=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/c/a/2007/09/13/DD36S3I9E.= DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, September 13, 2007 (SF Chronicle) Ed Perkins on Travel: One-way fares becoming more reasonable Ed Perkins Start looking for airfares on most airline or agency Web sites, and the search program almost always defaults to round trip. To be sure, a round-trip ticket is usually what you want, but once in a while you really prefer one-way. Because most round-trip tickets require you to set your return date when you buy your ticket, a trip with an indefinite stay may require two one-way tickets. Or perhaps you want to fly one way, then drive, take a train or cruise the other. Until recently, the lowest fares on most airlines were restricted to round-trip tickets with a minimum Saturday night stay. The idea was to gouge business travelers - who, presumably, don't like to be away from home over a weekend - while enticing leisure travelers with bargain rates. Until recently, even on giant low-fare airline Southwest, the cheapest trips required round-trip purchase, and the round-trip requirement was ironclad on the "legacy" lines. No more: That picture has changed - dramatically, if not uniformly. I compared a few round-trip and one-way deals in early September, and I found a far different marketplace. For my test, I checked fares from New York to Los Angeles, Boise and London, for a seven-day trip in mid-October: New York-Los Angeles: The cheapest one-way I found was $159 for a nonstop flight to Long Beach on JetBlue, but American to Los Angeles International was only a bit higher, at $169. At $317, JetBlue also had the lowest round trip, but Delta was close at $324. I wasn't surprised, given the extensive low-fare competition on busy transcontinental routes. New York-Boise: The cheapest one-way I found was $170 on US Airways; oth= er lines were generally higher. At $325, Northwest had the best round-trip deal. On this less-competitive route, I didn't expect to see such a good one-way deal, but there it was. New York-London: The cheapest one-ways I found were $275 plus tax for a nonstop on Air India and $303 plus tax with a Dublin connection on Aer Lingus. The legacy lines were all much higher, ranging from $752 to $851 plus tax. At $509, Delta showed the best round-trip rate, but the other legacy lines were close. This is more like the usual pattern: Round-trip tickets less than one-way on the legacy lines, with good one-way deals available only on obscure or low-fare lines. Overall, I suspect that my relatively limited test results are pretty mu= ch indicative of what you'll find on most major air routes. And they lead to some obvious buying recommendations for anyone who needs a one-way ticket - the prime one being to forget what you used to "know" about one-way tickets and instead check as many options as you can: -- Don't assume that your best deal will be on a low-fare line. The lega= cy lines are often competitive, on at least some of their seats. -- When you're traveling overseas - especially from a major gateway such as New York or Los Angeles - take a look at any small-country airlines that might take you where you want to go. Several airlines based in Asia, for example, make a stop in Europe between the United States and their home base, and they often offer better one-way deals than the giant airlines. -- Over the next few years, you can expect to see some new low-fare airlines on international routes, similar to Flyglobespan and Zoom, which recently started transatlantic flights. -- If you want to fly one way and cruise or take a train the other, look for one-way airfare packages from Amtrak or your cruise line. -- Even when they don't officially publish low one-way fares, legacy lin= es sometimes offer discounted one-way tickets through consolidators. -- If all else fails - and when the best one-way fare you can find is mo= re than the cheapest round trip - you can buy a round trip and discard the return flight. E-mail syndicated columnist Ed Perkins at eperkins@xxxxxxxxx -----------= ----------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2007 SF Chronicle <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you wish to unsubscribe from the AIRLINE List, please send an E-mail to: "listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx". Within the body of the text, only write the following:"SIGNOFF AIRLINE".