Change Forum
So out of curiosity, I checked a random date and NYC-O'Hare. The one way is less than $100, about 50% of the r/t price. I did this on Expedia.
Does the conventional wisdom no longer hold?
Conventional Wisdom of Cheaper to Buy R/T Still True?
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For the past several years, I have found that the one way fare is usually half of the RT fare. That has enabled us to use one airline for the outbound flight and a different one for the return, if the schedule is better.
I've bought one-ways for flights in Europe, but I've not realized that this is now the case for the US also. Interesting, thanks!
It really depends upon the route. In general, if there is a LCC (Southwest, JetBlue, etc) that operates on the route, then often the other airlines will match their one-way pricing. For markets without such competition, I think you will more frequently see a one-way premium.
Depends on route and carrier. For example, I have bought 4 one-way tickets this year between LAX and Boston or NYC. This market is totally priced as each way because of Jetblue and Virgin America.
I also just recently bought one-way tickets for my parents for FLL-IAH on CO. That's a market with strong competition from WN.
On the other hand, even though WN flies HOU-LAX non-stop a few times a day, CO dominates the Houston-LA non-stop market with many more flights. As a result, CO doesn't sell discount one-way ticket on this market even with WN as competition.
I was just helping a friend try to find the best airfare and found that ow were in her case more expensive. Fort Meyers to Austin. I will keep watching the replies as I am curious as to what others have found.
I've bought one-way tickets for my daughter quite often. It used to seem she would get extra screening at the airport, but lately that doesn't seem to be the case. I think after 9/11 they looked at them as a bit suspicious, but not so much now.
The prices can be better on sites like Expedia since you can mix airlines. If you use the airlines website they will still be half the r/t.
A couple of times I have bought cheap one-way tickets instead of a roundtrip if I thought I might want to change my outbound departure date. It is cheaper to throw away the original ticket and buy a new one-way rather than having to pay a change fee for the roundtrip ticket plus a fare difference.