Open-Jaw & Multi-City Flights for Indian Families: How to Book
By Saanvi Iyer (Saanvi Iyer writes offbeat destination guides for Indian travellers — places that work in monsoon, shoulder-season picks, and the cities Indian first-time international travellers underrate. Based in Bangalore, perpetually mid-itinerary.) · Published · 12 min read
If your family is touring multiple cities on one international trip, booking open-jaw or multi-city flights can save real money — and cut out the backtracking. Here's how it actually works when you're booking from India.
TL;DR — What Is Open-Jaw and When Should Your Family Use It?
An open-jaw ticket means you fly into one city and out of a different city on the return — for example, flying from Mumbai to Paris and flying back to Mumbai from Amsterdam. A multi-city ticket lets you book multiple legs as one booking (Mumbai → Paris, Paris → Amsterdam, Amsterdam → Mumbai). For families touring 2–3 destinations in Europe or Southeast Asia in one trip, these structures can save significantly over buying separate round-trips, while also eliminating the need to backtrack. The best place to book them from India is directly on airline websites or OTAs that support multi-city search like MakeMyTrip — though the tool has quirks that you need to know about.
The Basic Math: Why Open-Jaw Often Beats a Return Ticket
Consider a family planning a Europe trip: two weeks touring Italy, then Switzerland, then ending in Amsterdam. If you book a standard return Mumbai–Rome with a Mumbai–Rome return, you're paying for a flight back from Rome that you don't need — and you're also paying for trains or internal flights from Amsterdam back to Rome just to catch that flight home. That's money and time spent going backwards.
An open-jaw ticket — Mumbai to Rome (inbound), Amsterdam to Mumbai (outbound) — solves both problems. You pay for the actual journey you're making. In practice, the open-jaw fare is usually priced somewhere between the two individual city return fares, often representing a meaningful saving. The exact saving depends entirely on the route and timing — sometimes it's modest, sometimes it's substantial. Use FlightGPT's flexible search to compare the open-jaw total against buying two separate returns before you decide.
Multi-city is the same logic extended to more legs. Family going Mumbai → Bangkok → Bali → Singapore → Mumbai? A multi-city itinerary ties all four legs into one booking. This matters particularly for families because it simplifies the baggage check-through and means a single carrier or alliance is responsible for your whole itinerary.
How to Book Open-Jaw on MakeMyTrip (Step by Step)
MakeMyTrip is the most commonly used OTA for this among Indian families, and it does support open-jaw and multi-city search — though the interface changes periodically, so treat this as a guide rather than exact screen-by-screen instructions.
- Go to Flights on MakeMyTrip. Look for a 'Multi-city' tab near the search box (it's usually next to 'One-way' and 'Round-trip'). Select it.
- Enter your legs. Add each city pair as a separate leg — Mumbai to Paris, then your return city to Mumbai. For open-jaw, the first leg departure city and the last leg arrival city match (Mumbai), but the return departure city is different (Amsterdam).
- Search and compare. MakeMyTrip will show you combinations that could include different airlines for different legs — some on one PNR, some as separate bookings. Pay attention to which result is a single PNR versus separate bookings (more on this below).
- Check baggage rules. Multi-city results with different airlines for different legs will have separate baggage rules per airline. This is where families can get surprised — your checked baggage allowance may be 23kg on leg 1 and 20kg on leg 2, and the airlines treat them independently.
For Air India specifically, the airline's own website (airindia.com) has a multi-city search function that often surfaces better prices on Air India-operated legs and ensures everything is on a single Air India PNR when you're booking fully on their metal.
The Single PNR vs Separate PNR Problem (And Why It Matters With Kids)
This is the part most families discover the hard way. When you book a multi-city or open-jaw itinerary, you may end up with:
- A single PNR (one booking reference): All your flights are under one booking. If the first flight is delayed and you miss the connection, the airline is responsible for rebooking you through — including your whole family on all remaining legs.
- Separate PNRs (separate bookings): Each leg or pair of legs is its own independent booking. If the first flight is delayed, the second airline doesn't know and doesn't care. You're on your own to rebook and absorb the cost.
With children — especially young children — a disrupted journey that turns into a scramble to rebook four people at an airport is significantly worse than a disrupted journey where the airline handles it. This is a strong argument for booking within a single airline or alliance when possible, even if a mix-and-match option looks cheaper upfront.
Practical rule: if any of your legs are on the same airline or within the same alliance (e.g. Air India + Lufthansa both in Star Alliance; Emirates + flydubai), ask the airline or OTA whether the whole itinerary can be on a single PNR. It often can, and it's much safer for families.
Open-Jaw for European Family Trips: Practical Examples
Some open-jaw combinations that work well from India for family Europe trips:
- London in, Paris out (or vice versa): Fly into LHR or LGW, take Eurostar to Paris, tour Normandy, Paris, Bruges, and fly home from CDG. No need to repeat London. Air India flies direct to both London and Paris from Delhi and Mumbai.
- Rome in, Amsterdam out: Classic Mediterranean to Northern Europe arc. Via Emirates, Qatar, or Lufthansa — all have solid India connections to both cities.
- Bangkok in, Singapore out: Popular for Southeast Asia family trips. Fly into BKK on IndiGo or Thai Airways, travel overland or short-hop through the region, exit from SIN. Singapore Airlines and IndiGo both operate India–Singapore routes.
The key thing to price honestly: internal travel (trains, buses, cheap regional flights between cities) is not included in your open-jaw ticket. Budget for this separately. For European routes, Eurail passes or point-to-point train tickets often make more sense for families than internal flights. For SE Asia, budget airlines like AirAsia and Vietjet have very low fares for the regional legs.
Pitfalls to Avoid When Booking Multi-City as a Family
A few things I've seen trip up Indian families specifically:
- Infant seats across airlines: If your multi-city booking involves different airlines on different legs, each airline has its own infant policy. A bassinet seat confirmed on leg 1 doesn't mean it's confirmed on leg 2. Request separately with each carrier and confirm independently.
- Visa requirements at every city: An open-jaw ticket means you're entering at one airport and exiting from another, which may require a different visa or permit for each country. European multi-city is often covered by a single Schengen visa, but check specifically — some family trip combinations cross Schengen and non-Schengen borders (Switzerland is Schengen; the UK is not). Check the current visa rules at /visas.
- OTA cancellation policies: Multi-city bookings on OTAs often have more restrictive cancellation and change policies than simple return tickets. Read the fare rules before you confirm. A family trip often has higher uncertainty around dates — slightly more flexible (and expensive) fares may be worth it.
- Children's fare calculation: Child fares (2–11 years) are typically a percentage of the adult fare, and this percentage varies by airline and route. On a multi-city booking with different airlines, the child fare calculation happens per airline. Check the totals carefully — OTA displays don't always make this transparent.
For a broader picture of planning family air travel, see our international airline rankings for families and the guide to family-friendly transit hubs.
Frequently asked questions
What is an open-jaw flight ticket and is it cheaper than a return?
An open-jaw ticket means you fly into one city and return from a different city. It's not always cheaper than a return, but it often is — and it eliminates backtracking costs when you're touring multiple destinations. The total saving depends on the specific route and timing. Compare the open-jaw fare against (a) a round trip to one city plus an internal flight, and (b) two separate one-way tickets, to see which works out better. Use a flexible search tool like FlightGPT's multi-city search to run these comparisons quickly.
Can I book a multi-city family trip on MakeMyTrip or EaseMyTrip?
Yes. Both MakeMyTrip and EaseMyTrip support multi-city flight search. Look for the 'Multi-city' tab in the flight search section. Enter each leg separately. The key thing to check: whether the results shown are a single-carrier booking (one PNR, protected connection) or a mix of separate bookings (separate PNRs, no protection if you miss a connection). For families, a single PNR is significantly safer — if anything goes wrong, one airline handles rebooking the whole group.
Is Schengen visa sufficient for a multi-city Europe trip?
A Schengen visa covers 26 European countries including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, and Switzerland. If your entire European itinerary stays within Schengen countries, one visa covers the whole trip — including an open-jaw entry at one Schengen airport and exit from another. However, the UK is not Schengen and requires a separate UK visa. Ireland is also not Schengen. If your multi-city itinerary includes both Schengen and UK destinations, you need both visas. Check current visa requirements at <a href='/visas'>FlightGPT's visa guide</a> or on the VFS Global and UK Visas & Immigration websites.
What happens if I miss a connecting flight on a multi-city booking?
It depends entirely on whether your itinerary is on a single PNR or separate bookings. On a single PNR (one booking reference covering all legs), the airline is responsible for rebooking you on all remaining legs at no additional cost if the delay was caused by them. On separate PNRs (each leg independently booked), you bear the cost of rebooking legs you miss because of a delay on a different leg. For families, the single-PNR protection is valuable enough to pay a premium for — or to structure your itinerary around a single carrier or alliance where possible.
Can I book infant seats on all legs of a multi-city itinerary?
You need to make sure each airline on each leg has the infant booking and any special requests (like bassinet seats) confirmed separately. This is especially important on multi-carrier multi-city bookings where your infant is technically booked as a separate service entry on each leg. When booking through an OTA, confirm special meal and seat requests directly with each operating airline rather than relying on the OTA to pass them through — this is where things often fall through the cracks.
How far in advance should I book a multi-city family trip from India?
For Europe and long-haul multi-city travel, 3–6 months in advance is a reasonable window to find decent fares. School holiday periods (especially the May–June summer break and December–January peak) see significantly higher fares, so earlier is better for those dates. For SE Asia multi-city trips, 2–3 months is usually sufficient outside of peak periods. Use FlightGPT's flexible date search to identify whether shifting your travel by a week either side yields meaningfully lower fares — with a family of four, even small per-person savings add up.