Secret of Discounted flight tickets
Per suggestion from our CFO Tod, I called the ANA customer support to check if abandoning the return flight of discounted economy is okay or not.
Me: “Hey I have a dumb, direct question for you.” ANA Customer support: “Yes, sir” *M: “I have a return ticket dated April and once I get back from Japan, I’ll be staying here for more than 6 months. I have a valid L-1 Visa to do that. But buying the one-way ticket (NRT -> SFO) is pretty expensive like $1700. Is it okay to buy a cheap economy round-trip ticket and discard the return flight?” *A: “You have a visa right? If so, discarding the return ticket is all up to you. We can’t say don’t do that.” *M: “Oh, really. Then why are there that expensive one-way ticket?” *A: “Well, there’s no such discounted ticket for one-way tickets.” *M: “I see, but what’s the point of buying expensive one-way ticket then?” *A: “We’re selling the discounted economy ticket assuming you guys use it as round-trip, so … :)” *M: “But not using the return ticket is not a crime, huh?” *A: “Exactly :)” *M: “Understood. The other question is you guys are selling Economy Standard (エコ割スタンダード) as $1000 for SFO NRT but 220,000 JPY for NRT SFO. That’s a huge difference. Why?” *A: “That’s because it’s from Japan :) You need to give it up once you live in Japan …” *M: “Makes sense. Thank you. Oh the final question. I have a good return ticket (Premium Economy) and the Economy standard is cheaper here. Can I use this return ticket, then buy the Economy Standard SFO NRT and only use the return (NRT -> SFO)?” *A: “We’re sorry but you can’t do that. The ticket gets invalid once you abandon the portion of the flights.” *M: “Understood. Thank you!” *A: “You’re welcome”
That was a funny conversation.