Does not using FR outbound flight invalidate the inbound?

[ara01jbb]

Evening y'all. I'm flying with Ryanair next week, and have booked a return flight, out on Tuesday and back on Thursday. Since this particular FR route has only daily service, and I was unsure if I would need just one or two days away, I subsequently booked an additional outbound flight for the Wednesday.

So, newbie question: if I don't use the outbound portion of a two flights booked together (and use the one way I purchased separately) is the return ticket cancelled or invalidated?

And if I check-in online in advance only for the inbound, will I effectively be 'protecting' it from cancellation if I don't use the outbound?

Thank you kind folks... :ok:

[Capetonian]

I can't answer this for RyanAir but I do know that easyJet will not cancel your inbound if you fail to use the outbound, they treat it as two separate and unrelated contracts.

Intuitively I suspect that FR would be the same, but then if they could find an excuse to make a few cents out of a customer they'd probably do it, so I wouldn't be 100% confident.

[Final 3 Greens]

Ryanair sell only single flights, even though they may combine multiple flights on a single ticket.

Therefore no problem.

[ara01jbb]

Thank you folks, much appreciated.

With advance online check-in, I imagine it would be quite difficult for an airline to cancel a return flight if the passenger had already checked in before the missed outbound.

[raffele]

With advance online check-in, I imagine it would be quite difficult for an airline to cancel a return flight if the passenger had already checked in before the missed outbound.

Not really - just because you've checked in, that is no guarantee you'll take the return flight if the outbound is missed. It's also no guarantee you'll actually get on the plane (because of overbooking).

In the case of non loco airlines, if your boarding pass isn't swiped at the gate for your outbound, a computer will cancel your booking on the return unless overridden by ground staff, whether checked in or not.

[OverRun]

Thanks Raffele for making the important point that for many/most airlines, you MUST fly the outbound leg to keep your ticket alive. if your boarding pass isn't swiped at the gate for your outbound, a computer will cancel your booking on the return unless overridden by ground staff, whether checked in or not

This is a legacy of the revenue management systems that airlines have been using since the 1980s, thanks to the father of it all: Peter Belobaba. He got his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a dissertation entitled, 'Air Travel Demand and Airline Seat Inventory Management'.

This am the book!!!!. It is still classified and not accessible to scholars. In it, Belobaba described the expected marginal seat revenue (EMSR) models used as a basis for seat inventory optimisation by many airline revenue management systems worldwide.

Belobaba did not end his days as a unpublished scholar. He manages an MIT research consortium funded by seven major airlines to explore the areas of airline pricing, demand forecasting, network revenue optimisation, and simulation of the competitive impacts of revenue management, and worked as a consultant on the evaluation, development and implementation of revenue management systems at over thirty airlines and travel companies worldwide. So I guess he is not poor or struggling either.

So next time you pay through the nose for a last minute fare, or are unlucky enough to be subjected to the rapacious revenue management systems of British rail companies, think of Peter Belobaba.

[dubaiboy]

I would urge you to check as I had an experience with FR some time ago - must be 6 years now, when my outbound flight to Treviso was cancelled. I made alternative plans to get to Italy.

When I presented myself at Treviso for the return, they wanted to charge me again as I "had not taken the flight out" When I pointed out they had actually cancelled it, it cut little ice with them. It was only after a lot of phone calls and arm waving that they allowed me to travel "just this once" without what they described as a "penalty"

As with all things FR, I think it best to check!! But to be fair in those days I use to use them 8/10 times a month and they rarely let me down