Have you ever wanted to fly out on a specific day without knowing exactly when you would return? In the good old days, an “open ticket” would have allowed you to do precisely that. But while this ticketing arrangement was common in the days when travel agents booked everyone’s flights, it has all but disappeared.
What is an open-ended airline ticket?
In the early days of flying — and well into the 1970s and 1980s after the US government deregulated the airline industry—fewer people regularly flew like they do today. Tickets were much more expensive compared to ticket prices today, but they also tended to be more flexible.
One typical arrangement was the so-called “open ticket,” whereby a traveler could depart one day and return at an unspecified point in the future.
Open tickets were favored especially among business travelers, who might leave home on a Monday morning, but be unable to return until they struck an important deal.
A key reason for their ubiquity was the fact that professional travel agents booked most air travel in the days before the internet, which meant that the complicated work of constructing and pricing out an open ticket itinerary took place behind the scenes.
Does the open ticket still exist?
Unfortunately, open tickets are all but unheard of when it comes to flights these days unless you book with a travel agent or have a special arrangement due to a classification you fall under. Student travelers, for example, can sometimes book open tickets.
There is an upside, however. As is the case in many other areas of life in the internet era, you can hack your way to an open ticket, more or less.
Alternatives to an open-ended airline ticket
Search for flexible fares
The surest way to book what’s essentially an open ticket is to purchase fully flexible fares. These are normally more expensive than normal flights (often, by several hundred or even thousand dollars). However, they typically allow unlimited date changes and even full refunds right up to departure, without a fee.
Basically, flexible fares are today’s equivalent of an open-ended airline ticket. Learn how to search flights for the entire month on Skyscanner to find the cheapest days to fly.
Book one (way) at a time
Conventional wisdom states that booking two one-way segments is more expensive than booking a round-trip. However, this is not always the case.
If you don’t know when you’ll be returning home, you could simply book your departing flight and then snag the return one once you decide on when to come back. This requires you to roll the dice on price, but it’s usually cheaper than a huge change fee. Read more on booking one-way vs round-trip flights.
Fly business or first class
In many cases, booking the equivalent of an open ticket today requires spending much more than a typical economy-class flight. As a result, if you’re going to drop a lot of dough anyway, why not live it up a bit?
While not all business class and first-class flight tickets are fully flexible, many allow for date changes with no fee (or for a small fee compared to economy tickets). So this option is worth looking into.
Use miles and points
Another hack to book what’s more or less an open-ended airline ticket? Use miles and points to book your flight. Although many domestic airlines’ frequent flier programs have started charging fees for date changes, these are still usually less than the fee to change a ticket you bought with your card.
Additionally, foreign airlines often don’t charge a fee, and many US travel credit cards allow you to transfer points one-for-one to such carriers.
Book RTW flights or air passes
One scenario that might necessitate an open ticket is a trip around the world. Although RTW tickets aren’t always the cheapest option, they do typically offer a great deal of flexibility. It’s at least fair in terms of dates, as you usually need to fix destinations at the time of booking an RTW ticket.
This also applies to regional “air pass” options popular airline alliances offer. Such bookings are generally available within a specific country or region for a fixed price.
Hack your way to a cheap flight ticket
- Use a Whole Month search to find the cheapest ticket if you have flexible dates. Even if you have to pay a change fee later, this minimizes damage to your bottom line.
- Browse Skyscanner for last-minute flights, assuming you book your departure in advance but wait to book your return until just before you leave. You’ll be surprised by what kinds of deals you can find!
- Book a multi-city ticket if your issue is not the date you want to return but the fact that you need to fly home from a different airport
