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Airline ticket pricing is reaching new hights of absurdity, I guess.....
I'm trying to price out a 3 destination RTW ticket. Let's take the last leg, NRT - PDX. Air Canada wants $2,300 for the one way coach fare. But a round trip ticket NRT-PDX-NRT, on the same flight is $800....
I know the airlines don't want you to throw away the return leg, but this is absurd. The one way fare is eight times more expensive than the round-trip fare for the same flight.
No wonder the airlines are in perpetual bankrupcy. I wish they just priced tickets straight up like bus fare. Or cattle cars....
Ticket pricing
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Based on your second paragraph, it sounds like you're pricing this trip as three separate one-way fares. Wouldn't it be better to do a true RTW itinerary with three stopovers? Or am I not reading your post right?
I'm looking at it that way too...
The problem aparently is that the trip isn't so complicated as to be a "true" RTW ticket. So the RTW prices I'm getting are far more than 3 round-trip tickets where I throw away the second leg.
I can buy 3 RT tickets, throwing away the second leg of each, for less than $2K. The best RTW price I've gotten is $2,600, with the average being around $8K.
I'm just venting. It's a bizarre pricing scheme.
It is a bizarre pricing practice that has benefited the casual flyer, as business flyers are the one paying the big money to subsidize the casual ones.
Since I am getting the benefit, I'm not venting.
Yeah, well, it "usually" benefits me too... That doesn't stop me from venting when I'm getting screwed.
This has been discussed many times here...
Here is the reason why the big difference in price:
Airlines offer full fare tickets for anybody that may want to change their flight at the last minute or even get a full refund. For this example let's say the full fare is $1000 for a R/T.
Airlines also offer economy tickets with many restrictions and no refunds, for the same flight at let's say $200.
So, they can't just do a 1/2 or even 1 and 1/2 of the economy fare for half price on the economy discounted tickets for less than 1/2 of the full fare economy, because it would defeat the full fare pricing.
A businessperson that is paying $1000 for a ticket because they may require last minute changes or can't stay Saturday night, or perhaps may not even use the ticket and want a full refund, or this or that (the economy ticket restrictions) would just buy a one way ticket if it was $100-$150 for the same flight and take their chances.
That said, why not just buy the R/T and throw away the return. As long as you don't do this on a regular basis you are fine. There is no airline jail....