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Flexible flight?

Hi all,

So here's our situation: My wife and I have a one-way flight from JFK to London on June 17th (We paid $498 total for these!) My work situation affords me as much time off as I'd like. However, my wife is stretched for getting time off. As of now, she will need to be back to work on the July 7th. However, we would like to maximize our time on this trip and get as many days as we can. Without going into too much detail, what's important to know is that she will know mid to late June (we will already be in Europe) if she will be able to get an extra couple of days off. So potentially having to be back on July 10th, versus the 7th.

Here are my questions:

1) Should we wait to buy till she knows for sure what day she has to be back? Whether it's July 7th or July 10th?

2) Should we buy tickets now-ish to not risk paying more in June? And accept the fact that we will be returning July 7th?

3) Are there any airlines that have flexible flights so that we could potentially change flights late June/early July without severe penalties?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Posted by
23178 posts

You do know how airline tickets are priced in general. Only the discount tickets place restrictions on changing departure dates. If it is important to have a flexible return then buy a full fare ticket that allows for changes. All the airlines sell them. Truthfully the three days would not make that much difference to me. If it was a week that would be a different matter.

Posted by
1221 posts

Typical change fee for a 'non-refundable ticket' is about $200, and on top of that you'll pay the fare difference, which can be anywhere between $0-$500+ depending on which fare classes are and are not sold out on a given flight. I'd guess it would be $400 or so 'all-in' to change the return flight at the last minute.

Note that this is still significantly cheaper than booking a 'fully refundable' ticket, which can run several thousand for international economy. Do you have any Delta Sky Pesos? They now allow one way reward flights, and you can apparently change them without penalty/fee until 72 hours before departure if there is similar award availability on your change date. I can see 30K miles and about $300 on fees options for both July 7 and July 10 currently. (Though there is no guarantee that the 30K on July 10 will still be there in mid-June)

Posted by
2094 posts

Hi Alex, I thought you were required to show a return ticket when you arrived in Europe. Maybe someone can comment on whether or not that's true. Maybe it's different flying into London?

Posted by
19654 posts

Nobody has ever asked to see my return ticket. Just my passport.

Posted by
23178 posts

You can be asked your travel plans. Never happened to me but I am old and gray and probably don't look like I will hang out in Europe for six month. I have been asked where I am staying and for how long. On the other hand, my son and now DIL have been asked twice. Once they had to produce an flight confirmation since you don't have paper tickets anymore.

Posted by
16893 posts

A border agent did ask to see my return ticket on my last arrival into London, which was only for a 3-night stay at the end of a 6-week trip. What I had handy to show him was not the ticket itself, but some other itinerary. One-way tickets are often more expensive than roundtrip, so although you only need to book another one-way, you might end up booking a roundtrip, and "accidentally missing" the second leg of it. Since you would intend to use the first leg of that, the exchange restrictions might be different than they are for the second leg. Much as I'd rather have 24 days in Europe than 21, I think it makes sense to proceed with the shorter plan.