Open-Jaw Ticket
A multi-city flight booked as one ticket where you fly into one city and out of another — usually cheaper than two one-ways.
- Mumbai → Rome (outbound)
- Paris → Mumbai (inbound)
You travel overland between Rome and Paris during the trip — no need to backtrack to your arrival city.
Why this is cheaper than two one-ways: Airlines price round-trips lower than the sum of two one-ways (artificially, to capture "vacation" traffic). An open-jaw is treated as a round-trip by the algorithm, so you get the round-trip discount even though you're not returning to the same city.
- Europe trips: 25–35% cheaper than booking two separate one-ways
- Asia trips: 15–25% cheaper
- Africa / S. America: 30–45% cheaper
- **Google Flights** — click "multi-city" tab, add both segments
- **Skyscanner** — same feature, "multi-city" mode
- **ITA Matrix** (matrix.itasoftware.com) — best for power users; finds open-jaws Google misses
- **Direct on Emirates, Qatar, Lufthansa, Singapore** — sometimes 5–10% cheaper than aggregators
The gotcha: on a single open-jaw PNR, if you miss any segment, the entire rest of the ticket cancels automatically. Don't skip the inbound because you "decided to stay an extra week" — you'll lose the segment.
Indian-specific tip: Doha (Qatar Airways) and Dubai (Emirates) both add 24-72h free stopovers to open-jaw tickets. Booking Mumbai-Rome-Doha-Mumbai with a 48h Doha stop adds a country at zero extra ticket cost.