doug42

What travel department would pay $2,500 for an economy ticket between London and DC (when round trips are less than a grand)? Businesses are much more likely to be savvy to this issue, and also know what tickets for legs like that should cost. I could see their pricing model trying to make a little more profit on people looking to do odd things (like fly one way), but 2.5x just seems so much more expensive that I would think that it is actually costing them money (i.e. sales). And the fact that every ticket costs the same - regardless of which of the 3 flights, and which day, makes me think there really isn't much of an algorithm being applied that far out. When getting award tickets using miles, they don't seem to care whether it's a round-trip or one-way flight - and a number of other international airlines I use don't either - so it doesn't seem likely that there's anything inherently more complicated for them (like some un-educatedly written articles I've come across seem to assert) The only people I can see that might end up paying this much would be someone (that doesn't fly much at all) that for some bizarre reason (health? death in the family?) has to make a quick trip back and doesn't have much time to look in to it. And that does feel like "Taking advantage of the customer". In any event, most people use price-sorting aggregators, and so they'd never come across this price in the first place, since it'd be on the 15th page of options...

(And I call your bluff about McDonald's - I've never seen a sandwich sold in 2-packs for less than the price of one. In fact, there was recently a court case where someone sued them (and lost) because the extra-value meal was _slightly_ more expensive than buying the drink, burger and fries separately. But only slightly. If they were really charging more than twice as much for a single burger than they cost when bought in pairs, I'm sure that'd be all over the news.)

What would be illegal (or against FF rules) about skipping the last leg of a round-trip ticket?

StuckinITH

After the facts, I read here on FT that passengers do this all the time. I did not know that. But in my case it made a difference of $500 that I did not have to pay from my pocket. Would be common sense that the employer would reimburse the totality of the lower roundtrip fare but accountants see this in a different manner.

laxmillenial

Which travel department? *Raises hand, mine! Why? Because we charge our customers based on where we need to go to provide our services, not "the most bang for your buck". When they call and say "I need laxmillenial in London for 3 days, maybe a week", my company says, "ok, here's your one way ticket, go. We'll figure out your trip home when you get close to finishing your work." And when we're T-2/3 days before and I see the light at the end of the tunnel, I call up my travel department and say "I need to go home" and they book accordingly, hence two one-ways. It's less work and less time trying to book a roundtrip and then pushing it out every couple of days. It's more work for my travel department and more stress for me as I make plans (vacation, travel, or other client-based work) based on my airline tickets. It's nice to be able to say "I'm coming home on XYZ vs. I have a ticket but I always push it out every couple of days, so who knows when I'm coming back".

Take a look at LAX-Asia (NRT for example). A one-way nonstop on 4/19 is $500 on UA. The reverse? It's $4K on UA.

With the tickets costing the same, there is an algorithm being applied (I would assume). It's called "Fare rules" and "one-way tickets back to the US". If UA can't sell tickets, I'm sure the algorithm would lower prices, but with planes being as full as they are (UA or other carriers) I don't think you can say it's pushing people away from booking. Or maybe they're all booking round trips, I honestly don't know. The US market is very very unique and comparing it to the Intl market/airlines won't get you very far. There are hundreds, if not thousands of posts saying things along the lines of "This intl airline serves me a meal on a 1 hour flight, yet UA can't even serve me a cup of water".

Yes. The people who pay this much are those who have last-minute travel plans usually due to extenuating circumstances (and businesses). My friend had her passport stolen in Europe. Her last minute flight back would've cost 2K+ in cash. I booked it for 35k(don't quote me) worth of UA points. All the carriers wanted that much. Not just UA. That's why I don't think it's "being taken advantage of". No one's forcing you to fly UA (yes, some don't have a choice based on their hub if they want a nonstop flight), but they're not duping the customer. The prices are upfront on their website.

Regarding McDonalds, I think this post sums up the lawsuit quite nicely: "Judge Elaine Bucklo noted that prices for combo meals and individual items are easily visible from the counter. She said just because some consumers don’t want to bother to compare prices doesn’t mean they can claim they’ve been fooled." Taken from: Lawsuit disputing value of McDonald?s Extra Value Meals tossed | WGN-TV

Kacee

Companies whose travel policies require flexible (i.e., refundable) fares.

jsloan

You're correct -- businesses know that type of ticket will cost $2500, and plan accordingly.

These flights will not be on the 15th page of options; they'll be on the first page of options, because nearly all airlines do this. If one stopped, they'd all stop in that market. This used to be common for US domestic travel until Southwest Airlines entered the market and started pricing fares on a one-way basis (meaning a round-trip was outbound + return). Suddenly, the other carriers had an epiphany and realized they could do the same thing.

Incidentally, they're not the same product. The $2500 ticket is likely to be significantly more flexible; for example, there's a good chance it's refundable, and a reasonable chance that there's no fee for changes. The $1000 ticket is guaranteed to have a change fee and won't be refundable.

Finally, the target is less one-way travelers (although I'm sure laxmillenial isn't the only person in that boat -- although personally, I'd book a roundtrip ticket with a future return date and then call to change it when I finished the job, as the chances are good it'd be much cheaper), and more people taking circle trips -- e.g., LHR-DFW / DFW-MEX / MEX-GIG / GIG-CDG / CDG-LHR. These aren't particularly popular for leisure travelers, but may be for business travelers who need to want to take care of several meetings / sales calls / etc. on a single trip.

JVPhoto

I’ve strung together RTWs with mixed of award and J travel. Not 2.5x more expensive but slightly more than a r/t. I viewed the miles + money total as still being worthwhile for the trip. But, as mentioned I didn’t want to have 2 tickets with no-show last legs with an airline/alliance that I’m exclusively invested in.
I did purchase the cheaper AMS-TXL-AMS when I would not be flying back to AMS but didn’t worry as it was my flights time flying KLM, I don’t see myself doing it in the near future and I have no connection to FlyingBlue.

Kacee

Same here. UA offers OW HKG and SIN fares that are not unreasonable.

findark

Mine. Almost none look beyond the very basic "fly from X to Y, compute LCLF" - I think you vastly overestimate the intelligence of corporate travel policies.

I have personally seen a McDonalds where the double cheeseburger was less expensive than the cheeseburger. Also Burger King once had chicken fries where 12 fries were more than twice as expensive as 6 fries. Many reasons for this, including carelessness on the part of the merchant.

drewguy

I think the real question is not "why are one ways so expensive" but rather "why doesn't UA [and other airlines] offer one-way fares in discount fare codes"? It's not clear to me that the one-way prices are 2.5x the equivalent R/T in the same fare code with restrictions.

As to why they don't offer o/w discount tickets, I suspect it's to reduce competition a little bit. If they offered o/w discount then travelers could pick and choose between airlines for each leg. By selling only the full routing they prevent passengers from having as much flexibility. That said, it seems like a business opportunity - offer some one ways in lower priced fare codes.

StuckinITH

Totally agree. The only time my wife did throw the return part of an international trip is when she moved to the US. BRU-JFK-BRU. The airline was Sabena. She knew that it would not be her main airline anymore. Switched to USAirways. So, she used all her Sabena points on a vacation to Prague and the upgrade to business class on the BRU-JFK leg. Left the account empty. I know other FTers do throw the return or the last segment of a trip but being Chairman's Preferred on USAirways or Gold on BA I did not feel safe doing it. And I don't think I would do it now on United where I'm 1K.

Sykes

United's Contract of Carriage explicitly prohibits throw-away ticketing:
United does close the frequent flier accounts of passengers who repeatedly violate their CoC.

Many travel departments would buy a one-way ticket if one-way travel is actually required. Corporate customers don't want to mess up their relationship with United (and potentially valuable discounts) by participating in prohibited booking practices. Besides, for large corporate contracts, even the discounted price shown isn't always what the company pays once you factor in the value of back-end rebates and other amenities.

Toronto1970

I think the answer to this may just be "because", but I'm curious if anyone has any insight.

I'm looking to book a flight on points to Tokyo in late December and back on a revenue ticket in January. (I'm already on track to make 1K again this year so might as well start burning points).

For YYZ-NRT, UA is showing one-way fares on ExpertFlyer down to V (at reasonable prices). For NRT-YYZ, the cheapest one-way fare filed is full Y!

I realize the best answer in this case is to buy a return from NRT and just skip the second leg (or end up flying out in December an a revenue fare), but was wondering if this is just an anomaly, and if UA usually does file cheaper one-way fares on this route.

StuckinITH

If I were you, I would buy the roundtrip and start burning your points on a different trip. I would not buy a return from NRT and just skip the second leg if you value your 1K status and have accumulated enough lifetime miles to one day reach the Million. The general consensus is if you skip the second leg one time, most probably nothing happens. If you skip it too many times, you might get a review of your account.

jsloan

It's not an anomaly. UA's one-way pricing from Asia in general, and Japan in particular, has been very high for a long time.

In general, international one-way flights tend to be expensive; often, more than a roundtrip flight. That's what you're seeing here. I agree with StuckInITH -- I would either pay for the roundtrip, use miles for the roundtrip, or shop for a different market in Asia from which to return. Try ICN.

Toronto1970

Thanks. I knew that was generally the case. It just seemed surprising to see one-way pricing reasonable on YYZ-NRT but not the other way around! But I guess it's more surprising that the former was reasonable vs. the latter not being!