GaryT I don’t think that in your particular case, airlines would actually be upset about anything, really. But nonetheless, it is generally not in their interests to let people think they can do what you do in your revised OP. Because even if you will not travel at all if offered only a higher fare, I think you will find that the airlines have done their homework and know that most people will.
What classifies as an agent in the US? (i.e. are we talking about places where you can only buy tickets from a single airline, or ones where they are free to sell you tickets from pretty much any carrier)?
The reason I ask is that I used to travel quite a bit - and still do from time to time - and the place I get my tickets would routinely spend 30 minutes searching for cheap fares for me - even arranging and keeping track of what I called ‘back-to-back’ returns, where you would buy a return from Home->Dest, and a return from Dest->Home, then using the outward parts of both for the first trip and the homeward parts of both for the second trip (this meant that you could do two Mon-Fri trips but save quite a bit of money by buying tickets which included a Saturday layover).
Anyway, point is that they bent over backwards to save me money.
They were unusual
I suppose you could look at it the other way (i.e. that although they may not have made a large commission on each transaction, I never even bothered to shop around, and would sometimes use them for 15-20 trips a year). Anyhoo, I don’t travel anywhere near that much these days (for which I’m profoundly grateful).
A friend of mine recently took Greyhound to LA. He said the only thing worse about the trip compared to flying was the time it took.
He’s right, if I recall correctly from my military days.
In my recent experience the airlines don’t mind - or at least their booking staff don’t.
Anecdote time: a few months ago I was in Marrakesh with my girlfriend. We had flown in to Seville in Spain and travelled down to Morocco, and were booked to fly out from Seville too. Unfortunately my girlfriend got sick and the thought of a 14hr train ride up to Tangiers, ferry trip then another train ride on the other side didn’t appeal. It was now Friday morning, and we had to be in Seville for our flight on Sunday morning.
Realising we weren’t going to do it, and hoping the insurance would cover it, I called British Airways in London to see if they had any seats back to Blighty. The chap on the phone told me that yes they did, leaving that evening.
“Great,” I said, “how much?”
“Well, the standard single fare is £720 each,” he replied.
“What?!” I thought, bearing in mind that the return flights to Seville had cost about a third of that. However, as it was going to be an insurance job I was prepared to fork out. But…
“Will you be planning to return to Morocco within the next month at all, sir?” the BA man asked, with a hinting tone of voice.
“Er, no…”
“Are you sure you wouldn’t like a return just in case?”
“…”
“It’s just that the return ticket price is £369, sir. Shall I reserve the seats? We’ll put you down to return in three weeks, shall we?”
So, full marks to the salesman – I did ask him to explain the logic, and he couldn’t – as we were home 12 hours later, complete with a return ticket to Marrakesh.
I still claimed for the full-price one-way ticket, obviously 
{joke}
Insurance? What’s that, health insurance pays for your trip back because the gf’s ill?
Wow! Who’d a thunk that my whining thread would have been resurrected? I’m still wondering, however, what can the airline do to punish me if I fly the first portion of my roundtrip ticket and throw away the second one? I didn’t find a satisfactory answer in the previous responses.
Nothing, medstar. There’s nothing they can do.
Use your branes, man. 
What could they do?
You are not entitled to decide for the airline. The airline decides on what terms and conditions it is willing to sell tickets to you and you are free to accept or not. If you decide you are not obligated to fulfil your side of the contract based on your unilateral opinion that it is all the same to the airline, then you should accept it if the airline decides unilaterally to change the terms of the contract.
The fact is that the airline offered you a ticket at a certain price based on a certain condition. If you do not meet that condition they are entitled to charge you the difference with the fare you are entitled to. That is what they have lost.
Your view that they have lost nothing is like me saying that I am entitled to use your backyard for nothing. After all, what does it cost you if I am there? The fact is that you are entitled to set your conditions regardless of cost. The airlines are also entitled to set the conditions under which they sell their services. You are not entitled to use them under conditions they have not approved.
>> what can the airline do to punish me if I fly the first portion of my roundtrip ticket and throw away the second one?
They can sue you for the price difference. The fact that they choose not to do it does not mean they are not entitled to do it. It just means it is not worth their time. They can also deny you boarding on subsequent legs of the same trip as has been said here. They could refuse to sell you tickets in the future.
I was wondering where sailor was.
Another analogy;
If I see a gallon of milk for $2, and the quart is $3, if I buy the gallon and pour out half of it, can the milk company (a huge corporation, sailor) sue me?
What contract? A rt ticket doesn’t require you to complete the trip. How on earth could it. when you buy a ticket, you own the passage. The airline has your money to use as they will. You have the ticket to dispose of as you will. I looked at mine. Nowhere does it say I have to use any of it.
What forum is this? Oh. I was going to say something derogatory about the patriot act, but I guess I’ll save it.
You bought the ticket under the representation that you would use it in a certain way. If you had said otherwise the airline would not have sold it to you. Furthermore, you are not free to dispose of the ticket as you see fit. You are not free to resell it, for one thing.
I cannot see what is so difficult to understand that the airline owners and workers are free to set the conditions under which they sell their services and you cannot change them unilaterally.
If you offer to sell your vintage 1965 ford mustang and you make the price contingent on the new owner keeping it the same color, then, if the new owner paid the lower price with the promeise that he would keep it the same color and then goes and paints it pink, I would say you are entitled to the price difference. It is not for me or others to judge whether you were damaged or not. The fact is that it was your property to sell with whatever conditions you see fit. For a buyer to say he will meet a condition (in order to get a lower price) and then not meet it is dishonest and the buyer should be liable for the price difference.
And if you do not like that then have a law passed which makes that illegal. But as long as it is legal then you are obligated to fulfill your side of the bargain.
I can’t see what the Patriot Act has to do with anything much less with contracts between private parties.
We need to separate out facts from law here. I don’t know exactly what the airline would allege the contract would be, you may find that there is fine print somewhere that may or may not be held to form part of the contract (depending on issues such as whether it was brought to your attention before contracting etc) which is relevant to the issue.
But I don’t agree with mangeorge’s assessment that, in some completely unfettered way, when you buy a ticket you buy a passage that you can deal with any old how. Read your booking conditions and your ticket next time. What you are actually buying is a particular bundle of contractual entitlements that are closedly hedged with all sorts of conditions, whys and wherefores.
[In fact as an aside, in Australia, an airline ticket was held not to even be a binding contract because it was so vague that the court held it did not entitle the customer to anything at all]
If we assume there is no relevant clause in the contract , but that you did represent to the airline that you would fly the return journey, then the airline is left with some sort of action in misrepresentation. That is far too finicky a legal topic to bother getting into, apart from the broad observation that to succeed the airline is going to have to show actual loss as a result of the misrepresentation, which very likely going to be very difficult to do. Depending on exactly how damages for misrep are calculated in your jurisdiction, it is likely that the airline is going to have to show that if you had not misrepresented as you did, they would have refused to sell the return and you would have bought the one way. Tricky to prove.
If the contract says that you will fly the return leg, then you are going to be in breach by not doing so. But what are the airlines damages? At least in my jurisdiction, they would be calculated on the basis of putting the airline in the position it would have been in if you had not breached. If you had not breached, you would have occupied a seat, which would have saved the airline nothing, indeed it would have cost the airline the opportunity to sell the seat to someone else. So no damages.
Finally, (and this seems to be Sailor’s scenario) what if the contract says that if you do not fly the return you will pay the difference between the return and the one way fare. The airline would no doubt say that if you don’t fly the return, you owe a simple debt to them for the difference. But would that be enforceable? It’s an interesting point, but again one that is a finicky area of law, and one that is likely to vary between jurisdictions and I’m certainly not going to bother researching it.
But such a clause might well be held to be an unenforceable penalty clause. That is, a clause that seeks to impose upon a party a particular penalty in a particular circumstance out of all proportion to the loss sustained by the “aggrieved” party.
There may be another lawyer reading who is able to comment off the top of their head on the topic, but don’t be too quick to assume, Sailor that the law of contract is as unfettered as you might think.
Nowhere on the ticket did it say anything about having a obligation, contractural or otherwise to use any of the travel. The return trip wasn’t even specifically mentioned. I said “Give me a roundtrip to Dallas” and they said “Give me money”. I said “OK”. End of deal. (I’m paraphrasing, of course).
It did say that I would follow the rules and not annoy the crew, etc. It said stuff about baggage, and weapons, and liability. It did not say I couldn’t sell the ticket, IIRC. I see airline tickets for sale by individuals in the classifieds a lot.
If I buy a '65 Mustang, and the seller says I have to drive it at least 10K a year, I’m going to say “Yeah, right” and drive it as I see fit. If he doesn’t like my terms, he doesn’t get my money.
If you think airline travel is just a contract between private parties, you haven’t flown for a very long time.
Ah, The Act;
Nothing to do with anything, huh?
What does this mean?
**
You mean, if you don’t like his terms you’ll just pretend to agree, then breach them anyway. It’s not a case of him not liking your terms, given that you don’t tell him what your “terms” are (not that it’s really even appropriate to refer to someone’s hidden intent as “terms” anyway").
I’m not sure there is any contractual understanding that’s enforceable. If there is, I’d like to see it. Nowhere in the fine print does it seem to mention penalties applicable for non-use of the return. Besides, what the hell do they know happened to the return leg? You were sick, you missed your flight, you lost your ticket… Every single travel agent I’ve dealt with has sold me return tickets when they were cheaper than singles, knowing my full intent not to use the second half of it.
What that means, Princhester, is that most (all?) of the security conditions past the gates at the airport are set by the federal government, not the private parties involved. Air Marshalls, etc. In fact, security begins well away from the airport. Boy, it has been a while, hasn’t it? You should come over here (to Dallas) and see what real barbeque tastes like.
As to the vintage Mustang? I said “Yeah, right”. Around these parts that means “Not Likely”. He took my cash. So he agreed to my unhidden terms that I’ll drive it any way I see fit.
Besides, there’s some limit on the enforceability of after-the-sale restrictions between private parties. I saw it on Judge Judy.
Besides besides, it’s my money, and they (airline and Mustang guy) want it. That makes me the boss.
Security conditions seem to me to have very little to do with the topic at hand.
And OK, if the Mustang guy tacitly agrees and understand that you are not accepting his terms, fine.
Whether that is or is not analagous to the airline example is going to vary, case to case.
Great, so you invite me to Dallas for a barbeque but you want me to bring the food? Some invitation that is
Let me try to explain what is going on with Airline Pricing. (I worked in systems for hotels. These were developed by airlines and copt by the hotels. So here is what is happening.)
Airlines price by alogorithms. What they do is enter massive amounts of data for past flight patterns. Then every hour (some are as little as 10 minutes depending on the airlines preference) the computers analyze the tickets sold for a flight. It also analyzes oversell. It then says
“…Last time we had this pattern of seats sold, with this much oversell, the exact results were this…One time we took off with two seats empty. One time we took off with three seats empty. One time we upgraded to first class 2 seats for nothing etc etc…” This is called a seed.
Then the computer will generate recommendations on what prices to charge. This is coupled with input by a manager. For example if a pattern was caused by a snowstorm it must be excluded from the seed.
This is why you can check back and in ten minutes the prices change.
When you buy a round trip ticket the airline has generate revenue on TWO flights. One there and One back.
If you don’t return you are distrupting the seed. In otherwords the airline could have sold your return seat. Remember they can overbook.
In addition to pricing this analyzes whether or not a route is profitable. If 10 out of 100 passengers depart at Pittsburgh on the Chicago to Washington DC flight. This information is distrupted.
But now wait you are saying well they are still getting paid right.
Yes but perhaps not the MAXIMUM for the seat.
Let’s simplify figures. Lets say 100 passengers each pay 150 for a round trip from Chicago to DC with Stop in Pittsburgh. 10 of these passengers get off in Pittsburgh.
That is $15,000. The 10 people who depart in Pittsburgh paid $1,500
But this airline runs a less popular flight direct form Chicagdo to Pittsburgh at 200.00 per seat. so with 100 seats that is $20,000
So if the 10 people on the first flight from Chicago to DC had no other option they would have paid $2,000.
So the airline would have made $500 more.
Because there is more competition form Chicago to DC the rates are cheaper.
Now what about return trips. When you buy more you can get less right. So if you buy a return trip you are buying TWO trips in a sense. One there and one back. So you are getting a discount.
Suppose I go into a grocery store and it says Buy one at $5.00 get one free. You can’t say “I only want one so I should be charged $2.50” I don’t think anyone can see that wouldn’t work.
Because the airline MIGHT be able to charge more for your return ticket that you paid less for is why they are upset.
For example you pay $200.00 for a round trip from Chicago to DC. You don’t return.
Now the a business traveler wants to fly roundtrip from DC to CHICAGO. He can’t because there is no space. Now if they knew you weren’t on the plane they could charge him say $300.00 for a ticket.
Remember your return is someone else’s first leg of their trip.
Now you are saying “Well airlines overbook so they would sell it anyway.” Perhaps…Now we go back to the algorithim. It says the last time that pattern had we bumped 6 people. They only will overbook by 6. Supposing that business traveler is the 7th.
The thing that is confusing people is this is NOT about the airline making money. It is about MAKING THE MOST POSSIBLE MONEY for EACH SEAT.
People for some reason seem to get Revenue Maximization for other things but not hotels and airlines.
For instance does it cost less to serve a blue plate special? Why is it cheaper for the same meal at lunch in resturants? Why is a 2 litre of soda 99¢ on Saturday but $1.69 on Sunday (the sale ended)
Can the airline force you to pay up? Usually not.
What they can do is simply not let you rebook on future flights. They can cancel the rest of your stay.
Let’s take hotels if you make a guaranteed reservations for 5 days and don’t show up they bill you one night and CANCEL the rest of your reservation. You aren’t billed for all five nights nor can you claim the rest of your reservation.
Just as you forfeit the rest of your reservation you forfeit the rest of your flight.
I hope this makes sense.