The Bargain Potential of One-Way Airfares

If you want to find bargain airfares during peak holiday travel periods, particularly in the summer, you will need to be flexible and creative. For example, I frequently book one-way flight segments, even if it means using airports that were not in my original plans. In my travel world, a trip to Greece can veer off into Britain, Denmark or anywhere else that saves me money.

Conventional wisdom dictates that you have to book a round-trip itinerary to get a great price. This was once true, but it is not necessarily the case anymore. Most major American carriers used to price what some call open-jaw segments — flying into one city and then returning from another — for price-insensitive business travelers. But competition and the increasing popularity of one-way flights has changed this dynamic.

The Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC), which provides air travel intelligence, released a report last summer on one-way tickets that concluded “the long-held belief that it is better to purchase round-trip tickets whenever possible to get the best fares is simply no longer true.”

Updated data provided to The Times by ARC reveals that the percentage of one-way tickets (versus round-trip tickets) purchased by American travelers increased from 29 percent in 2014 to 44 percent from January-April 2018. And the premium airlines charged for one-way tickets declined from 44 percent in 2014 to 11 percent in 2018.

My recent experiences mirror this trend. When I wanted to travel from my home airport in Redmond, Oregon, to Los Angeles and Palm Springs around Christmas last year, I found nothing but exorbitant airfares. Then I expanded my geographic range and saved by flying into McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas rather than the California airports, and then departing from Los Angeles International Airport about 10 days later.

When shopping for fares to Europe, I often search for one-way deals using Google Flights and simply adding nearby airports in the search function and looking at the fare calendar. If you are flexible, it pays to find the cheapest entry and exit points to Europe and then fill in the gaps overland or with flights on low-cost carriers like Norwegian Air, Ryanair, easyJet, Vueling, Wizz Air, Primera Air and others.

For example, if you are traveling from North America to Europe, Reykjavik, London and the Nordic capitals — Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen or Helsinki — are often great access points for travel to almost anywhere on the continent.

In the summer, it can be hard to score a great fare directly to Mediterranean countries, particularly Greece and Italy. When recently searching for fares from Oregon to Athens, I found most round-trip fares were about $2,000 each — a pricey proposition since I am buying four tickets. But then I noticed a one-way fare under $400 to London on WestJet, a Calgary-based, low-cost carrier. A few more clicks and I realized that I could spend the weekend in London and then proceed to Corfu on Ryanair for $125.

I did not see any cheap flights home from Corfu, but I found that Norwegian Air had a $90 flight from there to Copenhagen. Norwegian makes it easy to find their lowest fares, displaying them by month on their route map and fare calendars. Ryanair also has a useful route map with pricing.

Copenhagen was not part of my original plan, but it is a splendid place to spend a few days, and Norwegian often has ridiculously low, one-way, trans-Atlantic fares from $200 and up. (The airline’s attractively priced premium class recently started at just $599 one way from London’s Gatwick Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.)

After booking my trip to London, I learned that WestJet’s pilots had voted to strike days before I made my plans. I contacted the airline and a spokeswoman said that WestJet would refund passengers if flights are canceled because of union action.

At first I was concerned, knowing that if there was a strike, a refund would not help us get to Europe, at least not at the rock-bottom price I had found. But the more I thought about it, I realized that labor issues present both risks and opportunities for low fares. Strikes are often averted at the last minute or last only a few days. If your timing is flexible, it could be worth a gamble.

In this case, my concerns — including the possibility of an actual strike — were alleviated quickly as WestJet pilots agreed to a mediation process with the airline that is likely to resolve the impasse (which was still ongoing at the time this story was reported, and involves wages and working conditions, among other issues). Brian Kelly, the founder of the website The Points Guy, which helps travelers maximize their frequent flyer miles and find deals, says that in assessing the risk of airline labor problems, he is more concerned when he hears of potential strikes in Europe, as they tend to drag on longer there than in North America.

Strikes aside, Kelly said he frequently does what I do: Adjust his travel plans if he finds one-way fares that are more tempting than round-trip options.

“I buy open-jaws and fill in the gaps, especially in Europe with all the low-cost carriers,” he said. “British Airways is now charging for water in coach, so it’s not like you’re getting a luxurious experience flying on the bigger airlines.”

It is a fair point; my flight on WestJet turned out to be comfortable and on time.

On European low-cost carriers, however, it is best to board flights with low expectations. At times, experiences on these airlines can remind one of the fact that the word travel comes from the French word travail, and the Latin word tripalium, which was a three-pronged instrument of torture in Roman times.

Seats on Ryanair planes, for instance, do not recline, and the boarding process can be chaotic. My $125 flight to Corfu felt like a bargain when I bought it, but not when I had to actually endure the journey. As with everything else, you get what you pay for, so do your research and weigh your pocketbook concerns against your tolerance for discomfort.