If you are a savoir-faire traveler, you must know your way around cheap airfares to a particular destination. As a rule of thumb, round trip tickets to and from any destination are usually more affordable than two one-way tickets.
An avid traveler would be familiar with these terms, but for those who are yet to board their maiden flight, one-way tickets offer an onward journey to a destination but do not include a return flight. One-way tickets can be direct or include a halt at another city airport. On the other hand, round trip tickets include a flight to the destination and return flight from that destination back to where you started from. These tickets may also have direct flights or stop over flights.
If a ticket offers better flexibility, it will be more expensive than a ticket that offers limited options. For example, a one-way ticket does not include minimum or maximum stay restrictions or open jaw restrictions. Open jaw trips are applicable for roundtrip tickets wherein the passenger does not land at the departure city or does not board a flight from the arrival city. For instance, a traveler can fly from New York to Birmingham, travel from Birmingham to London and fly back home from London to New York. However, this option is not available in one-way ticket. These kind of round-trip tickets are beneficial for those who want to explore different cities in a country and head back home on the return date with cheaper airfares. Round trip tickets in general have restrictions due to which you get lower prices.
For others who are not sure of the duration of their stay at a particular destination, like in the case of students studying abroad or visiting a sick relative, buying cheap round trip tickets would not help since one cannot commit to a return date. If you happen to buy a round trip ticket, you would have to pay the change fee. For these travelers, open tickets are an option with a flexible return date usually within a year of the departure date, but they are rather expensive than one-way or round trip tickets.
A good way around more affordable one-way tickets is to check prices for different airlines since you have an option of choosing a different airline for your return journey. Airlines also offer cheaper one-way airfares for the frequent fliers. So, if you like the service of a particular airline and it goes to your destination of journey, you should stick to it for starting journey.
Another way to get cheaper one-way tickets is to look for red-eye flights, early morning flights and flights on certain days like Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Airfares are usually expensive on Fridays and Sundays which are the busy travel days. So it is advisable to plan your journey with a return flight on weekdays. Another point to note is that tickets are usually cheaper within four to six weeks of departure date and are expensive around two weeks from departure date. So, the best way to go about it is observing the flights on various websites well in advance and finding the most affordable one-way or round trip depending as per your needs.
