Outbound ticket price changes based on return date???
 

I was looking at booking some tickets from EWR to MCO. I was looking to leave on a Wed. evening and return on a Sunday. When I first went to book I accidently put in returning on a Monday and got a price around $159 on the outbound. When I corrected the day to returning on a Sunday, the outbound price changed to $181. Anyone have any idea why the outbound prices would be affected by the return day?? I am guessing the pricing per leg is based on the entire itinerary on not priced individually? :confused:

Thanks.

I am probably missing something, but the price listed is the price for the round trip. So the price listed next to the first segment is the lowest round trip cost using that outbound and not just the outbound cost.

Sunday travel is generally $20-$30 higher as it is a busy travel day. Plus, especially to Hawaii, the State will offer incentives to the airlines to have 3 night minimums in their fares so that the hotels will have better occupancy, so you often get a wide disparity in fares when trying to a 2 night weekender and coming home on Monday

It doesnt only depend on the day of the week, but sometinmes you can cross over into another season, that can cause a fare to be more or less, this happens often with Intl fares. then also theres the time factor, the T&Cs of each fare is different so a stay of X amount of days might be more or less thats required in order to within the rules of a certain fare. if theres a 5 day max stay and you are doing 6 it will probably change. if theres a 4 day min and you want a 3 day stay it too will change.

then depending maybe to where you are flying and Time of day that too can cause a difference in fare.

On a recent purchase I wanted to go on a Mon but Tues was cheaper, when I went to book the same itin for another trip a few weeks later it was teh opposite and Tues was more then Mon. other time sit can simply be that teh particular day youre looking at already sold out in the cheaper or any particular fare type that you were looking for.

Thanks. I think you answered my question. I was reading the price listed next to the first segment as a segment cost, not a total price. Just a misread on my part. So, when I saw what the round trip price is changing, I thought it was a segment change in price. Thanks for cleaing that up for me.

Also, thanks to everyone else for the other advice.