Why so expensive?!
 

Hi everyone

I've just been looking at flights for when I move out to Phoenix, with a provisional date for September 4th (no interview date yet so I can't actually book anything yet). I looked on the BA website (I'm loathe to book with them because of all the striking, but it's the only direct flight from the UK to Phoenix) - anyway, a one-way ticket is about £900 but if I were to book a return (which I don't need) it would be less than £600. I then looked at the US Airways website which quoted about £560 for a return ticket and £1050 for a one-way trip! What the hell?! Obviously if it's gonna be so expensive to get a one-way ticket, I'll just end up booking a return which I'm not going to use, but I just wondered if anyone knew why they charge so much for a single ticket?

It seems ridiculous that they penalize people for only travelling one way!

:starsmile:

Re: Why so expensive?!
 

Hi There,

I flew from Manchester to JFK (via Dublin) In January of this year. For 254 GBP one way. I used Aer Lingus and had to travel via Dublin, which was not a problem.

It depends which airport you are thinking of flying from? I found one on Travelsupermarket.com for 407.87 GBP including taxes. From London Heathrow to Phoenix Arizona on 9th Sept 2010. It is with Kuwait Airways,and would take 24hours with 1 stop.

It depends how desperate you are to save money, and if you are prepared to spend that long traveling. But as it's a one way trip, it wouldn't bother me.

Hope that this is of some help.

David

Re: Why so expensive?!
 

Thanks for your reply David :)

That's definitely something to consider. I'll have to have a bit more of a look around. I just read on some aviation forum (after googling my question on why one way flights are so expensive compared to returns) and a few people said that airlines assume one way travellers are business travellers, and can therefore charge what they like as companies will pay whatever they have to if they need to send someone somewhere. I dunno, maybe that's the reason. Still rather scandalous though!

Thanks for your help!

:starsmile:

Re: Why so expensive?!
 

Logic and the airline business seldom seem to meet.

Re: Why so expensive?!
 

Very true! :D

Re: Why so expensive?!
 

My wife had this problem when she returned to the U.S after 5 years in the UK. It was a hell of a lot cheaper to buy the return, hence she bought the return and just didn't up for the second flight. It think it must happen the whole time.

Re: Why so expensive?!
 

Despite its grand sounding name of Sky Harbor International, there are very few international flights. Loads of domestic ones, though.

An oldie...but still amusing and true for ya.
http://blog.ivman.com/if-airlines-sold-paint/

Re: Why so expensive?!
 

Yeah, airlines do rip people off! I suppose they don't care if people don't show for their return flights, because they often have people on standby for any seats that come available at the last minute (i.e. when people with tickets don't show) and they probably charge a fortune for last minute seats.

I was planning to fly from Manchester to Philadelphia, then Philadelphia to Phoenix (with US Airways). I agree about the lack of international flights from PHX - but there are tons of domestic flights, as fatbrit pointed out. I've done the MAN-PHL-PHX journey before and it was fine, so I'd be happy to do that again (and it saves me having to travel all the way to LHR). I really thought at first it was just BA charging silly amounts for single tickets, but it turned out US Airways was even more expensive (and that was with either 1 or 2 changes, so more inconvenient than BA's direct flight - if BA are actually functioning! I've been messed around because of their strikes before and I'm not too keen to repeat the experience!).

Well, I may as well stop looking at flights until I at least have an interview date!

:starsmile:

Re: Why so expensive?!
 

I've been trying to book a trip home recently PHX-MAN and the prices are just silly.

Re: Why so expensive?!
 

Delta has flights @ 503 GBP for most of Sept via JFK.

Re: Why so expensive?!
 

No direct flights plus UK school holidays with O and D traffic for FL = high prices, supply and demand.

The fares fall from Sept onwards.

Re: Why so expensive?!
 

We worked this out and might postpone til then but it then gets into the football season (I really want to go to the Chiefs opener, I've been converted) and yeah and I'll miss my mum's birthday.

Re: Why so expensive?!
 

Just book a return and dont use it or book a return for the furthest date away then change the date when you want to use it, costs $150 with Virgin atlantic to do that. Of course like me you will always have a floating wrong way ticket, but who cares its cheaper!

Re: Why so expensive?!
 

Airline ticket pricing may be difficult to understand, but at least this way you can get bargains by shopping smart and shopping ahead. If they simply divided the revenue they needed to get by the number of seats on the plane and charged that then I think a lot of people would be complaining...

And you could probably kiss goodbye to last-minute availability too.

The paint story, while funny, doesn't hold up to scrutiny at all. The analogy here would have to include the fact that the shop would have to sell all the paint by the end of each day as it had to pour the stock down the drain.

Re: Why so expensive?!
 

when i moved to the US a few months ago i just booked a return flight and didn't turn up for the 2nd part. I only booked it for 2 weeks away and the woman when i was checking in asked if i was using the flight back, i said i was going to change it next week....then just didn't turn up for the return part.