How does pricing differ between round trip and one-way tickets? One of the more misleading things that novice travelers assume when they read that a round-trip fare is $200 is that if they were only going one-way it would be exactly half of that.
One of the more misleading things that novice travelers assume when they read that a round-trip fare is $200 is that if they were only going one-way it would be exactly half of that. Accordingly, they're astonished when they try to make plans to fly somewhere one-way and stay for an open-ended period of time or, perhaps, fly across country during spring break with the idea of taking a road-trip back with friends.
Says Patricia Blanche, owner of La Cañada Flintridge Travel in La Cañada, California, "Sometimes one-ways are actually cheaper than round trips and vice versa. Let's say that someone wants to go to a particular destination but they don't know at the time of booking when, exactly, they're going to be coming back. If they put in a date just to put in a date for a round trip but then discover that they won't be able to make it, they are looking to incur a penalty for re-booking. This fee is always $50 to $100 and possibly even more depending on the location and time of year. If it's really an inexpensive fare to begin with, it will generally behoove someone to purchase a one-way ticket."
"Another reality," she continues, "is that if someone booked a round trip ticket and then realized that their plans had changed and they needed to reschedule their return, the original fare may no longer even exist in the system. Between the hierarchy of how seats are sold on major carriers - as opposed to economy carriers such as Jet Blue with one fare for everyone - and the fact that approximately 350,000 different air fares come in per day with varying rules and restrictions, the likelihood of a fare staying the same isn't very high. Some of them, in fact, change hourly!"
The financial instability of today's carriers, she points out, also translates to cutbacks in the number of flights that are available. "It may be harder for you to get back home than you think!" Taking the time to research the cost differences amongst travel agencies, websites and airlines themselves, she advises, is always a good idea.
From the standpoint of carriers, the rationale that favors round trip purchases over one-way is predicated on control of the perceived flow of passengers from Point A to Point B and back again on any given day. Let's say that you have an outbound San Francisco aircraft that holds 100 people and is going to Chicago. Half of the people on board are returning home from vacation or business on the West Coast; the other half live in San Francisco and are going to Chicago for similar reasons. Assuming that this is a flight that is always sold-out, the airline has an expectation that it will always be flying 100 passengers in either direction. What if one of those passengers, however, only buys a ticket from San Francisco to Chicago? This means that, on a future Chicago to San Francisco run, there will be an empty seat that would have been taken by that person if he or she had bought a round trip ticket. While it may or may not be filled by another one-way passenger who just happens to be going from Chicago to San Francisco, a problem arises when Person #1 tries to make a one-way reservation back to the West Coast on a flight comprised entirely of round-trip fares.
This situation of not being able to "fit" can be further likened to a dinner party in which someone who is single is invited to a gathering where everyone else is a couple. The seating arrangements just don't work out unless there's another single person floating around who can balance out the table.
Last but not least in the one-way versus round trip issue is the cost of personal inconvenience inherent in purchasing only half a trip. "Since September 11th," Blanche says, "the way we travel and the security measures in place at airports to make sure everyone travels safely have changed dramatically. If you have purchased a one-way ticket, the likelihood is high that you are going to be subjected to another level of screening which will subsequently add to the amount of time it will take you to board the plane or - if you were planning to get something to eat before your flight - get to an airport restaurant or kiosk. People don't like being inconvenienced even when measures such as security checks are in place for the good of all passengers."
