Flying Open Jaw

You don't book it as one way tickets. Go to any search site and click on the link that says "Multi-city itinerary". You can then punch in, for example, PDX (Portland) to LHR (London-Heathrow) and then FCO (Rome) to PDX on the return. That is an open jaw and especially when you figure in the cost of travelling back to your starting city, often saves $.

Actually, you shouldn't have to book one-way tickets. Each airline website has a method in their program to fly into one city and out of another. You might have to select a multi-city button. This is still considered a round-trip but it may be more expensive on some airlines. I would suggest calling the airline directly and talking to them about what you want.

Jodi....open jaws doesn't mean buying two one-way tickets...you're correct, that would be far too expensive. But on many airfare search engines (or indeed airline websites), there will be an option for "multi-city" or something similar. This will let you fly into one city and out of another. The price can be the same, sometimes a bit higher, sometimes a bit lower....than flying to one destination and return. But the real savings comes in not having to get back to your starting place. For example, if you planned to start your holiday in London and end it in Rome, it might be better to book "open jaws" into London and out of Rome. Check that against a round-trip to/from London, plus the cost of even a cheap flight to get back to London from Rome, plus the cost of a night in a hotel in London (to make sure you're in time for the plane back home.)

Typically, open jaws into A and out of Z will cost 1/2 rt to A plus 1/2 rt from Z.

The savings--in both time and money--comes from not having spend the end of your vacation returning to A just to catch a flight.

It cost me the same to fly in Paris and out Frankfurt as it would have to fly round trip in and out of Paris.

And sometimes cheaper. We saved about $200 a ticket flying into Rome and home from Zurich over a RT to Rome last June.

Jodi I am flying into Paris and home from Munich, I purchased a round trip To and from Paris and then a 1 way from Munich to Paris. It was much cheaper than 2 one ways.

I have inquired a lot about open jaw because this how we travel the majority of the time. I have never seen an open jaws ticket that was substantially higher than a single RT ticket. You must not have used the search engine properly.

I think a lot of it depends on where you are flying in/out of. I was looking at an open jaw Seattle-Rome and then Florence-Seattle. Cheapest flight was $900 with a hair-raising 55 minute connection time through Paris CDG. No thanks!

RT out of Rome was $650 and the flight is late enough that we can take the train out of Florence in the morning for $50 each. With just two of us, the savings were a no-brainer.

I think one of the major reasons Rick recommends open jaw is to prevent people from having to spend time and money traveling back to the city they arrived in, if they visit multiple locations. It's probably is easier and cheaper to try to fly home from the last location.

Open jaws work best at major airports. Open jaws work better over wider distances, i.e. into Rome, home from Malan. Florence is not a good example. Within in the hour I checked on flights that Eli might have been interested and assumed Eli is flying out of Kansas City. Rt to London was $1000, RT to Rome was @1150 and the open jaws - to Rome/from London was $1100. Our open jaw experience, at least with major airport hubs, have always been reasonable and sometimes cheaper.