3-segment air travel: Need advice

My son needs to fly one-way from NJ to San Francisco July 1 to start a job. Then, for Thanksgiving, on November 24 he wants to fly round-trip SF to NJ, returning the 28th or 29th. What's the best way to accomplish these three flights without breaking the bank?

One way fares on no longer punitive and pricing is really by segment. What may affect your pricing is that all those flights are peak travel periods.

Still depends on airline, so check Southwest, JetBlue & Frontier for better one way segment pricing.

Also alternate airports like Trenton, Philly, etc

Price it out on kayak.com

too much time in between for it to be anything but a 1way for the July trip. As others said, 1ways aren't restrictive anymore. They are typically just 1/2 of the fare now.

Priced July one-way flight via google flights and kayak. Brutal.

Any chance you or another loved one has miles? The July flight can be yours for 25k.

It's not the one way aspect that is making it brutal, I am sure. It's that its 3 weeks away and a holiday week. Try different days, try JFK or LGA and also try Oakland rather than SFO

Not that I've actually looked, but does he need to fly on July1? Could he leave a day or two earlier and either lob into some accommodation locally when he gets there, or take a slower form of transport?

Not sure what you consider "brutal". These look pretty decent to me. United has plenty of non- stops around $315 OW on 7/1. Goes as low as $273 with a bit of date flexibility. Can pick up a 1 stop for around $250 from JFK or LGA.

That's pretty typical. The days of seeing $300 RT to SFO or LAX ended a few years ago. The new norm is around $500. Can possibly see closer to $400 with some good advance planning and off peak travel

That's not true - I fly cross country frequently and often for under $200 OW. The issue here is peak period travel.

So, that's $400 RT. I think that's pretty much what I said. $500 is common but $400 can be found with less peak travel.

I don't think $250-300 OW is bad considering you are booking a major holiday week 3 weeks in advanc

Thanks, all, for the input. Still pondering options.

Have to see how many miles we have. That might help with at least one flight.

Sign up for a United cc. You can get 50000 bonus miles for a sign up and $1000 spend in first 3 mths. That's two RT ticket

Did that about six months ago. Got us to a California wedding in April!

conandrob240 said:
Sign up for a United cc. You can get 50000 bonus miles for a sign up and $1000 spend in first 3 mths. That's two RT ticket

big difference between June 30 & July 1, probably due to July 4 holiday weekend travel

Would using 25,000 United miles to purchase a $300 RT ticket to CA be good value or no? Better to save the miles for more expensive ticket(s) and pay the $300 now?

unicorn33 said:
Would using 25,000 United miles to purchase a $300 RT ticket to CA be good value or no? Better to save the miles for more expensive ticket(s) and pay the $300 now?

I think that's the best deal for a domestic flight...International will cost 50,000 miles I believe. So, you're actually going as far as you can for the 25,000 miles if you decide to use them.

unicorn33 said:
Would using 25,000 United miles to purchase a $300 RT ticket to CA be good value or no? Better to save the miles for more expensive ticket(s) and pay the $300 now?

I'd save the miles if the RT ticket is that low. I'd be looking at a ticket around $500+ to maximize the value of those free miles

Two suggestions:

1. Try Frontier out of Trenton.

2. Search for flights on Skiplagged. It will give you flights for which your destination city is actually a connecting city for a different destination. Just get off at your destination and don't get on the second segment. There can be big savings this way.

Two caveats: You can only do this on the return flight of a round trip. And you can only have carry-on bags. Obviously, checked luggage will go on to the "final" destination.

Rule of thumb is $0.02 per mile. Thus, save 25,000 miles for a flight that prices out at $500 or more. American has a flight EWR-SFO June 29 for $229. I don't think you will do much better than that.

unicorn33 said:
Would using 25,000 United miles to purchase a $300 RT ticket to CA be good value or no? Better to save the miles for more expensive ticket(s) and pay the $300 now?

Just checked now and found similar numbers just using United. Under $300 one way not including any baggage fees.

I know it's thread drift, but... I always like to think of this question in terms of "what would it cost me to drive?" The IRS figures roughly 50 cents per mile allowance for mileage (fuel plus allocated ost of maintenance and depreciation). EWR to SFO is nearly 3,000 miles. So, that's $1500 plus cost of hotels and meals for 3-4 days. Even if you have 2 people in the car, that means about $1,000/person. With that perspective, flying is positively a bargain.

conandrob240 said:
So, that's $400 RT. I think that's pretty much what I said. $500 is common but $400 can be found with less peak travel.


I don't think $250-300 OW is bad considering you are booking a major holiday week 3 weeks in advanc

Thanks, all, for sharing.

Just a reminder if changing plans later is a possibility: the fee for changing tickets on Southwest is $0. Yup, zero. And your first two checked bags are free.

Good to know!

chopin said:
Just a reminder if changing plans later is a possibility: the fee for changing tickets on Southwest is $0. Yup, zero. And your first two checked bags are free.

@conandrob240

--I PM'ed you on a different travel-related issue. Thanks!