1+1=2

By introducing new regulations the Congress together with major airlines are discouraging us to travel. While the Congress is deciding on how to regulate the size of carry-on luggage and while the airlines are charging us more in taxes than in actual fares, the passengers are still facing a ridiculous policy that a one-way airfare costs several times more than a roundtrip ticket. Weird arithmetic: a trip from one destination to another and back will cost you much less than a flight one way only. Is not that strange that 1+1=2 is less than 1? In fact if you are purchasing a roundtrip the cost of a ticket is up to 10 times cheaper than if you are booking a one-way trip. For example, a roundtrip from New York to Paris would normally cost you around $750. But if you need only 1 segment of this journey you would be asked to pay at least $2000. So booking a roundtrip and using only 1 segment of it saves you a lot of money. Seems very inefficient that the airlines are forcing us to “adjust” our travel plans in order to pay less instead of just making the price fair for a half of the trip as well.