Plane ticket ??

[babesboo99]

Havent flown in awhile i have a fear. but my husband informed me last night he would like to fly for our October trip so he doesn't have that dreaded feel of being in South Carolina and say we have another 12hrs to go so i u derstand. But my question is is it better to buy one way tickets or round trip?

 

[luvmy2babies]

Kind of depends on what airline you are flying and how it is priced. We always fly Southwest. It's just been easier since they don't charge for bags, and tend to have multiple nonstop flights from where we live. The flights are priced by the leg and it doesn't change if I buy one leg at a time; so depending on the deal I find and my budget, I do tend to purchase one leg at a time. I usually buy the return flight first because past experience has shown me that one is the one likely to increase in price first. Most years I go back in a couple of weeks later and get the other portion. I don't use credit to pay for vacations; so my regular budget and savings dictates what I do.

For example for this trip, I logged in one day and our return flight was $87 each. In previous years I had paid more; so I went ahead and purchased it. Departure flights were still over $100 so I waited a bit. Ended up getting our departure flights a couple of weeks later for $69 each. Only difference is I have two separate reservations.

For some airlines it may be cheaper to buy the round trip ticket and not separate them.

 

[Dis703]

It doesn't matter all that much. Price wise it's usually the same anymore. Sometimes you even find a better deal booking each way with a different airline. The only issue I can think of is perhaps in regards to canceling if you had to.

 

[Day-Day]

Some more discussion in this thread: https://www.disboards.com/threads/a...ing-2-one-way-airfares-vs-round-trip.3749913/

 

[_19disnA]

You can always go to the airline website and compare prices of one-way vs. round trip tickets. It USED to be that one-way was a LOT more expensive, but how the airlines price their tickets has changed and now you can purchase them either way for about the same price. With any airline, make sure you are pricing out the TOTAL cost of flying that includes checked baggage, seat assignments, etc. since some airlines make their ticket price seem lower until you add in all of the extra fees.

 

[rg35]

It really doesn't matter so much anymore. Basically all travel sites will present fare options where each leg is on a different carrier, especially if it's an airport (like LGA) where multiple carriers fly to/from the destination airport.

 

[Jimsig]

The only time it really comes into play is if you have to cancel. As other have said in today's airfare world you usually are buying round trip tickets priced as one ways for the outbound and inbound part of the trip, but under the same reservation number. But say you do buy it as 2 OW's for yourself (different reservation numbers) and the the ticket cost $200 each way for a total of $400. Even if you buy a non-refundable ticket if you cancel a lot of airlines will give you a travel bank credit ( to be used on that airline with in a certain time) for the amount of the ticket minus a change fee. If the change fee is $150 you only get $100 deposited into your travel bank ($50 per ticket). But if you purchase them for $400 R/T (same reservation number) you would get $250 deposited into your travel bank ($400-$150= $250) as the change fee is per reservation. Also as an FYI the change fee is per person per reservation so if 2 people are on the reservation and the tickets are a total of $800 for both it's a $300 change fee and only $500 gets deposited into your travel bank.

 

[babesboo99]

Thank you everyone

 

[bumbershoot]

For some airlines it may be cheaper to buy the round trip ticket and not separate them.

Not for domestic tickets. Changed after 911.

International tickets, YES. Always look at round trip and even multi city tickets rather than one way.

since some airlines make their ticket price seem lower until you add in all of the extra fees.

It doesn’t just look lower, the ticket price IS lower. Not everyone wants all the options.


But definitely DO make sure you’re doing comparisons in prices with what you need. If you don’t care about choosing your seat, checked bags, etc, go with the cheapest “basic economy” sort of ticket. If you care about those things...maybe don’t. But KNOW what you’re looking at before getting emotionally invested in (what you think is) that date.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Depends on carrier. I prefer one ways. If changes needed, easier overall.
Safe travels and ENJOY ur visit.

 

[kda]

And it's fine to fly different airlines to and from, when you book one way. One airline may have a lower price or better flight time for the trip there and a different airline may be better for the trip home.
I can't stress enough for you to be sure you understand what the additional charges may be (i.e., checked bags/carry on bags, ability to select seat).
Added: I almost always end up booking one way.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Depends on carrier. Last month I was looking at flights to NYC a one way flight on United was $195 each way. But oddly enough a roundtrip ticket was $175 on United for the exact same dates and flights as the one way tickets.

 

[jec6613]

So, your states you're in New York. If you're NYC area, a few quick thoughts from my experience:

1) Most of the LCCs suck at serving NYC. Like almost don't bother level bad. United, Delta, and American are all highly competitive.
2) Fly American or Delta out of LGA or JFK, but if you want EWR fly United. For JetBlue, JFK only. Many more options that way.
3) Round trip to MCO is almost always cheaper if you hit the minimum stay requirements. You can check two one-ways, but don't be surprised if it's more expensive.
4) Don't forget about HPN, sometimes you can get cheap tickets, and it's a much easier airport to deal with IMHO.
5) LGA is under construction, build extra time into your travel if you decide to use it.

And a little bonus thing: if you're upstate but near Amtrak, especially near the line going to Albany, the best bet is to take Amtrak into NYP, then take the NYCAirporter shuttle van to your airport of choice (you could also take the 4/5/6 to Fulton St then jump onto an A train to JFK, but only if you're really penny pinching). If you have to connect from upstate, doing Amtrak to an airline is a better experience for parking and just in general than trying to get a good flight out of ALB or similar.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

So, your states you're in New York. If you're NYC area, a few quick thoughts from my experience:

1) Most of the LCCs suck at serving NYC. Like almost don't bother level bad. United, Delta, and American are all highly competitive.
2) Fly American or Delta out of LGA or JFK, but if you want EWR fly United. For JetBlue, JFK only. Many more options that way.
3) Round trip to MCO is almost always cheaper if you hit the minimum stay requirements. You can check two one-ways, but don't be surprised if it's more expensive.
4) Don't forget about HPN, sometimes you can get cheap tickets, and it's a much easier airport to deal with IMHO.
5) LGA is under construction, build extra time into your travel if you decide to use it.

And a little bonus thing: if you're upstate but near Amtrak, especially near the line going to Albany, the best bet is to take Amtrak into NYP, then take the NYCAirporter shuttle van to your airport of choice (you could also take the 4/5/6 to Fulton St then jump onto an A train to JFK, but only if you're really penny pinching). If you have to connect from upstate, doing Amtrak to an airline is a better experience for parking and just in general than trying to get a good flight out of ALB or similar.

 

[jec6613]

The OP never said they were flight from NYC. I said I was looking at flying TO NYC

Their profile states they're in New York. Sorry, I dropped the word, "Profile," from the first sentence.

 

[babesboo99]

So, your states you're in New York. If you're NYC area, a few quick thoughts from my experience:

1) Most of the LCCs suck at serving NYC. Like almost don't bother level bad. United, Delta, and American are all highly competitive.
2) Fly American or Delta out of LGA or JFK, but if you want EWR fly United. For JetBlue, JFK only. Many more options that way.
3) Round trip to MCO is almost always cheaper if you hit the minimum stay requirements. You can check two one-ways, but don't be surprised if it's more expensive.
4) Don't forget about HPN, sometimes you can get cheap tickets, and it's a much easier airport to deal with IMHO.
5) LGA is under construction, build extra time into your travel if you decide to use it.

And a little bonus thing: if you're upstate but near Amtrak, especially near the line going to Albany, the best bet is to take Amtrak into NYP, then take the NYCAirporter shuttle van to your airport of choice (you could also take the 4/5/6 to Fulton St then jump onto an A train to JFK, but only if you're really penny pinching). If you have to connect from upstate, doing Amtrak to an airline is a better experience for parking and just in general than trying to get a good flight out of ALB or similar.

We are coming from Albany NY we were gonna leave feim Albany international but i did not know Penn Station has shuttles to the airports. We would be going from ALB to MCO

 

[jec6613]

We are coming from Albany NY we were gonna leave feim Albany international but i did not know Penn Station has shuttles to the airports. We would be going from ALB to MCO

Yeah, I've taken both flights and Amtrak out of Albany and the Amtrak station is way nicer than the airport with much more frequent service. The train to plane change is a bit more of a pain, but the NYC flights are also usually much cheaper. I'd do the Amtrak to NYC over a connecting flight through an airline hub any day.

That said, JetBlue does offer nonstop service to MCO from ALB once per day, so if the times and prices line up I'd check that out too. October isn't snow season yet, after all.

Frontier offers a 3x/week nonstop in season, but I would avoid that like the plague. It has a pretty high cancellation rate, and the next flight isn't for two days if something goes wrong, and if you hit the seasonal boundary you're SOL if your flight gets cancelled, since the rebooking time will be months out.