BootsnAll Travel Community

Hi everyone,
I'm a new member to this board, but have been reading it as a guest for a while. I have see multiple threads about going to consolidators/bucket shops on the road, but haven't seen too much about independently buying up one-ways before travelling. I've been crunching some numbers, and it looks like I'd stand to save $700-1000 by doing it independently, rather than through an rtw company. So, my question is, has anyone on this board done this before? and if so, what are the drawback (aside from spending time finding flights)?
I had spoken to a travel agent about international one-ways, and she said that even if I arrived with a separate ticket out of a country, they still might hassle me if I showed up on a one-way in the first place. So, if it doesn't list it on the state dept. site, is there any other way that this could be a problem.
Wow. sorry if that was too long, but any help that you guys could offer would be of great support. thanks, and good to finally post.

-indo.

For most countries I do not think they really care if you have a one way in and out as long as you have the out. I am going to S Africa and then after that I have an over land tour that starts in Nairobi and works its way back down to Vic falls. I was going to by a one way to Nairobi but I found that round trip tickets are usually cheaper than one ways anyhow. Round trip for me to and back from Nairobi was 100 CAD cheaper than the one way. Of course I do not plan to be there on the way back. I would suggest that when buying your tickets get your agent to check prices on one way and return flights. I would say chances are that return would be the same price if not cheaper. You do not have to use the return portion but at least you have it?

That’s just my two cents I have never used this strategy to plan a RTW maybe someone that has done a plan as you go RTW can offer more insight ….CHEERS

thanks for the reply. I too have found that some round trip fares are cheaper than one-ways, so I will have to start comparing them more closely. Can you think of any potential drawbacks to this approach? Because as I see it, I can create my own RTW with the dates and prices I want.

I hate having a fixed itinerary and to tell you the truth even if the cost of doing oneway tickets came out to be more expensive I would be willing ot pay extra to have the freedom to do what i want when I want. with in reason of course.

I am doing the same thing with one way tickets and it is definitely working out to be cheaper. The new discount asian airlines (AirAsia, Tiger, etc.) make such a trip much cheaper and flexible. Other airlines I will probably use are Airarabia and Aerlingus. They both offer cheap one way fares.

Chris

good to know i'm not crazy. When I weighed the options, I was surprised that less people do this. I mean you can piece together one-ways yourself, you're bound to save money (unless you can't find any cheap fares).
Also a heads up, for anyone travelling between egypt and europe, I've found that flights between Hurghada and Germany are about half as much as flights from Cairo.