How can this be right – Single v Return

Am booking some flights today and trying to get a cheap price for where I need to go. Now, can someone please explain to me how and why a return ticket costs less than a single ticket?

Surely there’s the extra cost of doing the flight twice, extra fuel and not to mention the extra cost of food etc?

So, why is this?

We’ve done this before.

It’s an unintended consequence of demand management for resource optimisation.

The cost of laying on a plane doesn’t change much (apart from fuel of course) if more or fewer people are on it. So you’ve got a nearly fixed cost of planes flying the routes you’ve agreed to fly, and you are trying to maximise the revenue from each trip it makes by adjusting fares all the time to different markets.

It’s much more subtle and flexible than buying a physical item on a cost plus basis.

Surely there’s the extra cost of doing the flight twice, extra fuel and not to mention the extra cost of food etc?

the plane will fly whether you are on it or not, and whether you’ve bought a ticket or not. It’ll fly whether its full or empty. Its the value of the ticket, not its cost.

EDIT: I’m assuming that sir is travelling with the public and not in sir’s Learjet 🙂

They just don’t like you?
🙁

That might be it, Geoff…. 😳

They just don’t like you?

They do, thats why they are encouraging you to come home

I’m not surprised they don’t like you. Not very nice and helpful, are you?

Don’t you have your own? Some people….

“If airlines sold paint…

Customer: Hi. How much is your paint?

Clerk: Well sir, that depends on a lot of things.

Customer: Can’t you give me an approximate price?

Clerk: Our lowest price is our introductory special at $12 a gallon. After that we have dozens of different prices up to $199.

Customer: What’s the difference in the quality of the paint?

Clerk: Oh, there’s no difference. It’s all exactly the same stuff.

Customer: Well, in that case I’ll take your $12 paint.

Clerk: Well actually the $12 variety is only available on our website. If you want to buy it here at the store you’ll be charged an additional $20 Customer Convenience Fee

Customer: So if I go home and get it off the website, its only $12?

Clerk: That’s correct sir – plus a Credit Card Usage Fee of $6 and then there’s standard Shipping and Handling of $15.

Customer: What? So in other words buying online would cost me almost exactly the same as what I’d have to pay here in the store?

Clerk: I suppose so, but if you buy it here you get to use it immediately. Online purchases take ten business days to get to you – unless you pay the optional $25 Express My Paint Fee.

Customer: You’ve got to be kidding me!

Clerk: Well no sir, but it’s academic anyway as right now the $12 paint is completely sold out in both places.

Customer: That’s BS. I’m looking at shelves full of the stuff!

Clerk: Ah, but that doesn’t mean it’s available for sale. We sell only a certain number of introductory priced cans on any given day. Oops, look at that! It just became available again – at $17.50.

Customer: C’mon! You mean to say it went up while I’m standing here?!

Clerk: ‘Fraid so. Inventory control changes our prices all the time.

I strongly recommend you purchase your paint as soon as possible as it could go up again. How many gallons do you want?

Customer: Well, maybe three gallons. No, make that four, I don’t want to run out. I assume I can return anything I don’t open?

Clerk: Certainly sir. The $12 paint is non-refundable, but if you return it within 48 hours you will be entitled to a $5 credit towards the future purchase of another gallon of the same color at the same or higher price.

Customer: That’s crazy. In that case I’ll just give any unopened cans to my brother as he’s planning to repaint his home soon.

Clerk: Sorry sir, no-can-do! Our terms and CANditions – that’s a little in-house joke – prohibit paint transfer. It is strictly for the use of the original purchaser.

Customer: But wait a minute, I hadn’t spotted those “Paint Sale – $9.99* a Can” signs over there? That sounds like a much better deal.

Clerk: Ah yes, that’s from our low cost paint division. The asterisk denotes that the cans are actually half-gallons and the price is based on a minimum purchase of two. There is also an additional Environmental Fee of $5 per can, a non-refundable Can Deposit of $3.50, a Paint Facility Charge of $5 and if you want more than one color, the second has a $25 surcharge and the third is $50 extra.

Customer: This is utterly ridiculous. To hell with this! I’ll buy what I need somewhere else!

Clerk: Well sir, you may be able to buy paint for some rooms from another store, but you won’t be able to find paint for your connecting hall and stairway anywhere but here. And I should also point out that if you want Uni-Directional paint it is priced at $249 a gallon.

Customer: I thought your most expensive paint was $199!

Clerk: That’s only if you paint non-stop all the way around the room and back to the point at which you started. Stairways and hallways are considered one-way exceptions to the rule.

Customer: So, if I buy the $199 paint and use it in my hallway what are you going to do about it – send some goons in to paint over it?

Clerk: Wow, I believe you’re getting it now sir. But no, please, that would be plain silly. We’ll simply charge you a Direction Adjustment Fee plus the difference to $249 on your next purchase.

Customer: Next purchase? No way! I’m out ‘a here

Clerk: At Skyhigh Paints we never forget you have a choice, so thanks for shopping with us. Have a nice day!

My local train operator applies a similarly bizarre price plan – return ticket to Manchester is the same price as a single.

So either return travellers are getting a bargain, or one-way journeys are massively overpriced.

They don’t like uncertainty. If you go out on a single then presumably you are coming back at some point, but they don’t know when. If they can get you to book a return then they know what’s going on and can plan better.

However, if a return becomes CHEAPER than a single they’ve shot themselves in the foot because you will buy a return and just not use it, which damages their planning even more 🙂

(Giggles at the fact that Flashfart has to organise his own flights)

However, if a return becomes CHEAPER than a single they’ve shot themselves in the foot because you will buy a return and just not use it, which damages their planning even more

Exactly. My itinerary means that it will be a one way with this particular airline, and the return IS cheaper than a single. By about £700.

Elf, my PA’s currently sunning herself on a Spanish pool terrace. Bitch. 😉 (Oh, and no there will not be any pics)

My local train operator applies a similarly bizarre price plan – return ticket to Manchester is the same price as a single.

Same here – at certain times Returns are cheaper than Singles (and the guard, being a nice bloke, always tells us which one to get 🙂 ).

I reckon (for trains anyway) it is so they can keep the “passenger numbers” up and keep those lucrative government subsidies coming.
“Look we sold 500 return tickets this month. That’s 1000 passenger journeys by train. Aren’t we great?”

Well Scotrail’s policy at the moment seems to be: Single to mallaig – £24, Return to/from Mallaig – your firstborn son. Absolutely no incentive to buy a return and I’m not actually sure why they sell them other than to fleece people who remember the good old days when returns were cheaper than two singles.

Elf, my PA’s currently sunning herself on a Spanish pool terrace. Bitch.

What, aren’t The Workers allowed holidays then?

If I was your PA I would ‘doctor’ your coffee….

And book you into all the worst hotels. And on Cattle Class with Sleazyjet…

(Giggles at the fact that Flashfart only has one PA)

My local train operator applies a similarly bizarre price plan – return ticket to Manchester is the same price as a single.

Even more bizare here, I buy a train ticket 1 stop further to where I need to go because that’s cheaper, and I’d have to change trains for that extra 1 stop as well! Fortunately train tickets allow you to break your journey at any point.

I dunno about airlines, but I heard that if you buy a cheap return ferry ticket on some operators but fail to use the return leg, your credit card gets stiffed for the differnce between your discounted fare and the full single fare.
Check the airline T&Cs.

i recently tried to buy a train ticket from leicester to church stretton in shropshire. if i brought one ticket for all the way through it was roughly £35. however if i brought a ticket from leicester to nuneaton, then another from nuneaton to birmingham, then another from birmingham to shrewsbury then shrewsbury to church stretton it was about £5 cheaper!! for the exact same journey.
went in the car in the end.
on another occaision myself and mrs toppers drove to that london, stayed in a hotel over night, paid for 2 days worth of parking in central london, ate out in the evening and drove home and it was still cheaper than 2 return train tickets. that was even with advanced ticket booking discounts.

If I was your PA I would ‘doctor’ your coffee….

If I was your boss I’d drink it 😀