Strange fare structure for a single leg flight!

Hi
My wife and I are going to New york in September travelling by sea on the QM2 from Southhampton. We have a good deal on this trip but it is cruise only so we have to book a single return flight from NY - Newark to Heathrow
Here comes the problem!
If I look at seat availability in early Oct for a UC seat on the VS web site - then for the single leg it shows only J class - no Z available - price for J shows in US $ is $5700 per person for the single leg!!!!!!!!!!
Yet if I look for a round trip ticket at the same time with the return leg on the same flight as before - then plent of Z avalable at 1700 for thr RETURN ticket
I appreciate that a single leg 'may' be more expensive than a return trip - but this seems crazy.
Has anyone any ideas of why? - or a plan to get a fair priced single leg.
Many thanks

[Neil]

AFAIK when you buy a one way ticket you have to buy a full priced ticket (Y/W/J), where as a return can be booked into a discounted/restricted class, like Z. This is why you will be finding the price very high.

Hi Neil
Is that true?
I question it because if I look for a K grade - which I think is discounted PE then it shows availability at approx US $1200.
In other words that site says that discounted PE is 'OK' but it seems discounted UC is not.
So the options seem to be Z at approx US $1200 or J at approx US $5500.
Could there be some timing factor - that is they will not offer Z availability till nearer the time
It does seema puzzle - well to me anyway
Fairphil - who feels he is not being offered a fair deal!!

[HighFlyer]

Yes a single leg is billed at fully flexible. A similar scenario is covered here in terms of wanting a single leg revenue flight.

You can either buy the Z and not use the return, or perhaps look at using miles for that flight?

Thanks,
Sarah

I posted something similar yesterday. I have the chance of a reward flight to Vegas in August but only have enough miles one way. So I thought of getting a reward out and buying a single UC back. Same problem you can only purchase a 'J' which today is showing over £4000.

-Steve

[honey lamb]

Apart from the low cost carriers which price individual flight, most if not all of the legacy carriers charge the full price for one way tickets. 'Throw-away ticketing' whereby you use only the outbound and not the return, while frowned on by the carriers is not unknown and one of the reasons why airlines over book. heck, I've done it myself (although not with VS) [:I]

Given that Fairphil wants only the return, and not the outbound, could this be an issue? In other words, whilst people get away with 'tearing up' the return portion on a ticket, it is this bit he wants. Or is it simply a case that he would buy a return as though originating in USA, even though he is not resident in USA? Hope I'm not confusing the issue!

James

Originally posted by Vegascrazy
Given that Fairphil wants only the return, and not the outbound, could this be an issue? In other words, whilst people get away with 'tearing up' the return portion on a ticket, it is this bit he wants. Or is it simply a case that he would buy a return as though originating in USA, even though he is not resident in USA? Hope I'm not confusing the issue!

James

Fairphil should have no problem buying a ticket originating in the US, if he wanted to throw away the return. Might even turn out to be a bit cheaper if he catches the right sale.

You could try purchasing the ticket as NYC - Dublin via London and then not using the Lon - DUB sector.

This can be cheaper as Flights to Ireland use a different sector based structure.

Because of cruises, most of the contracts have a 'cruise one-way' rate clause in, this means that if you are selling one leg of cruise you can sell a one way flight at 50% of the return fare.
I don't know why your cruise company didn't offer this you as this has now left you open to buying a cheap return ticket and not using the return portion. Fortuntately you can now buy US-originating flights from the UK so it is a bit easier than it used to be.

Ed

[Scrooge]

Well you beat me to it, Cunard normally run some sort of deal where you can cruise one way and fly the other for one rate, check with whoever you booked the cruise with, see what rate they come up with.