One-way premium

The long-standing pricing quirk in which a one-way long-haul ticket costs far more than half a round trip — sometimes more than the whole round trip. It survives because airlines price one-ways against inflexible demand. The workarounds are craft: negotiated one-way contracts on some carriers, round trips with a discarded return priced against the fare rules honestly, or routing the single direction on a carrier that prices one-ways sanely. If you only need one direction, say so early; it changes the entire construction.