Will a return flight affect my Immigration process

[vvvVein 7]

I booked a one way flight trhough opodo.

They scammed me and there second follow up email showed a return flight.

I contacted them and they said the return leg will be cancelled whihc i was under the impression was illegal and will put me on a no fly list with the airline. However I rang us airways and they said that its fine to cancel it after departure.

So im now confused can i travel on this flight to america cancel the return flight and it wont have any affect on my immigration process. For example USCIS having record of me on a return flight i never got on.

Any experience would be apprecitaed and who should i contact with regards to Customs and border control as to whether this is allowable? Do i contact the USCIS or DOS or NVC?

[stevensane 10]

I was wondering about something related to this a while ago - a return flight with Virgin to JFK was £500, but a one-way flight was £995. If you opt for the return flight but don't use it will this look suspicious to the POE officer? Or will she/he even know?

I used airmiles in the end so didn't need to spend the £995, but it seems extremely expensive.

[Sirdaniel42 86]

The return flight is no problem, you can book whatever is the cheapest.

[scottym27 19]

As long as you cancel it, it won't be a problem. Customs officer won't care, or even need to know - but do make sure you cancel, as others have said on here that it can cause problems at AOS stage (not sure how likely that is!) if the airline doesn't update their manifest.

As an aside VVV, it's not illegal. The airlines don't like you doing it because they want to rip you off for the full fare, but it's not illegal. It is against the terms and conditions of the ticket, but likely all you'll actually lose is the ticket. I haven't seen any cases where the airline has banned people from flying with them in future, or anything of the sort. It might well happen, but it's probably extremely rare for a first "offence."

[Minnescota 1]

Most airlines will let you change the date of your return flight, so why not keep 'pushing' the date back every couple of months until you can use it to visit home?

A friend of mine did this when she moved to US and experienced no problems.

[Big Papa Zone 93]

Most airlines will let you change the date of your return flight, so why not keep 'pushing' the date back every couple of months until you can use it to visit home?

A friend of mine did this when she moved to US and experienced no problems.

^^^^^This^^^^^^^^^^

Also, does anyone know what the deal is with the one-way ripoff? If the journey originates from the UK I mean? Because the same doesn't apply if you fly from the U.S. - a one way ticket is about half of what a return costs, as if ###### should be.

[scottym27 19]

Because the airlines can get away with it. Apparently it's to encourage you to take the return flight as it saves the airlines money. Which it doesn't.

It's the same on every airline too. I went through the full list!!

[novedsac 355]

As an aside VVV, it's not illegal. The airlines don't like you doing it because they want to rip you off for the full fare, but it's not illegal. It is against the terms and conditions of the ticket, but likely all you'll actually lose is the ticket. I haven't seen any cases where the airline has banned people from flying with them in future, or anything of the sort. It might well happen, but it's probably extremely rare for a first "offence."

Agreed, it is not illegal, but techniques such as throw-away ticketing (which is what the OP has described), back-to-back ticketing, hidden city ticketing, etc. are most often violations of the contract of carriage. If you're active in the frequent flyer community, there are numerous instances of repeat violators being called out by the airlines and having their frequent flyer status revoked and/or being charged for the difference in airfare had they booked a ticket for travel which did not violate the fare rules.

However, you'd really have to be doing this a few times a year on the same airline with a frequent flyer membership before the airline would ever notice.

If OP has a return ticket, OP can cancel after completion of the first leg of the flight by contacting the airline. I wouldn't worry about the no fly list concern. Just make sure you have a receipt for the cancelled segment.

[christeen 966]

You can cancel it with no problem... No worries about any no fly BS... Don't worry... But seems it is now important to cancel the (or move) the return flight as it has caused problems when airlines have shoddy reporting.... (Even though fundamentally I don't believe you should be required to give airlines the ability to resell a seat that you paid for, like they get double pay for one seat... The whole scam ticks me off)... Anyway... No worries

[nobbie 105]

I booked a return with BA and cancelled the return leg after I had been here for a couple of months, have since flown to and from UK with BA since, no problems whatsoever.

[Big Papa Zone 93]

You know, reading this thread and thinking back, I arrived on a return ticket which I subsequently never bothered to cancel, but:

A) That was five years ago

B) I've never been back since

and

C) It was an airline (Northwest) that no longer exists!

So whichever way you slice it, I'm pretty sure I'm fine!

[Vanitas 310]

Okay..

First? Stop cluttering up the forum with your constant worrying. It's getting tiring, and frankly speaking if you'd used the search function at the top of the forums you'd have found at least 2 recent topics discussing this (one of which where I broke it down) and 3-4 others in the past.

Secondly, the others have said it well. You can cancel the return leg without issue after you touch down. I did, and I got a 450 quid refund from United. The reason you do this is because sometimes the airlines make a mistake where they don't update their manifests and it flags you as leaving on the plane - this info works its way back to USCIS somehow, and when you file AOS you get a denial because they thought you'd left meaning you'd abandoned your entire process.

[Girl from Celebes 588]

As long as you cancel it, it won't be a problem. Customs officer won't care, or even need to know - but do make sure you cancel, as others have said on here that it can cause problems at AOS stage (not sure how likely that is!) if the airline doesn't update their manifest.

As an aside VVV, it's not illegal. The airlines don't like you doing it because they want to rip you off for the full fare, but it's not illegal. It is against the terms and conditions of the ticket, but likely all you'll actually lose is the ticket. I haven't seen any cases where the airline has banned people from flying with them in future, or anything of the sort. It might well happen, but it's probably extremely rare for a first "offence."

I hate when airlines or travel agencies do that. I remember my fiance flew to Jakarta for my interview using Singapore Airlines with one-way ticket. When my fiance stopped in Singapore, he was told by the airlines that had to buy return ticket because Indonesia government is required to have it for short visits. At that time, my fiance did not want to argue and just bought a return ticket with an arrival back to Singapore. Turned out, the immigration did not ask him to show them the return ticket nor any proof of that. And I don't think the immigration will check each passenger with their return ticket from different airlines from around the world. My fiance ended up had to pay cancellation fee that was about 50 US dollars. What a ripped off.

The other time, when my fiance and I flew back to the US, our first stop was in Incheon, South Korea. The lady from Delta Air Lines told my fiance that Silver Airways won't accept pets - we were traveled with my 2 cats and put them in carry on-. She then told my fiance to change our flights and fly with all Delta aircrafts instead.

My fiance told me and I immediately called the Silver Airways and confirmed about their rules. The woman on the phone told me that Silver Airways DO accept pets in carry on. I then told my fiance to stay with our original itinerary and guess what? Silver Airways accepted my cats and what nice about that was, they did not charge us additional fees for excess baggages for my 2 cats since we already paid 400 US dollars for Delta and 200 US dollars for Asiana Airlines. My point is, a little bit argument is no harm to do.

[LauraDP 10]

My four kids and I all booked return flights because it was considerably cheaper to do so than to book a single leg. I tried to inform the airline that we had no intention of using the return flight once we were here in the US but they had zero interest in listening to me. My in-laws travelled back on the flight we were booked on (they accompanied the kids and I to the US) and said that our seats were empty so the airline had not logged that we would not be flying or else had chosen not to sell the seats on. In any case, there were absolutely zero consequences for us. No one during the immigration process queried it as I am sure they appreciate it is an economic decision.

Best wishes

Laura

*Edited to Add that I see others have noted that it can be a problem at AOS. That is not relevant to our cases so I guess that is why it was not an issue with USCIS.*

Edited March 7, 2014 by LauraDP