Open-Jaw Flights: How Multi-City Tickets Save Money

If your trip runs through 2 cities, an open-jaw flight takes you into one and brings you home from the other, on a single ticket. Land in Venice, take the train south, fly home from Rome, and you never ride back to the city where you landed. Here is how open jaws price against a round trip and two one-ways, how to book one on Google Flights, and the 4 situations where the trick stops paying.

What is an open-jaw flight?

An open-jaw ticket is a trip where the flight home does not mirror the flight out. Drawn on a map, the route looks like an open mouth: 2 sides flown, and a gap between them that you cover by train, bus, car or a separate flight. That gap is not part of the ticket.

Airlines and search sites sell open jaws through their multi-city option. Every open jaw is a multi-city trip, but not every multi-city trip is an open jaw: a ticket from Chicago to Lisbon, Lisbon to Rome and Rome back to Chicago closes the loop with a third flight, so there is no gap.

The 3 types of open-jaw ticket

Where the gap sits decides the type.

Type	Where the gap is	Example route	When it fits
Destination open jaw	Between the 2 cities you visit	New York to Venice, then Rome to New York	A trip through several cities in one country or region
Origin open jaw	Between 2 home airports	Washington to Paris, then Paris to Philadelphia	You live between 2 airports, or end the trip somewhere other than home
Double open jaw	At both ends	Boston to Venice, then Rome to New York	Both of the above on one trip

The multi-city flight hack

The multi-city flight hack usually means one of 2 moves: the open jaw, or turning a connection into a stay. Airlines with free stopovers in their hub city let you spend days there on the way, at no added airfare. TAP Air Portugal, for example, offers its free stopover of up to 10 days in Lisbon or Porto on one-way, return or multi-city tickets.

Why book an open-jaw ticket

There are 2 reasons, and they can come together: no backtracking, and a fare close to a round trip.

No backtracking to the city you landed in

A round trip forces a loop: whichever city you fly into is the city you fly home from. Fly into Venice, work south to Rome, and a round trip spends your last day on a train back north. An open jaw lets the trip run in a straight line, so the ground fare and the day you would have spent backtracking go to the trip instead.

A fare close to a round trip

An open jaw is still one trip on one ticket, and it can price close to a round trip to one of the 2 cities. Two one-way tickets get you the same shape of trip, and where a one-way costs more than half the round trip, they can cost far more. Where an airline prices each direction on its own, two one-ways can match the open jaw, and mixing airlines can beat it, so they are always the third quote to pull.

Open jaw vs round trip vs two one-ways: which costs less?

An open jaw is not always the cheapest way to cover 2 cities. Price it against both alternatives for the same dates, and count the ground trip a round trip forces on you.

Example fares for May 4 to 16, 2027, economy, before bag fees. Not a live quote.

The plan: land in Venice, take the train to Florence and Rome, fly home on May 16. The Venice to Rome train is the same in all 3 quotes, so it is left out.

Quote	What you book	Flights	Extra ground cost	Total
Round trip	New York (JFK) to Venice and back	$786	$89 train from Rome back to Venice on the last day	$875
Open jaw	JFK to Venice, then Rome to JFK, one ticket	$812	None	$812
Two one-ways	JFK to Venice ($548) plus Rome to JFK ($627)	$1,175	None	$1,175

The 3 searches: a round trip to Venice, a multi-city trip into Venice and out of Rome, and each leg as its own one-way, all on the same dates.

Result: the open jaw’s flights cost $26 more than the round trip’s, but its total comes in $63 lower once the train back to Venice is counted, and you keep the last day in Rome. The two one-ways cost $363 more than the open jaw.

How to book an open-jaw flight on Google Flights

Any search tool with a multi-city option can price an open jaw. On a Google Flights search, multi-city sits next to round trip and one-way as one of 3 ticket types, so you can pull all 3 quotes from the same page.

Book an open jaw on Google Flights

1. Find your cheapest dates first with a round-trip search into either city, using the Dates view or the price graph.
2. Switch the ticket type at the top of the search to Multi-city.
3. Enter the first flight: your home airport to the city you land in, on your outbound date.
4. Add the second flight: the city you leave from back to your home airport, or a different home airport, on your return date.
5. Choose a flight for each part of the trip, then read the booking options: one link means one transaction, and a link for each ticket means separate tickets.
6. Compare the total against the round trip and two one-ways for the same dates before you pay.

If the cheapest result asks you to buy 2 or more tickets, Google’s help page says to confirm every ticket is available and buy them one by one. When 2 of those tickets meet at a connecting airport on the same day, the change of planes is a self-transfer connection: a delay on the first flight can make you miss the second, and you may have to claim and recheck your bags.

When an open-jaw ticket doesn’t work

An open jaw stops paying off in 4 situations, each with a quick check.

When it fails	What goes wrong	Check before you book
The 2 cities are far apart on the ground	The gap takes a long day or a separate flight to cross	Compare the open jaw plus a separate fare against one 3-flight multi-city ticket
No one airline flies both legs	The trip may only sell as separate tickets	Look for both flights on one airline or its partners
The result is separate tickets	Each ticket can carry its own change fee and bag rules, and a late flight on one can make you miss the other	Check the booking options for a link per ticket
You plan to skip a flight	A missed flight can cancel every flight after it on the ticket	Book only the flights you will fly, in order

The last row costs the most. Booking a flight you never mean to take is what a hidden-city booking relies on, and an open jaw needs none of it: every flight on the ticket is one you fly. If plans change and you no longer need the first flight, contact the airline to change or cancel it before it leaves.

Changing or cancelling an open-jaw ticket

An open jaw is one ticket, so changes and cancellations run through one booking, just like a round trip. Two US rules give you room, both checked October 2026.

The first is the 24-hour rule: under 14 CFR 259.5, an airline covered by the rule must let you hold a reservation at the quoted fare without paying, or cancel it without penalty, for at least 24 hours after booking, if you book at least 7 days before departure. The airline picks which. Use that day to rerun the round-trip and one-way quotes with the open jaw already secured.

The second covers changes the airline makes. If it moves your departure or arrival to a different airport, adds a connection, or makes you leave 3 hours or more earlier or arrive 3 hours or more later on a domestic trip (6 hours on an international one), federal rules count that as a significant change. On flights to, from or within the US, you can turn the change down and get a refund, even on a nonrefundable ticket.