Airline Booking Ploys - Throwaway Ticketing

Throwaway ticketing is the practice of purchasing a ticket with the intent to use only a portion of the included travel. This situation may arise when a passenger only wants to travel one way, but where the discounted round-trip excursion fare is cheaper than a one-way ticket. This can happen on mainline carriers where all one-way tickets are full price. For instance a passenger only intending to fly from Los Angeles to New York may find the one-way ticket costs $800, but that the round-trip fare is $500. The passenger therefore purchases the round trip from Los Angeles to New York and back to Los Angeles, boards the flight to New York, but stays in New York and "throws away" the second half of the ticket by not showing up for the return flight. It is advised that passengers throw away the second half, because throwing away the first half by not showing up for the outbound trip will often lead to the airline cancelling the entire ticket.