Single ticket or round trip.

[Hannah+Vito 0]

Buy the cheapest. If you buy the return cancel the return portion and you may get the taxes refunded (you should if you fly BA or Virgin). I used to work in travel and that was usually the case.

ok how would i get my taxes refunded? when am i suposed to ask? i am flying with virgin. i was gunna just ask to swap the return leg for a better seat?

[caybee 21]

One-way was actually cheaper in my husband's case. The travel agent tried to convince him that a K-1 visa required a return ticket since it is technically not an immigrant visa, but he didn't give in, bought the one-way ticket, and had no trouble making the trip. A friend (also K-1) did get talked into buying the return ticket and had no trouble either.

[AnnexoxShay 1]

I stopped of a travel agency a couple days back to get an idea on pricing ... and my fiance been checking online also ... prices so far are pretty comparable even with the exchange rate taken into consideration .. give or take a $100 or so depending what day your looking at ...

There was however about $1000 price difference between one way and return ... Im going to keep checking though because when you have that visa and are seriously looking at booking dont hesitate to mention your off to see what a rival travel agency is offering ... part of that fare price is commission and booking fees the agency is sticking onto the price ...

eg. I also got them to check prices for flight from Brisbane to Sydney .. the same flight I could get for $78 if I booked online they were asking for $115 (I think it was) because they were adding there fees on top...

[scandal 951]

http://www.delta.com/planning_reservations...rules/index.jsp

Prohibited Ticketing Practices

Our fares apply only to the specific itineraries for which they are quoted and the restrictions that apply to our discounted fares are an essential part of our contract with you. These restrictions make it possible for us to offer these discounted fares.

Failure to comply with applicable fare restrictions, circumventing those restrictions, or misrepresenting your intended itinerary are all violations of our Contract of Carriage.

* Back-to-back ticketing—combining multiple overlapping round-trip tickets to circumvent Saturday or other overnight stay requirements.

* Throw-away ticketing—use of discounted round-trip excursion fares for one-way travel.

* Point-beyond ticketing—use of a fare published for travel to a point beyond your actual intended destination or from a point before your actual intended origin.

In such cases where there is a violation of our Contract of Carriage, we reserve the right to:

* Cancel the remainder of the itinerary and confiscate any unused flight coupons.

* Refuse to board the passenger or check baggage.

* Charge the passenger for the difference between the fare paid and the fare for the passenger's traveled itinerary.

Wow... that's really good info. Thanks for collating and posting!

I've been comparison shopping the one-way vs. return for a few months now as we get closer to travel dates. In our case BKK-ORD, the one-way options seem better. I've looked at a bunch of sites and I think the best (at least for Thailand travel) is http://www.asiatravel.com/

For example, right now I'm looking at options for BKK-ORD on May 15

ONE WAY:

Air India via Bangalore $596

Asiana via Seoul $944

Northwest via Detroit $1077

(all prices are USD incl. taxes)

ROUNDTRIP:

The cheapest I can find starts around $1200US. I keep the May 15 outbound fixed, and play around with the return trying different options (since it would be a throwaway anyway). No dice. Can't break below $1K under any circumstance.

The $596 oneway fare via Bangalore starts to look mighty attractive

[Sinergy 3]

I bought Edi roundtrip tickets bc they were cheaper. i knew he wouldnt use the return ticket, but it was still cheaper to get the roundtrip.

[AaronLV 12]

I've been comparison shopping the one-way vs. return for a few months now as we get closer to travel dates. In our case BKK-ORD, the one-way options seem better. I've looked at a bunch of sites and I think the best (at least for Thailand travel)

I booked a 1 way ticket on Eva Air Elite Class for 905 for our travel from BKK to LAX. It is a total of about 18 hour flight with lay over in Taipei, a round trip on Eva was about 1400 for Elite Class. Main reason I paid for elite rather then economy was the weight limit in the baggae is higher and I get an extra bag checked bag being a gold member.

I don't think Eva flies to ORD though. I usually take southwest back to Vegas, but this time we are renting a car and driving form La to Vegas, it is much cheaper then paying the tickets, and baggage charges on southwest.

I think if I would have picked another carrier I could have gotten a cheaper flight but would have been much much longer trip.

[Laura+Tom 2]

Buy the cheapest. If you buy the return cancel the return portion and you may get the taxes refunded (you should if you fly BA or Virgin). I used to work in travel and that was usually the case.

ok how would i get my taxes refunded? when am i suposed to ask? i am flying with virgin. i was gunna just ask to swap the return leg for a better seat?

You would call customer services to cancel when you got to the US, that's when they may offer to refund the taxes. I'm not sure if you can swap for for better seat, if you tried to do it at the airport they may decide to charge you more as you are only flying 'one way' in the end.

To those talking about throw away ticketing, I'm sure if you only do it once, to activate the K1, then they will probably not penalise you. It's probably unlikely that you would need a one way again. I used to book business travel where numerious times we had to cancel the return flight and the person would either get a train home or get a car and we were never penalised.

[DairyFarmer 1]

If you go AA before you check-in go to the AA ticket counter and ask for an upgrade as you will not be using the return portion.

Laura & Tom its now too late for Hannah she is on her way already.

[Laura+Tom 2]

If you go AA before you check-in go to the AA ticket counter and ask for an upgrade as you will not be using the return portion.

Laura & Tom its now too late for Hannah she is on her way already.

oops, hope she has a good trip

[DairyFarmer 1]

If you go AA before you check-in go to the AA ticket counter and ask for an upgrade as you will not be using the return portion.

Laura & Tom its now too late for Hannah she is on her way already.

oops, hope she has a good trip

I know, how exciting!!!!

[sammills89 2]

Wow I wasn't expecting this volume of help! Thank you all so much!

But yeah what is the deal with offering your return ticket for an upgrade, does that work with Virgin? Will the customs official at the POE have an issue because of the return ticket but the visa requires me to get married? Obviously my fiance will stay in the country after getting married (after filing for AOS etc) so will that cause any implications?

[payxibka 10,047]

moving to Moving here and your new life in America forum

[Laura+Tom 2]

Wow I wasn't expecting this volume of help! Thank you all so much!

But yeah what is the deal with offering your return ticket for an upgrade, does that work with Virgin? Will the customs official at the POE have an issue because of the return ticket but the visa requires me to get married? Obviously my fiance will stay in the country after getting married (after filing for AOS etc) so will that cause any implications?

We'll have to see what Hannah did with her ticket to see if the upgrade works. POE will see you have a K1 so won't care about a return ticket, plenty of people have bought return tickets and lived to tell the tale.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

But is that the worse that could really happen? Being charged the difference if caught? I rather take the chance of being able to spend less and finding out we have to pay the full price than paying the one way price and not trying.

Actually, worst is that you lose the half of the ticket price that you actually paid for the unused return (having actually done that once).

Tried-and-true win-win approach.

[Kil 0]

Buy the cheaper ticket which will be round trip.

And there is a very good good reason to get the round trip anyway.

Just in case you two decide not to get maried. She has her ticket home.

I booked our tickets a fw days ago and was told I needed round trip for my Fiancee because some countries supposedly won't let the foreign spouse through without a return ticket. We will be going through 3 countries on our way back. So who knew....I didn't...glad the American Airlines reservationist let me know this as she said she wasn't supposed to tell me to buy the "cheaper rond trip ticket"....lol