Originally Posted by
cmtlatitudes
Thanks SDS, that's a thought. Even out right paying for tickets one way back from SCL on AA metal is frustrating and vexing.
For example, October 1. (or basically any date around this time). The OW Ticket Price on AA metal from SCL to DCA in F/J is $6025. That's AA's "flagship" non-stop flight from SCL to MIA, with a tight connection to DCA from MIA. (2.5 hours, probably doable, but tighter than I would like.) Priced each leg individually, the SLC-MIA leg is $3412. The tight connection MIA-DCA flight is $775. Hello. That's $4817. I waste as much $$ for convenience as the next person (or more), but ~ $1200 is not chump change. The next MIA-DCA NS, with a reasonable connection time, is $575. That's A $2000 difference? ($$2000.00!) If I decide to take this flight, absolutely I would book two separate tickets and suck up the annoyance of going back through security. While thinking about what I'm going to do with my $2000 dollars savings.
Is there some logical reason AA is pricing one way flights in this manner on these routes? It seems so absurd I keep thinking I must be screwing up the searches or am missing something.
Long haul flights (Europe, S. America, Asia to a lesser extent) have priced one-ways like this since the beginning of time. Generally speaking it's usually absurdly expensive (compared to the roundtrip) to buy a one-way ticket to/from the US to Europe, S. America, etc. This is nothing new.
The pricing variance you're seeing between SCL-DCA and SCL-MIA is also nothing new or unusual, but a different issue all together. DCA and MIA are different markets, different demand, different competition etc., so airlines will price these differently, even though you may be on the exact same flights for some/all of the trip. If you can save $2k by booking separate tickets then by all means I'd do that. I do that type of thing on 75% of my int'l trips I'd say.
That said, what is the roundtrip price for SCL-DCA? I would just book a roundtrip with the return at a date way off in the future when you may be able to fly it. If you can't fly it, just throw away the return, or hope for a schedule change and ask for a refund, rescheduling, etc. There are lots of options.