How to book flights for long term stay

If you're not doing anything wrong, who cares what color of flag you wave? What's the point of the question? What's hard to do?

A few things: You can buy open ended tickets with the exact date of departure TBD. I think you may have to the departure city though. Do you know that stays in the Schengen zone of more than 90 days within any 180 day period require a visa? If not, that will seriously affect your plans. If you do know and have already planned to work around it, you may need proof of your itinerary. If immigration flags you for not having a return ticket, they may not let you in without proof of a visa or your long-term plans. That may be the extreme reaction, but it is possible.

The first BIG issue have to face is that you are ONLY PERMITTED to stay in the Schengen zone which is most of Europe (not GB) for 90 days out of 180 continuous days. To stay longer, you will need some type of a VISA for one of the Schengen countries. On entry into the Schengen zone you may be asked to show a return ticket because they do not want illegal immigration or people working illegally under the table without a work permit. If the officer suspects you may be planning to stay longer than 90 days and don't have a return ticket, he can deny entry. Great Britain permits 180 days so you might stretch your stay to 9 mos by a combination of 180 mo in GB and 90 days in Europe but no more. When my son studied abroad - over 7 mos in Spain on a student visa - he was able to purchase a round trip ticket which had an open return that he had to schedule about two weeks prior to returning. I am sure the ticket was arranged through the study abroad program so you check directly with the airline to see if such a ticket is available to you. Does the Wwoofer organization help you obtain the necessary visas for a longer stay?

I looked at the Wwoofer website (specifically the UK section) http://www.wwoof.org.uk/how_it_works, and they do not assist in getting the proper visas for people that want to do this for an extended stay, in fact they are very forthcoming and warn that entering the country as a general visitor in order to wwoof may be detained or sent on the next available flight to their home country.

I appreciate everyone responding. I've done quite a bit of research, and am aware of the schengen situation, and the warnings on the wwoof site. So, what I guess I'm looking for, is for someone who has personally spent extended time in Europe to let me know how they booked their flights and dealt with having an open return date while traveling. I've searched a million forums, and while a ton of people do a gap year in Europe, no one says how they got there and home.

Danny - what you're asking for is advice on how to avoid getting in trouble with immigration authorities in Europe by staying over your legally allowed 90 days in the Schengen zone. I don't think anyone here will do that and such posts would probably be deleted. This may also be the reason you don't find the answer on other forums. We have before given advice on places you can go to avoid exceeding 90 days that are out of Schengen, but that's all.

I'm absolutely not trying to do anything illegal. I plan on traveling in and out of the schengen zone over the course of a year, spending no more than 90 days in a 6 month period in the zone. I'm simply trying to find out how other people who have gone on similar trips have booked their initial flight from the US to Europe.

There are two ways of booking this type of trip: 1) You book it like any other trip and then change the return date when you're ready to return. You will pay a change fee. 2) Some airlines offer open return tickets. They cannot be booked online. Only by either calling the airline or a travel agent. You will pay more for this as it is a special privilege. As far as red flags go...you mentioned it in the question...well, #2 will raise it quickly. So will #1 if the return date is too far in advance.

OK - Thanks for clarifying what you are asking. I'd be prepared to show evidence to the authorities where you will be traveling and when. Hotel reservations, train tickets or other reservations for different countries in and out of UK and Schengen should show in good faith your intent to comply. Also having proof of adequate funding for the duration of your stay is a point often mentioned. Seems odd, but bringing copies of financial statements may be of help. It is quite possible you'll be asked few questions, but be prepared. Also, the UK is quite stringent on immigration compared to my experiences with the Schengen so an initial entry there may generate more questions/problems.