mxracer95

Are discounted round trip vs one way fares a thing again? LAX-PHL-LAX in September is considerably cheaper round trip vs two one ways.

platbrownguy

They have never stopped being a thing on certain routes with little or no competition. The ULCCs price on a one way basis, so the majors follow for the most part but not when they don't need to. LAX-PHL is dominated by AA, the only alternative I see in September is a single NK redeye. So AA gets to set the terms instead of taking them.

DCA-LAS also has roundtrip pricing, for instance.

mxracer95

Didn't know that. Thanks for the info. I thought when they switched to one-way pricing several years ago it was across the board.

redtop43

Many thanks for this post! My regular route is PHL-LAX-PHL and the fares have skyrocketed, but I hadn't even looked at round-trip. Roughly speaking, two one-ways in F are $1672 but RT is $1400ish.

Pre-covid the fare was around $610, and for some reason, connections are much cheaper now than nonstops. I have almost all my tickets through August purchased, so I can wait a bit and hope that fuel prices and hence fares come down at least somewhat.

hp12c

Agreed, thanks for this post. I had no idea that RT was ever cheaper for domestic flights any longer - I've been blindly booking OW segments like a maniac!

VegasGambler

RT is also good if you book BE fares, even if the price is the same. It's nice to have protection for the return if your outbound gets cancelled or delayed enough that you want to cancel for a refund.

JustDandy

I have noticed this as well recently - RT being cheaper than 2 OW. I've noticed it with direct flights only, not with layovers. YMMV obviously depending on route(s) and date(s).
Couple recent examples...
PHX-LAX-PHX and PHX-SFO-PHX cheaper booking RT than 2 OWs both in May. PHX-MIA-BWI-MIA-PHX same price - doesn't matter if RT or 2 OWs - this is for later in the year August/September.

VegasGambler

That's interesting because SFO-PHX has significant competition.

SteveinA2

In all my years of flying, a RT has always been cheaper or same price as two one ways

VegasGambler

The point that is being made is that for most domestic flights on most airlines in the US, they are the same price.

donotblink

NYC -> EGE is much cheaper as a RT than a one way now

Antarius

It's almost as though Revenue Management finally woke up and realized that they don't need do everything that Southwest is doing. Or someone gave them a kick in the pants and asked why DL is able to command a substantial yield premium over them.

SteveinA2

Doubt its about fare structure much more

1. Operational reliability
2. Roll over Miles make DL folks more sticky to DL
3. Subjective but from my experience as a Delta Diamond I was treated way better than an AA EXP

redtop43

I don't fly overseas much, but on those times I've had cause to look at overseas fares, RT is often much cheaper than two one-ways. Sometimes cheaper than one one-way.

Airfares have gone through many permutations. I was only 21 when deregulation took place in 1978, so I had flown very very little, but I think it was pretty much just Y and F and that was it. Following deregulation, the first change I remember was "super-saver" fares which required a 30-day advance purchase, 7 day minimum stay, and were 40% off. There was a time (I think the early 1990's) when round-trips were much much cheaper but required a Saturday night stayover. Lately I've noticed that fares vary most by day of the week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays are cheapest).

I checked American Express and they had the same discounts (10% on F, 5% on Y) compared to the AA site, for both OW and RT.

Amil

it’s unfortunately been like this for a little bit now.