An open-jaw itinerary is a round trip where you fly into one city and return from a different one. For example, you might fly London to Rome, travel overland through Italy and France, then fly Paris back to London. Instead of backtracking to Rome for your return flight, you save time and often money by departing from wherever your trip ends.
Open-jaw tickets are different from multi-city bookings (which involve multiple one-way flights) and from stopovers (where you break a journey at a connecting point). The key advantage of an open-jaw ticket is that it's priced as a round trip rather than two separate one-way flights, which can be significantly cheaper — especially on legacy airlines where one-way fares are often higher than half a round trip.
Open-jaw itineraries save money in several scenarios. The most common is a road trip or train journey where you don't want to return to your starting city. Driving from Barcelona to Lisbon, taking the train from Amsterdam to Prague, or island-hopping from Athens to Dubrovnik are all natural fits for open-jaw bookings.
They also save money when one-way fares are expensive. Legacy carriers like British Airways, Lufthansa, and Air France often price one-way tickets at 60–80% of a round trip. An open-jaw ticket on these airlines is priced as a round trip, using the average of the two route fares — which means you pay roughly the same as a standard return but gain the flexibility of different cities.
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Budget airlines like Ryanair, easyJet, and Wizz Air price every flight as a one-way ticket. There's no price difference between booking a round trip, an open-jaw, or two separate one-way flights — they're all priced identically. For budget carrier routes, simply book whichever flights are cheapest, regardless of format.
Most major flight search engines support open-jaw bookings. On Google Flights, click the departure/arrival fields and enter different cities for your outbound and return flights. Skyscanner has a 'Multi-city' option that works for open-jaw. Kayak's multi-city search also handles this well. On airline websites, look for 'Multi-city' or 'Multiple destinations' in the search options.
When searching, always compare the open-jaw price against two separate one-way tickets. Sometimes, especially during sales, two one-ways can be cheaper. But more often, the open-jaw round trip pricing wins, particularly on full-service carriers and for routes with limited competition.
The gap between your arrival and departure cities needs to be filled with ground transport, which is where Europe excels. High-speed trains connect most major city pairs: Rome to Florence in 90 minutes, Paris to Amsterdam in 3.5 hours, Barcelona to Madrid in 2.5 hours. Flixbus offers ultra-cheap connections across Europe, and rental cars provide maximum flexibility for exploring smaller towns and countryside.
When planning the ground segment, consider whether the transport cost makes the open-jaw worthwhile. If the train between your two cities costs €100 but the open-jaw flight saves you €150 compared to backtracking, it's a clear win. If the ground segment would cost more than the flight savings, a standard round trip with a separate one-way flight might be better.
A double open-jaw means both your origin and destination differ on each leg. For example, flying Manchester to Barcelona, then flying Rome to Edinburgh. Both your departure and arrival airports change. This is harder to price but can work well when you live between two airports or when you're combining the trip with visiting family in a different city.
Double open-jaw tickets are supported by fewer booking platforms. ITA Matrix (Google's flight pricing tool) handles them well, and many airline websites allow them under their multi-city search. Travel agents can also book these, sometimes finding pricing combinations that search engines miss.
Some classic open-jaw itineraries that work beautifully in Europe: fly into Barcelona, train through southern France, fly out of Nice. Fly into Prague, explore Central Europe by rail, fly out of Vienna. Fly into Rome, drive the Amalfi Coast and across to Greece via ferry, fly out of Athens. Fly into Edinburgh, drive through the Scottish Highlands and across to Ireland, fly out of Dublin.
Each of these avoids wasteful backtracking and lets you experience a linear journey through a region. The flight savings are real, but the time savings are often even more valuable — avoiding a 5-hour return journey to your arrival city can mean an extra day of sightseeing.
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An open-jaw ticket is a round-trip flight where you fly into one city and return from a different city. For example, flying London to Rome and then Paris to London. The 'jaw' is the gap between your arrival city (Rome) and departure city (Paris) that you fill with ground transport.
On legacy airlines (British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France, etc.), open-jaw tickets are often cheaper because they're priced as round trips. On budget airlines (Ryanair, easyJet), there's no difference since every flight is priced as a one-way. Always compare both options before booking.
Use the 'Multi-city' search option on Google Flights, Skyscanner, or airline websites. Enter your outbound route (e.g., London to Rome) and return route (e.g., Paris to London) as separate legs. The search engine will price this as a single booking rather than two one-way tickets.
Europe's extensive rail network is ideal — high-speed trains connect most major cities in 2–4 hours. Flixbus offers budget-friendly connections. Rental cars provide flexibility for countryside routes. The key is ensuring the ground transport cost doesn't exceed your flight savings.
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