why is a return flight cheaper than a single?

[kwyjibo]

this doesnt make any sense. anyone care to enlighten me?

with BA, a flight from london to montreal in May costs something like £364 return, but a single costs £605

i mean, whats the point? you would just get a return ticket and cancel your return flight

and its not just BA, KLM and airfrance also do the same thing except you go from something like £1800 down to £500

 

[kwyjibo]

still doesnt make sense from a purely profit-making view, unless im missing something about the importance of filling a seat

 

[kwyjibo]

yeah but if i only want to go one-way, then i'm only going to go one-way...

i flew to paris recently from edinburgh with a return ticket, but i had the courtesy to phone airfrance to tell them i didnt intend to return (hence i am still on the continent). The alternative was for me to not say anything and deliberately miss my flight, which as an EU citizen, i could have easily done...

is this the kind of behaviour airlines are trying to encourage?

nb the return ticket was also cheaper than the single in this case

 

[kwyjibo]

Single tickets are almost always flexible tickets whereas the return will be a restricted fare

i suppose this is the most rational answer i've found yet

 

[kwyjibo]

If you buy a single, it means someone else has to buy a single on the way back for them to fill the seat, otherwise it will be empty. Therefore they charge close to double in order to recoup the money from that empty seat on the way back.

okay, so i buy a return ticket which costs about half, and then i dont bother to return (and lets say i also dont bother to inform the airline), how does the airline profit from that?

 

[kwyjibo]

It sells your seat to someone who is on Standby....

okay i see now, the entire process of cancellation is still a minor inconvenience though...