Q. I have been living and working in Switzerland since September and I will be returning to the U.S. this July, permanently. While I have found numerous Europe specials (thanks to your newsletter) for flights originating in the States, it has been difficult for me to find a reasonably-priced ticket back home FROM Europe. What's the best way to go about finding the cheapest fare? I assume that round-trip tickets are considerably less expensive, even though I only need a one-way ticket. Would you recommend buying my ticket now or waiting another month or so in hopes that prices will go down? I have even thought about flying back to a large hub city like New York or Chicago and then flying domestically using a budget airlines...is this advisable? Any advice you have would be MUCH appreciated.

A. As you've probably discovered, one-way tickets are often so high that it can sometimes be cheaper to buy a round-trip ticket and only use half of it. There are, however, a few airlines that sell transatlantic one-way tickets at no or little premium, most notably Aer Lingus from Dublin to all its U.S. gateways (incl. New York JFK, Boston, Washington, and Chicago) and Zoom Airlines from London Gatwick to New York JFK. Qatar Airways also offers one-way tickets for as little as $480 on their Geneva to Newark non-stop flights, but apparently only in June and August.

You should have no trouble finding reasonably priced one-way tickets from Switzerland to either Dublin (e.g., on Ryanair from Basel) or London (e.g., on Easyjet from Geneva to London Gatwick, because you don't want the expense or hassle of changing airports there), and at the other end from, say, New York to your hometown, so piecing together your own itinerary like this using 3 different low-fare airlines is by far your best chance of getting a good deal and not nearly as complicated as it might sound. Although E.U. airline liability rules protect you in case of delays that cause you to miss your connecting transatlantic flight, make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to make your transfers.

While all of these airlines occasionally have sales, they also sell out their cheapest seats first, so since you'll be traveling during peak summer season I suggest you forgo the relatively minor savings of a possible sale and instead buy your tickets soon to lock in the best prices.

This is decent advise, but be wary of the fees for luggage on all the European low-cost carriers. If you are finally returning home after a long period in Switzerland, I assume you have a lot of stuff (as opposed to a vacation). If you are travelling rather heavy with two or three bags, then you'll pay stiff baggage fees PER SEGMENT. National/legacy carriers may or may not have caught on to the whole "charge more bags" philosophy. Definitely make sure you crunch all the numbers first.

Also, think about the hassle of de-planing, heading to luggage claim, grabbing bags, heading right back upstairs to arrivals level, checking luggage BACK in at the counter then going through security AGAIN in order to make your next connection. The margin for error, delays, etc., has now increased substantially. I'd say wait for the cheapest, yet lowest # of connections.

Good luck dude.

I strongly advise you check out the Canadian based charter services for this as you're travelling peak season. George mentioned Zoom, but there's also Air Transat, Globespan, and various travel agencies operating charters (such as Thomas Cook in the UK and TVU in Germany) and they *do* provide one-way tickets (in fact, most of them only do one-ways).

You don't say where you're heading back to in the US, and getting out of Toronto cheaply can be a pain, but some of the charters do go out west, especially Calgary and Vancouver. If you're based in the east though, certainly if you're vaguely between Toronto and Florida you're likely to be able to pick up a hire car with FL plates for no drop off charge.

Check the prices carefully; they're no frills flights and get very expensive when full, but if you can plan ahead I've found that a NCL->YYZ in August is about a quarter of the price of a AMS->PIT.