travelnews: Booking one way tickets for business travel

[BAO news for travel administrators]

Good Afternoon UO Travelers and Travel Coordinators -

Some UO business travelers choose to book their own airline tickets through online ticket selling sites like Priceline.com or Cheap Tickets.com  and be reimbursed after their trip.  This is fine but there is a new trend in airline ticket sales and we want to encourage you to be a wise consumer.

When a major airline is in direct competition with a discount airline like SouthWest, Jet Blue, Allegiant, Frontier Air or similar, they may choose show their fares on the online ticket selling sites as one way rates.  This practice is known as  "predatory pricing" and is an attempt by the major carriers to get the majority of the sales and push the smaller/smarter/leaner carriers out of business.

These one way fares are non-refundable and sometimes non-changeable.    Business travel often requires flexibility.  If you choose to purchase two one way tickets and you need to make a change, each of these tickets holds a change fee - meaning you pay double of what you would normally pay to make a flight change on a round trip purchase.  The result is a "throwaway ticket" -- it costs more for the change fee than to purchase a new ticket.  This means lots of revenue for the airlines, but creates a big hole in your travel budget and a waste of university funds.

The best practice is to use our UO contract travel agencies to purchase airline tickets.  Not only will they work to find the best fares, they are ready to help you with the most affordable change options.  And occasionally they can call a frequent flyer desk or their travel agent help desk to have fees reduced or waived, depending on the circumstances. And if you are looking to rack up your credit card points, the agent can always take your personal card for the purchase.    http://ba.uoregon.edu/content/air-travel#Travel_Agency_Information

If you choose to purchase your own tickets through an online ticket seller, be very aware of the type of ticket you are purchasing and its restrictions or limitations.  You can usually purchase a round trip ticket for the same price as those two one way fares and you'll be looking at just one change fee should you need to change or cancel your plans.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Have a nice weekend!

[cid:D409AF7E-A065-4B03-9E7F-72A60DB7E5EF]
Laurie Jacoby, CTC
Travel Manager
Business Affairs Office
University of Oregon
lajacoby at uoregon.edu<mailto:lajacoby at uoregon.edu>
541-346-3158

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