Booking 2 One-Way Tickets - Different Airlines

[LittleStinkerbelle]

We're looking to book a trip as two one way trips on two different airlines - JetBlue as a flight time/price that works for us going but they don't have a return time that works for us, but Delta does.

I've never booked a trip like this before - are there any pitfalls to look out for? Just looking for any pointers from those who have booked like this before. Thanks!

ETA: I priced out the tix and there doesn't seem to be any price pentalty for booking one-way vs. r/t.

 

[Hockey Ninja]

I book my travel this way for about half the trips I take, so as to get better deals or go at more convenient times. I've never encountered any difficulties with it. You should be fine!

 

[paults]

we do this all the time now. started with Airtran and now with SW. Our trip in April coming up is down with Airtran and back with SW. We try to always use SW both ways but had Airtran credit I had to use.
I don't know of any pitfalls.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Great! Thank you for the reassurance.

 

[uva185]

Just a couple things to keep in mind...

If you make a change to your dates you will have to pay two change fees if you book two one way flights while you would only have to pay it once if you booked a roundtrip.

If a Travel Advisory is issued for one of your flights you will only be able to modify flights on that ticket. So if there is a weather issue that affects your outbound flight the airline will typically allow you to change that flight, but not the return since it is booked as a second ticket. If both the outbound and return segments were booked as the same ticket the airline would typically allow you to modify the outbound and return.

Not that this makes a huge difference, just be aware of it when you book.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Thanks -- that's a good point about the change fees. If something came up we'd likely lose everything because I think the change fee is probably more than each of the tickets individually.

 

[Anal Annie]

You won't accrue frequent flier miles for both legs on one airline. We prefer Air Tran 'cuz they have such a good rewards program but I booked us DOWN on SW and home on Air Tran to get the best prices (in this case it was about $70 pp diff. For $15 or $20 pp I'd have stayed with Air Tran). But I am irked that we lost out on the credit for the flight down. I like to keep to one airline if possible to keep the rewards going.

 

[seadd67]

We do this all the time,It gives us the flexabilty of not being locked into one airlines departure times. And we can buy the legg of flight when we want to.

 

[uva185]

You won't accrue frequent flier miles for both legs on one airline. We prefer Air Tran 'cuz they have such a good rewards program but I booked us DOWN on SW and home on Air Tran to get the best prices (in this case it was about $70 pp diff. For $15 or $20 pp I'd have stayed with Air Tran). But I am irked that we lost out on the credit for the flight down. I like to keep to one airline if possible to keep the rewards going.

A slightly off-topic FYI many airlines are in alliances with each other and you can earn miles by flying their alliance partners. In the US United, US Airways, and Continental are Star Alliance partners so you can fly any of those airlines and credit back to a single frequent flyer program.

More Alliances:
Star Alliance www.staralliance.com
One World www.oneworld.com
Sky Team www.skyteam.com

In addition some airlines have direct partnerships with various airlines outside of alliance deals. For example, Alaska Airlines is partnered with a mix of One World and Sky Team airlines so if you fly a mix of American (One World) and Delta (Sky Team) flights it may be better to collect your miles on Alaska Airlines so they accrue faster and you can use them on more airliners world wide rather than keeping two separate accounts with Delta and American (even though they are not directly partnered themselves).