<p>Hi,</p>
<p>does anybode have some experience with cheap one-way flights to the US, specifically from Europe?</p>
<p>I just checked a few regular airlines and their prices are stunning, with a roundtrip ticket ZRH-SFO for 1,400$, but one way is 3,000$ (yes, a single one-way ticket is twice as expensive as two full roundtrips...).</p>
<p>Are there some alternatives? budget airlines you could recommend?</p>
<p>have you tried kayak.com?</p>
<p>I would check out consolidator fares – websites like kayak, orbitz, and expedia. You might want to play around with dates too.</p>
<p>Also, I can recommend STA travel. Try making an appointment at one of their offices near you. They found me one-way fares from California to Europe (LAX - LHR, specifically) for about $800 on Virgin.</p>
<p>Yeah, it’s no surprise that one-way tickets are about twice as expensive as round-trip tickets.
I personally don’t recommend budget airlines.
Comparison websites like kayak are somewhat good, but they aren’t as cheap as it can get.
What you could try is StudentUniverse.com, they have partnership with many airlines and you just need to be a student (with .edu email) and you can get pretty cheap one-way tickets. Their main offerings are for tickets from the US, but I once got one from South America to California for $430 (taxes included). Expedia and others won’t be able to do that kind of search. I was suspicious of their service at first, but they have a pretty decent call center and everything was alright. So I do recommend checking it out.</p>
<p>My college funded my trips and they bought me two-way flights although they intended to buy one-way flights simply due to the fact that it was cheaper that way! win-win! So book two-way if you have to. And Kayak.com is pretty awesome. Finnair has some low prices too.</p>
<p>are you a US citizen or resident If not I dont think they will allow you to enter the country with a one way ticket</p>
<p>Buy the round trip and throw away the return leg.</p>
<p>ZRH-SFO is a hard one because there’s pretty much no nonstops and you have very little competition. Consider flying out of Heathrow or Frankfurt. Probably Heathrow (with 3 airlines flying nonstop the fares will probably be cheaper).</p>
<p>My son who is graduating now from a US LAC had no problems to enter US for the first time with a one way ticket four years ago.</p>
<p>It’s only a problem if you’re on a tourist visa or visa waiver. If you’re on an F or H, there shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replays.</p>
<p>Just to avoid any confusion: When I am holding an F1-visa, I won’t get into trouble with a one-way flight, right? Considered that I will stay for 5+ years this would be quite silly otherwise…</p>
<p>No you’ll be fine with a one-way. When I entered the US to start my freshman year, I had a one-way from Singapore to Los Angeles :)</p>
<p>You’ll be fine, but if the one-way is as expensive as you say it is, just buy the round trip, and skip the return. They’re not going to hunt you down and throw you in prison or something for throwing the return leg away. Round trips are usually cheaper because one ways are usually full fare tickets instead of discount fare.</p>