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

[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.
Thanks

 

[tink2dw]

I did this with Ding tickets one trip to DL. We wanted to go to San Diego First. But leave DL thru LAX. It saved us driving back to San Diego, a horrible drive.

So we had 1 way tickets to San Diego and 1 way from LAX to home it works so well!! It was so easy.

 

[dburg30]

Pros, easy to change just one segment of your trip
Cons, will have 2 confirmation numbers instead of just one for a round trip..

Really that's about it IMO

 

[ScubaCat]

There's one big "con" and that only applies if you have to change or cancel and are NOT flying southwest: Change/Cancellation fees are per passenger, per itinerary. Thus, if you have two one-ways and had to cancel both, you're facing double fees. Obviously that is not an issue with Southwest.

Other than that, there's no difference anymore.

 

[clanmcculloch]

If you book only the one direction right now then you will have the flexibility to choose a different airline for your return trip if you find a better deal elsewhere.

 

[BrettS]

Buying two one way tickets instead of a round trip should be fine. I've done it several times in the past for different reasons and other than the slight inconvenience of having two reservation numbers to keep track of there hasn't been a problem.

In the past it was typical for airlines to charge less if you purchased a round trip than if you purchased two one way trips, but most airlines have done away with that and you'll pay the same for two one ways as you would for two round trips.

However, the thing that scares me about about your plan is that you're not going to be purchasing both parts of your trip now. Like you said, hopefully the prices will go down and you'll be able to get your return fair cheaper, but there's always the possibility that they will only go up. You don't want to be stuck in a situation where you've already paid for half of the tickets, but you can't find tickets that you can afford for the way back.

If you're reasonably flexible with your dates and times and you're not going over a holiday or spring break or anything then I would imagine that you should be able to find some flight home that would work for you and your budget later on, but if you're pretty inflexible or traveling near a holiday then I might purchase everything at once just to stay safe.

Good luck,
Brett