There are die-hard travelers on both sides of the proverbial aisle — adamant one-way warriors versus the always-reliable round-trippers. If you’ve tried to Google which is better, you’ve most likely found yourself more confused than before. The truth is that both can be the right choice depending on the situation. The majority of travelers simply book a round-trip ticket by default — it’s easy, and people typically assume it’s cheaper, but that’s not always the case. There are a few scenarios where booking one-way travel will help save you money and make your booking more flexible.
One-way flights are better when you book with points
A good example of when booking two one-way tickets rather than a round-trip ticket is when using points. Points bookings are usually dynamically priced within a range of prices, however, the number of points needed for a round-trip ticket usually does not change if you book two one-ways instead. Some major carriers including United price points-based fares only on one-way flights anyhow, so when you’re scrolling through the United website or app after ticking “Search award travel” toggle, all fares shown are one-way by default.
While this might not make the flight any less expensive, by booking two one-way tickets, it’s often significantly easier to change or cancel should you decide to stay longer or leave earlier. For example, JetBlue specifically recommends booking one-way fares when dealing with points because it’s easier to update booking dates after the fact, giving you more flexibility.
Similarly, if you have points accumulated across a few airlines, you can book one-way on Airline A and one-way on Airline B. I typically do this when I don’t have enough points to book a round-trip on a single airline’s points program, but can combine carriers to use points for the entire trip. This is also a great option if one airline has more frequent headways on the route, allowing you more choices of flights.
One-way flights can also be cheaper when you make multi-airline bookings
Just like with points bookings, sometimes booking two one-way tickets on separate airlines can save you a good amount of money. For example, if you are flying from San Francisco to Miami, you may find a great deal on United to get to Miami and there may be a great deal on American flying out of Miami. If the carrier has to move a plane and it’s not full, you may find some insane deals on one-way tickets if you’re willing to do the extra bit of work.
To find the best deals, I usually search on Google Flights for one-way tickets. You’ll see the lowest-priced flights appear first and can use extensive filtering and calendar views to find the perfect flight.
For example, when looking at the cost of a round-trip ticket from San Fransico International Airport to Miami International Airport on April 18 to April 20, you see:
Photo: Screenshot from Google Flights
The cheapest ticket is $249, but keep in mind you have no baggage allowance.
If you then search one-way on April 18, you find:
one-way-flight
Obviously, $77 is an amazing price for a one-way ticket even without the luggage. Now, enter the return:
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The best return ticket is $101. So in total, booking two one-way tickets would cost you $178. That’s significantly lower than the cost of the round-trip booking.
Return tickets make sense with flight deals
Specific flight deals are a good place to book round-trip tickets. Flight deals are typically based on round-trip fares and therefore you’re not going to find the same one-way prices available. For example, I recently got a notification for a flight deal in my inbox for a round-trip to Puerto Vallarta for under $300. The catch was that I had to book the round-trip, and had to travel between May 9 and May 16 to get the price of $264.
I looked into one-way flights on the same airline during the same time period, and found that a one-way on May 9 to Puerto Vallarta cost $116.
The return flight booked separately on May 16 cost $189.
If you book the two one-ways, you’re paying a total of $305. That’s quite a bit more than that flight deal was offering at $264.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to your willingness to spend the time to do your research. If you take the time to look into one-way ticket options versus round-trip, you could end up saving some serious cash, and having more flexibility to extend that dream vacay. 
