FlyerTalker70

The thinking goes, if you are flying one-way then you must be a fat cat business person who isn't sure when their business meetings will end and when they can come home. They need the flexibility a one-way ticket offers them allowing them to specify when they want to return on their terms. Leisure travellers, on the other hand typically plan their trips weeks or even months in advance knowing exactly when they'll be off work, the places they want to see and consequently the outbound and return dates for their travel. Since these holidays are booked during holiday time they're unlikely to change (except perhaps barring a personal or medical emergency). Hence the reason why roundtrip (leisure) tickets are often offered for less than the one-way ticket. I suspect many business travellers don't even bother flying in Y in those instances as the fare difference between Y and J is often minor enough. The airline industry has developed a sophisticated system of price discrimination to target the right fares and prices to the right travellers which for many people works well.

As others have mentioned there are ways around this silly restriction such as using Aeroplan to buy the one-way fare (at half the cost), using an AC flight pass which allows you to book oneway segments for a fixed cost or purchasing a roundtrip ticket and only using half the ticket (i.e. outbound). BTW this practice isn't an AC specific thing, it's industry wide except for the odd ULCC like WN.

Safe Travels,

James

lhrsfo

Precisely, but I would add that it is also done very specifically to enforce the Saturday night stay rule. If you don't stay a Saturday night, you are judged a business traveller and, as such, your company will pay more. The fares can be about 3 times as much if there's no Saturday night stay - and, if you could simply buy two one ways, then AC, and others, would lose that premium. The great majority of businesses don't force their staff to fly LCCs on long haul, so there hasn't yet been pressure to change the rule.

Stranger

Of course the easy work around, if you can plan in advance, is to be phase-shifted and book flights say Europe-Canada-Europe.

Now working on a Dec. return and following trip in February...

(Makes it interesting though if I am phase-shifted but my wife who often flies on rewards, is not...)

smallmj

When I was booking YHZ-AMS for my in-laws on Icelandair, I had to book 2 one-ways to get the cheapest (economy light) fares. So things are changing slowly, but mostly in LCCs for now. As soon as one legacy carrier starts charging one-way TATLs that are half the price of a round trip, the rest will likely follow suit.

Also note that when pricing one-ways to and from the UK, the westbounds will always be much more expensive because of the UK's pricey Air Passenger Duty.

Palal

Just wait until Norwegian expands into Canada and AC will have to match the OW fare structure.

pilotboy1985YYC

I often take Transatlantic cruises. They are one-way cruises to/from Europe so I always need to buy a one-way ticket to either get home (Halifax) or get to Europe where my cruise is leaving.

The airlines which offer true one-way fares that I've either used or looked into is....

Westjet
AerLingus
TAP Portugal
Air Transat (for the most part)
Iceland Air
WOW Air
Norwegian (they don't fly to Canada, but it's still really cheap for example to fly AMS-NYC for $250 one way, then buy a $150 one way ticket from NYC-YHZ and total cost is $400. Not bad)

skybluesea

Geoflying

This is prohibited under Air Canada's International Tariff Rule 25 E ""Throwaway ticketing" - The usage of round-trip fares for one way travel;"

unclepants

TAP, too. And, with TAP, you can also do a free stopover in Portugal.

JustSomeGuy1978

I would suspect, at least on some level, that AC works in the cost of taking the aircraft back home. I.e. dead heading back to the origin.

maybe try ac for the return leg and an airlne that is based out of the destination and see what happens.

Stranger

Of course. But when McDo comes up with a higher price for people who only half of their burger, you tihng a court will let them get away with that?

Bottom line, tariffs are not the law. And as far as I know no airline so far has taking the chance of having these sorts of rules tested in court. Going after TAs yes. Bullying people, yes. But going to court, I think not. Guess what, they might lose, and likely so. So for the time being, bullying us works so much better.

Stranger

Now, if you would get AQDs... Anyway, ultimately not an option for us. Even though we like the country and actually learned the language.

swaigiux

or you may also try a travel agency selling consolidator tickets - most markets do have a one way pricing FROM Canada to Europe on AC, although of course it will not be 50% of a roundtrip

emilio911

Only from Canada to Europe? Why not in the opposite direction?

Also, please educate me, is it possible to buy these "consolidator tickets" online?

SparseFlyer

This.

With the Domestic/TB network, the frequencies are so high with various demand that it's likely not horrible for airlines to manage.

With international flights that see big demand swings, they probably don't want to get stuck sending full flights out and coming back empty. In fact, with a bit of forecasting, a competing airline could corner and drown another and "force" them to fly empty planes one way by playing with pricing and demand.

I also suspect that the Saturday/minimum length of stay plays a big part in it. There are some big ticket fares being sold internationally. Just think about $20K Australia R/Ts and $10K one ways.