Originally Posted by
WineCountryUA
Standard ticketing rules state that the most restrictive fare rule of any segment applies to the entire ticket. So one segment non-refundable means the entire ticket is non-refundable (even a "refundable segment). Additionally any attempt to refund the return segment would cause the ticket to reprice as a one-way outbound.
Airlines have been at this game for a long time.
Thanks for the quick reply and the detailed explanation—makes sense. I suspected it was too good to be true.
I've fallen into the trap of booking long-term roundtrips to the US with nested bookings in between, only to save a few euros. It always seems to backfire, and I end up flying FI or TP one-way because they’re the only ones offering reasonable one-way fares.
I miss the early COVID days when one-way TATL fares were 50% of the round-trip price. Now it feels like airlines are testing how much I value the freedom to go where I want, when I want, instead of returning to their silly region-restricted routing games from before the pandemic.