Value of One-Way International Tickets

If you are the type of person who looks into available cheap traveloptions, such as cheapairplane tickets, and cheap vacation packages,before finalizing your trip plans, then it may be worth your time to look intopurchasing one-way international airline tickets.

Ed Perkins checked out ticket prices from Boston to Londonand Los Angeles to Hong Kong in early June for flights in mid-July and foundthe following.

One-way flights between Boston to London were priced at:

Cheapestone-way airlines ticket was $265 on WOW with a stop/change at Reykjavik, WOWround trip $990.

Cheapestnonstop: $345 on Norwegian, round trip $800.

Cheapestlegacy airline (traditional large airline such as American, Delta, and United)was $1,476 on British Airways, round trip $1,045.

One-way flights from Los Angeles to Hong Kong priced outat:

Cheapestone way $470 using three different airlines, round trip $764

Cheapestnonstop was $941 on Cathay Pacific, round trip $1,329.

Currently there are no transpacific low-fare airlines.

For intra-European flights, the two biggest low-fare airlines,EasyJet and Ryanair price all of their tickets as one-way fares. Low-fare airlines in other parts of the worldusually do the same. Legacy airlinessometimes, though certainly not always, match such fares.

The general pattern observed from the very small sample offares reviews is:

• Most low-fare airlines price all tickets on a one-way basis. If a low-fare line goes where you want to go, you can find a one-way ticket at half the round-trip or even less, depending on seasons, taxes, and fees.
• Major airlines tend to price one-way tickets much higher than half round-trip prices in the absence of competition from low-fare airlines.
• Legacy airlines sometimes even price one-way tickets at more than round-trip tickets. In such cases it makes sense to purchase a round trip ticket and throw away the return ticket, if not needed.
• You can often find substantially lower one-way fares if you are willing to pass on nonstop flights and instead accept a stop, change of planes, or other circuitous routing.