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- ✈️ Open-Jaw Tickets
Read time: 5 min 🕐
Say you’re planning a trip from San Francisco to Rome, but need to spend a few days in Barcelona.
How would you book it?
Well, you could try one of these options:
Option 1: Book 3 one-way tickets
EXAMPLE: San Francisco to Rome, Rome to Barcelona, Barcelona to San Francisco
Option 2: Book 2 round-trips
EXAMPLE: San Francisco to Rome (+ return), Rome to Barcelona (+ return)
While both of these strategies are simple, they aren’t always ideal, because:
→ International one-way tickets can get very expensive
→ Multiple round-trips can be inconvenient, since you have to spend extra time travelling, leaving you with less time to enjoy your destinations
Fortunately, there’s an alternative option that saves both time and money, and it’s criminally underrated - open jaw tickets.
✈️ Open-jaw tickets allow you to fly into one city and return from another
So in this example, your open-jaw ticket would consist of the flight(s) from San Francisco to Rome, as well as the flight(s) from Barcelona to San Francisco.
*Note that you would need to book Rome to Barcelona separately.
Flight 1: Origin → Destination 1
Flight 2: Destination 2 → Origin
💬 What’s the point?
Open jaw tickets can save you a lot of time and money.
Let me compare the two original options to an open-jaw itinerary:
Option 1: 3 One-way tickets
Cheapest flights for each segment (via Google Flights)
Booking 3 one-way tickets will cost you a total of $1025.
Option 2: 2 Round-trip tickets
Cheapest flights for each segment (via Google Flights)
Booking 2 round-trip tickets will cost you a total of $773.
Here’s a sample open-jaw itinerary you could book instead:
Cheapest flights for each segment (via Google Flights)
An open-jaw ticket + one-way ticket will cost you $736, which is cheaper than both of the other options.
You could argue that it’s not much cheaper than 2 round-trips, and that’s true. However, if you booked the round-trips, you’d waste a day returning to destination 1 (Rome) from destination 2 (Barcelona).
🚨 Keep in mind
→ Open-jaw tickets aren’t always the cheapest option - airline pricing dynamics are very complex and airfare changes constantly
→ A ticket from your origin to your destination that returns to a city near your origin is also considered an open-jaw ticket
EXAMPLE: San Francisco to Rome, Rome to Los Angeles
→ If you prefer booking directly with airlines rather than using third-party sites, the flights in your open-jaw ticket need to be operated by the same airline, or by airlines that have partnerships with each other
→ Open-jaw tickets are less likely to work for domestic trips, since the cost of a domestic round-trip is usually equivalent to two one-way tickets
💬 Got it. How do I book open-jaw tickets?
Go to your OTA (online travel agency) of choice
EXAMPLE: Google Flights / Expedia / Skyscanner
Select “multi-city“
Add a flight from your origin to destination 1, and another from destination 2 to your origin
via Google Flights
🚀 Deals
Check them out before they expire ⤵
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