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I touched on this topic years ago but now am finding myself having made a real shift. Rather than think round trip I always — at least with Delta — want one-way bookings. Let me explain why.
Most times, Delta domestic tickets, either in dollars or SkyPennies currency, are going to price out the same with two one-way trips as they would one round trip. This is not always the case but at least in my travels I rarely find a discount in a round trip booking.
Beyond this I am ending up with more and more American Express cards like the The Business Platinum Card® from American Express and The Platinum Card® from American Express that offer me up to $200 in annual statement credits for eligible incidental purchases made directly with an eligible airline. (Terms apply, enrollment requirement.) When you use a Delta gift card of any amount (even just $1.00) and then pay for a ticket with the cards, it does trigger the credit, and booking a one-way ticket many times allows me to use two cards with credits on a single trip.
Another reason I love one-way bookings is for when the mighty Delta schedule change comes a-calling. It is so much simpler to fix and or modify a one-way booking than a round trip and, for what it’s worth, I seem to have much greater flexibly “messing” with one-way changes than round trip tickets when it comes to interactions with live Delta reps.
I also love one-ways for the flexibility to mix and match paid tickets with award tickets on a single trip, that is, the ability to say book SkyPenny award for the outbound and a paid return home (or clearly the other way around).
Now I am not focusing on two one-ways vs. a round trip to score more SkyPennies under the 20 minutes or 2500 points Delta bags guarantee as it applies equally if you book a round trip or two one-ways (but I bet you were thinking about this – right?)!
I am also doing the same thing with American Airlines, BTW, so it is not just a Delta thing. With American, they do not let you change many awards but they do let you cancel and get your points back (most times) and thus it is simpler to cancel only one-way than a round trip ticket when I want to make changes or get a lower fare or better flight times.
I am curious if I am the only one doing this by default whereas before I would always book round trip. Are you doing this as well? Let me know. – René
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I book one-ways since with a round-trip ticket, if I need to change the out-bound (originating) flights, the entire ticket (including the unchanged return) is re-priced. Keeps add-collects to a minimum (just the segment(s) changed), not the entire ticket,
I book one way flights on frontier(go wild pass $15) and back up my return flight on AA with an award booking. If frontier works out for the return I cancel the awards flight.
I have had the same experience as Ed. I ALWAYS book two one ways as if you ever have to change the return they will reprice the (already used) outbound leg
This is a no brainer, not a revelation.
I still do a mix of RT and OW but I’ve done the paid and points as you stated. Especially on points bookings there is no benefit of booking RT in most cases.
Also you can mix and match airlines easily like our upcoming NY weekend with up on B6 to LGA and back out of EWR on UA (used some of my TravelBank credits).
I have been booking one way flights also, unless I’m booking a companion ticket.
It makes it much easier to cancel and rebook immediately without worrying about having someone else book and take my seats. I do one way, finish, then do the other way.
On domestic flights where it’s very important that I either depart or leave on a certain day, I book two flights. If the one I want is cancelled, I already have seats on a later flight. I just cancel the second booking once I know my flight is really going.
It’s usually only necessary to do this one way, if at all, since not every trip demands departing or arriving by a specific time on a specific day, so again, one way trip booking makes it much easier to manage.
I have done this on flights from SAT-BOI, with a 40 minute connect time in SLC. A 40-minute connect time was possible in the old airport, but given the immense size of the new SLC, connecting in SLC is very iffy on a connect time less than 60 minutes. SLC has become a very unworkable airport for close connections. It is excellent, though, for those seeking to add many steps to their walking program….
Better be careful with this because while for years Delta didn’t charge more for one ways, now they constantly do again on my common routes.
@Qofmiwok – As mentioned in title, “Unless it is Cheaper” 🙂
I have been doing this recently (one ways) because the Chase-Sapphire web site never comes up with the outbound-inbound combo I want on Delta. I am using their booking service to get extra miles (5x) and extra rewards points values (1.5 x). Including the 11 skypennies per dollar for being diamond, each ticket is discounted 18.5%. I also have found on occasion even breaking a single outbound itinerary into two separate tickets saves a lot. Once flying Grand Rapids to Lisbon was 6K in Delta one. But JFK to Lisbon was 2800 and GRR to LGA was 600 as separate tickets, all in first.
@David G – Very smart move!
This is a good strategy. For international flights it’s still usually cheaper to book a round trip over a Saturday night but even then it’s worth checking out two one ways.