One way ticket pricing

[chrisstiles]

Hi --

I can understand the rationale behind complex pricing changes over time, but why is that one way tickets on a flight are often much more expensive than return tickets on the same flight at the same time ?

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chris

[Aerofoil]

Don't take this for definate but I imagine it may be because if you are on a one way ticket then you are going to spend half as much on board as you would on a two-way flight. Therefore they can afford to drop the price of a return ticket because they know you will be spending on board on your return leg.

There will obviously be other reasons but i do know that a large emphasis is now placed on 'on-board sales' in order to make profit.

I'd be quite interested in the other reasons myself too seeing as i just bought a return ticket across the pond!

Regards

Foil

[chrisstiles]

Don't take this for definate but I imagine it may be because if you are on a one way ticket then you are going to spend half as much on board as you would on a two-way flight. Therefore they can afford to drop the price of a return ticket because they know you will be spending on board on your return leg.

I can see this being a factor on budget airlines, but the likes of BA et al ? Surely most people dont spend much (and we are talking hundreds of pounds of difference in some cases) on board.

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chris

[Aerofoil]

Hmm thats true also.

Maybe by influencing you into buying a return ticket (by lower prices) it benefits the airline in that you will not be buying a ticket from one of their rivals? i.e. They have your business for both legs rather than just one way and then a rival getting the return leg.

Regards

Foil

[The SSK]

For normal, fully-flexible fares, roundtrip is either double one-way or there is a small discount to encourage two-way business and because there are some economies of scale - the two journeys require only a single booking transaction, a single ticket, etc.

These fares are normally aimed at business travellers who are not price-sensitive but value the flexibility of being able to change their booking or get a full refund if they cancel.

Cheap return fares are aimed at filling otherwise empty seats and carry conditions to discourage business travellers, advance booking and in particular the need to have a Saturday night between the outbound and return journey.

Since such fares only need to cover the marginal costs of carrying one more passenger, plus a bit of a contribution to the overheads, they can be very cheap and still make economic sense.