Originally Posted by
pinniped
It sounds like you've hit upon an insanely high Y fare, not really a smoking deal on J.
If I wanted to fly any route in the world and saw a $2,000 price tag for Y and no other viable options, the first thing I'd do is query J. And if I saw $2,500, I'd likely buy it. (Assuming, of course, that *not* taking the trip was not an option and those were literally my only two choices.)
This pricing is for both of our fares, and the current lowest price found via Hipmunk was $1700, again for both of us. And that was for tight connections in SF and IAH as opposed to the (preferred by us) PDX-IAH-BOG. With a long but not terrible layover in IAH in both directions.