I'm traveling with my family to Rome and London this summer on award mileage. Unfortunately, the only way I could book Bus. Class left a gap in the middle- getting from Rome to London. I have LAX-FCO and LHR-LAX covered. Any FF knows the gouge of a 1-way ticket versus RT. In this case it's a difference of nearly $500.

While the US carriers strongly discourage using only one leg of a RT ticket, I've heard the European carriers don't get their panties in a bunch over it. I'm mostly concerned that I'd be flagged at LHR as we're leaving for home.

Has anyone experienced this? What are the chances that customs at LHR would ask "It says here that you're flying back to Rome in 3 days. Why are you going back to the United States now?"

Thoughts or Suggestions?

UK immigration is unlikely to give a monkey's whatsit about the fact that you're going to throw away the return half of a ticket. First, they're only going to see you on the way into the UK, not on the way out. Then, even if you get asked about the details of the flight on which you're going to leave the UK (which is a very big if compared to the usual "How long are you going to stay?"), you can just tell the truth, which is all they really care about. They're not revenue protection police for the airlines. And if you don't tell them about the throwaway return half of the Rome ticket, how are they going to ask about it?

If you're not connecting at either Rome or London when you fill in this gap, and you're still nervous about this issue, you could always look at the low fare carriers (eg easyJet and Ryanair) who sell all their tickets on a one way basis. (bmi also sell ex-UK tickets on a one-way basis but I'm not sure if that would hold for ex-Rome tickets.)

Another idea would be to try flying to London on one of those discount European airlines. Probably you'd have to fly out of a different airport - like Milan - but you could get a fare in the ~$30 range if you're timing is right and if you can arrange your itinerary to get you to one of the low cost airports instead of Rome.

I just checked July 15 at random, and the one-way fare from Milan Linate to London Gatwick on EasyJet is �22.49, �32.99 with taxes.

I just cannot see how this can be a problem, or what this problem can be. You can buy a R/T on any major airline flying between FCO and London, and nobody will care if you throw away the return. No one, and definitely not the UK immigration/customs, who has absolutely nothing to do with this.

I mean unless you're going to fly FCO-London on an airline that you have tonnes of miles with them, and you're going to do with this "throw away return ticket" thing all the time. Then, maybe they will care. But as a one-time deal, definitely not.

And say if you have lots of BA miles, and don't want BA to know you throw away the return, fly Alitalia, or BMI. Or even book BA and just don't give them your FF # - all you lose is like 900 miles or so. No need to use low fare carriers if you don't want to.

Milan's not just a "different airport", it's a different city in a different part of the country that will take hours (or another flight) to get to from Rome.

What's wrong with flying from Rome to London on a low fare airline? For the same date, easyJet (twice a day, Ciampino to Stansted) is returning fares of �20.49 and �28.49, and Ryanair (5 times a day CIA to STN) is returning fares from �29.99 to �69.99 - all online prices, including taxes.

Easyjet has inexpensive 1-way fares from Rome to London/Stansted.

http://www.applefares.com
http://www.easyjet.com

Thank you all. I appreciate your advice and recommendations.