Originally Posted by
AlreadyThere
No to both. The fare reflects how they view the particular city pair market in question, not related to distance or routing.
Exactly. Airfare is not priced (by anybody) on a cost-plus basis (i.e., they don't compute fares by calculating the cost of transportation and adding a markup). Trying to make sense out of airfare will drive you batty.
The best that you can do is try to have some flexibility so that you can take advantage of the places that where market is currently cheaper.