One-way Vs. Round Trip

[Bacon 0]

So my fiance has been looking at flights over in the next month and he's found that it's cheaper to get a round trip ticket and not use the return tickets than it is to get a one way flight. One-way costing 1400 - 1500 and round trip costing 1000. I'm just wondering if it would cause an issue with customs if he buys a round trip flight even if he's not going to use it.

[pushbrk 12,968]

So my fiance has been looking at flights over in the next month and he's found that it's cheaper to get a round trip ticket and not use the return tickets than it is to get a one way flight. One-way costing 1400 - 1500 and round trip costing 1000. I'm just wondering if it would cause an issue with customs if he buys a round trip flight even if he's not going to use it.

No problem at all.

[az110965 252]

Many people have found it's cheaper to purchase a round trip ticket and abandon the return portion.

If it's a one or two time occurance with the same airline you'll be fine, but if you chronically abandon the return portion the airline might have an issue in the future.

Your fiancee is best suited to purchase a round trip ticket with a return date when fares are off peak from his origination...

Good luck,

Alan

[L&V 1]

So my fiance has been looking at flights over in the next month and he's found that it's cheaper to get a round trip ticket and not use the return tickets than it is to get a one way flight. One-way costing 1400 - 1500 and round trip costing 1000. I'm just wondering if it would cause an issue with customs if he buys a round trip flight even if he's not going to use it.

Hi "Bacon",

Congratulations to the both of you. I have a question, was the P4 package sent from the Consulate via email or regular post (4/11/10 is a Sunday)? If by email, was it sent to you or your AUS fiance?

Thanks much. We're waiting for your P4 package, any day now....

-V

[SuperDuper! 230]

But what is the explanation for the RT tix being cheaper than a one-way? With all the brilliant, all-knowing minds here, this never gets a logical explanation.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

But what is the explanation for the RT tix being cheaper than a one-way? With all the brilliant, all-knowing minds here, this never gets a logical explanation.

Airlines allocate a certain number of seats in each price category. They like to fill up the lowest priced economy seats as quickly as possible, as it leaves only the more expensive seats for people who book later and absolutely must make the trip. Airlines don't really care if all of the seats are filled. They just like to make sure that all of them are SOLD. When someone who bought a cheap seat doesn't show up for the flight, they can resell the seat at a higher price to someone on standby. It's a win/win for the airline.

Back to topic, it's possible a round trip ticket could come back to bite you in the tail after you apply for AOS. This is what happened in this case:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/255674-denial-of-aos-due-to-inaccurate-info/

Apparently, USCIS found out about the round trip ticket and presumed the applicant had actually left the country, with no record of returning legally. They approved the I-130, but denied the I-485 on that basis.

Edited May 10, 2010 by JimVaPhuong

[SuperDuper! 230]

Airlines allocate a certain number of seats in each price category. They like to fill up the lowest priced economy seats as quickly as possible, as it leaves only the more expensive seats for people who book later and absolutely must make the trip. Airlines don't really care if all of the seats are filled. They just like to make sure that all of them are SOLD. When someone who bought a cheap seat doesn't show up for the flight, they can resell the seat at a higher price to someone on standby. It's a win/win for the airline.

Back to topic, it's possible a round trip ticket could come back to bite you in the tail after you apply for AOS. This is what happened in this case:

http://www.visajourn...naccurate-info/

Apparently, USCIS found out about the round trip ticket and presumed the applicant had actually left the country, with no record of returning legally. They approved the I-130, but denied the I-485 on that basis.

So a one-way ticket does not fulfill the goal of selling out all the low-cost tickets, thus it costs more. Yes, I can wrap my brain around this and it makes sense. OK, thanks Jim, NO ONE here, even PSHBRK never offered this knowledge and information before on this matter. Thanks!

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Hi "Bacon",

Congratulations to the both of you. I have a question, was the P4 package sent from the Consulate via email or regular post (4/11/10 is a Sunday)? If by email, was it sent to you or your AUS fiance?

Thanks much. We're waiting for your P4 package, any day now....

-V

Hi V,

Normally you should start your own thread for this, or you could ask in the regular Aussie Kl or Aussie chat thread as they aren't really specific topics.

In either event I will answer here

How did you receive P3? If you received it via email then you will receive P4 via email too. When you got P3 you would have also been sent a document that asks you to give your email address. If you sent this back with P3 (or DS-230 which you sent before sending P3) then you will get P4 emailed to whatever address you sent in. If you didn't then P4 will be mailed to whatever email address P3 was sent to.

If you received P3 via post, and didn't send in your email address then you will get P4 via post to the same address you got P4.

E.g. I had p3 sent to my fiance because his email address was on the form (somewhere along the line). I completed the email form sent with P3 with my email address and sent that with DS-230. Then when I received P4 it was sent to my email address.

There are a few Aussie threads in my signature. Head on over there where you can ask Aussie specific questions and get the support/advice of people who have done exactly what you're doing (at the same consulate too).

Hope that helps

V*

Edited May 10, 2010 by Vanessa&Tony

[ukprincessemx 0]

So my fiance has been looking at flights over in the next month and he's found that it's cheaper to get a round trip ticket and not use the return tickets than it is to get a one way flight. One-way costing 1400 - 1500 and round trip costing 1000. I'm just wondering if it would cause an issue with customs if he buys a round trip flight even if he's not going to use it.

We was wondering this as well as we had noticed the difference in the cost of one way and a round trip, esp as there is going to be three of us, the two children and myself.....I asked also somewhere in this forum and one couple responded saying they had just done the move and the oversea's fiancee had bought a round trip ticket, she was just going to call the airline a week before to be poliet and let them know that her circumstances had changed and she wouldnt be flying. Im not sure if thats a good thing to do, certainly a poliet thing to do but we will be doing this. We are planning on buying round trips def. Good luck to you both...may you have a long and happy life together.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

So a one-way ticket does not fulfill the goal of selling out all the low-cost tickets, thus it costs more. Yes, I can wrap my brain around this and it makes sense. OK, thanks Jim, NO ONE here, even PSHBRK never offered this knowledge and information before on this matter. Thanks!

Yeah, statistically it works out in their favor. They're banking on the inherent unreliability of people's schedules. They know that the more flights they sell you in advance, the greater the chances you'll miss or have to reschedule one of those flights, and the better the odds they'll get to resell your seat at the peak "same day" price. However, up until the flight begins checkin, your cheap seat remains reserved, making one less bargain seat available for advance sale to someone else.

If you actually need to reschedule a flight you missed then they'll try to get you on an undersold flight that would have had some empty seats anyway.

[jimboy435 0]

So my fiance has been looking at flights over in the next month and he's found that it's cheaper to get a round trip ticket and not use the return tickets than it is to get a one way flight. One-way costing 1400 - 1500 and round trip costing 1000. I'm just wondering if it would cause an issue with customs if he buys a round trip flight even if he's not going to use it.

Some airlines allow you to 'store' a credit of unused portion of your ticket for up to one year to be used in the future. You can buy a roundtrip ticket and then once you have safely reached your destination, call the airline and let them know that you can't make the scheduled departure and would like to see what are the options. They can cancel your departure and give you a cancel reference number where you can come back and use that same ticket(plus a change fee) for a later date up to 1 year.

I have done it in the past for an entire ticket but not for half a ticket. So you should call your airlines to know the booking rules before you make your reservations.

[gezzuzz 1]

do you have airline miles? a one way ticket on AA might on be 20,000 miles..

[dakay ♥ 10]

So my fiance has been looking at flights over in the next month and he's found that it's cheaper to get a round trip ticket and not use the return tickets than it is to get a one way flight. One-way costing 1400 - 1500 and round trip costing 1000. I'm just wondering if it would cause an issue with customs if he buys a round trip flight even if he's not going to use it.

no problem at all. In my case the round ticket was 80% cheaper, the good thing, is the return is valid for 1 year, so I hope use it next year.

[RUSSandRACHEL 3]

I don't see the point in saving the return portion for later. After all we've been through to get to the US, why would you want to just leave it? The return part of the ticket is just that. You've still got to pay to come back again, and then you're back to suqare one again with the price issue.

I have bought a return ticket as its half the price and I will call them the day after to cancel it. I wasn't going to even bother but I recently read on here, a couple who have been denied AOS cos they 'found' a record of her leaving the country and abandoning her permanent residency (even when she hasn't but booked a return flight too, the same as us).

As for airmiles, I looked up that too. But as we're flying with Continental you can't just use them one way. You have to do return instead, at 25,000 miles each way. As I don't quite have 50,000 miles, it worked out cheaper buying a brand new ticket rather than transferring miles between me and Russ (which they charge an astronomical fee for!)

Edited May 11, 2010 by RUSSandRACHEL

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

Airlines allocate a certain number of seats in each price category. They like to fill up the lowest priced economy seats as quickly as possible, as it leaves only the more expensive seats for people who book later and absolutely must make the trip. Airlines don't really care if all of the seats are filled. They just like to make sure that all of them are SOLD. When someone who bought a cheap seat doesn't show up for the flight, they can resell the seat at a higher price to someone on standby. It's a win/win for the airline.

Back to topic, it's possible a round trip ticket could come back to bite you in the tail after you apply for AOS. This is what happened in this case:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/255674-denial-of-aos-due-to-inaccurate-info/

Apparently, USCIS found out about the round trip ticket and presumed the applicant had actually left the country, with no record of returning legally. They approved the I-130, but denied the I-485 on that basis.

Jim, I've read that thread. I sort of doubt the mere existence of the round trip ticket caused the problem for the OP. I would speculate that hundreds of thousands of people have adjusted status who entered the US on a round-trip ticket.

Something else is afoot in the thread you referenced, although I can't begin to say what that may be.