Could an EK regular help me with details regarding the operation of return bookings?

I know paid/non-award bookings always tend to favor RETURN versus one-way fares, so that the RETURN fare is often close to that of the one-way.

What I'd like to know is, if I:

1) book a RETURN fare now, for dates late next year, making the return leg just days after the outbound

2) wait until much closer to the date of the outbound leg, and then change the return leg date to well into the future

... are there problems with this "cunning plan"?

I guess I'll run into "max length of trip" problems if the gap between inbound & outbound are beyond a certain length (any idea how long, without specifics, other than "a business saver booking") ... and are there other problems (like, maybe can only set the date of return a certain distance from date of original booking)?

Also ... how does the trip get modified/re-priced? Do I keep the outbound part (seats booked, etc), if I only want to modify the return component? Is it a case of only the return component being re-priced, depending on availability, etc?


Thanks to anyone who has persisted this far, and can help! ^


NB: If it isn't obvious, the "cunning plan" is to use the first part of the flight where I currently need a 1-way flight, and then have a "free" 1-way flight in the opposite direction, as far as possible into the future... ie: separate trip.

You can buy tickets 330 days in advance and must generally complete travel within 12 months of the first segment. So you can postpone the return (inbound) portion to up to 12 months after the first flight. The cost is the change fee + fare difference. This means you could even get a refund of the new flight is cheaper. I recently had a flight change with ZAR50P CHANGE FEE and ZAR450 in reduced taxes making it a net ZAR50 for the change.

You may also be able to book an open return with EK it you call them to book where they basically waive the change fee for one date change for the inbound since you tell them in advance that you wish to book it for a date beyond 330 days from now. Some airlines permit this, I'm not sure about EK. You'd still presumably be in the hook for fare difference. You can also just not fly the return. Or book an open jaw to a different destination you wish to visit and from which a cheap one-way back can be had. E.g. if you're in B and need to get to A instead of B to A and back to B you could book B to A and on to C with a separate one-way on another airline back to A (Etihad has decent one way fares)

Thanks skywardhunter for such a detailed answer! I'm not sure an open-jaw would be so cheap, as its usually the return bookings that give the best deals. Also, in terms of trying for an open return, that may run into a similar problem with pricing based on the 1way price ... not sure. And not sure if booking would be possible since it would need to be by phone, and I'm in the "destination" as far as the booking goes, rather than the origin, so to speak. I suppose I could call the phone number of the foreign country, but I think that might lead to problems. As long as making a change to the return portion doesn't change the outbound flights at all (don't want to lose seat allocations or have to pay extra), then I'm comfortable with the idea (as comfortable as you can be having to pay for a flight when you are just short of getting it via another airline's FF awards!)

1. Your current location is irrelevant to being able to book. If they ask (which they won't) just say you've got a flight on another airline to the origin but it's 100% no factor.

2. Open jaw pricing is often similar to return.

In fact I'm currently on a ticket they is CPT-BKK / HYD-CPT, not exactly open jaw, more dislocated jaw, buy the return departs from a different country in a different region (as far as ticketing is concerned). A direct return to BKK or s direct return to HYD wouldve cost approx the same as my routing (550USD in Y Flex).

I change my inbound all the time to different dates with no issue. I just changed my flight from HYD-CPT from 31 Oct to 15 Jan. That's a 3 month delay. It cost me 3USD.

Emirates do allow this - I've done it myself. They will put a note in the booking regarding the free date change.