Flying one-way on a round trip ticket
 

My wife and I have a family reunion near CLT, conveniently immediately followed by my wife going to a work conference in Charlotte, during which time she wants to have a rental car. Since I'll be returning home earlier than her, I would like to ride back home with my brother-in-law. A quick check with orbitz.com...

Two round trips TLH to CLT with a car: $866

My wife's round trip TLH to CLT with a car, plus my one-way from TLH to CLT: $963

So if I'm not flying home, it would still be cheaper to buy two round trips, and for me to just miss my return flight.

Here's my question:

So my wife and I buy two round-trip tickets together with the same credit card. We fly away together. Mid-trip, I ride home with a relative. When my wife's work conference is over, she shows up at CLT alone and checks in only herself.

Is there any possibility that the ticketing agent will notice that there are supposed to be two people, realize that we're taking advantage of the airline's pricing schemes, and cancel my wife's return trip?

Thanks!

buy separate tickets.....unless 1 of you has ff benes that you would give up....then she says your plans changed....

No FF benefits for either of us.

What I'm wondering here is: if both our tickets were purchased with the same credit card and my "plans changed" for the return trip, could they penalize my wife by denying her boarding because I didn't show up? Technically, they're two separate boarding passes...

Another quick check with Orbitz:

round trip with car: $536
separate round trip without car: $322
total: $858, which is actually $8 _less_ than buying two flights plus a rental car. And still cheaper than a round trip.

So yeah...if I'm really paranoid that the airline will cancel my wife because I no-show, we could buy the tickets with two separate transactions, and accept the risk that we might not get adjacent seats...

Buy separate tickets.

It doesn't matter if they are on the same card or not, but buy two totally separate round trips.

It's just easier if they are separate for one person not to show up.

If it's a work conference and she's getting reimbursed, that's easier too if it's just her expenses.

You are one paranoid person. I'd be scared to travel with you. If you don't show and it was purchased with the same card, it is fine. Your wife will state flying XXX-XXX and present her ID. She'll then be handed her boarding pass and she'll be on he merry way.

Now go have a tequila shot!

I think you'll be fine too. There have been reports of airlines cracking down on serial offenders of their policies, but I haven't read of any problems with a one-off. If I were her, just check in online, and don't go out of her way to interact with any airline ticket or gate agents. If asked, say you are too sick to fly and ask if there is any way to get a credit for your ticket.

I'm at work; the tequila shot will have to wait until I get home, but thanks for the advice. :-)

I'm not paranoid. I've just heard about airlines doing whatever they can to keep passengers from using back-to-back, hidden-city, throwaway, or any other methods of depriving them of the revenue they crave. I just didn't want my wife to get her flight canceled because the other ticketholder didn't show up with her. :-)

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Is $322 the lowest roundtrip fare available for your departure date, regardless of the date of return?

I'm not sure why the car is relevant to this discussion, are you buying some sort of air+car package? You should also look into those two items separately for possibly better deals. Looks like the car is costing you about 200 bucks, would it be cheaper if you booked that separately from your air ticket?

As far as the air travel is concerned, I think if you just buy two separate tickets you would be totally fine.

If you're really concerned about your wife's return being cancelled, then for your peace of mind, why not just buy your round-trip ticket with a return date AFTER your wife's return? Since you're not going to use it anyway, find a return date sometime far in the future that gives you the cheapest price.

Also, you shouldn't be concerned about not getting adjacent seats- this would be nothing different than if two co-workers are traveling together on one part of a journey; they have separate tickets, and just want seats together. Happens every day. Just go online and select your seats. Or call and get your seats assigned.

Safe travels!

The car really has no relevance; I could just as well rent the car in a separate purchase.

Thank you one and all for your advice. I wanted to know if the airline would try to go after my wife because I took advantage of the whole "round trip is cheaper" trick, and it looks like the answer is no! :-)

What dates are you looking at?

The prices you are coming up with seem pretty high. I'm picking random dates and having a hard time finding a one way fare for over $185 anytime after next Wednesday

Of course, if you want her stuck down there, you could always fess up to the airline after you get back. :)

$185 for one-way with a change in ATL; $438 for a direct flight, and we want a direct flight. Yeah...I noticed the cheap fare too.

My wife's work once sent her TLH->PBI for a meeting to save time, but on the way home, did PBI->ATL->TLH to save money.

Are there any lawyers out there? Not that it would happen, but does an airline have any legal standing to...

- attempt to collect the fare difference for someone who threw out the return trip?

- tell a flyer "The other ticket purchased with this credit card is a no-show, so you're not flying either"?

According to http://www.delta.com/planning_reserv...ules/index.jsp, Delta prohibits

"Throw-away ticketing—use of discounted round-trip excursion fares for one-way travel."

Under the threat of:

Cancel the remainder of the itinerary and confiscate any unused flight coupons.
Refuse to board the passenger or check baggage.
Charge the passenger for the difference between the fare paid and the fare for the passenger's traveled itinerary.

As has been pointed out, this is totally avoidable by just buying our tickets in two separate transactions. I'm now in "thought experiment" mode. What's the airline going to do? I'm not "misrepresenting my intended itinerary"; I simply had a sudden change of plans during my stay. :-)