How An Open-Jaw Flight Will Be The Money-Saving Ticket You Need For Your Next Adventure

We're constantly searching for the best ways to travel, whether by finding hacks to zip through TSA or looking into stress-free tricks to pick people up from the airport. However, one of the very first pieces to the puzzle is researching a flight, and when booking a round trip, the most budget-friendly way to do so might be to take an extra step and get an open-jaw flight. These types of trips mean your arrival and departure ports are in different cities and will typically land at the same starting destination (though a double open-jaw itinerary can include four entirely different airports). So, if you're traveling to New York City and deciding between John F. Kennedy or LaGuardia, it could be best to fly into JFK and out of LGA.

Generally, these flights are more cost-effective than traditional routes. Besides potentially being a cheaper option, you can also get more bang for your buck visiting different cities during one trip. Hypothetically speaking, you can travel from Miami, Florida, to Valencia, Spain. To get back to Florida, it may be cheaper to fly from Barcelona. Cities in Europe and Asia are often easily reachable by other forms of transportation, like trains, and train tickets from Valencia to Barcelona range from around $20 to $30. Another alternative to open-jaw flights is booking two one-way tickets to explore all your options and price points.

"There's an app for that!" is a common phrase used for just about anything — and in this case, it's quite true. If you're in the market to save money on your trip (because, let's face it, who isn't?), it's helpful to save some time and look at applications like Google Flights, GoOpti, or Kayak to search for the most comfortably priced route. Using the "multi-city" filter on these apps will allow you to book from various points, rather than limiting yourself to a two-destination round trip.

There are three types of open-jaw flights: destination, origin, and double. Destination open jaw is when you return to the same city you left from. Origin open jaw is when you return to a different place of origin — for example, you fly from Miami to Barcelona, and the return flight is from Barcelona to Tampa. A double open jaw is when your itinerary involves completely different ports (Miami to Barcelona, and the return flight is Valencia to Tampa, for instance). Experiment with each, using different airports and destinations, based on your budget and travel needs. If you're not sure which cities to research (outside of your planned departure and arrival points), start by looking up major hubs nearby, which tend to offer more connections — and, therefore, potentially cheaper flights.

Many factors go into flight prices, which is why open-jaw tickets can be beneficial but also more of a headache to book. Ticket prices are influenced by the destination, and more popular locations tend to have higher demand. Each flight booking site has an algorithm to be aware of as well. For example, a platform may lower prices on certain days of the week or during sale periods. The time of day you book your flight and your flight class availability will also impact the fluctuating scale. To get the best deal with an open-jaw itinerary, you'll have to put in the work to compare multiple routes and booking sites.

That said, one pro to open-jaw flights can be time efficiency. You can get more out of your trip by traveling to other places, besides your primary destination. Open-jaw flights can provide many options, as you choose the city to depart from. However, just as much as there are pros, sometimes booking an open jaw isn't the best option. Open-jaw tickets mean you have to get a little more extensive in your itinerary planning and figuring out further money-saving options to get to the secondary city. While the goal is to save money, not all open jaws fit the mold, and some may even be more expensive than a simpler round-trip itinerary. So, it's important to do your research to pick the best option for your travels.