Open Jaw Flight

What is an Open Jaw Flight?

Open jaw flight is a round-trip airline ticket arrangement where the traveler arrives at one city and departs for home from a different city. The unflown segment connecting those two cities (called the surface sector) is the traveler's responsibility to cover by train, car, or other ground transport.

The name refers to the route's visual appearance on a map: two flight arcs connected at one end with an open gap on the other, resembling an open jaw. IATA fare construction rules recognize this as a distinct ticket type, separate from both a standard round trip and a multi-city itinerary booked as independent one-way segments.

Open jaw bookings differ from connecting flights, where a traveler changes planes at an intermediate airport as part of a single ticketed journey. In this arrangement, the surface sector is not ticketed: the traveler arranges and pays for it independently.

The Three Types of Open Jaw Itineraries

Open jaw tickets fall into three categories, each defined by where the geographic gap appears:

Destination open jaw: The outbound destination and return departure city differ. You fly from your home city to City B, travel independently to City C, and return home from City C. This is the most common type in corporate travel. A regional sales director might fly from Chicago to Dallas for a two-day conference, drive to Austin for a client visit, and return home from Austin, eliminating a backtrack to Dallas for the homeward flight.

Origin open jaw: Your outbound origin and inbound destination are different cities. You fly from City A to City B, and the return flight lands at City C rather than City A. This is less common and typically applies when a traveler needs to end a trip at a different home base than where they started.

Double open jaw: Both airport pairs differ. You fly A to B, travel independently to C, then fly C to D. This routing suits longer international journeys: a consultant might fly New York to London, take the train to Paris for an additional client meeting, then fly Paris to Los Angeles. The unflown London-to-Paris leg is the surface sector.

All three types require selecting the multi-city option in a corporate booking tool or GDS. Choosing the standard round-trip search won't surface itineraries of this kind.

How Open Jaw Pricing Works

Open jaw fares are governed by IATA fare construction rules rather than priced as two independent one-way tickets. The standard calculation method is the half round-trip (HRT) approach: each priced flight segment receives half of the applicable round-trip base fare for that city pair, with both halves combined to produce the total airfare.

In practice, a ticket priced this way typically costs roughly the same as a standard round trip between comparable city pairs. This is a meaningful contrast with two separate one-way tickets, which carry a yield-management premium: airlines price one-way fares higher because those travelers are statistically more likely to change plans at the last minute. Open jaw pricing inherits round-trip advance-purchase rules, which produce lower fares.

The surface sector doesn't add to the airline ticket price, but it does add real-world cost: car rental, train fare, or rideshare for the ground portion. Finance teams should account for this when deciding whether an open jaw booking is more cost-effective than a round trip paired with a separate short-hop flight.

A fare class consideration applies here: not every booking code available on a standard round trip supports this construction. Some deeply discounted fare classes restrict multi-city routing in the GDS, which can limit the savings a traveler expects. Travel managers reviewing booking guidelines should confirm which fare tiers are open jaw-eligible on the company's most-traveled routes.

Open Jaw Flights in Corporate Travel Policy

Most corporate travel policies address standard round trips and one-way tickets explicitly but leave multi-city itineraries like this in a gray area. This creates booking friction: the default round-trip search doesn't produce an open jaw fare, and travelers may not know to use the multi-city option or whether the resulting itinerary is within policy.

Effective travel policies cover open jaw routing with three practical elements. First, a clear eligibility rule: bookings of this type are allowed when the total airfare doesn't exceed a comparable round trip. Second, surface sector guidance: ground transport for the unflown leg is reimbursable under the same transportation policy that covers ground travel at the destination. Third, a fare cap or approval rule for complex routings that involve carriers on different tickets.

Companies that run frequent multi-city projects benefit most from clear open jaw guidelines. When travelers understand upfront whether an open jaw itinerary is policy-compliant, they book the correct ticket type rather than reverting to less efficient combinations of round trips and separate one-way fares.

Booking Open Jaw Flights Through a Corporate Travel Tool

Booking an open jaw flight means selecting the multi-city or multi-destination trip type rather than round trip or one-way. In a corporate booking tool, the traveler enters each leg separately: the outbound segment first, then the return flight from the surface sector departure city.

For multi-city business travel on frequently flown routes, booking in advance typically produces the best fares, since the HRT method applies round-trip advance-purchase rules to each segment. Last-minute bookings still benefit structurally from HRT pricing versus two separate one-ways, but the gap narrows as departure approaches.

Navan lets travelers book open jaw itineraries directly through multi-city search, with the company's travel policy applied to each individual flight segment. Finance teams get full cost visibility across both legs in a single itinerary view.

When Should You Consider Alternatives?

Open jaw itineraries aren't always the optimal choice. A standard round trip works better when the surface sector is logistically impractical: a long drive, an expensive rail connection, or a ground segment that requires overnight accommodation can erode fare savings quickly.

Multi-segment bookings involving two different carriers on separate tickets also introduce risk. A delay on the outbound flight won't automatically trigger rebooking on the return segment if the legs are ticketed independently. Travelers on tight schedules should weigh whether the routing flexibility justifies that exposure.

For purely local multi-city work, such as visiting several clients within the same metro area, ground transport alone is often the simpler and more cost-effective approach.

Related Terms

• Round-trip ticket: A standard airline ticket where the traveler departs and returns between the same two cities, as contrasted with an open jaw arrangement where one or both airport pairs differ.
• Return flight: The inbound leg of a round-trip or open jaw itinerary, covering the traveler's journey back to their home city or base.
• Itinerary: The full schedule of a business trip, including all flights, surface sectors, hotel stays, and ground transport legs that make up the complete travel plan.
• Minimum connection time: The shortest time an airline or airport recognizes as adequate for a traveler to change planes at a connecting hub, relevant when the individual open jaw segments include their own layovers.