Originally Posted by
jsloan
Sadly, displaying one-way prices instead of round-trips (à la Google Flights, Matrix, etc) is a time-honored deception within the airline industry. I'd argue that this "quarter-round-trip pricing" is particularly deceptive, but it doesn't look like UA is motivated to change it.
I think part of it is that they got taken to town domestically by WN. With all one-way pricing, it was completely valid for them to show one-way prices. I know it amounts to the same thing, but I'm impressed at the psychological effect of airfare "feeling cheaper" when you buy two $255 segments instead of one $510 trip. I know I could
feel it (despite that being stupid) when they rolled out the new site and switched. I think it's similar to the $x.99 marketing strategy and they felt pressed to adopt it. The segment price is basically correct 99% of the time.