Effect of throw away ticketing on a subsequent reservation
 

My girlfriend has a roundtrip MSY-IAH-PIT reservation in a few weeks. After we booked the ticket, she found out she would have to come home a few days early. The cost to change the ticket (fee + fare difference) is greater than the cost of booking a one way ticket back to MSY on FL. So the plan is to return on FL and throw away the return segment.

As she is an occasional flier, I wouldn't be normally be worried. However, two weeks later she has an outbound leg on CO again. Is she likely to face any problems from CO because of missing the return?

Thanks all.

I have done this in the past when my schedule changed and had no problems.

This question comes up rather often. In a situation like this, just call CO and cancel the return portion of the ticket after the outbound itinerary is flown. You will then have one year to use the return portion of the ticket (plus change fee and difference in fare, of course). Everybody wins: the passenger does not engage in "throwaway ticketing" and preserves the return segments, should they choose to use them; and CO gets to sell the seats that otherwise would be allocated to the no-showing passenger.

What if the return portion of the fare is less than the change fee? At that point why would you re-ticket? If you don't, it's still throw away ticketing, isn't it?

It would not be throw-away ticketing if you canceled; it would be throw-away ticketing if you just didn't show up.

The residual value of the ticket would be less than then change fee so I wouldn't be able to use it for anything. If I call to cancel, will they try to refare the ticket?

No.

Don't some airlines try to collect the difference between r/t and o/w if you cancel the return (esp. for non-changeable fares) and are foolish enough to call ahead of time? (Not that CO does this.)

The key, as mentioned above, is to call AFTER the outbound trip. Then there is nothing to reprice.

This works with all fares?

The residual "value" of the ticket might be less then the change fee, however since the advance purchase requirement has been met before the outbound flight, it could be possible to use the return half of the ticket with short notice by paying just the change penalty and thereby obtain transportation on the return route that otherwise could cost substantially more if purchased as a stand alone ticket.

I don't know.

I don't know. If something happens while you are in the middle of a trip somewhere and you have to spend more time at your destination, but you are uncertain about when you will be able to leave, what would they try to charge? The difference between your discounted fare class and full Y for the return portion of the ticket? Then, you could turn around and refund the upcharge because the upcharged portion would be refundable (you could not refund what you had originally paid for the segment, of course).