Qantas One Way

[OzTD]

Hi Everyone

i have just registered - be gentle! WP for some time. Interesting forums. I am curious why does Qantas charge so much for one way! Just booked Manila to Sydney business class start of April. Qantas quote was approximately A3700. Philippine was US$950. No guess who I just booked with. Does Qantas not want business. I am loyal to an extent but this just questions booking blind on Qantas. This just perturbed me and wondered why they would try and rip of the punter so much. I fly regularly but usually return or multicity. So this was an eye opener. Cheers

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

Hi Everyone

i have just registered - be gentle! WP for some time. Interesting forums. I am curious why does Qantas charge so much for one way! Just booked Manila to Sydney business class start of April. Qantas quote was approximately A3700. Philippine was US$950. No guess who I just booked with. Does Qantas not want business. I am loyal to an extent but this just questions booking blind on Qantas. This just perturbed me and wondered why they would try and rip of the punter so much. I fly regularly but usually return or multicity. So this was an eye opener. Cheers

Probably cheaper to book return and ditch the return sector (or use it later).

Most international fares are return or 'excursion' fares.

 

[Limewood]

Many airlines have one way like the one you chose even JQ have it, very convenient for many, QFF loose bookings because if it IMO. I'm looking at one ATM, won't be QF pity.

 

[JohnK]

Come to think of it again wasn't Qantas going to introduce one-way airfares for international itineraries just like they did for domestic and trans-Tasman?

 

[mannej]

You will find QF are hardly alone with this practise. You may be surprised to compare the OW fares compared to the return fares.

 

[castie]

Flew HKG to SIN recently.

Cathay was 5,800 HKD and JQ was 1800 HKD (including the max pack)
Company paid so I flew Cathay but if it was my own dime it would be JQ all the way.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

Due to return or excursion fares (a relic of the past) you may often find a return cheaper that a one-way. It's bizarre to think you can travel twice as far for less but it's a strange quirk for some airlines that still price excursion fares.

Most full service carriers still do this, while low costs and some full service have moved to point to point or one-way.

Oh, and where are my manners... Welcome to AFF

 

[opusman]

At least domestically things have moved on somewhat. Who remembers the bad old days of 21-day-advance-purchase-must-stay-a-Saturday-night fares?

 

[harvyk]

The theory behind it is if they sell you a one way fare, then they either need to find another person to fly the return on a one way, or have an empty seat on the return as return ticket holders won't be able to use it.

The practice is it's a relic from the past, but it brings in money.

 

[harvyk]

At least domestically things have moved on somewhat. Who remembers the bad old days of 21-day-advance-purchase-must-stay-a-Saturday-night fares?

Yeah, I remember the 21 day advance purchases and the must stay Saturday night fares.

 

[dairyfloss]

Pricing also varies quite significantly in different markets, and so I expect the airline's fear would be that if fares were able to be purchased as 2 x OW fares at ~1/2 of the country-of-sale return ticket price, then people would never book the return tickets in inflated markets... they would book a OW out, and then the cheaper OW back. Carriers would be much worse off... though not saying this (lower prices) is a bad thing for the consumer, of course! This is a long running complaint... just take look at a return from LHR-SYD vs a return from SYD-LHR (or JFK-SYD as well). Same period, same flights, same seats... often 25-50% less though to buy the return starting from the other end.

Cheers.

 

[OATEK]

The theory behind it is if they sell you a one way fare, then they either need to find another person to fly the return on a one way, or have an empty seat on the return as return ticket holders won't be able to use it. The practice is it's a relic from the past, but it brings in money.

With International tickets, there can only be limited correlation between outgoing/incoming dates. Aside from School Holidays, when would you think a one-way fare would affect the return leg, with any certainty?

Pricing also varies quite significantly in different markets, and so I expect the airline's fear would be that if fares were able to be purchased as 2 x OW fares at ~1/2 of the country-of-sale return ticket price, then people would never book the return tickets in inflated markets...

This seems more likely to me. When you do a booking through the QF web-site, you get two one way fares to select for your return, and rarely are they for the same amount in/out. If we were able to book one-way at the rates shown, I can imagine it could have a major impact on their bottom line. Its not that the return seat is empty, it's more that the return flight might be with someone else entirely!

 

[drewbles]

Yeah, I remember the 21 day advance purchases and the must stay Saturday night fares.

And many intra-Europe carriers still do it! BA and AF don't but many do (which makes things tricky). Of course, there's plenty of LCC's there too if you like SleazyJet or CryingAir

 

[Limewood]

When the international fare deals come out they are selective on one ways, its wrong.

Currently I'm looking for two one way int. flights that QF fly to/from, I prefer QF but these will go to others.

 

[harvyk]

With International tickets, there can only be limited correlation between outgoing/incoming dates. Aside from School Holidays, when would you think a one-way fare would affect the return leg, with any certainty?

Well simple logic says that if a person is only flying from A to B, there will be at some stage a B to A seat which can not be sold to a return flyer as a result and will require another one way flyer who wants to get from B to A to fill it. Actually pinning down the flight and day where this seat has flown empty as a result can not be done, and commercial realities of flying mean that there will always be seats which are empty on most flights regardless which could have been sold but where not.

However never let realities get in the way of a logical argument when that logic can be used to jack up the price.

 

[OATEK]

Its particularly obvious in certain cases such as my daughter and family who a soon to return after 7.5yrs working in the UK. Getting a one way ticket to Sydney at a decent price has proven to be nigh impossible.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

Its particularly obvious in certain cases such as my daughter and family who a soon to return after 7.5yrs working in the UK. Getting a one way ticket to Sydney at a decent price has proven to be nigh impossible.

Points redemptions are often the cheapest option if you have the points to burn.

 

[MrHanky]

Well simple logic says that if a person is only flying from A to B, there will be at some stage a B to A seat which can not be sold to a return flyer as a result and will require another one way flyer who wants to get from B to A to fill it. Actually pinning down the flight and day where this seat has flown empty as a result can not be done, and commercial realities of flying mean that there will always be seats which are empty on most flights regardless which could have been sold but where not.

However never let realities get in the way of a logical argument when that logic can be used to jack up the price.

This is true, and perhaps this excuse justifies a small premium for a OW fair (perhaps, 60% of return fair rather than 50%). What we find with QF and other full service carriers, however, is that often the OW fair is 100%+ of the return fair, and in the case where it's > the return fare, there is absolutely no justification for it.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Come to think of it again wasn't Qantas going to introduce one-way airfares for international itineraries just like they did for domestic and trans-Tasman?

Even if they publish airfares on a one way basis often they are only available for sale at that level if you are booking a forward and return journey at the same time on the one pnr. Earlier in the year I was looking at one way fares for my parents to fly HNL/SYD & there was a difference of several hundred dollars in the one way fares listed that formed a round trip as opposed to one way fares listed solely for travel one way HNL/SYD.

Its particularly obvious in certain cases such as my daughter and family who a soon to return after 7.5yrs working in the UK. Getting a one way ticket to Sydney at a decent price has proven to be nigh impossible.

Points redemptions are often the cheapest option if you have the points to burn.

Even if you don't have the points to burn, it's still often cheaper to buy points eg with AA then redeem for a one way award.

At least domestically things have moved on somewhat. Who remembers the bad old days of 21-day-advance-purchase-must-stay-a-Saturday-night fares?

I remember 30 day advance purchase 'Apex' fares where you had to book 30 days in advance & stay away 7 nights. Some people still found ways around that by 'nesting' fare so book a SYD/MEL/SYD several weeks apart then a few MEL/SYD/MEL return tickets in between as a workaround to circumvent minimum stay rules.

Eg if you resided in SYD & wanted an overnight trip to MEL mid-week you could fly the SYD/MEL outbound leg 01Jan of one ticket as the 'forward journey' & the MEL/SYD outbound leg 02Jan of the other ticket as the 'return journey'.

Fraught with danger of course so you had to be pretty dedicated to make that come together plus you didn't have the flexibility of changing at the last minute.

 

[JohnK]

Even if they publish airfares on a one way basis often they are only available for sale at that level if you are booking a forward and return journey at the same time on the one pnr. Earlier in the year I was looking at one way fares for my parents to fly HNL/SYD & there was a difference of several hundred dollars in the one way fares listed that formed a round trip as opposed to one way fares listed solely for travel one way HNL/SYD.

Perhaps I misuderstood the announcement of the intention by Qantas a few years ago.

I know one-way airfares are generally more expensive than half the return airfare but the way it sounded to me was Qantas were going to publish international airfares as one-way airfares at half a return airfare and allow people to book that way.