So I’m going to Australia very soon and when I was looking at booking airline flights, there was quite an anomally..

My plan involves 3 flights. From DC to San Fransisco to visit for a few days, from San Fransisco to Australia a few days later and then several months later back from Australia. Since I wasn’t sure exactly of my desired return date I decided to see how much it would cost if I just booked my flights out, and not back. As it turns out, it costs more to fly just out then the whole trip in one!

$1943 to fly from DC to SFO and SFO to Melbourne, Australia.

or $1479 to fly from DC to SFO and SFO to Melbourne, Australia AND Melbourne, Australia to DC. The flights that overlap are the exact same flights, not worse times or anything.

It’s hard to believe it would save me nearly $500 to buy an extra ticket and throw it away. I don’t understand the airline industry, but it doesn’t come much of a surprise that the industry has been struggling in recent years.

*These flights were through United.