Hello,

I will need to fly somewhere at the end of June 2009 and back sometime in June 2010. The 331 rule makes it impossible for me to accomplish that. Is there any way to get around it? I actually remember that I once bought a flight in May and the return was in June of the next year. But I bought it from a travel agency, not from an earline. I looked at the reservation system of the agency and they seem to apply the rule now (I bought that flight OTC, so to speak, not online).

Say I will not be able to do that. Now, if I buy a ticket with return, say, or October or November 2009, will I be able to change the date of the return to June 2010 for a moderate fee? I will probably fly with Iberia if it matters.

Or should I simply buy the cheapest round trip I can get, and simply not use the return part thereof, possibly with a partial refund from the airline?

I will buy tickets for three people so if someone can suggest the cheapest way, my budget will appreciate it.

Thanks.

It would help a lot if you posted your origination and destination cities. Some airlines (like Alaska) sell one-way tickets that are half the price of a round trip ticket (instead of what used to be one way tickets that cost more than a round trip ticket.) If these airlines work for you, you could get a one-way outbound ticket now and a return ticket later on. Another option is to book a round trip ticket now with a return date within the 331 days, but change it later on and pay the change fee, if any. Finally, you could get the cheapest round trip ticket you can and just throw away the return, and book your return flght later doing the same thing. Just work out the economics and see what works best for you.

Hello,

Thanks for replying. It will be Sao Paulo - Vienna (or possibly Prague, Berlin, Frankfurt or Munich) - Sao Paulo.

I remember using a ticket with an open return date when going on my student exchange program back in 2001. While this is a long time ago and I don't know the specifics of that ticket, something like that might still be around if you are indeed a student.

This may not work, because many tickets are only valid for a finite period from the date of the outbound flight.

The 331 days is often, like a Saturday-night stay or maximum stay, part of the fare rules that comprise the deal with any given fare. I guess the airline's idea would be for you to buy a one-way ticket now, then buy a one-way ticket for your return later. Hopefully you can find a fare product that can get you around that.

Pretty much all tickets are only valid for a year. They do this so that any given date only has to appear once in their systems. It makes managing the data sets much less complicated for the airlines.

Even if you could book a ticket for a full year, you'd basically be paying the walk-up price at the time of booking since you'd have to wait until your day of departure to get the return one year out.

What you can do is book today for a June 2009 departure and a March/April 2010 return. Once the return inventory for the June 2010 return becomes available you MIGHT be able to change the return date to your desired date, but only if that date is within 365 days of the outbound. You'd pay the change fee and any fare difference but that might still be less than the cost of two one-way tickets.

But you still have to deal with the one year max validity on the ticket.

One other option (since OWs often are higher fare classes and more expensive) would be to buy a R/T ticket now and just never use the return. Do the same for your return flight.
Of course this depends on the actual ticket prices though.

-AA award tickets are now offered on a one-way basis.
-Some international tickets have ticket validity for one year from the first date of travel. This depends on the airline and fare.

I have seen many offers of Int tickets that have a maximum stay of 12 months. These tickets should work and are usually advance purchase.

Thanks for your suggestions. I am getting used to the idea of simply throwing away my return ticket. The cheapest tickets with return in March/April are around 1700 USD, while the cheapest return tickets I can get are around 1000 USD. Assuming that return tickets will cost roughly the same next year, it makes no economic sense to buy the 1700 USD ticket and go through the hassle of rebooking.

Why throw away the return portion? I'd looking turning it into MR and thus earning FF miles instead. Let's say you research at ITA and find Oct has low fares. So purchase two RT tickets, June-Oct and Oct-June, and actually take every flight.

You middle two flights are pure MR, and you can adjust the date/city for lowest fare.

Good luck.

Help! What is MR? And ITA? They have so many meanings that googling is an exercise in futility.

MR = Mileage Run.

ITA is a search tool for finding fares/flights. Check out the Mileage Run forum and the sticky threads there for more details.

My apologies, as you have been a FT (flyertalk!) member for about a year, I had assumed you would be familiar with the abbreviations we use around here.

MR means "mileage run", flights taken with the main if not the only purpose of earning frequent flyer miles.

ITA is a very useful research tool: matrix.itasoftware.com. Read the help page. They don't sell tickets but that's why they can be objective and reliable. Change the sale city to see prices in another currency.

My suggestion to you was that instead of throwing away part of the ticket, why not take a mini vacation in the middle and earn the miles.

Hello,

One more idea, which - I am afraid - will not work but let me try anyway.

I found very cheap flights from Vienna to Brazil and back (700 USD compared to 1000 USD for Brazil-Vienna-Brazil). But I am in Brazil and not in Vienna.

Suppose I buy a return flight from Vienna to Brazil, departure e.g. on 5 June and return on e.g. 25 June. If I do not use the first part of it, will I be allowed to board the plane from Brazil to Vienna on 25 June, or will the airline be entitled to think that I dropped the whole flight?

This would be a bit similar to throwing away the return ticket. In this case, however, I would throw away the first part of the trip.

Thanks.