Ever fly down on one airline and back on another?

[maggiew]

Orbitz is showing the lowest price for my itinerary if I fly down on one airline (like Airtran) and then back on another (like American). Does anyone have experience doing this?? I was wondering if there were any negatives? I was thinking maybe I would be flagged for security? Or maybe if prices fell I wouldn't be able to get a credit??

Or should I just book the slightly higher fares with the itinerary that uses only one airline? The price difference is about $30.

Maggie

 

[DiscussDisney]

You will be subject to the "extra" security screening because of your one-way tickets (much higher probability of being chosen). I would pay the $30 and use the same airline. JMO

 

[Laurajean1014]

Yes, and never had any type of hassle. It saved us over $40 per person than using one airline.

 

[Laurajean1014]

Be very careful with Orbitz. I have friends and myself whom have had bad experiences on Orbitz.

My experience: bought 3 non-stop airfares for $180/pp. They had one stops for $133, but we wanted non-stop flights. We booked the $180/pp flight and in 3 days they changed our ressie to a one-stop flight at $180! It took us 3 weeks and called every day to get them to refund us the money. Fortuately I placed it on my AMEX card and had them also fight for me.

Friends have had worse things happen to their hotel and air ressies. Too long to post.

We have not used them since.

 

[sammi6]

I am flying down with Southwest and back with American, this will also be my first time. I am interested in seeing how this turns out.

 

[ElizaB39]

when we travel, individually and as a family. We may fly one way on SW freebies and then the other way on a cheap one way flight. We have done this to FL, MN, AZ, NV and etc. I think DH has also done this internationally. So that is why we get flagged for extra security?

 

[aunt2brant]

This time last year, my friend and I flew to San Francisco from Birmingham. We got our tickets on cheaptickets.com, which meant that we flew out with Delta? and back with Continental. In B'ham, we were flagged, had to take off shoes; other than that, no problems...
we had 1 stop each way but did not get bothered after that initial shoe check, even on the way back.

p.s. We found that flying B'ham to San Jose (we were going to Stanford University) was about $80 cheaper per ticket than flying into and out of the major airprots like Atlanta to San Francisco.....not what you asked, just thought I would throw that in.

 

[KaitlinsMom]

I just did this on my trip to Boston - No problems - The only problem is that I could not check in online - The hotel I stayed at had airport check-in for American airlines - Again, could not use because I had a one-way ticket - No problems at airport - No extra screenings or anything - Bought tickets through Orbitz.

We also did this on our trip to Florida for the Disney cruise - Since the flight is long for us, we like to go non-stop - We were able to check in online though - Maybe because we bought directly through the airline and not through Orbitz.

Karen

 

[ceecee]

We have done it and are doing it again this year. With our airport it's hard to get 2 non stops if you don't. I have added the 2 one way tickets and it's usually $10-20 more. This year it actually was $7.00 more, so worth it for a non stop flight. Weird thing is a friend of ours who is an airline resv. said they watch more closely one way tickets since 9-11, anyone else ever heard of that?

 

[antmaril]

We did this in February. We flew down to Orlando on Southwest and returned on Spirit Airlines. No problems at all. I was prepared for extra security screening, but it didn't happen.

I would not hesitate to fly two different airlines again.

 

[oogieboogie]

We've done it several times and are doing it again next month. We're flying to MCO on United and coming back on Airtran.

Never a problem and never had extra security screening either.

 

[LIFERBABE]

Me and my 2 Ds's flew to Detroit one-way for a family emergency, a week before our scheduled WdW trip. I figured we would leave Detroit and fly to MCO 1 way using our flight credit.

We were flagged from DFW to DTW and we got the FULL treatment! I mean even my Ds's and they are 6 and 8. They took apart all our carryons to the bottom of the bag. (they did put everything back). And we were were wanded and had to take our shoes off and have our feet wanded too. This was at DFW.

We stayed in Michigan for a week and because DTW is a MESS, we scheduled to fly out of Flint Mi. Here we just passed thru no problem, even though we were 1 way to Orlando.

In 2 weeks we are using our remaining AA flight credit for a 1 way DFW to MCo for our DCL cruise. We are returning on Airtran.

American has funky flight times for their lower fares (like midnight departures!) so I will continue to book 1 ways to get the better times and fares.

Thanks for reminding me about the possible extra security checks. I will be sure to add a little more time.

 

[InstImpres]

I did it once and the boarding pass printed with a big S on it. I too got the full security treatment. Maybe it depends on the airline?

 

[Ilovethatmouse]

i dont recommend Orbitz either..had very bad experience with missing reservation for my nephew on the day before Thanksgiving, you know the busiest travel day of the year, they were horrible to deal with on the phone during our rush. We had to purchase another ticket directly from USAir for the flight, thank goodness there were seats available on the flight, and the worst part, (just picture the scene in Home Alone where the family is running through the airport trying to catch the flight) we had to RUN through the Philadelphia airport with 5 children one of them being 10 weeks old, 3 of them in strollers, while my MIL stalled at the gate and we barely made it....never again ORBITZ Oh and in all of the rush, my SIL left her carry on at Security and it got sent to Pittsburgh