Air fares and their confuddling nature

Mr_Wang

Need to get from Leh, India to Abu Dhabi.

Direct flights from anywhere in that region including Amritsar are about £180PP

A flight from Leh - Amritsar - Delhi - Abu Dhabi = £130PP

Flights with Air India. Just how the heck does that work????

marvin

I recently had a need to book a one way flight to Moscow which was quoted as £502 yet on the same flight a return was £400 so cheaper to book a return even if you do not use one leg of the journey. The price for the leg which would have been the one way was £160, same airline same flight same airport.

Still cannot work out how that works.

Voyager2002

Nothing surprising about either of these examples...

The market for international flights out of Delhi is vast, and so such flights have to be priced competitively. The market for international flights out of regional airports (whether Amritsar or Bristol) is smaller, so carriers can charge higher fares, with many passengers being willing to pay extra for the convenience of bypassing the congestion found in a major national gateway;

Return tickets generally are completely inflexible: you take a specific flight at a fixed time, or you lose your ticket. One-way tickets generally allow a far greater degree of flexibility. and business travellers are often willing to pay a great deal for flexibility. So a return ticket is a very different product from two single tickets.

marvin

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Return tickets generally are completely inflexible: you take a specific flight at a fixed time, or you lose your ticket. One-way tickets generally allow a far greater degree of flexibility. and business travellers are often willing to pay a great deal for flexibility. So a return ticket is a very different product from two single tickets.

Have to say do not get the logic of this we were not wanting to be flexable and I am not sure how a single one way flight is flexable as it is booked for the flight you want going on the day you want to where you want at a time you want nothing flexable about it.

If you mean you have more flexability on return, well you have that if you book a return and never use the return leg.

rpstdavids

marvin wrote: »

I recently had a need to book a one way flight to Moscow which was quoted as £502 yet on the same flight a return was £400 so cheaper to book a return even if you do not use one leg of the journey. The price for the leg which would have been the one way was £160, same airline same flight same airport.

Still cannot work out how that works.

This will only work with most airlines if you do not use the return part of the flight.
If you do not make the outward flight on a return ticket they usually cancel the return as well.

Voyager2002

marvin wrote: »

Have to say do not get the logic of this we were not wanting to be flexable and I am not sure how a single one way flight is flexable as it is booked for the flight you want going on the day you want to where you want at a time you want nothing flexable about it.

If you mean you have more flexability on return, well you have that if you book a return and never use the return leg.

Logic? With air fares?

I think that if you read the full "rules" relating to the single and return tickets you are considering, you are likely to find that the one-way ticket would allow you to vary your date and time of travel after booking, while the return ticket is for travel at fixed times.