How to Book an Open Jaw Flight
What is an Open Jaw Flight? A flight arrangement is called open jaw flight, if the outgoing leg of the journey is not identical with the incoming leg, and both are combined in a single ticket.
We differentiate two categories of these flights: A single and a double.
This helps you to avoid expensive one-way tickets.
Single Open Jaw A simple example for a single open jaw would be a combination of flight from Frankfurt to Los Angeles with a return flight from San Diego to Frankfurt.
It makes good sense to combine these flights in one ticket.
Otherwise you would have to travel on the surface from San Diego to Los Angeles to get your return flight to Frankfurt, or you would have to buy two separate one-way tickets.
Another variant of this flight would be an arrangement where you travel from Frankfurt to Los Angeles, and return from Los Angeles to Munich.
Double Open Jaw This would be a combination of a flight from Hamburg to Los Angeles and a return flight from San Diego to Munich.
You could buy two one-way tickets, but you can save a bundle if you pack these two flights into a single ticket as a double open jaw flight.
How to Find Open Jaw Flight Offers? Many flight booking engines have a link to search for these flights.
If you click on such a button, you get a new input form.
Now you can ask for a flight from A to B plus from C to D, maybe even afterwards from E to F.
You enter your travel plans and, with good luck, you get a reasonable offer.
Reasonable is the half price of a return ticket from A to B, plus the half price of a return flight from C to D.
If you find an airline is flying both routes, and B is in the same country as C, while A is in the same country as D, you should be able to get a ticket for this flight.
But if you get only overpriced offers for this flight in your booking engine, you still have the chance to call your travel agent and ask him to look.
The rules about open jaw flights are included in the rules section of the airfare.
Booking engines are sometimes unable to understand all fare rules.
And if the engine does not understand the rule, it does not offer the fare.
But a human travel agent will understand the rules and thus be able to price this flight, or tell you that it is not allowed.
An open jaw flight can still be possible, if each air segment of the journey is flown by another airline, as long as all airlines concerned belong to a single airline alliance.
Sometimes you get a reasonable offer in the fare listing of the booking engine, but when you press purchase button, you get an error message with a new and expensive price.
In this case, too, ask your travel agent for a price quote.
Chances are a real person can sell you the ticket for the lower price.
Even if the booking engine cannot find it, the open jaw flight may still be available.
An open Jaw flight may even be possible, if the airports concerned are located in different countries.
One example would be a flight from Germany to Kilimanjaro, with a return flight from Mombasa to Germany.
Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania, Mombasa in Kenya.
For this trip KLM, Ethiopian Airways and Condor of Germany all offer open jaw tickets.
We differentiate two categories of these flights: A single and a double.
This helps you to avoid expensive one-way tickets.
Single Open Jaw A simple example for a single open jaw would be a combination of flight from Frankfurt to Los Angeles with a return flight from San Diego to Frankfurt.
It makes good sense to combine these flights in one ticket.
Otherwise you would have to travel on the surface from San Diego to Los Angeles to get your return flight to Frankfurt, or you would have to buy two separate one-way tickets.
Another variant of this flight would be an arrangement where you travel from Frankfurt to Los Angeles, and return from Los Angeles to Munich.
Double Open Jaw This would be a combination of a flight from Hamburg to Los Angeles and a return flight from San Diego to Munich.
You could buy two one-way tickets, but you can save a bundle if you pack these two flights into a single ticket as a double open jaw flight.
How to Find Open Jaw Flight Offers? Many flight booking engines have a link to search for these flights.
If you click on such a button, you get a new input form.
Now you can ask for a flight from A to B plus from C to D, maybe even afterwards from E to F.
You enter your travel plans and, with good luck, you get a reasonable offer.
Reasonable is the half price of a return ticket from A to B, plus the half price of a return flight from C to D.
If you find an airline is flying both routes, and B is in the same country as C, while A is in the same country as D, you should be able to get a ticket for this flight.
But if you get only overpriced offers for this flight in your booking engine, you still have the chance to call your travel agent and ask him to look.
The rules about open jaw flights are included in the rules section of the airfare.
Booking engines are sometimes unable to understand all fare rules.
And if the engine does not understand the rule, it does not offer the fare.
But a human travel agent will understand the rules and thus be able to price this flight, or tell you that it is not allowed.
An open jaw flight can still be possible, if each air segment of the journey is flown by another airline, as long as all airlines concerned belong to a single airline alliance.
Sometimes you get a reasonable offer in the fare listing of the booking engine, but when you press purchase button, you get an error message with a new and expensive price.
In this case, too, ask your travel agent for a price quote.
Chances are a real person can sell you the ticket for the lower price.
Even if the booking engine cannot find it, the open jaw flight may still be available.
An open Jaw flight may even be possible, if the airports concerned are located in different countries.
One example would be a flight from Germany to Kilimanjaro, with a return flight from Mombasa to Germany.
Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania, Mombasa in Kenya.
For this trip KLM, Ethiopian Airways and Condor of Germany all offer open jaw tickets.
