Booking one-way cheaply

[bussyboy]

Due to a lack of reward options, I found myself needing to book a one-way flight from India back to Australia.

Two one way tickets will often cost much more than a return ticket does - but I was surprised to be able to book a CX flight via HKG in Premium Economy for around $1,100 today.

I've gone back and looked at return fares and calculated that this was a 23% premium over the half-return fare. Did a quick search on QF in economy and the one-way was 28% extra than the same flight as part of a return journey from India to Australia.

Searching QF Business SYD-SIN in business, the premium is nearly 50% with the price of the one segment jumping from $2,450 on a return journey to $3,650 if booked one-way.

Conversely QF flights to New Zealand have no premium if booking one-way.

I presume that all the carriers take different approaches to this and different countries - does anyone know of useful "sweet spots" when booking one-way to and from Australia?

 

[Beer_budget]

Singapore is often the same price one way vs return, so when we have enough points for two sectors, it's cheaper to book one cash and one points return fare, vs two pairs of one way fares.