cabingirl

Hi,

I've seen advice on here, in various scenarios, to book two OW tickets instead of a RT. In my case, I am trying to book MSP-MBJ for Christmas week (12/23 - 1/1). I keep encountering a phantom fare at Kayak that I can only get to price out at DL.com if I do it as two one-way multicity itineraries (MSP-ATL-MBJ and MBJ-ATL-MSP). If I do a roundtrip or roundtrip multicity itin, it keeps forcing some of the legs into higher fare buckets, with a $200 - $300 increase in fare.

So, my question: when you encounter this, do you go ahead and book on DL.com as two one-ways? Or do you call and try to get a RT fare for the same price?

matuag

I don't see any negative with getting two one-way fares, and there is the potential that if you call they might pick up that there is something amiss with the one way fares, although i doubt the latter.

3Cforme

One possible negative is two change fees, if trip timing to both outbound and return were to change.

mpp

Unless I think there is a chance I am going to cancel the whole trip, I often book flights as one ways.

It makes it easier to find the routing I want. It also makes the MY TRIPS page on delta.com make a lot more sense and the CALENDAR view is actually functional. Also when I call an agent they often say "oooh" you have a lot of travel planned.

The down side is the double change fee if you need to change the inbound and outbound at the same time. If you are making changes at different times you will still be charged the double change fee.

keeton

I've done two one-way tickets many times in the past. There is nothing in the fare rules that prohibit you from doing so.

Enjoy your savings and enjoy your trip!

cabingirl

Thanks for the input. Alas, I was caught by the bait and switch "this fare has changed" routine.

dd1612

I book one way tickets whenever I am unsure of my final meeting schedule.
It's easier to throw away one one-way segment than changing the entire itinerary.
I end up paying high prices for the changed one-way segment - but without re-pricing the fare for the entire journey.

mooper

Sometimes there are promos, such as the Amex MR one that yielded 5K bonus MR for each Delta purchase over $100, that make it worth splitting. I snagged about 100K MR points for about $3000 worth of purchases this way. Would have been more like 60K MR had I not split some purchases that could be split with no ill effects.

Though it might not be worth the extra effort for some, you can also get flat cash back per purchase, so splitting a round trip into two can make sense for that purpose, too. For example, a $220 round trip could be split into two $110 one-ways, then you can get $3 cash back for each ($6 total), for an effective ~3% rebate. (If you use this referral link for More Rebates, which has the highest current such rebate, you'll get $9 on your first purchase.)