I need help understanding pricing structures
 

Good evening all

I have been shopping for a RT from either BOS or YUL to AMS or BRU in April '15. It appears that flying out of YUL is cheaper than BOS. So here are my 2 questions (which may lead to further based on your answers):

Why is it cheaper to fly out of YUL instead of BOS?

Why is it cheaper to fly YUL - AMS - BRU instead of just YUL - AMS? I understand there are penalties for not completing the trip but if I wanted my final destination to be AMS, why is it cheaper to continue on past my destination and have to drive/train back?

Thanks

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Supply and demand. Competition -- or lack thereof -- on certain routes.

Many passengers are willing to pay a premium for nonstop flights, and airlines know that.

Of course, fares might change dramatically over the next several months.

I need help understanding pricing structures
 

The airlines' pricing structures are based upon origin and destination and rarely layover points. There may be lower demand or greater competition going to BRU. Thus, the flights to BRU, despite routing through AMS, cost less than the flights to AMS.

Works the other way round as well, for the same reasons. There are threads on ex-EU prices on BA TATL beeing roughly the same price in J, as ex-LON would be in W.

The thing to remember is, however, that although breaking the rules of the ticket with skipping the last leg, you might get away with it. Doing it before starting your return will cancel the rest of your ticket

In your case kmht, if you buy YUL-AMS-BRU and only fly YUL-AMS (dropping the final flight to BRU), you'll find that the entire return flight BRU-AMS-YUL cancelled.

Is this correct if he gets one way tickets (different Reservation number) coming and going?

Oldest pricing question in the world, and the answer is that the airlines price point-A-to-point-B tickets on the basis of demand for travel from A to B, even when there's a plane change between A and B. The intermediate station doesn't count and might as well not exist. Air travel is not sold by the mile but by the city pair. Many people think longer trips should be automatically more expensive than short ones but this is wrong; a CLE-DTW ticket can be as pricey as JFK-SFO. In your case more people want to go YUL-AMS than YUL-BRU, so YUL-BRU is cheaper.

That would make his costs far higher because two one-way international tickets are typically much more expensive than one discount roundtrip.

In that case what I wrote would not apply (but as BearX220 said, you'd be hard pressed to find this the most economical way of getting to where you really want to go.)

Nevertheless, if you bought YUL-AMS-BRU, and BRU-AMS-YUL as separate tickets and got off at AMS and dropped BRU, you'd still have to start ticket two off at BRU, since that's how you bought it. If you don't AMS-YUL gets cancelled.

In the European context, BRU often tends to have lower prices because it is served by several low cost carriers. Also, BRU high traffic periods may be concentrated around the EEC calendar because so much of its business comes from being the administrative center of the European commission. This means that at other times, fares may be more keen than usual.