PSA: I saved over $200 on a trip to Lisbon by not booking my flights together

I was planning a trip to Lisbon last fall and almost booked a round-trip flight from New York for $650. On a whim, I looked at booking two one-way tickets instead, one with a budget airline to get there and a different one to come home. The total came out to $427, saving me $223. I had to be flexible with my return airport, landing in Newark instead of JFK, but a $30 train ticket got me home. It took about an hour of searching on Skyscanner to figure it out. Has anyone else found a big price gap by splitting up a round-trip booking?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbaramorgan1mo ago

Wow, I always assumed round-trip was the cheaper way to go, no question. You just made me check a trip I'm looking at, and splitting it saved me like $180. I guess the airlines really bank on us not taking that extra hour to search.

hugowells1mo ago

Yeah, it's the same with a lot of monthly subscriptions. They count on the friction of canceling or checking a better price being just annoying enough that we don't bother. That extra step is where they make their money.