well it does to them.
That's how it was explained to me by a travel agent years ago.

Brit In TN

Bob,
The airline can't charge you for not using a ticket if you've already paid for it. If you were wanting to make an itinerary change and fly at a different time they would almost certainly charge for that.
However, if you buy a roundtrip ticket and decide not to use the return portion, for whatever reason, there isn't a no-show penalty. You just don't get a refund, unless you've purchased a particular type of refundable ticket.

Bob

They can and they have in the past for certain tickets. Like I said, if you get the cheapest of economy tickets, they can and they possibly will, even if they usually don't bother. You gave them the permission to do that when you buy the ticket.

If you buy a regular, not the barebones cattle ticket, they'll usually not bother.

scrubbedexpat091

When buying a round trip ticket and only flying one way is called throw a way ticketing and most airlines dont allow it and have this in their contract of carriage against it, however unless your doing it frequently on the same airline and the airline can see a pattern you wont have anything to worry about.

Airlines have gone after people who have made this a habit by canceling frequent flyer accounts, taking away miles etc.

Wibblypig

We have just booked are tickets for the end of September this afternoon and we asked Virgin when booking, they said they do not charge for not using the return flights! The only time they would charge extra is if a person decided that they wanted to use the return flight AFTER the date of the return flight, didn't even know you could do that!

I would just ask the airline you are flying with

Ja5on

I got a return flight when I moved to the US and just didn't use the return part.....I did hear that they can be funny about it if they know that's what you are planning when you get on the flight. They asked me before I flew why I had a flight booked back in 2 weeks and I told them that I was just going to call up and change it to a later date after I land.

Also can they really charge you for missing a flight? You can tell them you got stuck in traffic and didn't make it, or that you got sick and couldn't travel.

tonrob

I would absolutely recommend not telling the airline anything - this includes at the time of booking and also not calling them to cancel your return flight having already flown your outward segment.

Individual experiences are well documented on the interwebs and there seems to be a very, very low risk associated with a single instance of throw-away ticketing being done by an individual. (I think this having spent at least as much time of Flyertalk as I have done on BE over the last few years).

The goal here should be to fly under the radar, so to speak, and definitely not make efforts to bring it to the airline's attention that you intend to break the contract of carriage that you entered into!