Open Ticket
An airline ticket with a confirmed booking for the route but without a specific departure date fixed, allowing the traveler flexibility to travel at a later time.
An open ticket is a type of airfare reservation that confirms a passenger's eligibility to travel on a specific route and fare class but leaves the exact travel date unspecified at the time of acquisition. The traveler can subsequently contact the airline to confirm a departure date, subject to availability, within the ticket's validity period. Open tickets are common in flexible fare classes and are particularly useful for travellers whose plans are not yet finalized. They typically come at a premium compared to fixed-date bookings and are subject to specific fare rules regarding the window within which travel must be completed.
Why it matters
Open tickets serve specific use cases in corporate travel — extended-stay project workers, senior executives with genuinely unpredictable schedules, and travellers whose return date depends on the outcome of meetings or negotiations. However, they are also a potential source of waste: open tickets that are not used within their validity period represent a direct financial loss. Travel programmes that issue open tickets without tracking them lose these values systematically.
How it works in practice
An open ticket is issued by the airline or TMC with a confirmed fare but no seat reservation. When the traveler is ready to travel, they contact the airline, TMC, or booking tool to request a specific flight — the booking system then searches for availability in the reserved booking class. If that class is available, the ticket is 'opened' for the specific flight. If the class is not available, the traveler may need to pay a fare difference to access an open class. Tracking open ticket validity dates is essential to avoid expiry losses.
The takeaway
Open tickets require active management to realize their value. Implement a tracking system — either within the TMC platform or the expense management tool — that flags open tickets nearing their validity expiry and triggers a reminder to the traveler or programme manager. The volume of open ticket credits that expire unused in unmanaged programs is routinely underestimated and represents a direct, recoverable saving for programs that address it.