A round-trip ticket is also known as a “circle ticket” or a “return air ticket” because you depart from your original location which is “A,” and travel to your destination where you may stay for a few days or more which is “B.” Your return flight takes you back to “A” where you began, thus completing the circle.
Yes, you can use a round-trip airline ticket to return earlier than expected. However, there are a few things to keep in mind: The airline's policy: The airline's policy on changing or canceling flights will vary. Some airlines may charge a fee for changing or canceling a flight, while others may not.
In general, you will have to use all flight segments in your ticket in the order you booked them. You are not forced to use the return portion of your ticket if you decide not to go home, but you are not allowed only to use the return flight and skip the departure flight.
But if you intentionally miss the last leg of the journey, your ticket won't be cancelled, as there is nothing left for the airline to cancel. If you skip the first flight, your return flight also gets cancelled. To avoid that, don't ever skip a flight on a return flight.
Skipping for Return Flight or the Last SegmentIn theory, the airlines could recalculate the price, no matter which flight you skip. Yet, since there is nothing left for the airline to cancel, and you're not using the ticket anyway, they usually won't bother going after you.
If the aircraft lands and doesn't have any passengers booked for the flight back to its home base, it will likely have an empty leg flight. These flights may also be referred to as empty flights, ferry flights, repositioning legs, dead-heads, or one-way flights.
If you buy a round trip flight but only use one way, then the other half of your ticket will be forfeited. Depending on the airline and fare type, you may be able to get a refund or credit for future travel.
Round-trip tickets are usually cheaper than one-ways, sometimes significantly so. NerdWallet compared fares across multiple international routes and found that, typically, buying two one-way tickets costs 20% more than a single roundtrip.