Booking the return trip

Our Aufenthaltserlaubnis (residence permit) will expire on July 31, and we are required to leave Germany by this date unless we apply for an extension. Time really flies; we have to start planning our return to the US already.

First, the bad news. Glenda's, Gabriel's and Jocelyn's air tickets were redeemed from air miles. When we got the tickets last June, we could book the outbound flight to Germany, but we could not book the return seats for this July or August because the flight schedules and seats were not released then. When I inquired for the return seats for late July or early August recently, I was told that all the seats that were allocated for air mile redemption on United were solidly booked. Even if there were seats, I was told that we could not claim them with the existing tickets because of the "one-year rule(s)". For tickets purchased with real cash, such as mine, the validity is one year from the first day of travel. For air-mile ticket, it is one year from its date of issue. The air mile tickets were issued last June for a departure date two months later, which means they cannot be used for travel after the academic year at the kids' school ends in July. Sneaky airlines. For my ticket, I have to pay a $250 change fee to get a seat.

Then, the good news. This means we can choose any day we want to leave as we have to buy the tickets. There are lots of seats left on the flights, just no additional seats for air-mile redemption. The tickets are a lot cheaper than they were a year ago. The amount I paid for my ticket last year, plus the hefty change fee, is about the same as two roundtrip tickets between Frankfurt and San Francisco now. So other than the spent air miles, we would actually save real cash by buying the tickets now than having bought a ticket last year and pay a change fee of $250 per ticket afterwards.

Why buy a roundtrip ticket if we are simply returning to the US? A one-way ticket actually costs three times as much (not less!) as a roundtrip ticket. My speculation is that the airlines have a statistical model to predict how many seats would not be claimed on a flight, which allow them to oversell the available seats. By pricing the one-way ticket at three times that of a roundtrip ticket, travelers on a one-way journey would purchase a roundtrip ticket and let the return leg expires. This would then reduce the possibility of oversold seats on the return flight (and the chance for the airlines to ask for volunteers to give up their seats for a compensation).

Our return flight to the US is on July 31, the last valid day of our residence permit. We will miss Germany.