Penalty for not using your return flight?

  • Thread starter OutofAfrica
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OutofAfrica

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I am in the process of booking flights from Germany to Italy and Italy to France and the one way price is huge compared to the return trip fare. A travel agent told me there is a penalty charge if we don't use the return fare and use the ticket as a one way ticket. Has anyone heard of this before??
 
In theory yes ... in practice just go ahead and don't worry about it provided you are using the first segment on each ticket

e.g. don't book a return ticket and skip the first segment and turn up to try and check in for the return flight .. if your flight is priced as a return fare then the airline will probably have cancelled your 2nd segment after you didnt' turn up for the 1st segment .. and if they didn't they might try to charge you the full one way fare. (nb most low cost airlines are priced as oneways so you can skip the outbound segment of say a Ryanair flight without penalty)
 
I booked a cheap flight with Ryanair before xmas, return to Glasgow. Couldn't make the flight (2 of us) so we just never showed up. No penalties were incurred
 
tosullivan said:
I booked a cheap flight with Ryanair before xmas, return to Glasgow. Couldn't make the flight (2 of us) so we just never showed up. No penalties were incurred
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As mentioned above .. .Ryanair and other Low Cost carriers have a oneway pricing policy ...so they don't actually sell return fares .. they're all just one way fares that you happen to buy two of.

So Ryanair (or Aer Lingus in Europe) policy isn't relevant in this example .. you won't have a problem doing this on Ryanair, but that doesnt' address the OPs question I don't think (unless they're travelling Ryanair which it doesn't sound like they are)
 
OutofAfrica said:
I am in the process of booking flights from Germany to Italy and Italy to France and the one way price is huge compared to the return trip fare. A travel agent told me there is a penalty charge if we don't use the return fare and use the ticket as a one way ticket. Has anyone heard of this before??
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Nope.

As mentioned above, you can and will be denied boarding if you try and use just the subsequent segments on your itinerary. They must be used in order. But I have never heard of any problem or charge for using the first segment and not the return.

The airline factor in a proportion of people doing this and overbook accordingly, so for them the return portion of the fare is money for old rope...
 
Actually I have heard of this happening, mostly in the US. If you book with a credit card this can be levied with the cost of the single fare if you do not use the return segment. Check the T&C of the booking but if you don't use the return segment of a ticket booked as return, you are in breach of a legally binding contract.
 
Either Lufthansa, Alitalia or Air France. Haven't settled on the flight yet but all three seem to have cheaper return fares than one ways.
 
Why would an airline offer cheaper return flights than a one way flight? It seems crazy to me...
 
Often airports offer deals to airlines for certain routings. Hence certain return trips being cheaper than one way fares.

Would I do it? NO! Airlines have your cc details to put the charge on, and also you are breaking the T&C of your booking. Seeing as all airlines mentioned are Skyteam, I would not risk trouble booking SkyTeam sectors again.
 
if it really worries you,could you not ring the airline just before return and say, you have had puncture ,feel ill or some silly excuse for no show. i'm sure they would be delighted not to have you:p
 
shesells said:
Often airports offer deals to airlines for certain routings. Hence certain return trips being cheaper than one way fares.

Would I do it? NO! Airlines have your cc details to put the charge on, and also you are breaking the T&C of your booking. Seeing as all airlines mentioned are Skyteam, I would not risk trouble booking SkyTeam sectors again.
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Lufthansa are Star Alliance, not Skyteam...
 
I did this once with a Star Alliance flight (transatlantic, the one way fare was a LOT more than return) and didn't get charged with anything extra. That was in 2003.

If you don't check in by a certain time they re-sell your seat or fill it with a standby passenger, so they'd be rather cheeky to charge you more as well!
 
I certainly wouldn't have any qualms about doing this and have done it plenty of times in the past .. and other "tricks" too like nested tickets etc. never had any issues with it.

I know theoretically some of these things can be construed as violations of the rules governing the ticket purchase as shesells correctly observes .. however I feel the likelihood of any airline pursuing this is minimal and it certainly hasn't and won't stop me from doing this again.
 
I have never heard of this penalty charge. We book return flights for family hols through many different airlines. On occasion my son does not return with us but books another flight direct to his place of work. Our flights include Europe and USA.
 
Hi, I booked a return flight to Bristol for August, but they were only 2 euro so we decided to cover two options and then booked a second return flight home - i.e. if we decided to stay longer in our destination (driving to countryside). We would really need to check in for both flights online before we leave Ireland as we might not have internet access or a printer abroad - will this create a problem does anyone think???
 
Those fares sound like Ryanair - so there's no problem. Each Ryanair flight is a separate booking, even if you book a return ticket the flights are treated separately so there's no risk that one will be cancelled if you don't show up for the other.
 
seantheman said:
if it really worries you,could you not ring the airline just before return and say, you have had puncture ,feel ill or some silly excuse for no show. i'm sure they would be delighted not to have you:p
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I booked return flights to Tours last year with Ryanair. Got them cheap. It was a seven night return journey. We decided at the last minute that five days would be more appropriate. When we had made the original booking the five night return was too expensive. Prices then dropped.
We just booked new flights for the 5th night return and never did anything about the 7th night return. No problem.
 
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