I noticed this yesterday. W fares LAX to NRT are still around $480 one way, but from NRT to LAX/SFO after April 1st are around $4000 as you say up from a W fare of around $760 (I think off the top of my head). Not sure if it's a change in policy or a mistake....

If you make a regular habit of it, there's a chance that they could try to come after you for "throwaway ticketing", but those odds are pretty low.

Do you reside in Japan (Asia) or U.S. (NAmer)? UA may well offer low oneway economy NRT-LAX fares that can only be purchased on that side of the Pacific. Local TAs and consolidators may also have unpublished fares. International tariffs are somewhat different than domestic ones in that they often differ wildly based on the sold/ticketed location.

Also, in my experience, discount international fare buckets only open up about 3-4 months before departure. Anything beyond that and you're paying for the convenience of booking far ahead into the future.

I see UA has a $635 RT fare NRT-LAX into June, climbing over $1000 July and August, then $967 through end of schedule. So yes best price is closer in. Biggest issue though is searching OW vs. RT.

SQ does discount one-way on this route for less than round trip price (not to mention being better than UA everywhere else)

Yeah it's very strange because of the magnitude of the difference.

Hm, okay it's definitely my only time I've considered it, so not a habit by far. I'll definitely consider this. Another option is if I am able to take the credit for the return leg and apply its residual value on a different leg? Is that possible? I understand that there will be change fees and such, but it's still better than a $4k economy ticket.

mahasamatman or anyone else, any thoughts on this?

I'm in the US. I'll try getting quotes from some TAs later if possible.

That also makes sense I suppose. Unfortunately due to coordination issues and such, I do need to have the flights nailed down this early.


Cool, I'll check them out, always wanted to try flying SQ!

Thank you all for the responses, I appreciate it!

The residual value will likely be negative. When you change the itinerary, UA will reprice it to match your actual flights -- so you're back to $4200 unless your 'different leg' happens to be a return trip to TYO, in which case you wouldn't have this problem in the first place. :-)

Oh that makes sense, haha. Thanks for your reply!

UA's change to full fare Y or flexible economy only for one way fares NRT - LAX/SFO etc (and all US mainland) starting April 1st makes absolutely no sense to me, as AA and others are keeping normal one way fares active; also UAs pricing for the reverse route remains normal.

If it's a change in policy, someone in UA must be using Monty Python logic.

I just noticed this. I'm going to Tokyo next month and only my return date is confirmed. I am trying to buy a one way ticket from HND or NRT back to SFO, but the ticket only prices in Y. If I do a round trip, then I can get lower fare classes. Is it supposed to be the case?

Just at a glance in SABRE, looks like the only one-way fares United has filed for Tokyo to SF are Y, J, and F fares, anything cheaper requires a roundtrip. While it's certainly debatable whether that's a good idea from a Rev Mgt perspective, it definitely appears that United.com is working as designed.

This is very, very common for international destinations.

But likely could be a toss up and may change closer in (or have been cheaper further out). I've had cheap o/w fares SFO-HKG, MEL-LAX and BRU-EWR.

Specifically, TYO and LON (and more broadly, Europe) almost never have discount one-way fares from the US, and other markets tend to have them more often.