Is it better to book flights together or separately in the event I have to change flights?
I want to book a flight from DTW to SFO and a return flight from SFO to DTW. They're the same price if I book them separately or if I book them together. I'm just wondering whether I should book them separately or together?
So there's 2 situations that I think I have to consider. If no emergency changes of plans occur (and I don't really think any will), then none of this matters. However, let's suppose one of the following two situations occur...
Situation 1: Something comes up and I have to change/cancel one of the flights but not the other one. Will it cost me more to change if I had booked it together as opposed to separately? I think, either way, the change fee will be the same, but what about the difference in fares for the case where I booked both flights together? For example, if I want to change my SFO to DTW flight and I want to keep my DTW to SFO flight the same, will I have to pay the difference in fares for both flights? (By the time I realize I have to make a change, the price of both flights will likely have increased significantly.) Or will I only have to pay the fee + the fare difference for the one flight I want to change?
Situation 2: Something comes up and I have to change both flights at the same time. In this case, I think it could possibly be better to book them together and hope that I only have to pay the change fee once? Is this true?
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Situation 2 is probably an order of magnitude less likely than situation 1, so situation 1 is really the one I need to think about. Thanks!
Best Answer
If you change even one leg, you will have to pay the change fee + the difference in fare for the entire itinerary (of course, if you booked the flight there and the flight back separately as two 1-way flights, then your entire "itinerary" is just one flight).
So, in your "Situation 2", booking the flights together is clearly better (only pay one change fee).
In "Situation 1", it all comes down to which prices you think will be more stable, 1-way or roundtrip. Anecdotally / from my experience, it seems that roundtrip prices are more stable, especially if the 1-ways are cheap only because of a special and temporary discount/sale (so you'd be better off booking both flights together), but I have no data to back that up. Perhaps you can try an airfare prediction site and see how both 1-way and roundtrip fares are predicted to change, and decide based on that.
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