Why do oneway tickets cost as much or more than roundtrip?

[GorillaMan]

@suranyi

As ticker and OxyMoron indicated, airlines know that people who want to buy one-way tickets often have to fly whatever the price. So they’re gouged.

But as others of us have indicated, many airlines have realised there’s a big market for non-full-price single tickets. It’s outdated and ignorant to suggest it’s possible to successfully ignore the market for low-cost single tickets

[asterion]

@GorillaMan

This is a common misconception - what you’ve actually paid for is passage, not the seat, and as others have pointed out, this passage comes with terms & conditions. The only reason everybody has to have a seat is for safety. (You don’t expect a refund from a train company if every seat is taken when you board.)

I sure as hell would expect a refund from Amtrak if I bought a reserved ticket and when I got on found out that they had sold more than capacity and could not find a seat for me. Especially on an overnight train. Now, if you’re talking about the subway, I’ve got no problem standing, mostly because you can eventually sit down after a while.

[OxyMoron]

@asterion

I sure as hell would expect a refund from Amtrak if I bought a reserved ticket and when I got on found out that they had sold more than capacity and could not find a seat for me. Especially on an overnight train. Now, if you’re talking about the subway, I’ve got no problem standing, mostly because you can eventually sit down after a while.

Note that Amtrak regularly does this during the holidays, at least in reserved coach seats. Even though in theory they’re not supposed to anymore, it does. The only way around it is to take Acela Express or buy a business class seat.

[jweb]

@galen ubal

I’m moving there, and I won’t be returning for several months at the very earliest, for a visit.

So buy the return leg for several months from now based on when you thing you might consider making a visit. If you do make a visit at that time, you’ve already got half the flight bought, or you’ve got some additional flexibility on at least that leg of your journey. If you don’t use it, you’re out very little if anything.

Did this once: road-tripped with my brother on his way home from Iowa to Los Angeles when he came home to Iowa for Christmas. I only needed a one-way ticket back to Iowa, but roundtrip tickets were less then 1/2 the price of a one-way. So I bought the round trip ticket, LA-Iowa, with the return leg being 3 months later (spring break). When spring break arose, I bought another round-trip ticket, but the ‘return’ leg of the first ticket was a better fit for me. So for my trip, I essentially used two ‘return flights’. The airlines didn’t care one way or the other.

[suranyi]

@GorillaMan

But as others of us have indicated, many airlines have realised there’s a big market for non-full-price single tickets. It’s outdated and ignorant to suggest it’s possible to successfully ignore the market for low-cost single tickets

True, but that’s a fairly recent development, and not all airlines have caught on.

Ed