Pros/Cons of buying 2 one way air tickets vs round trip? (Southwest)

[Caitsmama]

Hi, We are flying down to WDW in March, and the flights are out for southwest - There is a deal on the going down flight for us - but coming home is not a deal - Is there a pro/con to buying the going down one way tickets for me and dd right now, and then getting another one way ticket back home later? (waiting to see if the price drops?)
I know, i could buy the round trip tix now and keep checking and adjusting the cost for a credit, but i would rather not tie up the extra $ right now if i don't have to..
This would be flying southwest.

 

[carolina_yankee]

The benefits are of 2 one way tickets are mostly in your favor since southwest doesn't penalize you for one-way travel.

The disadvantage of having a single ticket is that if the price on the return goes down and you want to rebook for a credit, you might not get the outbound at the same low price you had.

With two one way tickets, you have better control over which ones to change if prices change.

I'm not good at playing chicken on airline fares, so I usually just buy when it gets to where I'm comfortable paying or I know for certain it's a great deal (like a Ding). I would buy the return, and the look for opportunities to rebook at a lower price and take the credit for a future flight. If you can't use a credit, you prices should be decent up to 90 days out. YMMV.

Dirk

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

I buy one way tix on SWA so that if the price of one leg goes down I can get a credit. With a round trip, if one leg goes down in price and the other goes up, your overall price might not be lower than what you paid so you wouldn't get a credit.

 

[JasonDVC]

Have you looked at AirTran out of Boston?

 

[Pirate1+Princess4]

I buy one way tix on SWA so that if the price of one leg goes down I can get a credit. With a round trip, if one leg goes down in price and the other goes up, your overall price might not be lower than what you paid so you wouldn't get a credit.

I learned my lesson and will book each leg separately in the future.

I booked round trip for my family of 7 shortly after fares were released, as they were pretty darn good both ways.

When an earlier flight on my outbound dropped in price, I called SWA to walk me through the change. I was assured by the CSR that my return cost wouldn't change. When we were making the flight change the earlier outbound was $5 less than original, but the return had gone up a bit. With a family of 7, even a small difference can add up. She assured me several times that a change to the outbound would not affect the return in any way.

She walked me through the change, as she couldn't do it for me because the new fare was an internet only fare and she wasn't even showing availability at the lower price on the earlier flight. When we got to the screen where it reconciles she said, "you should now have a $35 credit". Nope, the total was still the same.

I was OK with that, as it was worth it for me to pay what I already was going to pay and I got 3 more hours at WDW. SHE was NOT OK with that and put me on hold. After a few back-and-forths and a call by her to a "the home office", they determined that the obscure memo that "just" released earlier that week made my reservation convert to the entire trip being an "internet only" fare, even though the return was originally a different class.

This caused the return to re-price. She REALLY was unhappy with that and did everything she could to get me my $35. Even INSISTED several times that I call Customer Relations to ask for the money. I decided to let it go, as the return fare I was seeing was more than the $35 difference.

Soo.....lesson learned. It could have been worse.

I'm thinking that if lower fares are going fast, you could actually lose out on the good fare on your return if you take the time to finalize your outbound transaction. That is, if both directions are showing a nice fare. But in your case, you are not happy with the current return fare, so it might be worth it wait out pricing on the return.

 

[Cruz91]

You may want to consider booking each traveler (or at least pairs of travelers) separately. Or, at the least, when you use a credit - use the credit on a single ticket.

The scenario... You have a credit because you got a DING and reduced your fare. Suppose the credit is set to expire December 15. You book flights, and use that credit towards them, to fly on December 1. You then get ANOTHER lower fare, so you reduce your tickets and get another credit. The 'new' credit will expire DEC 15 - the expiration date of credits goes with the oldest credit used for the purchase.

Sounds confusing, and it is, and I almost got caught up in it. I was lucky and had a colleague at work travelling, so he took my credit and gave me cash.

 

[Caitsmama]

Thanks guys, i ended up just extending my trip by a day to get the lower fares coming home.. LOL (That's one way to rationalize it huh?)

I have booked SW on round trips many many times, and have changed one leg of the journey when they lower the prices without it ever affecting the other leg of the trip..i really like SW for that aspect,

However, i have to tell ya, that airfare went up 3x since last night til today - looking at my flight home on a Sunday night - went from 180.00 last night, to 185.00 early this a.m. to just up to $206.00 right now. for the same flight.

So, we ended up extending our trip a day, and booked a return flight home on a monday night for $149. instead.. figuring with 5 of us, we will make out better.. and gain another disney day.

 

[Tara]

The benefits are of 2 one way tickets are mostly in your favor since southwest doesn't penalize you for one-way travel.

The disadvantage of having a single ticket is that if the price on the return goes down and you want to rebook for a credit, you might not get the outbound at the same low price you had.

With two one way tickets, you have better control over which ones to change if prices change.

This is not quite true. If you book round trip and then want to change one portion, you can do that. There's no reason you'll lose the lower fare portion you want to keep.

For the OP, the only disadvantage is that you have 2 different confirmation numbers to keep track of. Not a big deal.

If fares are what I want to pay for both legs of a trip, I'll book RT. But I often book each leg separately for either price reasons or because I'm sure of one part but not sure of the other.