If you are a savoir-faire traveler, you must know your way around
cheap airfares to a particular destination. As a rule of thumb, round
trip tickets to and from any destination are usually more affordable
than two one-way tickets.
An avid traveler would be familiar with these terms, but for those who
are yet to board their maiden flight, one-way tickets offer an onward
journey to a destination but do not include a return flight. One-way
tickets can be direct or include a halt at another city airport. On the
other hand, round trip tickets include a flight to the destination and
return flight from that destination back to where you started from.
These tickets may also have direct flights or stop over flights.
If a ticket offers better flexibility, it will be more expensive than a
ticket that offers limited options. For example, a one-way ticket does
not include minimum or maximum stay restrictions or open jaw
restrictions. Open jaw trips are applicable for roundtrip tickets
wherein the passenger does not land at the departure city or does not
board a flight from the arrival city. For instance, a traveler can fly
from New York to Birmingham, travel from Birmingham to London and fly
back home from London to New York. However, this option is not available
in one-way ticket. These kind of round-trip tickets are beneficial for
those who want to explore different cities in a country and head back
home on the return date with cheaper airfares. Round trip tickets in
general have restrictions due to which you get lower prices.
For others who are not sure of the duration of their stay at a
particular destination, like in the case of students studying abroad or
visiting a sick relative, buying cheap round trip tickets would not help
since one cannot commit to a return date. If you happen to buy a round
trip ticket, you would have to pay the change fee. For these travelers,
open tickets are an option with a flexible return date usually within a
year of the departure date, but they are rather expensive than one-way
or round trip tickets.
A good way around more affordable one-way tickets is to check prices for
different airlines since you have an option of choosing a different
airline for your return journey. Airlines also offer cheaper one-way
airfares for the frequent fliers. So, if you like the service of a
particular airline and it goes to your destination of journey, you
should stick to it for starting journey.
Another way to get cheaper one-way tickets is to look for red-eye
flights, early morning flights and flights on certain days like Tuesdays
and Wednesdays. Airfares are usually expensive on Fridays and Sundays
which are the busy travel days. So it is advisable to plan your journey
with a return flight on weekdays. Another point to note is that tickets
are usually cheaper within four to six weeks of departure date and are
expensive around two weeks from departure date. So, the best way to go
about it is observing the flights on various websites well in advance
and finding the most affordable one-way or round trip depending as per
your needs.