Can I use my return ticket directly without leaving the airport?

Question

let say my purpose of trip is picking up someone.

and there are flight as follows:

flight A from place 1 to place 2 from 9:30-12:30pm

flight B from place 2 to place 1 from 15:30pm to 18:30pm

and they are the same plane.

After I arrived place 2, can I just wait at the gate and take flight B?

If your goal is to pick up someone (e.g. a child, an elderly person, or someone else needing help navigating an airport), wouldn’t it make more sense to pick them up in the pre-security departures area? Also, what are the countries (and possibly the airports) and airline involved? There are lots of possible scenarios. — jcaron, Commented Aug 13 at 9:42
This depends A LOT on the specific flights, airport, airline, and local customs. For most domestic flights this would work and for most international ones it wouldn't but there are lots of exceptions and special cases. — Hilmar, Commented Aug 13 at 11:27
Once upon a time when getting to the gate was easier it was not totally unusual to have a courier fly A->B and pick up the item to return B->A (or vice-versa). Saved a bit of travel expense on the courier. — Jon Custer, Commented Aug 13 at 12:22

lambshaanxy · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-13 11:35:04Z

2

Generally speaking, yes, if and only if all the conditions below are met:

You don't have bags checked in.
You can check in for flight B either online or at a transit counter in place 2.
Your flights are both domestic, or both international.
If both your flights are international, place 2 has to allow airside transit without a visa, meaning you can go to flight B without passing through immigration. (Most large airports allow this for most nationalities; the US is a notable exception that does not.) Also beware that a return flight this does not generally qualify as transit, so you will need to be able to enter the country of place 2, even if you actually don't!

answered Aug 13 at 1:28

lambshaanxy

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3

Even when both flights are domestic, some airports do not have transit facilities at all, and the only way out of the aircraft is to landside (ex-security)
– jcaron
Commented Aug 13 at 9:44
3

If both flights are international this can be tricky. Even if they allow airside transit you need full entry credentials to enter the country otherwise you can't board the outbound in the first place.
– Hilmar
Commented Aug 13 at 11:31
Comments have been moved to chat; please do not continue the discussion here. Before posting a comment below this one, please review the purposes of comments. Comments that do not request clarification or suggest improvements usually belong as an answer, on Travel Meta, or in Travel Chat. Comments continuing discussion may be removed.
– Willeke ♦
Commented Aug 14 at 4:18

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