Budget Travel - LON-ATL-LON: Can inbound ticket be ditched?

My husband and I are taking a Transatlantic cruise from South Hampton UK to Fort Lauderdale, FL in November. The cruise is cheap, cheap, cheap, but I'm now trying to figure out how to get to London/South Hampton reasonably.

Of course, I've found that a round-trip ticket costs about 1/2 the price of a one-way ticket. A weird quirk though is that if I do a round-trip beginning in London and returning from Atlanta, it is less expensive than if I purchase from a starting point of Atlanta.

My question is, for those of you much wiser than me, will I run into any problems if I don't take the trip from London to ATL, then try to board the return from ATL to London? Is that going to shoot up red flags that will get me held over in customs for the rest of my life? Or, worse, possibly keep me from being able to board the aircraft at all?:eek:

Thanks in advance for your help!

My question is, for those of you much wiser than me, will I run into any problems if I don't take the trip from London to ATL, then try to board the return from ATL to London?

Welcome to FlyerTalk pchess !

The second you miss the first leg of a purchased itenerary the whole ticket is cancelled, period.

Many, many moons ago (think last century, and probably not the last decade of it) you may have been able to do that, but not now.

EmailKid

Have you looked at ATL-LON-ATL flights and ditching the return?

First, let me say, welcome to FT!

look at the fare rules. What has been said is true of most airlines, but not all. Airtran for example treats all bookings as one ways, even if you book it at the same time. I understand AirTran doesn't fly across the pond so you can't take them on this trip.

If it's ATL-LON it's probably on DL or BA and on both of those... miss the first leg and there's no return. So you get to buy a one way walk up fare resulting in a MUCH higher cost. Try booking it the OTHER way around!

For whatever reason (something to do with matching EI, I think), oneway transatlantic flights to and from Dublin are reasonably priced, significantly less than roundtrips and much less than most other transatlantic oneways. You should probably consider getting a cheap (looks like ~$385 at the moment) Delta or Continental oneway from ATL to DUB, then Aer Lingus, BMI, Ryanair, or a ferry and train to London/Southampton.

FlyBe does Dublin to Southampton, failing that try Aer Lingus or Ryanair to Gatwick from where you can get a direct train to Southampton.

No need to book ahead for the train as there are no cheap advance fares on this route

You should be able to find a one way ticket from ATL to LON in November for well under $500 one way including all taxes and fuel surcharges. You probably need to look for a consolidator or for a travel agency that works with consolidators but I use such tickets all the time and the consolidators today are not your parents' consolidators.

Hello pchess - It's really easy - I hop across the pond frequently on return and one-way flights because - I assume of the low £, flights originating from the UK are currently a lot cheaper.
Try Lessno.com and their one-way ATL-LHR for $395 AI - I've had really good experience with them.

Wow, what great advice from everyone! Thanks for the welcomes as well. I'll try your suggestions!

PChess

My husband and I are taking a Transatlantic cruise from South Hampton UK to Fort Lauderdale, FL in November. The cruise is cheap, cheap, cheap, but I'm now trying to figure out how to get to London/South Hampton reasonably.

Of course, I've found that a round-trip ticket costs about 1/2 the price of a one-way ticket. A weird quirk though is that if I do a round-trip beginning in London and returning from Atlanta, it is less expensive than if I purchase from a starting point of Atlanta.

My question is, for those of you much wiser than me, will I run into any problems if I don't take the trip from London to ATL, then try to board the return from ATL to London? Is that going to shoot up red flags that will get me held over in customs for the rest of my life? Or, worse, possibly keep me from being able to board the aircraft at all?:eek:

Thanks in advance for your help!

Nope...a rather foolish rule if you ask me:td:

Wanted again to thank everyone and to give you the outcome of the story - it's a good one! Through ATIFlights.com I found one-way tickets from ATL - London (Gatwick) for a total of $284/ticket! Woohoo!

Before FlyerTalk I had no idea there were alternatives to Expedia-like sites. Thanks for the tips!

^ ... enjoy your cruise and trip back home .... a great learning experience for the next time !

In the future, you may also want to check with the cruise company. Often they offer great one way tickets for the exact reason you described.

Hope you have a wonderful cruise.

Do check out the Flyertalk Cruise Forum!