Originally Posted by
Intl359Widget
I’ve worked in quantitative strategy for the airline industry, particularly in revenue management—forecasting market behavior and informing pricing decisions. Historically Alaska used to file one way fares only prior to Covid and then adopted a new pricing strategy filing RT fares that enabled them to match fenced products to be more competitive such as a minimum stay to be competitive with legacy carriers.
Primary benefit of booking OWs is when there is a change - particularly when there are no good AS alternatives, best option is to request a refund, book elsewhere. In the case of a R/T, it will be necessary to cancel the entire ticket, could be more expensive to book the other leg, loss of any upgrades.
Now that it is possible to earn EQPs on award travel, I will also look at booking at least one leg with points, particularly when saver F awards are available. F seats for the return leg of an upcoming trip to HNL on HA A330 was 62k points; likewise, it is possible to find saver Y awards between SAN and HNL and OGG as low as 7.5k.