Booking RT vs OW on aa.com
 

I've always wondered this, so figured I'd post to the forum.

Is there an advantage to buying RT tickets on AA.COM instead of 2 OW? It seems that the segments are priced individually, and there isn't a discount for buying RT.

My scenario is that I know my outbound schedule today, but am unsure of my return flight. I'm wondering if it makes sense to book the outbound OW today while prices appear low, and then the return OW once I know the details.

One advantage may be that if your plans for the whole trip change, you're looking at only one change fee for a roundtrip.

Also, if you want to change your return trip after you've flown the outbound, that is sometimes cheaper than changing a close-in one way flight.

Flip side is if there's any chance you may not fly the outbound, but still want the return, you're much better off with separate one way tickets.

You seem to be missing the way the website currently works- at least for most of the fares. The OW fares you see are "OW based on RT purchase," as it says there. If you actually try to purchase OW, you will likely not see the same fares.

Cheers.

I know the sale fares often work this way but I'm seeing a lot of domestic OW fares that are 50% of RT right now.

I'm with tkelvin69.

There's a lot of fares I see on AA.com which are priced identically for OW as well as RT.

I think this is typical when WN also flies the route as they do not require a round trip. Not sure about the other LCC.

I'm nowhere near an expert, but the picture seems very different for international flights. I've seen all sorts of bizarre things there on different routes. Sometimes it won't let you book anything but unrestricted fares. Sometimes the restricted fares are upside down compared to the unrestricted fares, etc...

International is indeed very different pricing structure.

I've never seen a OW cost half of what RT does, unless we're talking unrestricted business/first.

But what I see for many airlines, not just AA, is that a good many (not all) of their domestic RT fares are really just 2 OW fares combined and that you can mix-and-match them as desired.

AA's Price & Schedule also allows mix-and-match for each direction, but still requires, in the end, a RT purchase. Certainly possible that it allows actual purchase of the OW separately, and it really is half the RT price. Hasn't been the case in the admittedly few cases I've looked at, though.

It would be interesting to see some concrete examples.

Cheers.

I'm not sure what's so difficuly about looking at fares at aa.com and seeing the difference but here's a OW and a RT I'm doing . $139.40 and 278.80

AMERICAN AIRLINES 1230 SEA Seattle Sep 27, 2010 11:55 PM DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth Sep 28, 2010 05:30 AM Economy O 13C Food for purchase CREATE

AMERICAN AIRLINES 406 DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth Sep 28, 2010 06:10 AM RDU Raleigh/ Durham Sep 28, 2010 09:45 AM Economy O 13C Food for purchase CREATE
spacer
Fare Summary help
Average Fare per Person - 118.00 USD
Passenger Type Used in Pricing Fare per Person Additional Taxes and Fees per Person Total Price
1 Adult 118.00 USD 21.40 USD 139.40 USD
Total Price 139.40 USD


AMERICAN AIRLINES

1352

RDU Raleigh/ Durham

Oct 07, 2010
06:15 AM

DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth

Oct 07, 2010
08:10 AM

Economy
O



15B
AMERICAN AIRLINES

529

DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth

Oct 07, 2010
09:10 AM

SEA Seattle

Oct 07, 2010
11:25 AM

Economy
O



14B
AMERICAN AIRLINES

506

SEA Seattle

Oct 12, 2010
12:10 PM

DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth

Oct 12, 2010
06:05 PM

Economy
O



10D
AMERICAN AIRLINES

1702

DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth

Oct 12, 2010
07:25 PM

RDU Raleigh/ Durham

Oct 12, 2010
11:00 PM

Economy
O



11B
Fare Summary ?
Average Fare per Person: Departure - 118.00 USD Return - 118.00 USD
Passenger Type Used in Pricing Adult
Departure Fare per Person 118.00 USD
Return Fare per Person 118.00 USD
PriorityAAccessSM and Same-Day Standby Complimentary
Total Fare per Person
236.00 USD

Additional Taxes and Fees per Person 42.80 USD
Total Price 278.80 USD

It's not difficult at all. Just that the examples I looked all showed a higher price for a OW as opposed to one direction as part of a RT. I wasn't seeing examples where actual purchase of an OW fare was half of a RT. Thanks for the example.

Cheers.

Just about every big AA city out of SAN has true one-way fares now… ORD, NYC, BOS, MIA, etc. Even DFW has cheap one-ways.

For example, Labor Day weekend travel Sep3-Sept6 non-stop BOS-LAX prices out the lowest at $386.40 round-trip.


Or you can book BOS-LAX on Sep3 as one-way for $179.70.

Then add LAX-BOS on Sep6 as one-way for $206.70.

And no - it doesn't require RT purchase. You can purchase each leg as a separate ticket, and I've made use of this recently where it's cheaper to buy the outbound leg for cash but use a 1-way award on return.


The price comes out the same whether the itinierary is purchased as single RT ticket or two OW tickets. And this is the lowest fare for the city pair.

This is not to say that some fares aren't still priced lower for RT vs. OW, but there are increasing number of fares which are priced the same for OW/RT.

i think for most domestic flights, fares are priced one way and RT's are simply twice the one way price. It's just a function of AA opening the lower buckets (Q,N,O) up for one way purchase. Intl I think the lowest one way bucket is H. There isn't really a premium for one way as much as AA not selling you a OW in the lower buckets.
Of course, if all you buy are full fare tickets, then buy OW to your heart's content, no change fees, fully refundable, no restrictions...

Must be very city-specific. ICT-DFW $67 more one way than round-trip. ($372 OW vs $305 RT plus taxes respectively)