When I travel, my first flight always leaves my home airport returns to the same spot – duh, right? Yet I rarely book roundtrip flight itineraries to make that happen.
That's because I book the vast majority of my travel using points and miles … and when you book award flights, it's (almost) always smarter to book one-way flights separately – not roundtrip. Not only do two one ways typically cost the same as a simple roundtrip, but that one-two approach to booking flights with miles gives you some important flexibility to pivot when plans change.
We got a good reminder of this principle recently from JetBlue, which now explicitly encourages travelers redeeming points to book one-ways separately. It's a consumer-friendly feature that we hope other airlines copy.
As with any rule, there are exceptions. Several airlines will, in fact, cut you a better deal if you book a roundtrip with miles – and one great airline mileage program doesn't allow one-way redemptions, period. In other cases, you might use the same amount of miles but wind up paying more in taxes and fees by booking one-ways separately.
Still, booking one-ways separately should be your rule of thumb when redeeming miles. So why book Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) to Denver (DEN), then book your flight home from the mountains to the Windy City separately?
The Price is (Usually) the Same
When you're paying for flights as normal, one-way flights can be a real grab bag:
- Domestically, the price is almost always exactly half of the roundtrip
- Ditto for short-haul international flights to the Caribbean or Mexico, mostly
- But to Europe, Asia, and beyond, you may wind up paying way, way more for one-way flights than you would booking roundtrip
But not when you book an award ticket using miles – it's a different ball game. Most airlines don't tie their award rates to the cash price, so booking two one-way flights using miles will generally (but not always) price out exactly the same as a roundtrip booking.
Here's an example for travelers looking to go from Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD) to Milan (MXP) in early 2025, starting with a roundtrip award ticket.
Air France/KLM's Flying Blue program is one of our favorite ways to book flights due to low award rates for economy, premium economy, and even business class. The taxes and fees are a little steep, but this is still a stellar deal for 40,000 miles roundtrip and $296 in taxes and fees.
Book those flights as one ways separately, though, and nothing changes: You'll pay 20,000 miles and under $115 for the flight to Italy…
… while the return to D.C. costs another 20,000 miles and $183.
There are exceptions – especially when it comes to the final cash surcharge, which might be slightly higher. But sometimes, the opposite is true: Booking Virgin Atlantic Upper Class, for example, you can actually save on taxes and fees by booking one-ways separately.
So if the price is the same, does it matter if you book roundtrip or one-way? Yes – yes, it does.
Flexibility is Everything
If the price is the same, you might as well build in some flexibility into your itinerary.
With separate one-way tickets, you give yourself the ability to change or cancel some of your trip without canceling all of your itinerary. That can be invaluable if your travel plans change – and can often make your trip better, too.
Remember that D.C. to Italy example from above? Let's take it one step further and say you also want to visit Rome on your trip, not just Milan. If you booked your flights separately (for the same 20,000-point rate, mind you), you could easily cancel just your flight home from Milan, rebooking a flight from Rome (FCO) instead – all for the same price.
With a roundtrip, this isn't so easy. You'd have to either cancel and rebook your entire trip … or call up the airline and work by phone to get it done. That's worth avoiding whenever possible.
Or, better yet, what if a better seat on your flight overseas opened up after you book? With Air France/KLM Flying Blue, it can be as cheap as 35,000 points each way for premium economy. If you want a little extra comfort for one leg of your journey, just cancel one of your one-ways and snag this deal instead.
This example also works great for business class availability, too. It's one of the reasons I'm obsessed with booking and re-booking (and re-booking and re-booking…) my vacations to make them better and better. That's how I turned an economy award ticket to Tokyo into a business class booking with ANA (and the best flight of my life) just a few days before my trip for right about the same cost.
That wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't booked two one-way flights.
Had I instead combined my outbound flight to Tokyo with my return flight back to the states into one roundtrip booking, it would have been much harder to cancel and jump on this hard-to-book ANA business class seat.
When you book one-way, you can simply dump one of the legs of your trip and not mess up the entire reservation. When you try to wriggle one leg of a roundtrip itinerary out of that booking, things happen. If you get the wrong agent, they might accidentally cancel everything – I've certainly heard of this happening). Or they might not give you an adequate refund if the computer system miscalculates the price of each leg – and when you're booking points and miles awards with partner airlines, that's an even bigger concern.
Save yourself (and your poor airline agent) the trouble. Just book one-ways.
Mixing and Matching to Make it Work
Mixing and matching one-way flights is the best way to stretch my dwindling supply of points, too. Whether I'm mixing and matching business class flights and economy flights or I'm using the leftover points in two different accounts to complete a trip, having the flexibility we outlined above can mean the difference between you going on your trip and having to skip it.
Let's plan out a trip to Alaska, for example. Let's say I only have about 30,000 points in my Virgin Atlantic account (which can also be transferred from all the major banks like Amex , Bilt, Capital One, Chase, and more) and I want to fly roundtrip to Alaska. Well, with most Delta flights to Alaska clocking in at 22,000 points each way on Virgin, I'll come up short of the 44,000 points I need for a roundtrip.
But if I look over at my Alaska Airlines account, the 30,000 points I have there can help me out. So here's what I do: Book two one-way flights.
I can fly nonstop to Anchorage (ANC) on Delta for 22,000 Virgin points and $6 in taxes and fees, and then return home on Alaska Airlines for 20,000 Alaska points and $6 in taxes and fees.
All of a sudden, I have the points I need to make a trip work because I was willing to book flexibly, all for about the same price as a roundtrip.
Another advantage of this mix-and-match approach is to fly part of your journey in business class and the rest in economy. Let's say I have some Air Canada Aeroplan points (which, like Virgin, are easy to earn: You can transfer points to Aeroplan from Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt, Capital One, and Chase) and I want to take a trip to Portugal.
For that long, overnight flight, I'd love a lie-flat seat in TAP Air Portugal business class. Aeroplan charges 60,000 points each way … but I can only get 100,000 Aeroplan points by transferring from my stash of credit card points.
That's plenty! Because if I book economy on the way home for just 35,000 points one-way instead, my business class and economy combo will only cost me a total of 95,000 Air Canada points.
This way, I'm riding in style in TAP business class across the ocean, arriving in Portugal refreshed, but saving some points by flying economy on the way home. Rather than simply searching roundtrip, this one-two approach for booking flights could be the difference between making a trip work with your current points balance and having to erase it from your wish list.
The Exceptions: Delta SkyMiles, Emirates & ANA
Nothing in the airline world can be easy, right? Of course someone had to break this rule – and in this case, two of the most notable “someones” are Delta and Emirates.
For long-haul flights across the Atlantic or Pacific, Delta frequently requires you to book a roundtrip in order to get the best deal with your miles – especially if you're hoping to hop on an ultra-cheap Delta SkyMiles flash sale.
Let's fly from Detroit (DTW) to Milan (MXP) for example. Here's the roundtrip fare, which clocks in at 62,000 SkyMiles (or 52,600 SkyMiles after the TakeOff 15 discount for Delta cardholders) to book basic economy to Italy and back.
But when you search the same route for a one-way instead using your SkyMiles, it's almost the same price as the roundtrip: 52,000 SkyMiles each way, or 44,200 miles after the 15% cardholder discount. Ouch.
This is almost a hard-and-fast rule for redeeming Delta SkyMiles on long-haul flights. Domestic flights, meanwhile, will almost always price out at half the cost of a roundtrip booking.
There are, incomprehensibly, exceptions to this exception (I know … stay with me). As part of a recent slew of surprisingly excellent Delta SkyMiles deals on Delta One, we've seen Delta offer one-way business class redemptions at half-roundtrip rates. But that's a rare case.
Now let's talk about Emirates. If you want the lowest rates flying economy or business class with your miles, the luxurious Middle Eastern airline will cut you a better deal if you book roundtrip rather than booking one-ways separately.
There's a reason for that: In order to get the lowest rate – like 108,000 miles in business class – you have to find and book a “Saver” rate … and those are only available when you search roundtrip.
For example, flying Emirates business class from either New York City (JFK) to Milan (MXP) or Newark (EWR) to Athens (ATH), the saver rate comes in at 108,000 miles roundtrip.
If you searched one-ways instead, that 54,000-point rate simply does not exist.
The math doesn't math on this one. If you're booking with Emirates Skywards miles, it's always best to book roundtrip. The exception is if you want to fly Emirates First Class – the airline no longer offers a discount on roundtrip first class award tickets.
Finally, there's the funky ANA Mileage Club, which won't even allow you to use its miles for one-way flights at all – not flying ANA, and not booking partner airlines like United, Turkish, and two dozen more.
But that's not such a bad thing. If you have ANA Mileage Club miles (or Amex Membership Rewards to transfer to them), you can book something like this trip to Barcelona (BCN) in United Polaris business class for just 100,000 miles and $45 total!
Bottom Line
When booking flights with points and miles, there's (almost) no reason to book a roundtrip itinerary.
With some rare exceptions, one-way award tickets give travelers the same pricing as a simple roundtrip booking. But even at that same rate, you gain the ability to easily make changes to their travel plans and even mix and match airlines (or cabins) to make your trip even better.