To offer you the best price on your chosen route, we found that a round-trip ticket is actually cheaper than a one-way flight. However, the practice of “throwaway ticketing” — only using the first part of a round-trip ticket — is prohibited by a majority of airlines in their terms and conditions.

Using only half of a round-trip ticket—a practice sometimes called "throwaway ticketing"—can lead to several significant consequences from the airline. Most importantly, as soon as you miss the first leg of your journey, the airline's automated system will almost always cancel all remaining segments of that ticket, including any return or connecting flights, without a refund. Furthermore, airlines view this as a breach of their "Contract of Carriage," and if they detect a pattern of this behavior to exploit lower round-trip fares, they can theoretically bill you for the price of a more expensive one-way ticket, strip you of your frequent flyer miles, or even ban you from the airline entirely. From a logistical standpoint, you cannot check luggage on a trip where you plan to skip a leg, as your bags will be sent to the final ticketed destination. While many travelers do this successfully once or twice, it is a high-risk strategy that could leave you stranded or facing financial penalties.