Ticket pricing
 

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....

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 <u>can't stay Saturday night</u>, 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....