Why is it more expensive to fly one-way than return?

In short, airlines charge more for one-way flights on the routes when they can get away with doing so . If only one airline is operating a particular route, it might increase the price of one-way flights to generate more revenue from business travelers and others that are willing to pay more for the nonstop flight.

What are fare buckets?

Fare buckets are classes or groups of airfares within the same class .

Why do airlines prohibit skiplagging?

“Airlines do not like skiplagging because it costs them money . Flights with connections are generally cheaper than nonstop flights because airlines have a lower price ceiling for them,” he said.

Is it cheaper to buy airline tickets together or separately?

Key Takeaways. If you purchase multiple tickets in a single transaction, the price will be the same for each of the tickets . If not enough of the lowest-cost seats are available, you'll pay a higher cost for all of the seats. Buy the tickets one at a time to make sure you get all of the lowest-cost seats available.

What is bucket pricing?

With a bucket pricing plan, a service provider charges a periodic (usually monthly) fixed price, in exchange for which consumers may use the service without further charges, up to a preset allowance during the period .

What is the airline bucket pricing?

Traditional Airline Pricing For example, if an airline has filed buckets of fares at $200, $250 and $300, once the $200 tickets are sold out, a customer will be presented with the $250 fare as the lowest available .

What are bucket rates?

Monetary values are assigned to rates in the rate grid . The rate grid is used to manage hotel room rates on a daily basis. See Rate Grid. For easy maintenance it is possible to create rate buckets (formerly known as channels) that contain several room/rate type combinations.

Is it cheaper to fly one way or return?

Summary. Returns are generally cheaper per flight . One-way tickets are better for point redemptions.

Are return flights cheaper than 2 one way?

Airlines also often give discounts for round-trip flights because it helps them manage their seats and schedule better. However, it's always a good idea to compare both options before booking because of the exceptions. Round-trip flights are usually cheaper than two one-ways on the same airline.

Is it cheaper to buy a return flight or 2 singles?

Two singles can be more expensive than buying a return , but they can also be (slightly) cheaper, but the cost will certainly depend on the routing and airline(s).

Is it cheaper to book one way or multi city?

Is a multi-city flight cheaper than several one-ways? When it comes to long-haul flights, it's typically cheaper to lump them together on one itinerary instead of buying one-way flights . However, once you've reached the region you want to explore, it can be cheaper to buy the short-haul flights one by one.

Buy two tickets, only one place in low fare bucket: both priced at higher bucket!

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Mar 14, 2024, 7:35 pm

txp

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Join Date: Apr 2012

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Buy two tickets, only one place in low fare bucket: both priced at higher bucket!

Hi everyone,

I have noticed an interesting anomaly in pricing. Say that the inventory for a given flight is Z2 P1. Suppose the P fare is $400 and the Z fare is $600.

If I want to buy only one ticket, the quoted price is $400, as it should be. But if I want to buy two tickets, the quoted price is $1,200 instead of $1,000. Why? You can easily work around this by buying the two tickets separately.

Mar 14, 2024, 7:38 pm

D582

Join Date: Jan 2010

Location: SFO

Programs: *G^2, Bonvoyed, NEXUS

Posts: 3,547

All passengers on the same PNR have to have the same itinerary (flights, dates, booking class) - you can't book 1 in Z and 1 P. So in this case it would either book in Z at $600x2 = $1200, or with UA's continuous pricing it could book into P with some price >$400x2=$800 and <$600x2=$1200

Mar 14, 2024, 7:39 pm

moondog

A FlyerTalk Posting Legend

Join Date: Dec 2000

Location: Shanghai

Posts: 42,684

Don't almost all reservation systems use that logic? It would be kind of confusing if persons 1 and 2 were bound by different rules. If they book separately, then it's a lot clearer.

Mar 14, 2024, 7:42 pm

IAH-OIL-TRASH

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Sep 2003

Location: Honolulu Harbor

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Posts: 15,174

Quote:

Originally Posted by txp

...Why?...

Obviously, there's only ticket available at the lower fare class. Since fare classes cannot be mixed on the same record, one has to pay the higher fare class to get two tickets on the same record. The work-around is as you pointed out.

moondog likes this.

Mar 14, 2024, 8:02 pm

Mar 14, 2024, 8:51 pm

#10

Lux Flyer

Join Date: May 2017

Posts: 2,305

Quote:

Originally Posted by txp

I apologize but this seems a bit of a tautology. So please allow me to ask the question differently -- why can't you have two different products in the same record?

Because you're working off services, standards and common interfaces which were developed 50+ years ago and are still limited by those initial decisions due to the need to communicate with other airlines reservations systems. The change you're asking for would require every one you interline with and they interline with to all reprogram their reservations systems to handle this change. And airlines have a hard enough time to get reservations to update properly & stay in sync when one partner makes a change, that there is bigger fish to fry then going after supporting multiple booking codes in a same reservation.

As an example, lets say SHARES suddenly has the ability to support multiple bookings codes in a single reservation, but there is a LH flight the passenger is connecting to - how do I transmit that to LH if Amadeus doesn't also support that capability? Am I making two separate reservations on LH's end to account for each booking code? Which passenger gets which? What if I want to make a change for only one of the passengers? WHat if LH has a schedule change, how do they send that message from 2 PNRs back to a single PNR in UA's system? ETc.

The more straight-forward solution is to keep your existing PNR structure for commonality with your interline partners and find some other way to provide a proper link of the PNR so for all intents they're treated as if they're travelling together in your own system, as that doesn't require a huge buy-in/investment for all airlines.

whlinder, jsloan, SPN Lifer and 3 others like this.

Mar 14, 2024, 9:42 pm

#11

txp

Original Poster

Join Date: Apr 2012

Location: Texas

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Posts: 1,322

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kacee

It was originally an IT limitation.

This is what I meant when I said it was a relic of unix!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lux Flyer

OK, I finally understood. It is path-dependent. Initially, an IT limitation, no one has any incentive to change now because the costs would be prohibitive.

Traveling on separate records is annoying in case of changes or cancellations. It happened to me once when a flight was canceled, and different passengers were rebooked on different flights. It took hours on the phone to sort this out. Since that time, I usually pay the premium and book everyone at the higher bucket. But I wished someone corrected this 1970s relic. Seriously.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Mar 15, 2024 at 1:11 amReason: merged consecutive posts by same member

Mar 14, 2024, 10:53 pm

#12

paperwastage

Join Date: Jun 2012

Posts: 3,424

Quote:

Originally Posted by txp

. But I wished someone corrected this 1970s relic. Seriously.

No benefit for airlines to do this.

On the other hand, as mentioned above, united has (monetary) reasons to introduce continuous pricing, which has potential to alleviate some of this pain from the consumer side

Mar 15, 2024, 1:12 am

#13

WineCountryUA

Moderator: United Airlines

Join Date: Jun 2007

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Quote:

Originally Posted by txp

This is what I meant when I said it was a relic of unix!
....

No, COBOL

And as mentioned having a PNR with individual tickets having different fare classes that have different fare rules would make nightmare in ticket changes

SPN Lifer, wrp96, PLeblond and 1 others like this.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Mar 15, 2024 at 1:18 am

Mar 15, 2024, 6:17 am

#14

txp

Original Poster

Join Date: Apr 2012

Location: Texas

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Posts: 1,322

Quote:

Originally Posted by WineCountryUA

No, COBOL

I stand corrected. Yes, it is how COBOL works. I meant "Unix" more as a vernacular for mainframe computers...

Speaking of path-dependent relics, I wish someone would start a thread in a different forum on why we are still using 1950s communication tools in air traffic control -- verbal instructions conveyed by radio!

Mar 15, 2024, 7:01 am

#15

ctownflyer

Join Date: Feb 2004

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UA can certainly have different rules for different passengers in the same PNR, just look at baggage allowance for cardholder's companions. They just only do it when it benefits UA.

rjburns likes this.

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