Airlines use all kinds of methods to price discriminate, to get each passenger to pay as much as possible for their ticket. That largely comes in the form of trying to determine who is a business traveler and who is a leisure traveler.
For example, there were recently headlines about how airlines increasingly have different pricing for solo travelers vs. groups, which is a fairly new practice. Well, here’s another new practice… or perhaps just the return of an old one.
In this post:
50%+ of domestic flights cheaper as roundtrip
For the past several years, the cost of two one-way tickets domestically within the United States has typically been the same as booking those flights roundtrip. There have of course been exceptions, but generally, airlines haven’t discriminated too much based on whether you’re booking as one-ways or as a roundtrip. International flights are a totally different story.
However, Thrifty Traveler reports that it seems that airlines are bringing back a practice that was popular decades ago, whereby one-way domestic fares are often significantly more expensive than roundtrip fares. Based on their sample of 2,000 flights across multiple airlines:
- Airlines charged more for two one-ways than one roundtrip on more than 50% of itineraries searched
- The closer to departure you book, the more common this practice is, with 90%+ of flights within 14 days having pricing disparity
- Delta uses this practice most often, followed by Alaska, followed by American, followed by United, followed by Southwest
- In some cases the difference is just a few bucks, while in other cases, the difference is $100+
Doing my own casual searches, I’m noticing the same thing, on a much more widespread basis than in the past. For example, if I search a one-way Tampa to Miami flight, I see fares starting at $287.
Meanwhile if I search that same flight as part of a roundtrip, the fare is as low as $174 (for basic economy), and it’s $234 for the same type of fare.
This is sort of annoying, likely won’t last long
The airline industry isn’t very high margin, and we’re always seeing airlines find new ways to try to maximize revenue. Airfare pricing isn’t transparent, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing — a vast majority of airline travelers are essentially paying fares below the average cost per air seat mile, so they’re being subsidized by some other party (those paying higher fares, credit card revenue, shareholders, etc.).
I think we’re currently at an interesting time when it comes to airline pricing, given how rapidly technology is advancing. For example, we know that Delta is increasingly using AI to price tickets, with the expectation that 20% of flights will be priced this way by the end of the year. The exact implications of that remain to be seen.
However, I’m not really bothered by any of these practices. Why? Well, the airline industry is extremely competitive, and airlines don’t have much pricing power at all. If they did, presumably they’d want their passenger revenue per air seat mile to be higher than their cost per air seat mile, when that’s often not even the case for profitable airlines.
Carriers can experiment all they want, but ultimately there’s competition. Sure, maybe airlines want to trial charging more for one-way tickets, but this also creates an opportunity for competitors to not offer that practice, and to steal market share.
If one-way tickets get so expensive that consumers aren’t willing to pay them, airlines will quickly find out, and reverse course. Obviously I don’t like this trend, but I also know that it won’t last for long, as consumers can vote with their wallets, and airlines will quickly get the hint.
I think airlines are currently a little overconfident in terms of the impact that their new pricing strategies will have. Let’s see how this all plays out…
Bottom line
It seems that a significant percentage of domestic flights within the United States have higher pricing if you book as two one-ways vs. as one roundtrip. This seems to be most prevalent as the departure date approaches, and Delta uses this practice the most.
This is definitely something to be aware of as you plan your travel. Airlines are ultimately limited in terms of their pricing power, so I’m curious to see how long this practice lasts on a widespread basis.
What do you make of airlines increasingly charging more for one-ways?
Delta has been doing this for years, on award tickets as well as paid tickets. I made a comment in one of your posts about six weeks ago where I gave my data point that short-notice award booking RT to Atlanta, the roundtrip was cheaper than one one-way, let alone two. Furthermore, in my points/miles spreadsheet, there is a years-old annotation for Delta that roundtrip is much cheaper than one-way. I'm not so optimistic this...
Delta has been doing this for years, on award tickets as well as paid tickets. I made a comment in one of your posts about six weeks ago where I gave my data point that short-notice award booking RT to Atlanta, the roundtrip was cheaper than one one-way, let alone two. Furthermore, in my points/miles spreadsheet, there is a years-old annotation for Delta that roundtrip is much cheaper than one-way. I'm not so optimistic this will go away.
Besides being another way to price discriminate, it complicates the process of booking award tickets if you can't just use point.me, but have to go to individual airline websites to weigh r/t vs. one-way.
Awful. Another enshittification by American Airlines, who is also charging single travelers more and is known for being the one who introduced the baggage check-in fee causing the newly clogged, tiresome, stressful and long boarding and deplaning.
I absolutely hate this for flexibility. I never book round trips as a rule. If my outbound AA connection is busted, and I need to fly UA to get to my client meeting on time, you're going to cancel my entire ticket? The first times this happens I will scream to the high heavens. My positive assumptions are: airlines won't cancel the return if there are irrops on the outbound. Airlines will give credit if the return is canceled.
Maybe it’s my market, but this is often the case and has been for as long as I can remember for me. I rarely can get a one-way ticket for cheaper than a round trip. I fly out of a small local airport with two gates so that may be part of it.
I’ve had times when the one way was well over double the cost of a round trip ticket. It’s maddening.
Yeah I noticed this recently- though I don't think the trend goes back "decades" as you suggest. I think about 5-8 years ago, pre COVID, it was standard practice and then as airlines became more flexible (and maybe more anxious to compete against the LCCs) during COVID they adopted more fair pricing on one-ways. Anyway now it seems to be back to ridiculously inflated one-ways as a way to try to extract more revenue from...
Yeah I noticed this recently- though I don't think the trend goes back "decades" as you suggest. I think about 5-8 years ago, pre COVID, it was standard practice and then as airlines became more flexible (and maybe more anxious to compete against the LCCs) during COVID they adopted more fair pricing on one-ways. Anyway now it seems to be back to ridiculously inflated one-ways as a way to try to extract more revenue from business travelers. It's frustrating because often I need one-ways for positioning flights or return flights for miles bookings. Like for example, I will always try to book business class with miles on an outbound overnight trip to Europe but I might be okay booking economy or PE on the return for the daytime flight. This can be prohibitively expensive on some routes.
If a one way is more than a return, why would anyone book a one way tho?
Because you can change the outbound without losing the cheap fare on the return.
Because you don't want to get smacked (lose miles or have your account shut down or threat of being charged for a one-way) by the airline for skipping the return.
Because
1. You found a cheap fare ow but not sure when you'll return but don't want to lose that cheap fare opportunity
2. Because you get to your destination and maybe drive to another state and want to return from that state instead of driving back to where you had landed
3. Because of a urgent issue like a dying relative and another airline has the fastest flight for you. (have seen this...
Because
1. You found a cheap fare ow but not sure when you'll return but don't want to lose that cheap fare opportunity
2. Because you get to your destination and maybe drive to another state and want to return from that state instead of driving back to where you had landed
3. Because of a urgent issue like a dying relative and another airline has the fastest flight for you. (have seen this more than once)
4. Moving maybe. flying out to meet family to drive back together. And for me the ultimate reason. I once used a car buyer who found the car I wanted to buy and saved me several thousands in price and tax. I had to fly out to pick up the car. But we'll worth it.
Because you can fly out on one airline, and return on another one.
Delta has priced two one ways as more than a round trip for as long as I can remember. Generally with a one way costing as much as 60-80% of the round trip ticket.
I feel like this is more likely for <14 days because the return leg might be a close-in pricing.
Ben, are you following the Gallego/Blumenthal/Warner letter to Delta about AI pricing? Wonder how this converges with Trump's new AI deregulation push (Sacks/Kratsios rolling back 'red tape') - seems like conflicting federal pressures.
Curious about your take...
Guessing they are doing their best to cut out OTC as they almost exclusively book two one ways. I don't know of any of them that price return flights
I would push back on this strongly. This looks to be like more of an anomaly than anything. Sky Key sees thousands and thousands of tickets / data points and generally speaking customers are far better booking multiple one ways instead of round trips because of the flexibility it gives you to take advantage of price drops. And most of the time the cost is the same for 2 one ways as it is for...
I would push back on this strongly. This looks to be like more of an anomaly than anything. Sky Key sees thousands and thousands of tickets / data points and generally speaking customers are far better booking multiple one ways instead of round trips because of the flexibility it gives you to take advantage of price drops. And most of the time the cost is the same for 2 one ways as it is for a round trip. The caveat to this would be certain international itineraries make far more sense to have a round trip.
Just to be clear though, the airline doesn't charge more for two one-way tickets. They just give you a discount if flying round trip :)
This is a new trend in the US? It has been that way in Europe for ages.
Probably most of the world too. In fact, it's not unusual to find return tickets being sold for less than a single one-way ticket on the same route, never mind the total cost of two tickets.
… but in Europe it’s going the other way round - it used to be this way but most airlines have dropped this and price one ways “normally” due to competition from Wizz/Ryanair/EasyJet.
I overheard someone talk about this recently. I don't really see how this squares up with the elimination of cancellation fees, and the practice of depositing credits. As this becomes widespread, people will just book multiple roundtrips, and start cancelling legs after flying.
First of all, you won't get cash back if it's nonrefundable RT ticket, and you'd be stuck with lots of flight credits that will expire. Secondly, the airline may price/reprice the return leg in a way that seriously discourages you from doing that.
Also, an itinerary for two is priced less than if only one person is traveling. That is per person.
I wonder how an open-jaw ticket will be treated.
lol ed I was just thinking this
Lufthansa engage in that sort of pricing and do allow open jaws basically anywhere within Europe- e.g. last year I bought a ticket for UK-Italy then Greece-UK and it was priced at the return level (buying two one-ways would've been ca. 50% extra).
It greatly depends on the distance of the open jaw. IE: TPA-JFK return EWR-TPA would be more comparable than TPA-SAN return SFO-TPA.
In the SFO example you def have 2 one ways vs a much smaller open jaw in the EWR/JFK/LGA market.
Ben, genuinely curious how this practice has been sustained across the Atlantic for years but you don't think it will hold for domestic - i'd have thought there was just as much if not MORE competition internationally (more carriers flying the same/similar direct routings and then significantly more still with one stop)?
Either way I wish they'd regulate against this for both domestic and international itineraries.
Yes, TATL flights have always been like this. There are ways around it though.
Ben
Also true for first class flights?
I think the difference is competition. Roundtrip pricing broadly went away thank to LCCs which tended to price on a one way basis. LCCs are far less prevalent on long-haul, so airlines have been able to maintain the practice on long-haul more successfully.
Transatlantic flights cost way more to operate compared to domestic flights within the US. As a result, any airline that tries to steal market share by offering lower prices typically won't be profitable. Norse (and Norwegian Long Haul before that) is a perfect example. They offer much cheaper one-way tickets compared to the competition in the markets they operate it. It is a little cheaper to book a round-trip ticket, but the difference is only...
Transatlantic flights cost way more to operate compared to domestic flights within the US. As a result, any airline that tries to steal market share by offering lower prices typically won't be profitable. Norse (and Norwegian Long Haul before that) is a perfect example. They offer much cheaper one-way tickets compared to the competition in the markets they operate it. It is a little cheaper to book a round-trip ticket, but the difference is only a few dollars in my experience. However, without a significant market share, those airlines won't be profitable (and even if they achieve significant market share, their profitability is still highly seasonal). Just look at all of the failed low cost transatlantic carriers. Norse is still struggling.
That is why airlines maintain the high one-way pricing across the Atlantic. They know that most of the people looking for such itineraries are business travelers. If you book a multi-city or open-jaw ticket across the atlantic, many airlines price it as a round-trip so the fare increase isn't substantial. Many one-way travelers also value nonstop flights, so airlines have more pricing power in those cases (just look at BA or VS one-way tickets compared to TAP, which is much cheaper on one-way itineraries). The one-way ticket being more expensive is an established practice in those markets. In the US, it isn't. And there are many competitors on a lot of routes who would gladly undercut the legacy carriers on price. And the general population is much more willing to fly on a LLC or ULCC on a 2-3 hour flight compared to a transatlantic flight.
Since I fly, since about 30 years it has always been like that in Europe. You pay more for a one way than for a return. And watch out, if you have like 3 returns paid and you don't use the whole trip you will be blocked by the Airline.
Nelson, just cancel before the flight rather than be a no-show
I hate this. I often book domestic RTs as two one ways so that I don't have to reprice the whole thing if I want to change a leg (which I do much more often for domestic than international).
Agreed; this is disgusting.
Hi Ben. Are you going to do a story on JonNYC’s post about the AA/UA ORD traffic figures?
I noticed this for the first time just last week!! I was shocked at what I saw as this has not been the norm for quite a while. I was booking a roundtrip RDU-MSP flight on Delta for 8/8-8/11. I knew I wanted Delta for the direct flight, but was hoping to use AF miles - sadly there was only award availability one way. When I started pricing out one way cash tickets, I noticed...
I noticed this for the first time just last week!! I was shocked at what I saw as this has not been the norm for quite a while. I was booking a roundtrip RDU-MSP flight on Delta for 8/8-8/11. I knew I wanted Delta for the direct flight, but was hoping to use AF miles - sadly there was only award availability one way. When I started pricing out one way cash tickets, I noticed that they were more expensive individually than if I had just bought a roundtrip cash ticket. So that's what I did in the end, not wanting to pay a cash premium for the one way ticket. I hope this goes away quickly!
Even if this does stick around this will really only impact basic economy travelers, infrequent (whether with that airline or in general) travelers, and those with very little cash (but would assume this deferment books basic anyways).
Just book a return. Fly the first leg. Cancel the return. Use the credit for future flight.
Only caveat could be how much $ they consider each leg in the trip and how much credit you back. But...
Even if this does stick around this will really only impact basic economy travelers, infrequent (whether with that airline or in general) travelers, and those with very little cash (but would assume this deferment books basic anyways).
Just book a return. Fly the first leg. Cancel the return. Use the credit for future flight.
Only caveat could be how much $ they consider each leg in the trip and how much credit you back. But I did a test search on your example and the round trip shows earning the same amount of loyalty points for each leg. So seems like should get 50% credit back
I suspect if you try to cancel they will reprice as one way.
They can try. But if you have already flown the leg you wanted, then you can just DK.