One Way Flight More Expensive than Return Flight
 

My Employer will pay for me to book a one-way flight but I found out that the return is cheaper which seems crazy.

Whilst I would like the return leg, I would have to pay half the flight cost myself if I book the return flight according to their rules.

This seems crazy to me as I am trying to save them money and book a return, but they say they will charge me even though the return is less than the one way that they are prepared to pay.

Just wondering what to do. Should I pay the one way only and claim it back or book the return but then I will have to pay half the flight cost.

Has anyone else come across this before? I can't see the logic in either the fact that a single is cheaper than a return, or my Employer's policy.

Just wondered if this was a common thing?

I can't answer your question, but I have one for you. How does your employer expect you to return if they're not buying a round trip ticket?

I will be working out there for a year

Book a fully refundable Y ticket one way. Get the money from the employer for that ticket. Cancel the one way and book & pay for a cheaper 1 year return. Use the return ticket out & back. Problem solved. If you're not going to continue to work for the employer then refund them the difference once you get back, along with a note about how silly their policies are.

Lots of companies do it depending on the locations involved. Sometimes it's simply an accounting procedure. Others because "that's how it's done" and no one has every thought to correct it or add to the options to match reality.

It's almost always easier to operate within the rules (& then break them & apologize) than it is to try & fight the rules up front.

The company policy seems to make sense - the company pays for the travel needed for work. Splitting up RT tix into two halves - do you do it 50%, company pays what a one-way would have been, etc., just puts too much variation in the process. Policies are made for the 99% of cases - there will always be exceptions. I would suggest you lay out the situation to your expense police and see what they can come up with. Though it's often easier to just still with policy rather than allow one-off exceptions - dealing with questions, approvals, setting precedent, etc., often isn't worth the savings.

As for the logic of airline pricing - I think that's an oxymoron.

What I would certainly not recommend doing is buying and expensing a one-way refundable ticket and then refunding it and buying a RT that you can use - that would be expense fraud. I suspect your company would frown on that.

I've seen this for nearly all long distance flights I try to book. My take:

If my employer is paying for it, and they are too stubborn or foolish to take advantage of cheaper round trip tickets, they deserve to lose money. I'm not paying for it, so I don't care how much more the 1 way ticket is.

If I'm paying for it, I'll just buy the cheaper round trip ticket and then "forget" to show up to the airport for the return journey.

I'm thinking that an employer who is already this stubborn about one way va return would not take kindly to an employee making a flight booking where it even appears that the employee could be pocketing the difference.

Book the expensive fare. Claim the expense. Note in your expense claim that you ruled out the better option due to the policy.

Also, you're out there at the new place for a year. No chance you'd be returning to point of origin for a meeting or event or holiday or family?

I will be flying back at some point yes.

Logic to me would suggest that the one way cost of say $2000 vs a return of $1600 doesn't make good sense to the companies bottom line. I mean if they are doing this for X many employees we are talking about quite a bit of money here.

If it were my company I know what option I would choose.

Purchase the round trip through your company's travel agent. Get that agent to issue a formal quote for the 1 way with the exact same flight and booking class as booked in the rt. if you can, get the agent to write you an email stating the fact that the rt is cheaper than the ow. Expense the rt without saying anything...if you get in trouble, apologize and show the documents proving you saved the company money.

I wouldn't do that as that is making money out of them which isn't right. Booking the return option at the lower price would make sense though but they might find out so not worth it.


I certainly agree with your last paragraph.

This is not a good idea. If you book a return/multi destination flight you must show up for both legs. If you don't there are penalties that the airline will charge you for, as in effect you are bypassing their fares to get a cheaper one way.

Also I have read that the airline can ban you from flying with them again. Such is the crazy world of airline tickets pricing!

1. Do not do this. In almost every country which has an income tax (you don't say where you reside), the "personal use" aspect becomes taxable income. In the US, a group of basketball referees went to federal prison for this exact scam.

2. Follow your employer's policy or change jobs. The employer may be illogical, stupid or behind the times, but it's the employer's money and the employer can make the decision.

3. By no means uncommon for OW to cost more than RT.

Wouldn't it make sense to talk to your boss/expense approver? You will have tried to save the company money by asking the person who approves expenses and you'll avoid any trouble by just doing whatever you feel like (not saying you are!) and trying to apologise for it later.

One other aspect: OW are often flexible, and RT often inflexible. Rarely have I seen a flexible RT be cheaper than the flexible OW. Plans change; companies, unlike leisure travelers, are more likely to account for the possibility of changing plans in the ticket cost itself rather than by buying a restricted ticket and buying another ticket if plans change.

You would not want to buy a restricted RT and then find out that the company wants you out there earlier or later.