Round-trip Booking Vs Two One-way Flight Bookings: What is Cheaper, Better, More Flexible?

Booking two one-way flight tickets, one for onward journey from USA to India and the other for return journey to USA, has certain advantages and disadvantages. First, let’s explore the benefits of booking two one-way flights.

If you choose to book two one-way tickets, instead of a round trip itinerary, you can book your international travel with two different airlines. Flying with different airlines, to say Lufthansa from USA to India, and Emirates from India to USA, would give you a varied taste of their in-flight hospitality and dining, thereby enriching your travel experience.

Booking your travel with two different airlines will give you the opportunity to explore their transit hub cities during long layovers. To be precise, you can explore Dubai or Abu Dhabi during a significant layover at the hub airport of Emirates or Etihad Airways, en route to India form USA. On return, you can choose to travel with Qatar Airways or Turkish Airlines and turn your Doha or Istanbul airport layover into a mini vacation for less.

In case of two one-way flight bookings, your arrival airport and departure airport can be different in India and/or USA. You can choose to arrive at New Delhi IGI Airport and depart from Mumbai International Airport. Precisely, flexibility is the key here. Booking your onward journey and return flight separately is recommended provided your return travel date is uncertain. It gives you freedom of space and time to plan your return journey later.

If there are cashback deals or discount offers on US-India international flight tickets, chances are you can grab it twice – for two separate one-way reservations. Thus, you may save more on Indian Eagle airline tickets for a budget trip to India this holiday season.

The benefits of booking your onward and return flights separately include a significant advantage in the event of emergency flight cancelation. If an unprecedented emergency forces you or the airline to cancel the onward flight, it won’t impact your return flight. In that case, only the onward journey would require rebooking or rescheduling with the airline, without any need to reschedule or rebook the return flight ticket unlike in case of a round trip itinerary booking.

Round-trip Flight Booking: Pros and Cons

Usually, a round-trip booking costs lesser than two one-way travel bookings. Booking a round-trip itinerary for your onward flight to India and the flight back to the US together has both advantages and disadvantages. This is ideal for travelers with fixed schedules and definite holiday plans. It secures both journeys, onward and return, in a single reservation, that too often at a lower airfare. Undeniably, it saves time and ensures convenience, without worrying you about a fare increase when your time to fly back to the US nears.

Your whole trip, from SFO to Delhi and back to SFO, is likely to take a hit if some emergency arises, like a natural calamity, airport union strike, third-country airspace closure, or geo-political tensions. The airline may cancel or reschedule your round-trip booking leaving your travel plans in disarray. In the event of unexpected cancellation, you will have to rebook your international travel by paying the revised airfare (mostly, on the higher side).

If some unavoidable event at your end requires you to reschedule your onward travel or return flight in the round-trip booking, most airlines don’t allow a change of date for only one segment. If you wish to extend your stay in India beyond the scheduled return travel date, a partially-used round-trip booking is most unlikely to be cancelled and refunded. Most airlines do not offer a refund against cancellation of partially used tickets. Even if partial cancellation is allowed, the refund amount is minimal – just a negligible fraction of the total airfare.