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As the title shows I found the following:

1 direct return flight HK->Vancouver-> HK, priced at HKD 10600

and

1 return flight HK-> Vancouver -> Seattle -> Vancouver -> HK, priced at 5200 HKD

How is that possible? I understand Air Canada might want to compete with different American airlines that are able to service Seattle but I saw the same weird pricing offered by Korean Airlines and other non Canadian/non American airlines.

My question is this: With the 1-stop flight, can I get off in Vancouver and not partake in the 2nd leg of the journey? Can I collect my suitcases at Vancouver even if the final stop is Seattle? Even more important, on the way back to Hong Kong, can I board the flight in Vancouver instead of in Seattle?

I am just wondering because despite all potential reasons of price discrimination, and other marketing techniques that may attempt to explain this price discrepancy, I find no logic in how those 2 different flights are priced at all. Can someone explain?

Thanks

enter image description here

Here the flight with 1 stop , 1/2 price, and the first leg being the exact same as the direct flight.

enter image description here

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  • I have seen the same in flights starting from Europe to the USA and heard about flights from Peru via Amsterdam to Paris being very much cheaper as the same flight Peru to Amsterdam. (In all cases as part of return journeys using the same route or open jaw on the far end.)
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Jun 27, 2015 at 10:35
  • twice the price? I doubt that often happens. I wonder, can I just take the first leg of the 1-stop flight and get off at Vancouver?
    – Matt
    Commented Jun 27, 2015 at 10:43
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    There is a good question about using part of a ticket on this site, the kind of tickets is called hidden city ticketing, travel.stackexchange.com/questions/4440/… is one of them
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Jun 27, 2015 at 10:48
  • There are a lot of questions about this, so just a comment. It happens even with, e.g., (a) Helsinki - Frankfurt - Amsterdam being 1/2 the price of (b) Helsinki - Frankfurt. Briefly, what's going on is that the Lufthansa flight (a) is much worse than KLM's Helsinki - Amsterdam flight, so it's priced accordingly lower. That (a) is routed through a Lufthansa hub is routed through a Lufthansa hub is a logistical thing that doesn't dominate their pricing scheme. I understand that usually getting off in the middle results in the ticket being cancelled.
    – Louis
    Commented Jun 27, 2015 at 10:49
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    @MattWolf That is what is going on here. AC's HK - YVR is a nice nonstop and their HK - YVR - SEA is a crappy connection compared to alternatives sold by other people. What's confusing you is that the niceness of the first part can go down depending on where the end really is. Anyway, look at buying two one-way tickets using this trick.
    – Louis
    Commented Jun 27, 2015 at 11:01

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