Buying a roundtrip ticket, but not using return flight

Where are you starting from and where are you ending up? Have you tried pricing out a muli-city ticket, from your origin to Zagreb and from Dubrovnik to you destination?

From a recent article in the NYT travel section. Worth a read. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/29/travel/airline-booking-strategies.html

If you buy a round-trip ticket, you are expected to fly on both legs (or cancel the second). Whether or not there would be consequences for skipping the return leg depends on circumstances.

First, this does not sound right:

It is cheaper to buy a roundtrip to Zagreb and then a one way out of Dubrovnik.

To give better advice, you will need to provide more details. Where are all the flights starting and ending? Are all these flights on a single ticket? The same airline?

Most airlines frown on doing this. Some may take punitive action against people they suspect of doing this repeatedly. But if this is just a one-time thing, and (important!) you are on two separate tickets (preferably on different airlines, especially if on one that you don't intend to fly on in the future) you will probably be fine.

Be aware though that if your trip is booked as a single ticket, once you are a no-show for one leg of the ticket, they typically cancel any subsequent flights on the same trip. They certainly don't like it when people use tricks like that.

I can't help wondering if you may not be searching correctly if you're finding what you say you're finding.

I think Lufthansa just sued a passenger for doing this. If you never fly the first airline again you might get away with it, but you could be blacklisted.

Why can you buy a round trip ticket to anywhere for less than a one way? Makes absolutely no sense, nearly every airline sells them that way. If you don't take the return trip half, why should the airline care? Because they are losing money that passengers would have paid for the one way.

This sounds like a unique find that a round trip from Zagreb and a one-way from Dubrovnik is cheaper than an open jaw to Zagreb and out of Dubrovnik.

Are you booking through an airline or a third party. If it is a third party, be cautious. Sometimes these prices are not what you think until you get through the process.

I see no problem with not using the round trip portion of your flight. People have a change of plans all the time, decide to stay longer, drive instead of fly, illness, etc. You paid for it. Just call them a couple of days before departure and tell them your plans have changed.

I know they do not like skipping out early on a change of plane stopover. However, the airlines themselves created this problem when they made one stop and two stops so much cheaper.

Short answer is no, it isn't allowed. Long answer is first, as others have said, have you checked a multi city ticket flying into Zagreb and out of Dubrovnik. What your saying sounds pretty rare. Second, if you do decide to go this route if the rest of your trip is on the same ticket it will be cancelled. And third, airlines don't like when passengers try to game the system. It is your choice, but proceed with caution. You could be blacklisted or prosecuted.

I've noticed some Asian airlines like Cathay Pacific and Singapore now impose a $300 no show penalty on their discount fares. It's explained up-front when you purchase your ticket.

Every airline contract of carriage (the small print behind every ticket purchase) is clear on this. No, it is not allowed under the terms of the purchase agreement.

"I used to...." drive a car with no seatbelts and never died but it doesn't apply any more.
Read the find print and current rules and regs.
If you haven't been introduced to it, search for flights on Google Flights or https://matrix.itasoftware.com/ (the old travel agent flight planning software). Neither sell tickets and have a wider range of airlines they check. They don't check every small or 'cheap' European airline, but they are good references for future travel if not this one. Check pricing for 'multi-city' and 'nearby' airports.

Hi all,
Some posts were removed here in accordance with Community Guideline #8. Speaking of the existence of such a scheme is allowed, but you may not recommend or exemplify how to execute such a scheme. Thanks for keeping it on the up and up.