Using outward portion of flight only?

[dayslikethese1]

Can anyone answer this for me...I am looking at flights to the USA and I only want to go one way as I want to come back from Canada. When I search one way it's crazily expensive but round trip is cheap for when I'm looking: can I just use the outward portion and not use the return? Or will the airline fine me or something? Has anyone done this?

Look for a multi city flight; sometimes called open jaw.

Thanks so much, I didn't even realise you could do that, just looked again and it worked! (Can you tell I don't fly much? Duh!)

You can do what you've said. My sister lives in another country and often comes over for longer periods of time. She always books round trips as it's less expensive. She just doesn't turn up for the return flight.

If you’re entering the USA on the VWP (visa waiver program) - i.e. using the ESTA pre-approval, you must have proof of some form of onward travel. You cannot board the flight here without it. Only green card holders and long-term visa holders and US citizens can have a one-way ticket here. Book an open jaw leaving from Canada and be prepared for a full explanation of how you are getting to Canada (cruise ticket, separate flight, etc). You have to join the dots for them, as it were. Welcome to the USA! Be prepared that CBP care little about why you are coming here but will want to know everything about your plans to leave.

As an aside, of anyone is looking at this thread, there is a section in the money part of weekend paper about some one who flew with KLM as a return flight but as they hadn't used the first leg, intending to use just the return journey as it had been a cheaper flight, the airline had cancelled the seats and resold them on both legs. The column pointed out there are many airlines that adopt this practice so please be aware!

The cheapest way to do it is to book internal flights to enable you to use both portions of your international flights. Open jaw are sometimes available but may require a visa

You can use outward flights one way but not returns ( because you weren’t on the trip out so they assume you aren’t there).

Yes you can use the outbound part of the ticket and not the return, my husband did it recently.