For people who like to book 1 way international plane tickets like me for ultimate travel freedom:
Recently I booked a 1 way ticket out of the USA with American Airlines and was told at the AA counter at the airport that the island country I was flying to required me to have a return flight (or I'm assuming a flight leaving the destination country works too). This was a surprise to me because American Airlines actually let me fly to another island country before without a return flight after asking me at the counter if I had a return flight.
I never had a notice on the website from AA when I booked my ticket that I needed a return ticket (which I have had before from other airlines like Spirit) so I assumed everything was good to go.
AA ended up giving me the option to get a "refundable" return ticket for $1,200 or a non-refundable ticket for $345. I actually did the refundable return ticket thing before with Jet Blue and I called them the next day when I arrived in the country and they returned my money to my card which was great. However AA told me that I actually had to be in this particular airport in person to receive the $1,200 refund within a year, and I had no idea when I was coming back to this airport.
The fact they were already making me jump through hoops to get the refund instead of just letting me call didn't sit well with me so I just bought the $345 return ticket for a set date in the future. They also didn't tell me they were adding a $45 fee (always non-refundable) for buying it at the counter until after I bought it - but that's a different story.
A couple days later I realized since I already had previous experience with Jet Blue's refund system and I knew how it worked I could have just booked a return ticket on my smartphone at the AA counter and refunded it the next day, but I'm not even sure if I had time to do that because I was already late and the internet was mad slow on my phone in the airport.
Now after arriving in the country I'm pretty sure I won't be using my return flight (I'll be leaving sooner than the date it's booked) so I pretty much lost the $345. They told me at the counter at time of purchase it would be a $300 fee to change the ticket if I wanted to, LOL.
I'm trying to figure out a way I can avoid this situation in the future. I'm thinking now what I will do before any international 1 way flight is call the airline I book with ahead of time to find out if I need a return flight to fly to that particular country and then book a refundable return flight with Jet Blue or the original airline (if I have confidence I can just call and get a refund the next day).
I've heard another strategy which is just to book a bus ticket out of the country, but I've never tried this nor will it work every time if you're flying to islands or unable to locate the foreign bus company site and have it actually work to purchase a ticket. Not even sure if the airline would accept this.
So basically what I'm wondering is if anyone else has a method to get around this dilemma allowing you to freely purchase 1 way international tickets without losing money. If so please post.
Also, if you have experience with refundable tickets from any other airline besides Jet Blue please post what you had to do and how easy it was to get your refund so we can just build a list of easy-refund airlines that we can search for the cheapest return flights that we ultimately will not use.
Thanks
Recently I booked a 1 way ticket out of the USA with American Airlines and was told at the AA counter at the airport that the island country I was flying to required me to have a return flight (or I'm assuming a flight leaving the destination country works too). This was a surprise to me because American Airlines actually let me fly to another island country before without a return flight after asking me at the counter if I had a return flight.
I never had a notice on the website from AA when I booked my ticket that I needed a return ticket (which I have had before from other airlines like Spirit) so I assumed everything was good to go.
AA ended up giving me the option to get a "refundable" return ticket for $1,200 or a non-refundable ticket for $345. I actually did the refundable return ticket thing before with Jet Blue and I called them the next day when I arrived in the country and they returned my money to my card which was great. However AA told me that I actually had to be in this particular airport in person to receive the $1,200 refund within a year, and I had no idea when I was coming back to this airport.
The fact they were already making me jump through hoops to get the refund instead of just letting me call didn't sit well with me so I just bought the $345 return ticket for a set date in the future. They also didn't tell me they were adding a $45 fee (always non-refundable) for buying it at the counter until after I bought it - but that's a different story.
A couple days later I realized since I already had previous experience with Jet Blue's refund system and I knew how it worked I could have just booked a return ticket on my smartphone at the AA counter and refunded it the next day, but I'm not even sure if I had time to do that because I was already late and the internet was mad slow on my phone in the airport.
Now after arriving in the country I'm pretty sure I won't be using my return flight (I'll be leaving sooner than the date it's booked) so I pretty much lost the $345. They told me at the counter at time of purchase it would be a $300 fee to change the ticket if I wanted to, LOL.
I'm trying to figure out a way I can avoid this situation in the future. I'm thinking now what I will do before any international 1 way flight is call the airline I book with ahead of time to find out if I need a return flight to fly to that particular country and then book a refundable return flight with Jet Blue or the original airline (if I have confidence I can just call and get a refund the next day).
I've heard another strategy which is just to book a bus ticket out of the country, but I've never tried this nor will it work every time if you're flying to islands or unable to locate the foreign bus company site and have it actually work to purchase a ticket. Not even sure if the airline would accept this.
So basically what I'm wondering is if anyone else has a method to get around this dilemma allowing you to freely purchase 1 way international tickets without losing money. If so please post.
Also, if you have experience with refundable tickets from any other airline besides Jet Blue please post what you had to do and how easy it was to get your refund so we can just build a list of easy-refund airlines that we can search for the cheapest return flights that we ultimately will not use.
Thanks