Airfare...do you book round trip or 2 one-ways?

[Disneyatic]

While researching flights for our September trip, I recalled reading on some posts that some people had booked their airfare to WDW but not return airfare and I decided to look at one way fares.
LO AND BEHOLD....booking 2 one way's on Airtran is cheaper than booking a round trip, and it is even for the same exact flights??

We are not very seasoned air travellers....Is there a downside to booking 2 one way tickets instead of 1 round trip ticket?

[faline]

Booking one-way tickets may prompt more security screening than a round-trip.

Some airlines' systems seem to work better if you book each way separately - for instance Southwests discount offerings often work better if you working on a one-way ticket rather than a round trip ticket.

[MickeyandTink]

We've booked two one ways for this trip. Going out on Air Tran and returning on American. It worked out cheaper than booking round trip on either one, plus the times worked out better.

In the old days (pre-internet bookings), it seemed like booking round trip was usually the better way to go because one ways usually were more than 50% of the RT cost. Nowadays, it is not unusual to fly different carriers to get the lowest price.

The only real downside I see is if you are a frequent flyer member, you don't accumulate as many miles. As faline said, it MIGHT also increase screening risk. However, I've never been able to figure out TSA does it anyway, so I'm not sure that it makes any real difference.

[DawsonAR]

I recently booked two round trip trips. I just checked and if I would have booked one-way it was a little higher but not much. It used to be much higher to book 2 one way tickets.

We are flying Delta on both trips.

[kakn7294]

As others have said, I think it depends on the airline and the discounts offered. We fly SW so we usually book two one-way tickets to get better rates - whenever a discount is posted, I go for it, even if it means booking only one-way. I don't recall our boarding passes for SW saying it was one-way passage only and at any rate, it didn't cause any issues at the security checkpoint.

[Jeff]

Last Christmas we flew Northwest down to Orlando and Airtran back. No problems and it was MUCH cheaper. This was the first time we had booked oneways but certainly will not hesitate to do so again.:thumbsup:

[r4kids]

We booked United coming home and SW (waiting for Ding) down. Come on SW!!!

[snifflesmcg]

I tried to do that very thing. It would have only saved me a few dollars but I would have to fly out of one airport and return to another airport.