Roundtrip ticket but not planning to fly back

[BluesTraveler 0]

Yeah, I think it depends on where you have to go. Tried it for MUC to ELP on different dates and the result is always the same:

Round trip is cheaper than a one-way ticket.

Month-long search starting at March 1, 2010 with

Cheapest ticket round-trip: $836

Cheapest ticket one-way: $1930

But thanks for the link to that flight search engine. The month-long search is really great!

The best thing for you to do is to buy the return portion for a really long time in the future. The maximum is 330 days in the future. For instance you can buy the inbound portion from MUC to ELP and arrive on Jan 1st. Then have the return portion for ELP to MUC and leave on Nov 1st.

This way just in case you need to return to Germany before Nov 1st you can just pay the change fee and move it to an earlier date. Cheaper than having to buy a whole new ticket.

Additionally you can pay to move the date even more in the future for a change fee, i.e. you want to go home for the holidays.

Pay the change fee Change the ELP to MUC to Dec 20th, then buy another round trip ticket from MUC to ELP that has a departure date of Jan 5th, and returns to Oct 15th.

Play the game and rack up the miles.

[dasaleph 0]

The best thing for you to do is to buy the return portion for a really long time in the future. The maximum is 330 days in the future. For instance you can buy the inbound portion from MUC to ELP and arrive on Jan 1st. Then have the return portion for ELP to MUC and leave on Nov 1st.

This way just in case you need to return to Germany before Nov 1st you can just pay the change fee and move it to an earlier date. Cheaper than having to buy a whole new ticket.

Additionally you can pay to move the date even more in the future for a change fee, i.e. you want to go home for the holidays.

Pay the change fee Change the ELP to MUC to Dec 20th, then buy another round trip ticket from MUC to ELP that has a departure date of Jan 5th, and returns to Oct 15th.

Play the game and rack up the miles.

Sorry that it took me so long to answer. That is really a good advice. The allows me to go back to Germany on short notice if I have to.

Thank you!

[NickD 202]

Then you will have to buy yet another round trip ticket if you want to come back, can do the same thing, but just postponing the inevitable. See the railroad still sells one way tickets where the round trip ticket is twice the price. But not sure if they have a railroad that crosses the Atlantic or Pacific. Even though they do have railroads with those names.