Flight from Brussels to BA

[toongeorges]

I am looking for a flight from Brussels to Buenos Aires in mid-August. Since I have no idea yet when I would come back, I would opt for a one way trip and buy the return ticket later. However, for most airline companies a one way ticket seems to be more expensive than both an outbound flight and a return flight! The most extreme is Lufthansa, where a one way trip costs 4579 euro and an outbound + return flight costs 1146 euro. British Airways is 1237 euro versus 588 + 588 euro. Why is a single flight more expensive than the same flight plus another one?

 

[Stafford]

Why is a single flight more expensive than the same flight plus another one?

This is has been the norm since the US airline industry was deregulated in the late 1970s (yeah I know we're not in the US, but they set the standard). And it's all about marketing. Deep discounted fares (what the majority of us are fortunate enough to purchase when we can plan ahead) are most often part of a round trip package. There is rarely a deep discount on a one-way journey. The airline only wants to give you a deal if you are going to fly back with them.

Discount airlines in Europe like Ryanair and EasyJet, and in the US like Southwest and Jetblue, run on a different business model that allows you to buy deeply discounted one way tickets. Some transatlantic carriers between the US and Europe are just beginning to adopt the model.

Europe to South America is a relatively unsophisticated market. We're stuck in past. You will very rarely find a discounted one-way ticket between these two continents.

 

[Greg2231]

Without going into the specifics of airline ticket pricing, as we could go on for ever trying to understand "Revenue Management" what i would suggest if you really want to get the cheapest ticket is to look into booking a "Open Jaw" ticket(City A to City B then City C to City A, or for a Double open jaw returning to city D" this will allow you to buy the BRU-EZE at half the round trip price, combined with half a cheaper round trip for the return which you can then throw away for instance:

BRU-MAD-EZE on August 23rd and returning GIG-MAD-BRU on September 18th for €800.42 on Iberia, the Fare rules for these Iberia fares only allow a maximum trip of 1 month, if you want to put the return further out into the future on the chance that you might be able to use it, there is a British Airways fare that allows a trip duration of 12 months, a sample for that is:

BRU-LHR-EZE on August 23rd, and returning GIG-LON-FCO(Rome) on February 12th for €830.68, also don't forget you could always change the return date for a €150 fee on BA, if the same fare isn't available then you would also have to pay the fare differential.

Hope this helps a little.

 

[katti]

The best way is to look for a go and return ticket, and get the return at the cheapest return date possible (without the intention of using it). Usually you can change the return date up to one year after the initial day. We ended up never using it.

That is mostly cheaper then buying a one way ticket. My son‘s coming over in september for */-800€ go and return with British, so it is certainly possible. Mostly Alitalia has good prices BXL-BA too. With Iberia you just have to be lucky, AF, KLM and Lufthansa are mostly slightly more expensive.

 

[jimdepalermo]

All flights to Argentina are expensive from the northern hemisphere these days. Before buying the discounted r/t ticket and throwing away the return, check the price of a ticket that allows you to change the return. It may well be less expensive than 2 discounted round-trips. For that matter, I've recently found unrestricted business-class fares between the US and AR for less than 2 restricted economy r/t tickets.

A useful site for checking fares is http://matrix.itasoftware.com/. They don't book tickets, and sometimes you need to take the fare codes to a travel agent to get the price.

 

[toongeorges]

Thank you everyone for the comments.

There appears to be some kind of business model behind more expensive one way tickets as Stafford says.

I found cheap one-way tickets at http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ but I even found a cheaper one at http://www.skyscanner.net/

I booked my flight for 600 euro and will be flying from Brussels to Puerto Rico to Panamá to Buenos Aires.

 

[HeyBA]

I'd add that there's a great advantage in having a return ticket:

If you try to board with a one way ticket, sometimes the airline says they won't let you on without a return, because they're legally obligated to pay for your return if you're turned back at customs. Though they are quoting official policy, almost no one is turned away at EZE. It's just a ruse to sell you a pricey ticket on the spot. A return ticket is the best defense against this.

 

[Greg2231]

All flights to Argentina are expensive from the northern hemisphere these days.

Not all I just booked some tickets for some friends from SFO-EZE for just around $750, well it is not the $500 I paid last year there are still some deals to be had if you know a few tricks, like RT to Madrid from eze for $727(plus 10,000AA miles) rest of europe just a little more, EZE-SFO for $747, or even better yet SCL-SFO, and then SFO-EZE for $539, though you do have to know a trick or two to get these fares to price out.
There are also some interesting one way fares to EZE from a few points in Asia that allow a free unlimited stopovers in the US, and also book into an upgradable fare class on United, while not the cheapest at around $1300 it still isn't a bad deal if you can confirm it into Business class at time of booking.
So if you spend some time looking there are some good deals out there to be had, but it helps to be flexible.