I've noticed in the past three or so years, one-way airfares within the US have become more reasonably priced, at least on United and Frontier. We started buying one-way fares to fly our student to and from college four years ago. Back then, a United one-way fare would cost as much as 80 percent of a round-trip fare, so wasn't a good idea.

Now, however, it seems United and Frontier price their tickets by the segment, so you can break off the one-way piece and pay as much for it as if you were purchasing round-trip.

So, if you are pricing airfares, try pricing two one-way fares. It worked best for us this Thanksgiving, too, on two different airlines. You can get better flight times sometimes, too.
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Along those lines, I've been amazed recently at playing with the "multi-city" option on AA.com. I had looked at a round trip from Ft. Myers to Toronto next summer. The price was around $500. Then I played with flying Ft. Myers to New York for a few week stay, flying from New York to Toronto for a couple weeks, then Toronto to Chicago for a few weeks, and finally flying from Chicago back to Ft. Myers. The entire package was about $40 more than the simple round trip to Toronto! It used to be you'd have to return home between each trip as one way between cities was priced out of the ballpark. Now it seems you can just keep going from destination to destination! I continue to "play" with some exciting options for next summer.

I flew to Chicago one-way. Exactly 50% of roundtrip. Southwest even posts the fares this way.

I think Southwest's (and others) policy is what is causing the change in fare structures. I see the one-way, low priced options on routes that compete with Southwest, but nothing on non-competitve routes.

But then there's the Jet Blue deal, where it's all one way. The problem there is every time I've checked, one way will be really cheap, but I can't seem to get the other way for when I want at a good price so take other airline options.