Book Round Trip and Use Only One???

In planning our first TransAtlantic, I am exploring air and finding strange things. One way airfare to Europe seems to be ridiculous. It appears to be much less costly to book a round trip ticket and then just not use the second half of it. Also, by playing with the dates, I can get less expensive airfare if I book the the first half when I want it, and schedule the second half for weeks, or even months, later. What "tricks" have other people used to get a reasonable price?

One way airfare to Europe seems to be ridiculous.

This is why Cruise Air (or whatever version is offered by your line) makes sense. We are going to London in October - returning on QM2, regular round trip air would have been about $1,250 per - one way about $1,450 - cruise air $450.

Talk with your cruise line or travel agent about it.

It's not "ridiculous". It's simply inconvenient for you.

This! I would be curious to hear what is an appropriate fare, given the point of being in business as an airline is to make money.

In planning our first TransAtlantic, I am exploring air and finding strange things. One way airfare to Europe seems to be ridiculous. It appears to be much less costly to book a round trip ticket and then just not use the second half of it. Also, by playing with the dates, I can get less expensive airfare if I book the the first half when I want it, and schedule the second half for weeks, or even months, later. What "tricks" have other people used to get a reasonable price?

You don't mention where or when you want to fly; but what you're running into is the fact that discounted one ways directly from the airlines are unusual; some exceptions to the rule of not selling discount 1 ways are:

• Aer Lingus
  
• Air Transat
  
• Norwegian
  
• Thomson
  
• Flights to Ireland in general (because Aer Lingus do)
  
• Flights sold through specialist re-sellers such as your cruise line's air department
  

Another solid option is to use frequent flyer miles for a one-way ticket (on airlines that allow such redemptions, of course). It can sometimes even be cheaper to purchase the needed miles, especially when they run bonuses. Also look at what credit card bonuses are available to you - you could get enough miles for one or even two free one-way redemptions.

In planning our first TransAtlantic, I am exploring air and finding strange things. One way airfare to Europe seems to be ridiculous. It appears to be much less costly to book a round trip ticket and then just not use the second half of it. Also, by playing with the dates, I can get less expensive airfare if I book the the first half when I want it, and schedule the second half for weeks, or even months, later. What "tricks" have other people used to get a reasonable price?

There are several work-arounds for this, depending on the details. Where from and where to, and when?

It's not "ridiculous". It's simply inconvenient for you. Airlines generally don't sell discounted fares for one-way long-haul trips, although there are some exceptions in the trans-Atlantic market (which seems to be what's relevant to you).

It is not simply a matter of being "inconvenient" there is, in fact, something "ridiculous" about an airline charging more for a one half of a round trip flight than for the whole thing. It reminds me of the inexplicable pricing at my employers cafeteria: the "breakfast special" of two scrambled eggs and toast cost fifty cents. If you asked for just scrambled eggs, it was sixty cents. WhenI asked the cafeteria manager about it, his only suggestion was to buy the special and throw away the toast.

I cannot help thinking that there may be some government requirement which penalizes airlines for flying people into a country without having made provision for getting them out - barring something like that, there seems no sense to the pricing --- meaning that it is ridiculous.

If you can come up with an alternate credible rationale, please share it.

This is why Cruise Air (or whatever version is offered by your line) makes sense. We are going to London in October - returning on QM2, regular round trip air would have been about $1,250 per - one way about $1,450 - cruise air $450.

 

Talk with your cruise line or travel agent about it.

You only ended up with 1/2 of a RT fare purchased a year or more before your flight on a bulk buy/consolidator basis. That's the way the contracts are written.

Think about it-if you could buy an airline ticket almost 2 years ago, would you probably have gotten a cheaper fare??? Especially when you are buying 1-300 tickets per day for each trip.

But oh, those restrictions-some can totally trash your trip. You won't have a problem because your flight is probably a nonstop from the USA (maybe JFK or Boston) to LHR. But those with connections can find themselves on the very short end of the stick trying to make sense of the restrictions they knew nothing about. There have been many, many with cruise air tickets that were simply STUCK due to factors outside the airline and their control-the volcano in Iceland being one, the earthquake in Chile being another. And just the general, missed the connection for whatever reason. Those with cruise line tickets generally WERE NOT allowed to deviate from their routing without a LARGE cash input (some more than the original tickets). But those with airline booked tickets could re-route, maybe through some weird place, and still get to their cruise.

I was just about on my way to Chile when the earthquake struck (business trip). I had AA booked tickets. 500+ people with cruise air tickets were simply STUCK when the airlines shut down going into SCL. No cruise for them.

But my ticket was re-routed from the USA to Mendoza via LAN and LAN provided a very nice bus trip from Mendoza to Santiago. Others with airline booked tickets were routed to Buenos Aires and put on a bus to Santiago (18 hour trip in a bus that is just about as deluxe as a lot of first class international flights with lie flat beds and definitely better than domestic first class). The cruise line held the ship for two days, so those on the bus could make it there. People got a real adventure through the countryside of South America and saw a lot of stuff they never would have seen. You don't get that "bending over backwards to accommodate" with cruise air tickets.

I cannot help thinking that there may be some government requirement which penalizes airlines for flying people into a country without having made provision for getting them out - barring something like that, there seems no sense to the pricing --- meaning that it is ridiculous.

 

If you can come up with an alternate credible rationale, please share it.

There is no government regulation. US airlines have just never made one way trips to Europe CHEAP (other than to Ireland). They have always had the mentality that they want the planes as full as possible both ways.

That is why the cruise line air is cheap-they buy in big bulk quantities on contract about 18 months-2 years before your flight and they almost guarantee planes fly full both ways (cruisers going from the USA and those returning). PLUS the airlines get CASH for all those tickets purchased 18 months-2 years BEFORE the flight per the contract. BUT when those contracts are signed, the airlines wipe their hands of YOU being the customer. The tickets belong to the cruise line. You are now the customer of the cruise line and rarely can you deal with the airline directly. Some contracts have pretty stringent regulations, the most notable-NON ENDORSABLE tickets and NON RE-ROUTABLE tickets.

Look outside the box. There are plenty of relatively inexpensive ways to get to Europe on a one way basis-very often on the same legacy US airlines that DO NOT sell cheap one way tickets if paying cash (FF miles, even purchased, usually get the price down to just about the cruise air price).

I cannot help thinking that there may be some government requirement which penalizes airlines for flying people into a country without having made provision for getting them out - barring something like that, there seems no sense to the pricing --- meaning that it is ridiculous.

 

If you can come up with an alternate credible rationale, please share it.

There is no such regulation. The practice, as I understand it, arose from airlines not wanting another airline to "steal" the passenger on the return (or outbound) leg, and run the risk of the seat flying empty. This was in an era when government regulations were more plentiful and load factors were low.

However as load factors have grown, and new airlines have started to use one-way pricing exclusively (such as Southwest) this practice is increasingly coming under the gun, and has largely disappeared on most domestic US routes, i.e. the round trip is basically the one-way fare x 2.

There are a couple of European airlines that have started to price one-ways more aggressively, such as Aer Lingus and Icelandair. And most airlines flying transatlantic into Ireland have one-way fares that are close to 50%-60% of the round trip fare. This is market-driven, as Aer Lingus is the flag carrier, formerly government-owned, and the others did it to compete. As in all airfares, supply and demand is much more important than anything else.

But you should also know that airfare is not symmetrical; supply and demand plays a very big role in both directions. For example for an arbitrary day in May, the one-way fare from Chicago to Dublin is $160 more than Dublin to Chicago on the same day; round trips originating in Ireland to Chicago are $300+ less than those originating in Chicago. More people in the US want to visit Ireland than v.v.

If the two previous posters are correct in stating that there is no government regulation (which I am happy to accept) then the current practice of most airlines to charge more for one ways than round trips is beyond ridiculous: it is stupid. They prefer to drive away with their pricing a growing market segment: passengers who just happen to want to fly one way. I am not actually surprised - having had a career with a major financial institution - which exposed me to the practices of many other large corporations - I am aware that many major organizations behave stupidly - perhaps because " that is the way we have always done it" or just simply lack of broad analysis or understanding of what they are doing.

This is why Cruise Air (or whatever version is offered by your line) makes sense. We are going to London in October - returning on QM2, regular round trip air would have been about $1,250 per - one way about $1,450 - cruise air $450.

 

Talk with your cruise line or travel agent about it.

I would say that this is why the cruiseline air might make sense. As greatam has pointed out, sometimes you end up stranded and unable to make changes because of the nature of the ticket, and my experience in dealing with Choice Air (the RCCL family's name for it) was an exercise in frustration and exasperation.

For enough of a price difference (and I'd say yours qualifies), I would take the risk. But I'd mitigate the risk with travel insurance, something I normally wouldn't buy.

If the two previous posters are correct in stating that there is no government regulation (which I am happy to accept) then the current practice of most airlines to charge more for one ways than round trips is beyond ridiculous: it is stupid. They prefer to drive away with their pricing a growing market segment: passengers who just happen to want to fly one way.

Or if you go ahead and buy a "throw-away" ticket (the term for using the first half of a round trip but not the second) they've still got your money, and, since their yield management algorithms prove it, they can go ahead and "oversell" your return flight and make even more money. How is that stupid? I'd call it "doing what the shareholders want."

Now, earlier I asked about your trip details. You didn't respond, but I'll shoot away with some guesses.

First, you're talking about a transatlantic cruise, and it sounds like the half-ticket you'd be throwing away would be for the return portion, i.e. westbound. Since most westbound transatlantic repositioning cruises are in the autumn, I'm guessing that's when the trip would be.

Now, if that's right, then here's a possible work-around. Starting in October or thereabouts (or after the third week in September, more often than not) availability of airline frequent-flyer seats loosens up significantly. After October 15, for example, American Airlines charges 20,000 AA miles for a one-way transatlantic flight - anywhere in Europe to anywhere in the continental US or Canada.

You can sign up for quite a number of different credit cards and get 25,000 or 50,000 AA miles as a signup bonus. But even if you don't want to have another credit card, you can simply go to AA's website and buy 20,000 miles for around $500. Sometimes they even have a "sale" where the price gets down to around 2c per mile, but let's just assume you pay $500 for 20,000 miles.

Turn around and redeem those miles for a one-way flight to Europe. If you choose an American Airlines, Finnair, or Airberlin flight, you'll also pay around $6 in taxes. If you pick an Iberia Airlines flight, it will be closer to $100 out of pocket, and if you pick a British Airways flight, more like $200 owing to Iberia's and BA's notorious fuel surcharges that they tack on award tickets.

But say you find a combination of AA flights, your out-of-pocket cost for a one-way ticket to Europe is around $500 - $600. Nothing wacky, nothing questionable. Free bags, free beer and wine, reputable airlines.

Or splurge and spend $1250 for 50,000 miles and fly one way in business class (first class for any domestic connections.)

Might work for you, might not, but it's done all the time.

My understanding for the high price of one-ways is not to soak cruisers, but to soak business people. You know, the folks with companies that will pay whatever it takes to cross the ocean, and who don't really know when they'll be able to return. The leisure market, the ones likely to buy a round trip, can't afford expensive fares. The airline pricing makes sense to me. TA cruisers are just "collateral damage". And in the grand scheme of things, there really isn't a lot of market for leisure travelers that need one-ways. Why would the airlines erode their pricing chasing that segment? It gets addressed with cruise air splitting the R/T, and the ticket is tied to a cruise - cancel the cruise, the air ticket goes poof. No risk of those getting brought by a business.

the current practice of most airlines to charge more for one ways than round trips is beyond ridiculous: it is stupid. They prefer to drive away with their pricing a growing market segment: passengers who just happen to want to fly one way.

And yet.... airlines are generally flying at capacity these days. Or over capacity actually, given the frequency with which they ask for volunteers to be voluntarily rebooked on a later flight. They may be driving away one pax who want cheap one way tickets, but they are more than compensating for that by filling the seats with other pax. Doesn't really seem stupid to me at all. It just happens to not work for you. ;)

And yet.... airlines are generally flying at capacity these days. Or over capacity actually, given the frequency with which they ask for volunteers to be voluntarily rebooked on a later flight. They may be driving away one pax who want cheap one way tickets, but they are more than compensating for that by filling the seats with other pax. Doesn't really seem stupid to me at all. It just happens to not work for you. ;)

Two points: I fly trans-Atlantic every year - sometimes several times, and I have never been on a sold-out flight - most seats taken, but there have always been some empties; also, what possible rationale could there be for charging more for a one way than for a round trip?

And yet.... airlines are generally flying at capacity these days. Or over capacity actually, given the frequency with which they ask for volunteers to be voluntarily rebooked on a later flight. They may be driving away one pax who want cheap one way tickets, but they are more than compensating for that by filling the seats with other pax. Doesn't really seem stupid to me at all. It just happens to not work for you. ;)

I will say I was recently quite shocked. I had to book a trip to Auckland, and while I normally fly Qantas via Australia, I'm getting tired of that backtracking (but gosh, I love earning miles). So I decided to check out a one-way on Qantas to Auckland (via Sydney), and a one-way back from Auckland on Air New Zealand (straight to San Francisco). Sure enough, both airlines were pricing flights as one-way tickets, which seems pretty rare in my experience (after many, many trips down there).

My use of the term "ridiculous" implied that I feel it would be ridiculous FOR ME to pay more for the air fare than the 16 day cruise. But that will be my choice. Airlines, like cruise companies, are a business and are trying to make as much money as possible. I was only asking for suggestions that other folk may have to find a lower air fare. I thank you for the many suggestions. We are planning a east bound TA next spring. It appears it may be less costly to book a RT beginning in Rome, and just not use the second half. I have also found that the price may come down by "playing" with the "return" date. I thank you for all of the suggestions, especially the buying miles.

My use of the term "ridiculous" implied that I feel it would be ridiculous FOR ME to pay more for the air fare than the 16 day cruise. But that will be my choice. Airlines, like cruise companies, are a business and are trying to make as much money as possible. I was only asking for suggestions that other folk may have to find a lower air fare. I thank you for the many suggestions. We are planning a east bound TA next spring. It appears it may be less costly to book a RT beginning in Rome, and just not use the second half. I have also found that the price may come down by "playing" with the "return" date. I thank you for all of the suggestions, especially the buying miles.

I would be curious (because I am weird) to compare the total mileage covered by, say, a flight to Europe or Australia (and back, if it's not a one-way cruise) versus the mileage covered by the cruise ship whilst on the cruise. It still wouldn't show the true picture of the very different cost models between airlines and cruise ships, but I would be curious.

I would be curious (because I am weird) to compare the total mileage covered by, say, a flight to Europe or Australia (and back, if it's not a one-way cruise) versus the mileage covered by the cruise ship whilst on the cruise. It still wouldn't show the true picture of the very different cost models between airlines and cruise ships, but I would be curious.

I think the models are very different, partly due to a couple of factors.

First, airlines are serving a mixture of leisure and non-leisure passengers; cruises only leisure. Price sensitivity is important to all travelers, but relatively less important for business flyers; in their case convenience and productivity (i.e. not arriving wrecked) has a significant bearing on their price sensitivity. And it's pretty common knowledge that airlines generally make the bulk of their profits on premium seat sales, and that economy seats are sold closer (but not at) break-even levels. With cruises, I don't know how the suites v. outside v. balcony v. inside cabins works out in terms of yields or yield management, but my guess is not as dramatically as the pointy end v. back of the bus options with flying.

Second, cruiselines make a great deal of their revenues (and, I'd wager, profits) on expenditures during the cruise - excursions, alcohol, etc. While it's true that airlines have gone to cafeteria pricing to some degree - pay for bags, pay for food, pay for seat selection - this is done to create revenue channels that would otherwise have been subsumed in base fares. The upshot is that the real-dollar cost of flying isn't much higher than it was before these add-ons appeared. As for revenues generated during the flight, negligible; in fact just this week American Airlines quietly discontinued duty-free sales on board international flights.

But by contrast, many cruisers return home having spent more while on the ship than they did for their cabins in the first place; the cabins can even be loss-leaders in order to generate revenues through the other channels.

Both industries use pretty similar yield-management formulas for pricing and inventory management - getting cabin "upgrades" for example has more to do with the lines' ability to sell lower-grade accommodations as the cruise date approaches, while airlines will often make premium seats available for mileage redemptions closer to flight times; they'd rather have a butt in a seat, and whether it's for big bucks from walk-ups or through redemption of FF miles (removing a contingent liability off the balance sheet) it's all good from an accounting viewpoint.

We've purchased rt tickets to London several times for ta's. We make the return reservation for a date in winter when rates are lower. We always call the airline to cancel the reservation after our trip, and we've never had a problem of any kind.

You could also make the reservation for a date when you might want to take a ta in the other direction. We did that once, too.

... also, what possible rationale could there be for charging more for a one way than for a round trip?

And those are just the four top things that immediately come to mind, in no particular order.

Your cafeteria analogy isn't apt because in that situation, you're getting the same scrambled eggs in both cases. That's not what's happening when you buy the expensive one-way airline ticket and the airline refuses to sell you half of a cheap ticket at half the price.

Market segmentation; market discipline; customer capture; yield management.

 

And those are just the four top things that immediately come to mind, in no particular order.

 

Your cafeteria analogy isn't apt because in that situation, you're getting the same scrambled eggs in both cases. That's not what's happening when you buy the expensive one-way airline ticket and the airline refuses to sell you half of a cheap ticket at half the price.

You missed the point of the analogy - buying a larger order of scrambled eggs than one wants because it is cheaper than the desired size then throwing away the unwanted part is distinctly comparable to buying a round trip because it is cheaper than the one way, and then throwing away the unwanted return ticket.

Just as you are getting the cheapest desired order of eggs, you would be getting the cheapest desired flight --- in both cases by buying more (for a lesser price) and discarding the unwanted portion. That is precisely what happens to me - it may not be what is happening to the airline - but that is their concern, not mine.

Two points: I fly trans-Atlantic every year - sometimes several times, and I have never been on a sold-out flight - most seats taken, but there have always been some empties; also, what possible rationale could there be for charging more for a one way than for a round trip?

Just because seats are empty doesn't mean they weren't sold. People miss flights all the time.