Open flight tickets

[thaiscot]

Hi was wondering if anyone has any experience with open return tickets flying from thailand to the uk

 

I am heading back to the uk for work but not sure how long i will be there for ( could be weeks could be months ) was looking at flights but one way tickets nearly as much as a return so thought maybe an open return would be the way to go if possible , also when looking online didnt see anyway to book an open return , how does one go about bookng ?

 

Many thanks

[Upnotover]

I think the solution is to buy a flexible ticket rather than open, just pick a future return date and move it to suit when your actual return date is known.  Will cost a lot more than the cheapest non-flex of course so may not be of much benefit, suspect an open ticket if even possible would also be full fare.

[KittenKong]

9 minutes ago, thaiscot said:

when looking online didnt see anyway to book an open return , how does one go about bookng ?

 

Basically you cant do this online though it used to be very common back in the days of paper tickets.

 

What you can do is look for a ticket that has a zero or very small date change fee. You can find this information online in the fare conditions and details. Amounts vary greatly from airline to airline. You will need to put some sort of date when buying though, and change it later.

 

Another option is to call the airline and talk to them. They may well issue a ticket with an approximate return date and add a computer note to the file that you should not be charged at all for one date change. I did this with BA a few years ago and the free change was respected.

[phuketrichard]

those were the days,,,,, long gone.
Buy a ticket (not the cheapest) that allows date changes for nothing or very little ( some of the Chinese airlines have no charge)

[Kwasaki]

https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/23167/what-is-an-open-ticket

[KhunBENQ]

Fits good in the Travel forum.

Moved and left a link in General.

 

[KhunBENQ]

Bumping.

Seems there is no silver bullet.

Doing the math between one way tickets and return tickets with no or small re-booking fee?

 

I can not remember having seen a website where you could book open returns.

 

If someone knows airlines with small re-booking fees to UK, please come forward.

[asanee]

Useless or wrong question. About ANY airline-at least the commonly known that fly, maybe with change/transit, BKK to UK have SOME, never their cheapest, fares/farebuckets that will allow change of date-maybe only the return, maybe even also outbound. Much more chance on that for bisnis class (C). Also; DO note the longest validity of ticket-many of these are not for 1 full year, but say 3/6 monthes-and decide yourself how long you need. Expect in most cases a change fee of around 100 US$/EUR/GBP. Some however will also ask for the difference between price for old and new date if thats low/high season. This will still nearly always be a lot cheaper as 2 singles- FROm EUR its near impossible to get any cheap single-most retort to buying the cheapest return and forget to return.

Again a case where a GOOD travel agent can save the day! Some of the larger agencies even have their own special arrangements on this with some airlines. Also tell if you-as so many TV-users seem to have all kinds of peculiar worries or fears, want to avoid some airlines or whatever.

IF you are willing to do that: there are 2 no-frills RYAN/AirAsia style airlines that fly now EUR-BKK: Norwegian (from Oslo and Copenhagen) and EuroWIngs (mostly from DUSseldorf or Köln/Bonn, both German) and often do very cheap single fares-pay extra for all add-ons, just like AirAsia. This makes a return on them about same price as any cheapo airline with full service.  Be a big boy and serach all for yourself the connections to blightly from there. Their very low prices only apply to a very few flites in the deepest of low season.

Last: make a fare-alarm on skyscanner.com. if you are felxible with dates.

[thaiscot]

Thanks for the replys , i just had a look at at a few sites and put in some random dates around end of july to end of aug and found them to be expensive and or long connections , just asked incase some people had recent experiences, i may be travelling back & forth from the uk so may have to get a one way there & book returns from the uk end

 

Cheers

[KittenKong]

11 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

If someone knows airlines with small re-booking fees to UK, please come forward.

 

I find that fees can vary with the booking class and ticket type as well as with the airline, so nothing beats reading the fare rules for each ticket.

 

Here's a list of charges for some European airlines from a couple of years ago:

 

https://www.airhelp.com/en/blog/best-and-worst-airlines-for-flight-change-fees-europe-edition/

 

BA still charges no fee for most date changes made online, but read on .......

 

If you buy a heavily discounted or sale fare then aside from any date-change fee airlines may also charge you the difference between the fare you paid and the fare applicable at the time you make the change. And there is no real way of knowing exactly how much that will be in advance. Thanks to dynamic pricing if you want to change the date very close to departure time and the flight is well-booked then the supplement may be huge. I've seen identical tickets being sold at prices that were 3 times what I paid, and with the same conditions.

[fredob43]

Eva Air offer flex or semi flex. Flex is more expensive I think that's a 1 year one, I use to book a 6 month semi flex, had to pay last time to change date but only 1,000bt cheaper than loosing you ticket.

Have a look at their web page.