Most of the time, when we get on a plane we are leaving our home to go somewhere else and then fly back home. Thus, intuitively it seems to make sense to book a round-trip flight for most of our flights, right?

In this post I am going to try and make the case for why you should book separate one-way flights for the bulk of your travel, especially domestically. Here we go: 

Airlines price their tickets based on a multitude of factors, of which largely fall into two broad categories.  

• Supply and Demand (I.e., how much demand there is for a certain route vs. how much capacity exists for that route). In this context, “Capacity” just means: how many seats are available across all airlines for a specific route.

• Operating Cost for a Flight (I.e., fuel, flight crew, food, gate fees, etc.)

And because the above factors are mostly “variable” factors (meaning they are constantly changing), airlines are not able to “fix” their pricing. This reality is ultimately the reason for The Sky Key’s existence, and why you are able to save money on your flights if they go down after booking.

So- as you can see, the inputs that go into the pricing of a flight have very little to do with whether you book a one-way flight, or a round-trip flight. Next time you search for a round-trip flight, compare the costs of breaking the same itinerary into two one-ways, and you will find that the total cost is almost identical, most of the time.  The major exception to this is international flights. You will often find that for international flights, it makes more sense to book a round-trip flight over a one-way flight. For the purposes of this post, we don’t need to get into the reasoning behind why that is, but just keep that in mind. Unless you are traveling to multiple international cities on an international trip, it usually makes more sense to book a round-trip flight for international itineraries, due to cost and international change fee policies. 

Okay, so far we have looked at what the major inputs into flight pricing are, and we have discussed how there is usually very little difference in the cost of a domestic round-trip flight vs. two separate one-ways for the same trip. Now we are going to look at what’s in it for you; why should you do a little bit of extra work on the front end to book two one-way flights vs. a round-trip flight?

Flexibility and More Savings Opportunities

• If you book two separate one-way flights and one of the legs becomes cheaper after booking, it is much easier to claim the credit for just one leg, especially if you have to cancel your flight and rebook it in order to claim the credit. Why would just one leg become cheaper? As discussed earlier, maybe your outbound leg has less demand vs. supply than your return leg, for example. In the same instance, had you booked a round-trip flight and one leg went up by $50 and the other one went down by $50, unless you’re flying Southwest, it may be harder for you to capture the $50 of savings on just the one leg that went down. Often, you can call the airline and they will credit you for just the one leg, but if you have to cancel and rebook your ticket you may end up having to pay more for the other leg, thus ending up in a “wash”.

• If you need to change the flight time of one of your legs, it is easier/faster to have two separate one-ways booked.

• If your travel plans change before you start your trip (I.e., your departing flight gets canceled, and you decide to fly another airline to your destination). If you are on a round-trip itinerary, and your departing leg gets cancelled or you miss your flight, the airline will automatically put you on another flight most of the time. However, what if that other flight isn’t until the next day, and you decide to scramble to a different airline in order to make it to your destination on the same day? If you’re booked on a round-trip itinerary, the airline may cancel your return leg if you decide not to fly the new departing leg. Then, you may have to book a new return leg from scratch last minute when prices could be sky high. This could ultimately wreak havoc on your travel plans, and cost you a ton of time and money while you’re supposed to be enjoying vacation.

• Competition and Multiple Airlines. Often times, by breaking up your round-trip flight into two one-ways you will be able to better shop the competition and lower the overall cost of your trip. You can either book flights on different airlines for each leg from the start, and/or you can watch how prices change across all of the airlines for each leg via tracking multiple flights at theskykey.com. If just one leg of your trip becomes cheapest on a different airline than the one you originally booked, you won’t have to cancel your whole itinerary just to take advantage of this vs. what you would have to do if you booked a round-trip ticket from the start.

Hopefully now you see the value that booking two one-ways vs. a round-trip flight can bring. It doesn’t always make sense, especially for international travel, but many times it can be the same cost, with much more flexibility. Next time you are ready to book a round-trip ticket, take a look at the one-ways on all airlines and let me know what you find!

-Jacob Goldberg

Co-Founder @ The Sky Key