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Flying Internationally

Abstract

Abstract

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Dec 27, 2002
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I have a question about flying.

I just bought tickets for this really tricky route home. I wanted to fly from Sydney (Oz) ---> Osaka (Japan) ---> Toronto (Canada).

I need to fly one way. In other words, I don't need a return ticket back to Sydney.

However, the infinite wisdom within the airline industry decided that a return ticket is cheaper than a one-way ticket. So now, I have:

Sydney --> Osaka (one-way ticket)
Osaka --> Toronto (return ticket)


However, I don't have any intention of using the return portion of my ticket to fly from Toronto to Osaka, or at least not on the date I specified. I only picked that date because it was cheap. ;) The reason I bought a return ticket was to save money, because as mentioned earlier, it's cheaper than a one-way ticket.


My question is: Is this legit? :confused: I know that some countries won't let you in unless you have a return ticket home. So if I buy a ticket from Australia to the UK (for example), they're going to make sure you have a return ticket. Otherwise, they're afraid you'll just "disappear" and live in the UK illegally. So if I fly one-way from Sydney--> Japan, are they gonna look at me and say, "No dice. Sayonara!".....and send me back to Australia?

Also, if I bought a return ticket from Osaka --> Toronto, and I don't fly back to Osaka, are they going to call the shenanigans police? :confused: Would the people in Japan look at my ticket and tell me, "Sorry, you can't buy a return ticket back to Osaka/Japan, because if you come back, it means you don't have a plane ticket back to Toronto or Sydney." :eek:

Surely they wouldn't sell any one-way tickets if return tickets are cheaper, and I'm afraid that the International Flying Commission (completely made that up) have a policy against this. :confused:
 
It's called throw away ticketing and technically, airlines don't allow it. They could pick up on it and ban you from ever flying that airline again, so it's a risk. Plus, of course there's the potential problems with customs.
 
Damn it. Ticket has already been bought. It's just so much cheaper buying a return ticket.........

Basically I want to fly from:
Sydney --> Osaka around Nov 20th or so.
Osaka --> Toronto around December 8th or so.

But I purchased a return ticket to go from Osaka-->Toronto (Dec 8), and Toronto-->Osaka (Jan 29th...a random date).


If I could get a cheap one-way ticket from Osaka-->Sydney on February 5th or so (seriously, the 10 hour flight would cost me $330 USD....), do you think I'd have a valid excuse for having a return ticket from Osaka -->Toronto, and back?? :confused: I won't use either ticket, but at least I still save money, while also having the OPTION of flying all the way back to Australia. ;)
 
Insanity over.

Bought a one-way ticket from Sydney to Osaka for around $330 USD.
Bought a one-way ticket from Osaka to Toronto for around $550 USD.

That includes all taxes and fees. :eek:



Then I cancelled my return ticket from Osaka to Toronto.
 
Eh. I threw away a return ticket once, and nobody seemed to care. I had a round trip flight to Europe from California, but didn't intend to leave Europe on the return ticket. I just didn't show up for the flight, and that was that.
 
Saikou said:
That is some expensive peace of mind.
Click to expand...

Why? I just got a ticket to fly over half-way around the world for $880, and on a route that's not a typical flight path for me to get to North America.

If you were referring to my 2nd post, $330 isn't really a lot of money if you consider the fact that a one-way ticket was $3000, and return ticket was $2000, and of course, the return ticket offered me a flight back if I wanted to do so on a whim. The $330 is nothing if you look at how much I would have saved.
 
Abstract said:
Why? I just got a ticket to fly over half-way around the world for $880, and on a route that's not a typical flight path for me to get to North America.

If you were referring to my 2nd post, $330 isn't really a lot of money if you consider the fact that a one-way ticket was $3000, and return ticket was $2000, and of course, the return ticket offered me a flight back if I wanted to do so on a whim. The $330 is nothing if you look at how much I would have saved.
Click to expand...

True, yea, I guess you're right. so are you leaving 日本 for good then?
 
I have heard of airlines retrospectively charging the difference if the return leg is not cancelled. So when you get there phone them and cancel the return leg ticket...
 
There's no harm in throwing away the return ticket. You just lose your ticket and get no refund, plus your seat can be sold to next person in line waiting for a flight in the airport. It's a win-win, and companies even seem to be expecting few throwaways because flights are always overbooked.
 
One of those annoyingly weird things that go on with travel tickets. Sometimes here in London it's actually cheaper to buy two return Eurostar tickets to Paris rather than one, meaning of course that your second ticket is completely wasted :confused:
 
A friend guessed it was because one-way tickets NEVER have a discount applied to it, while return tickets are where discounts are applied.

Sounds like a pretty good guess, although I wish a one-way ticket was half the price of a return ticket.


Anyway, I got a great price. My ticket from Japan to HK (I'm going to Guangzhou from there) is just as expensive as my flight from Osaka to Toronto. In fact, if I were to fly to GZ directly, it would have cost me 3 times more than if I fly to HK first, then take the train over. :confused:


Also, a return flight from Sydney-->LA (stopover) --> NY is cheaper than a flight from Sydney --> LA, even though it involves the exact same flights on the exact same day. :rolleyes: If you want to fly to LA, just buy the ticket to NY and don't get back on the airplane during the stopover in LA.

This stuff never makes sense.
 
Actually, the last example with the LA/NYC thing is a bad idea. If you book a ticket from SYD to NYC via LAX, the airlines legal obligation is to get you to New York, how they do it is up to them. If for any reason the SYD-LAX leg is canceled, overbooked or whatever, the airline can reroute you thru a different airport like SFO, and then you're in for a really bad day. It's not a likely scenario, but if it does happen, you're pretty much ****ed, and the airline won't help you since that practice isn't exactly kosher with them.
 
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