Question about flying Open Jaw?

Just one additional point: you can do the same thing (fly in to one city on your outbound leg, and fly out of another for your return home) even when using frequent flyer miles. In fact, that can work even better, because (at least with some FF programs) you can even add a "stop over" at an intermediate city along the way.

For example, using frequent flyer miles, last year I flew from Seattle to Indonesia (Bali), spent 3 weeks there, then on my "return" flight back home, I did a "stop over" in Thailand (for 2 weeks), then "continued" the flight back to Seattle. The cost for these flights was essentially zero (other than the small fees for ticketing, "security" and taxes). Every airline program is different though, so check the rules carefully, but my point is that even if you're going with FF miles rather than paying real money, you can still go "open jaw", and it can realy make your trip much better.

In 2 weeks, we're flying in to Lisbon, and coming home from Paris (again, using FF miles). Gives us a good excuse to spend a few days in Paris ("sorry, honey, the only flight home from Spain we can get leaves from Paris, so I guess we'll have to go there")....open jaws is great.

I think every booking website might be a little different, but for Expedia, for instance, check "Multiple Destinations", then put in Dallas (or wherever) to Munich and London to Dallas as your two flights.

Technically your are buying two one way tickets BUT the airline treats it as a RT ticket. As Lee says, you need to use the advance search option which will allow for multi-city scheduling and you just plug in your schedule. What site are you trying to use?

We booked our past few flights through Kayak.com; and as was mentioned earlier just click on multiple destinations.

Good luck

I have been looking on Kayak but didn't realize there was a multiple destination option. Thanks so much! I will look into it.

One thing to keep in mind is that the ticket itself may not be cheaper than a RT ticket. The cost savings often come from not having to backtrack to your point of origin. For example, an open jaw ticket into Munich and out of London may cost you $1000. A round trip ticket in and out of Munich may only cost $800. But it may cost $300 (plus travel time) to return from London to Munich, which makes the open jaw cheaper in the long run.

Stella, all major airlines have what we here on the site call "open jaw" and they may call "multi-city". In the U.S., you won't see such a feature on the Southwest website but they have it. You just have to call to set it up. I'm flying on such an arrangement to Kansas and Washington D.C. next week. I've done it previously to Europe as well on United.

Besides open jaw, you could look into a roundtrip to London and then add-on a discount airline flight from London to Munich.

The problem with low fare airlines is that
some of them fly from "hyphenated" airports that not really near actual London, like London-Stanton. Often you have to provide hours (3-5) to get to the remote airport in time for check in - right at the end of a long trans-Atlantic flight, when you just want to get to your desination, and
they are "no excuse" airlines. If your flight to London is late, and you miss the low fare airlines flight, too bad. You lose the original ticket and have to buy another one at the last minute fare - very expensive.

I recommend planning to spend a day or two in London, and then going on with your LF flight.

For fun, I wanted to see what a flight from Heathrow to Munich would cost next June.

Lufthansa has four flights for $86 US Dollars

I am not sure about price but I would take a look at British Airways and monitor the prices over the web.

British Airways is nice because you can have a layover in London for up to 364 days and then get back on a plane and continue on to your final destination(Munich) and then still fly out of another location. This of course will work if you can switch around your order and visit London first.

Hope this info helps!

Wow! Thanks everyone! I especially like the idea of having an extended Layover. I had no idea. I thought about flying into London first but DH is going to Munic and has a very small window to go. I can't leave earlier because school isn't out (college professor). I am going to stay longer than he is and I have to go to London to see shows. I kinda wanted to stop in Paris on the way to London. I could take the train but it is way more expensive than flying to London from Munich. Not sure yet what to do. I really want to get a Germany-France Eurail pass and go to Berlin for a couple days, Paris for a couple days, and then take the Eurostar to London. Decisions, decisions!