MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

I have just taken a job where I will always be buying close end (1-4 days out) and always one ways. I am MIA based and anything over $400 requires a verbal HQ approval. I am suppose to use Kayak and Expedia to compare flights but can take into account bag fees (I will need to check a bag) and a direct routing versus a complicated connection. So anyone experienced at purchasing one ways on AA/US and how GENERALLY fares compare to others, particularly WN.

ijgordon

I don't think you can generalize at all. It will depend significantly on the city pair and what the competition may be on that route. I think sometimes you'll find AA more expensive and sometimes AA will be less expensive. Sometimes the fare may be <$200 and sometimes it may be $800. But I imagine AA will generally have the best schedules out of MIA as it's a hub, as you know.

PbodyPhoto

Most domestic fares are filed as one way fares anyway so that won't hurt you too much.

taxicabnumber

The exception to this, unfortunately, is when the origin/destination is a hub -- there are still a lot of one-way fares filed, but a nontrivial number of fares to/from hubs do require a round-trip purchase.

TheSkyGuy

For a data point (I know the cities don't include Miami, but it's just an example)...

I booked ORD - LAX yesterday evening 5/27 for travel Saturday morning 5/30. Needed to be in LA before 2pm and returning on a red eye to be back at ORD for an early flight Sunday.

Chicago ---> LAX

Southwest was ~$550 one way. (No WGA fares available)
AA and United were both ~$450 one way.
Delta was ~$250 one way. ^

Obviously YMMV based on a bunch of factors.

Sometimes when I book last minute, I HAVE to go with the cheapest and not stick to my alliance to AA. I also consider, if I pay the extra money for AA how likely is it my upgrade will clear/are there good MCE seats available, what extra fees are associated with flying someone else, etc. I'm a numbers man.

It helps that Chicago is a hub for AA, UA and WN so my options are more vast than someone in city like Miami that is dominated by one airline.

dave_SEA

I've bee trying to get a good fare on a particular route, and was able to yesterday hold the outbound at a good fare, and today held the return at a good fare. I've been looking for a week, and never managed to have the price on each low at the same time to buy a RT, but I did find two OWs.

Are there any real disadvantages of having this trip booked as two round trips? I recognize that if I had to cancel/change, the fees would make the value of the OW almost useless. Anything else?

ACA321

None that I know of...I've been doing this a lot on domestic itineraries lately, as I've noticed the price to be significantly less in many cases. It especially pays off when I book a multi-city trip.

JDiver

On domestic and some near international flights, there's no downside and at least one upside: if you have to cancel a partially or fully nonrefundable fare, you lose less.

On the other hand, you may find some one waybfares to cost significantly more than round trips. Hub to hub fares, international fares can do that: I recently tried to price one way LIS-SFO and ~$6,000 was the business fare. The same fare as a round trip was about half of that.

mvoight

That is pretty much it.. The real difference is the cost to cancel, unless the round trip is a different fare basis, then there could be other differences.

Spanish

How about flying from the Fort Lauderdale airport? You south of MIA or within 1/2 hour of FLL on good traffic day? FLL so very competitive, I usually fly to the USA on business into MIA and go domestic itinerary out of FLL.

Check your options. Unless you living in Kendall or Homestead way far from the FLL. Then that may not making much sense.

cyberjet

Other advantages of one ways are *much* greater flexibility
1. open return. (but you could get stuck with a higher fare unless you can #2 ...). Recently attended a funeral and I could stay longer as turned out to be needed

2. Mix airlines for lower rate

3. Turn round trip into a multicity mid trip

4. Create a lower cost connection by flying further, then back tracking eg SFO to RDU, RDU to ORD is sometimes lower than SFO to ORD ... Swap city pairs as needed

DenverBrian

Instead of Kayak/Expedia, I've been drawn more and more to Google Flights for price shopping. It's a cleaner interface and seems to do a better job of pricing "alternative" segments. For instance, for ORD-LAX, Google Flights seems to better show AA alternatives like ORD-DFW-LAX and ORD-PHX-LAX.

Zacnlinc

I've tried for couple days to get a multi-city fare to work for me price wise but gave up last night.

Plans have me to travel through DFW to MFE from SFO. On return I have to stop in DFW. Multi-city itinerary, at time slots most convenient, trip would cost about $1800 Y and $2200 in F. I ended up finding a deal by buying two round trips between my city pairs.

Price for both trips in Y $1400 and in F at $1600. It was a no brained at that point. I snagged the F tickets.

RogerD408

Another issue that may be an issue, by booking two one-ways, if you should miss your outbound, your return will remain intact. That could be helpful if you have volatile travel plans.

Price shopping airlines does get tough, not only do you need to check dates, but routes, and RT vs OW vs OpenJaws.

texontour

I am booking a trip from MIA-DFW on Nov 10-13.

One way Main Cabin fares is $184 each way. Round Trip for the same flights is $199.

I thought a couple of years ago they fixed the one way pricing to be in line with the Round Trip pricing. Is this an issue that everyone is seeing now that the Basic Economy Fares have been released?