One Way Airfares

[aussietravellers]

WHAT A RIP-OFF!

I have just done a blog post about this. Really, one way airfares are a complete rip off.

Looking at airfares for December (which I don't intend to buy yet, will wait until closer to the time for a special). We can get all airfares with ff points, but DS one way. So.... I was looking at one way fares.

One Way - BNE to LAX $2057
Return - BNE to LAX $2211

Yep, that's a $154 difference... the one way fare is a massive $154 cheaper than the return fare . Now with that, we may as well keep the points and pay for the whole return flight!

I don't get why the one way is SO expensive!

 

[WAMUMOF4]

WHAT A RIP-OFF!

I have just done a blog post about this. Really, one way airfares are a complete rip off.

Looking at airfares for December (which I don't intend to buy yet, will wait until closer to the time for a special). We can get all airfares, but DS one way. So.... I was looking at one way fares.

One Way - BNE to LAX $2057
Return - BNE to LAX $2211

Yep, that's a $154 difference... the one way fare is a massive $154 cheaper than the return fare . Now with that, we may as well keep the points and pay for the whole return flight!

I don't get why the one way is SO expensive!

IT is a joke inst it i guess it's their way of making sure they get your business both ways.
Are you looking at Qantas? Might be a cheaper option to price their points plus pay option that's what we did with DH's flight still got the sale fare.

 

[aussietravellers]

IT is a joke inst it i guess it's their way of making sure they get your business both ways.
Are you looking at Qantas? Might be a cheaper option to price their points plus pay option that's what we did with DH's flight still got the sale fare.

Yes... looking at Qantas. Had a look at points plus pay for a return bne to lax. For the same amount of points for the one way BNE to LAX, it shave $500 off the airfare, so not even half of one of the legs. Another rip off

I wish there was some way of paying one way completely with points then selecting the return as a pay option, so that way, you are getting a return at a good price. You can I guess with points plus pay, but if it's not a complete award booking, then points plus pay uses a lot more than a regular award flight.

 

[aussietravellers]

Just checked AA.

Their price, for exactly the same flight (as it's an AA flight, operated by Qantas) $1766 USD!, that's about $1647 AUD! QF is $2057, that's over $300 cheaper if we buy the ticket through AA!

Same flight, same plane, same day!

 

[WAMUMOF4]

Gosh i didnt know you use more points for points plus pay to late now for us
I know what you mean about it being cheaper to go with AA I was pricing our return home for 2015 just to get some sort of idea how much a one way was and it was $600 cheaper to go British airways which was Qantas anyway i seriously cant figure it out.

 

[aussietravellers]

Gosh i didnt know you use more points for points plus pay to late now for us

I'm not sure how they calculate the points plus pay It's be using the points calculator for any seat awards rather than the classic awards and they can vary, but are usually use about twice the points as a classic award.

Classic is 96,000 from BNE to LAX Ret
Any seat is 202,376 for the same route, but this variable depending on the flight, so they can charge you how many they want. So points plus pay is roughly the same

 

[alicia1506]

we are doing bne - lax direct return... current price is showing around 1900 return.

we are flying lax - mco with delta, so i thought i'd be clever and price out a vaustralia direct flight from bne - mco, then the return flight from lax - bne.

bne - mco direct (virgin + delta codeshare) was $1780 one way, and lax - bne (direct with virgin) was $1760.

over 3500 for the same flights that (if we booked now) we would pay $1900 + $250 for the lax-mco leg.

eek.

i have no idea where they get their pricing for the one way legs. i can understand why people who may want to fly one way would still buy a return ticket... that's just crazy pricing..

 

[WAMUMOF4]

I'm not sure how they calculate the points plus pay It's be using the points calculator for any seat awards rather than the classic awards and they can vary, but are usually use about twice the points as a classic award.

Classic is 96,000 from BNE to LAX Ret
Any seat is 202,376 for the same route, but this variable depending on the flight, so they can charge you how many they want. So points plus pay is roughly the same

Now i am really cranky according to Qantas table Perth DFW is 64000 points each way classic reward we used points plus pay and used 74607 points each way and still paid $800 out of pocket how on earth do they work that out.

I just wasted half an hour on the phone with Qantas it was there computer system that told me i did not have enough points for the classic reward and offered me the points plus pay and they don't know why it did that but because its 5 months since i booked tough bikkies. I am not happy at all they suggested i call back in the morning and put in an official complaint to the FF section i imagine it would be a waste of time.

 

[alicia1506]

Now i am really cranky according to Qantas table Perth DFW is 64000 points each way classic reward we used points plus pay and used 74607 points each way and still paid $800 out of pocket how on earth do they work that out.

I just wasted half an hour on the phone with Qantas it was there computer system that told me i did not have enough points for the classic reward and offered me the points plus pay and they don't know why it did that but because its 5 months since i booked tough bikkies. I am not happy at all they suggested i call back in the morning and put in an official complaint to the FF section i imagine it would be a waste of time.

wow. that seems highly unreasonable. points + pay = more points, plus out of pocket expenses... more so than if you had paid by points only? what is the incentive? that is just crazy ridiculous. i would ring their customer service team and ask what on earth is going on?

i was looking into the points + pay for our trip as well, but i think i'll hold off for now

 

[Andona]

i was looking into the points + pay for our trip as well, but i think i'll hold off for now

Using your points to buy an "Any Seat" award nearly always costs less than Points + Pay. ( Of course, "Classic" awards are always the best way to go IF you can find a decent seat! - which seems to be getting harder and harder to the USA )

If you are running a bit short of enough points to buy the Any Seat award then it's usually still cheaper to take the option to "top up" your points and buy the Any Seat award, rather than to book a normal flight and use Point + Pay.

I recently compared the two options for flights to Miami - we wanted three tickets and had nearly enough points to buy one of them as an "Any Seat" award. Because we were a bit short on points we would have had to buy about 15,000 points to make up the difference. Even buying the extra points it was still $500 cheaper to book one Any Seat award ( with points top up) + 2 standard seats than to book three standard seats and pay using Points + Pay.

I can understand why Classic awards are so much cheaper but I must admit I have no idea why the Any Seat awards value isn't the same as the Points + Pay value . It's weird!

At least when you buy Any Seat OR Points + Pay the taxes are included in the cost AND you earn points on the flights. Buying a Classic award feels like a real bargain until you have to cough up for the taxes. Qantas taxes are just ridiculous these days

We decided not to use our points at all for our USA trip this time, we'll get better value from them going somewhere else where they offer more Classic Seats.

Andona

 

[mattincanberra]

Now i am really cranky according to Qantas table Perth DFW is 64000 points each way classic reward we used points plus pay and used 74607 points each way and still paid $800 out of pocket how on earth do they work that out.

You should know that with an any seat award or points plus pay you should receive frequent flyer points for that flight. PER-SYD-DFW will earn at least 10,627 Qantas FF points each way.

Had you booked the classic award flight you still would have had to pay the taxes and charges associated with the flight. Last time I booked that flight SYD-DFW the taxes were about $460 return.

The upside of points + pay or any seat awards is that they give you frequent flyer availability where there are no classic award seats available.

As for the one way fare price difference - it's about what the airlines feel people will pay, one way tickets are most often used in reasonably specialised situations - people moving country, last minute business emergencies etc, and are most usually based on the most flexible fare classes rather than the sale prices that you are used to seeing. The Full economy flight PER-SYD-DFW-SYD-PER is actually priced at $4941 return - for that you get no additional anything either at the airport or on the plane, you just get an economy seat to Dallas.

Matt

 

[alicia1506]

matt -- you have the best answers to our flight questions, lol.

i think we've decided to just pay for our fares in $$$ this time, and use the points from the trip & our balance to send my parents on a well deserved holiday, expenses paid