yyccdg

Later this year, I am looking at fly YYC-MUC then returning CDG-YYC. On the AC website, using the multicity tool and keeping the dates the same, I get different prices for the return leg depending on what I picked on my outbound. The pricing on the outbound doesn't change.
Y=$503
PE=$750
J=$1308

If I select the reasonable looking J class fare, my return prices are:
Y= $1364
PE=$2995
J=$5114

However, if I select the PE fare outbound, my return prices are:
Y=$833
PE=$2464
J=$4584

All of the return flights change in different fashions depending on my outbound fare class. Is this normal? Why would the price for the same flight change depending on my outbound? Would I get something different if I called AC Reservations?

Thanks for your help.

cperciva

Wait, Air Canada's pricing is supposed to make sense?

pitz

North American fares are exclusively priced "per direction". There are no restrictions on tickets such as Saturday night stays, round trip requirements, etc. The overseas fares are still priced based on round-trip fare rules and are not constructed "per direction".

Without knowing all of the fare basises that you were bringing up, its hard to give a definitive answer to your question. However, the booking engine, for example, might be constructing that cheaper J fare as a one-way add-on to the PY fare, ie: two separate fare basis', while the pure roundtrip fare might be using a roundtrip fare basis or might be constructing the fare with an allowed open jaw.

Its certainly possible that if you dealt with a properly motivated travel agent who could look up the rules and optimize accordingly that they'd be able to do optimizations that would not explicitly come up in the "consumer-friendly" online reservations tools.

You are probably up against a fare validity rule as well, because of change of season, expiration of a promotional fare, or simply fare bucket availability, when it comes to the wide discrepancy in pricing between the outbound and the inbound. $1308 YYC-MUC in J is a fairly deeply discounted J/P ticket, a price with limited availability, a lot of restrictions, nonrefundable, etc. $5k each way (ie: $10k) would be a full-J on that route, fully refundable, changeable, books into J, etc.

yyccdg

Thank you for your thoughts. Maybe I will play around with it and see if I can get something better by changing my departure point in Europe. The flights were outbound late November and the return before Christmas. I guess I didn't think my seat price for the same plane changed based on what I picked on the outbound. So much for a seat is a seat.

ABG

The P fare for your route Nov/Dec is approx CAD5300.00 with taxes (Depend on weekend/weekday travel)

The Lev

OP, I have noticed this form time to time when the outbound J fare has been very low. Not sure of the cause.

Stranger

But then usually the return gets very high. My guess is, this is because the actual price depends upon the round trip, so the price of the first leg is more or less meaningless.

Usually, when that happens, pricing works precisely the same on lh.com, BTW.

yyccdg

OK, so it basically decides that the round trip should be XXX in J so we adjust the return to get that amount. The same goes for PE. In the end, I guess I get screwed. Don't worry about what looks like a good deal because they will get you on the back end, lol. You would seat at a particular fare class should cost so much, not dependent on the price you paid on the outbound. Hadn't seen this before, usually I find something cheaper on the return if I get a benefit.

Stranger

It the end what looked like a good deal is just your regular stuff, yes.

jc94

I wonder, what would happen if you booked the cheaper out to get the best value on the return then phoned in to update the outbound to the class you desire?

Or tried to book on an Expedia type site,
I’m not a fan of them (due to the if it goes wrong situation) but if it’s saving very significant amounts, perhaps.

Just thinking out loud.

pitz

The change would continue to be subject to inventory and fare rule constraints. Plus a change fee might be assessed.

The return segment is likely pricing out to be something in full-J, so if a discount fare became available, the full-J could be changed to the discount fare which may cut the cost.

But from the information posted, we still don't know the fare basis' of the scenarios under discussion.