Am I Missing Something?

Is there a difference I'm not thinking of when buying airline tickets one R/T ticket vs. 2 one way tickets?

Depends on some variables. As mentioned in the other thread on the topic, domestic one way fares can be a good way to go for several reasons. You might be better off booking XXX airline to your destination, and YYY airline back. Might work better for schedule and fares.

Internationally this doesn't typically work, most of the standard airlines will charge one way fares that add up to more a round trip fare. But a couple of the discount airlines might still sell you a one way fare that works to your advantage.

Depends on some variables. As mentioned in the other thread on the topic, domestic one way fares can be a good way to go for several reasons. You might be better off booking XXX airline to your destination, and YYY airline back. Might work better for schedule and fares.

 

Internationally this doesn't typically work, most of the standard airlines will charge one way fares that add up to more a round trip fare. But a couple of the discount airlines might still sell you a one way fare that works to your advantage.

This is why there are sometimes comments about buying a RT ticket, but just "not coming back". That is, it can be less expensive to buy the RT ticket than just "one way".

Airlines don't like this, no surprise. I don't know what they can "do". Ban you in the future, perhaps?

This is an especially good time to use airline awards for that "one way" ticket, such as to get to/return from a cruise.

There are other fare peculiarities, such as it being more expensive to fly from A to B than to fly from A to B to a further distant C. This leads people to buy the connecting flight, but just get off and stay off at the intermediate stop. Again, this apparently violates some term(s) of the ticketing agreement.

GC

Is there a difference I'm not thinking of when buying airline tickets one R/T ticket vs. 2 one way tickets?

What is the actual issue you're wondering about?

One potential issue is if you have to cancel the trip. If you purchase one round trip or multi-city ticket, you only have to cancel one ticket, which means any penalty for cancellation is only applied once. If you purchase two one-way tickets and cancel, you have to cancel two separate tickets and potentially pay two cancellation fees. Depending on whom you buy the tickets from and who the airline is, that could be costly.

I've booked 2 one-way tickets many times for domestic journeys. Not so much for the price, but for convenient flight times and/or nonstop availability.

I assume the airline will know you were a no-show on the connecting flight and charge a penalty fee to your credit card. There is a reason for those "passenger contracts" that spell out your rights with the airline. But does that stop anyone from deliberately staying off hte connecting flight?

You WILL NOT be charged a penalty if you don’t show up for a flight. Trust me, I’ve been selling tickets for 40 years and this will not happened. I have heard of doing something similar if you do this excessively but that would be very, very rare.

That is good to know.

I dunno. Depends on what and how much you're already thinking of. When we know that, we can try to bridge the gaps in your knowledge. ;)

 

What is the actual issue you're wondering about?

AS is my airline of choice. Been buying tickets from them for years. I'm Gold 75K in their mileage program.

For a few years now there really is no "R/T pricing vs. One way" pricing difference.

SEA to FLL = $ZZZ.00

FLL to SEA return = $XXX.00

For years I've been buying R/T.

Today, this morning, I asked myself why? Price is the same whether it's 2 PNR's or 1 PNR.

Unless I'm missing something. That's the reason for the question.

AS is my airline of choice. Been buying tickets from them for years. I'm Gold 75K in their mileage program.

For a few years now there really is no "R/T pricing vs. One way" pricing difference.

SEA to FLL = $ZZZ.00

FLL to SEA return = $XXX.00

 

For years I've been buying R/T.

Today, this morning, I asked myself why? Price is the same whether it's 2 PNR's or 1 PNR.

 

Unless I'm missing something. That's the reason for the question.

If you were booking 15-20 years ago there would be a difference. Today that is not the cost for flights within North America.

The discount having a return ticket only applied to overseas flights, usually where you are crossing an ocean. That is not the market AS is in.

AS is my airline of choice. Been buying tickets from them for years. I'm Gold 75K in their mileage program.

For a few years now there really is no "R/T pricing vs. One way" pricing difference.

SEA to FLL = $ZZZ.00

FLL to SEA return = $XXX.00

 

For years I've been buying R/T.

Today, this morning, I asked myself why? Price is the same whether it's 2 PNR's or 1 PNR.

 

Unless I'm missing something. That's the reason for the question.

As was mentioned by waterbug123 earlier, the only real advantage to booking a r/t instead of one way is that any change/cancellation fees would only be applied once for a r/t vs. twice for two one ways. Although, as an MVP Gold 75K, I believe AS waives those fees for you anyway.

Booking two one-ways also gives you the flexibility to use more than one airline for each leg of the trip. I used to live in SEA, and the one thing that always annoyed me about Alaska's SEA-FLL schedule is that the post cruise return flight doesn't depart FLL until 6-7 pm. I would much rather take a noon-ish one stop flight on one of the other carriers and be back in SEA by 5 or 6 pm vs. sitting around in FLL all day and then arriving in SEA around 10 pm.

You WILL NOT be charged a penalty if you don’t show up for a flight. Trust me, I’ve been selling tickets for 40 years and this will not happened. I have heard of doing something similar if you do this excessively but that would be very, very rare.

Completely depends on the fare rules and the airline.

To say that definitively you WILL NOT be charged a penalty is a gross oversimplification and generalization.

But, if you want to sell that line, go right ahead. After all, 40 years trumps actual fare rules and regulations every day of the week.

:D