Why are one way tickets $200 more than roundtrip?

[John & Rose 7,239]

Wow.  I'm so confused.  Looking at flights to bring my family home and the one way tickets are between $150 and $200 more than roundtrip tickets.  I assume there must be some penalty for buying roundtrip and trashing the return tickets.  I know this isn't the right place to make this comment but I trust people here!

[geowrian 22,337]

Why? because people end up paying it. Usually it's business flights and such.

 

You can get a round trip ticket fine if that's cheaper. Then either cancel or reschedule (likely with a penalty - Edit: For the reschedule/transfer, not cancellation) the return flight later if you don't use it.

Edited July 1, 2019 by geowrian

[Just Paul 4,595]

6 minutes ago, John & Rose said:

 I assume there must be some penalty for buying roundtrip and trashing the return tickets

No penalty - just don't use them.  You can book the return 330 days out.   

 

[givionte 138]

It's more convenient for the airlines to have customers do round-trip, for scheduling purposes, and knowing a customer is going to use their services round-trip, they tend to wish for people to save money, hence prices are more competitive for a full round-trip.

[USS_Voyager 1,972]

9 minutes ago, John & Rose said:

Wow.  I'm so confused.  Looking at flights to bring my family home and the one way tickets are between $150 and $200 more than roundtrip tickets.  I assume there must be some penalty for buying roundtrip and trashing the return tickets.  I know this isn't the right place to make this comment but I trust people here!

There is no penalty for cancelling the return tickets. The only AA is known to have done in the past is to cancel your frequent miles, I think, but only if they find this to be a pattern. I hope you’re not flying AA or United across the Pacific. Please fly an Asian airline if you can, much much better.

[Scandi 4,167]

I only fly with Norwegian, they're one of very few airlines that have cheap one-way tickets. You don't get a better price for round-trip with Norwegian, they're always cheap and great. 

 

I do understand not everyone can fly Norwegian. 😃

[Just Paul 4,595]

What dates?

[HRQX 4,145]

38 minutes ago, John & Rose said:

Looking at flights to bring my family home and the one way tickets are between $150 and $200 more than roundtrip tickets.

See the following video part:

 

[Greenbaum 12,259]

17 minutes ago, Scandi said:

I only fly with Norwegian, they're one of very few airlines that have cheap one-way tickets. You don't get a better price for round-trip with Norwegian, they're always cheap and great. 

 

I do understand not everyone can fly Norwegian. 😃

Because Norwegian airlines doesn't fly to Petticoat Junction Nevada that's why. 😜

[suss6052 32]

Yes if you look into it, but a lot of airlines are charging no-show penalties if you do not use the return portion of the ticket that can approach or exceed that $200/ticket more (e.x. EVA air's cheapest fares have a $150 no show fee per ticket, down to 50 for some of the higher classes). 

 

Korean air is 120000 won /$120 to/from the Americas if before getting to the airport and 200,000 won (200 usd) if deplaning after boarding.

 https://www.koreanair.com/content/koreanair/global/en/about/news/press_release/2018_12_18.html

 

Non refundable tickets with delta have a $200 fee to cancel at Delta, though they may not cancel the full value of the ticket if the remaining value was more than $200. 

https://www.delta.com/content/www/us/en/change-cancel/cancel-flight.html

 

I guess it also depends on the airline and origin and destination airports. For my wife her ticket was cheaper as a one way than it would have been as a round trip by a significant margin. I didn't do things the cheapest way for my tickets to ensure we could sit together as I will be bringing her home soon however. I'm excited to finally close the distance permanently.

 

1 hour ago, Paul & Mary said:

No penalty - just don't use them.  You can book the return 330 days out.   

 

That's not exactly true, there are no-show penalties, and or cancellation penalties that can eat up most if not all of the savings depending on the airline.

Edited July 2, 2019 by suss6052

[geowrian 22,337]

I've yet to see an airline actually charge for a no-show or cancellation. I've seen many deduct the value from the unused ticket or even nullify the value of the ticket, but none actually charge you.

I've seen reports of a small handful of airlines try this, although I presume it would be a easy CC dispute. Good luck trying to get a recovery for a service that was paid for but never used.

[Mike V 56]

If you really need the one way and those are your pricing options, buy a round trip ticket and throw away the return.  Don't buy another ticket on that airline until after the originally scheduled return.

 

It's best to do this on an airline where you don't participate in the frequent flyer program or -- if you do -- you're willing to lose the accumulated miles.  You'll get away with it once or twice (or more times), but at some point your FF account will be terminated and miles forfeited.

 

[JE57 239]

I have bought one way tickets with Asia miles for 1/2 the number of miles required for a round trip ticket giving you an option if you have sufficient miles or maybe even if you have to buy more miles to top up for a one way it might still save you money depending on miles/dollars/pesos exchange rates and all.   Although in all fairness that was for a HKG --> MNL ticket so not sure if it would also workout for a MNL --> USA ticket.

 

[Nyalimera 108]

I'm more curious to hear if anyone was asked weird questions on the check-in with a roundtrip ticket considering that you're flying in with a K-1 visa. Has anyone exeprienced anything like that? 

[Kaatje 81]

From Amsterdam to Phoenix:

 

Roundtrip: € 500

One way: € 2.400

 

Seriously, pretty much 2.000 dollars more expensive??

Luckily I have a lot of mileage plus miles with al that traveling to the US so I only pay 56 dollars for a one way ticket