Purchasing one way tickets....

[MissBlue]

oh - good point airportworker - i should have said i was talking about the USA -- i can't speak about what's done in Europe or the UK. but here, travelers are required to provide TSA security info - passport number, full legal name & DOB, etc., for international airline tickets. - thus, any/all upcoming flights a traveler is scheduled on, will also show up on the TSA computers when the airport security ppl scan the traveler's passport.... so it will be seen that the passenger has booked a return flight. It will just have it's own separate itinerary and 'record locator', & may be on a different airline than the outbound flight --

but in any case, the TSA can see that the person isn't leaving the country without any return travel plans, so it won't necessarily raise any flags for TSA/security to question the passengers, or tag their luggage for special search - of course it might - but it's just a possibility.

for me personally, saving significant amounts of money, and/or - getting significantly better scheduling/routing by buying two one-way flights, is totally worth the small chance of being 'flagged' or questioned; I always have printed copies of all flights & itineraries on my person anyway.

[doctoro]

oh - good point airportworker - i should have said i was talking about the USA -- i can't speak about what's done in Europe or the UK. but here, travelers are required to provide TSA security info - passport number, full legal name & DOB, etc., for international airline tickets. - thus, any/all upcoming flights a traveler is scheduled on, will also show up on the TSA computers when the airport security ppl scan the traveler's passport.... so it will be seen that the passenger has booked a return flight. It will just have it's own separate itinerary and 'record locator', & may be on a different airline than the outbound flight --

but in any case, the TSA can see that the person isn't leaving the country without any return travel plans, so it won't necessarily raise any flags for TSA/security to question the passengers, or tag their luggage for special search - of course it might - but it's just a possibility.

for me personally, saving significant amounts of money, and/or - getting significantly better scheduling/routing by buying two one-way flights, is totally worth the small chance of being 'flagged' or questioned; I always have printed copies of all flights & itineraries on my person anyway.

Ironically on a return trip to US after the question of how long I had been gone was asked and answered, and seeing the Permanent Resident Stamp, the Immagration Officer asked if I had a return ticket to Jamaica, how I was sustaining myself in Jamaica, how long I would be in the US, where I would be staying in the US, who resided at the address I had given and the nature of my visit. Mind you I am still a US citizen, residing abroad.

This was the first time traveling in over a year and since approval of PR status, and before travel I stressed over the attitude of US Immagration regarding such. Other than the additional questions, this officer put an A on my Custom form which caused a scan of my luggage in the Agricultural Search room. Where I was asked the usual food questions. I was not scanned in Jamaica.

On a side note, and this is to anyone who does the long term, after paying twice to change the return date on my original roundtrip ticket, I finally let it expire and purchased the one way ticket, but turns out this was one of my most expensive roundtrips ever considering the costs of the changes to the original ticket plus purchase of the one way. Never again.