My thoughts there too O11. What do paying taxes in Japan have to do with the issue?

Agree with Spuddy and Mr W. This is a economic decision and not a racial one.

The way the system works is that the wholesellers get a rate from the airline, they then add their fee and give a net rate to the agents. The agent then adds their commission (which they are pretty much free to decide) adn resells it to the customer.
The cheapest discount tickets as supposed to be sold in conjuction with a hotel or a rental car as a package deal, but this is never enforced.

The cheapest tickets are the return fares where the wholelseller has purchased a block of seats from the airline and flogs them off to the agents. The problem here is that the blocks are return flights, and one of the conditions on the sale is that both the outbound and inbound leg as used. If not then the travel agent may be liable for the difference in airfare between the discount fare and the normal fare. When you think that the normal fare TOKYO - LA is about 150,000yen (off the top of my head), you can understand their reluctance to sell to people who may only use it one way.

What has obivously happened in the past is that a percentage of non Japanese have used them one way and the agency has had some strife. The big wigs at HIS would have sat down and had a pow wow and due to their limited foresight and intelligence decided that the only way to get around this problem would be to either sell at a surcharge or only allow non Japanese to book fares that do not have penalities of the return fare is not used.

There are ways around this if HIS had stopped to think about it. All they'd need would be a credit card guarantee (but MR W says they don't accept credit cards)and explain to the customer that their card would be debited for the full fare if they didn't use the return portion.

But - why are they penalized if someone doesn't use the return end of the ticket? What's the loss for the airline? The only diff is one less person on the plane (and if not confirmed they may give that seat to someone else), one less meal (again assuming they know in advance that person hasn't reconfirmed the flight), and less baggage weight. Ticket is paid for, so what's the deal? And - why should one way be more expensive anyway? Isn't the extra price (on a return ticket) supposed to be for fuel and service and the actual seat?

At any rate if they check the status of the traveller they can see if that person is likely to come back to Japan or not. Of course someone might let go of a return end of a ticket and still return to Japan (via another way for whatever reasons....).

But again, I don't understand why the airlines lose out if someone doesn't use a return flight to the degree that they penalize the agent.

Sunrise:
The discount ticket industry in Japan is back in the dark ages. I agree it is stupid but this is not the agents fault as the airline sets these conditions.

The whole idea that a return ticket is cheaper than a one way ticket is illogical, but it happens.

You beat me to it I was just about to ask the same.

It would have been that way if the airline knew that the person isn�t travelling back. As long as you have a reservation, they cannot book your seat to someone else (although overbooking is something common to many airlines). So this means that they are loosing money because they have kept empty for you one seat that you were not planning to use anyway. If of course you notify them that you are not travelling back, then you will be asked to pay the difference between the one-way and the return ticket price.
What is stranger to me is why on earth the one way ticket is more expensive than the return ticket in the first place.
For example imagine if the return ticket for the trains would be cheaper than the one-way.

Well next time im gonna book then my wife is going to book. i want to see what they chargeb

The discount air ticket business is too cut throat now. Most agents used to charge a 10% commission, but now it is down to 2-3,000yen per ticket.
You need to sell a whole lotta tickets to make any money. Which is why we got out of it.
Also the fare calcultations now are so difficult with Airport tax, insurance, fuels surcharges that if you make a small mistake you wipe out your margin and end up losing on the deal.

That's what I meant - I realise it's the airlines doing that - but WHY? And sure, they could put someone else in the seat, BUT if the said person was flying back on a return ticket they'd purchased there would have been someone in that seat anyway.... so the idea is to reconfirm the flight, and if it's not reconfirmed put someone else on it.... Still makes little sense to me since they have a way of knowing if the seat is actually going to be filled

Remember also that nowadays you have to pay all those surcharges up front, so that's already paid for when the ticket is purchased regardless of if it's used.... but I see your point that it's easy to muck up and miscalculate, still, that's up to the agent to be precise about, and we shouldn't have to pay for any occasional mistakes they themselves might make.

I didn't know one way tickets were more expensive, I thought they were around 3/4 the price of a return flight. But I haven't looked lately, guess it depends on the destination.

Sunrise:
Like I say, there is no logic too it. The tickets are supposed to be sold as part of a package and packages generally are returning to the point of origin.
You are right though. It is up to the agent to be precise about it, but you are mostly dealing with unqualifed people, who have not been trained properly (hence the low wages I s'pose).

Gotta say I agree with Sunrise on this. If you have paid for the seat, then you have paid for the seat. That's all there is to it. If the airlines want to make more money from the slight posiibility that you may not board the flight, then they are just being plain greedy. You shouldn't be penalised for their greed. It's like saying "OK, we'll rent you a car, but when it comes back, if you haven't put any kms on the clock, then we will charge you more because we could have rented it to someone else." Bollocks. They got their money. It's up to the purchaser of the service as to how they use it. Now I realise that what I just said actually backs up your argument Miso. It's not the travel agent but the airline policy that is to blame. But, how is it not discrimination against me (being a foreigner) for the travel agent to assume that I might not use the return leg of the ticket?? I live here with a permanent visa. I am being discriminated against if they choose to charge me more than a Japanese. To muddy the waters a bit more, I have two Japanese friends who use these return tickets to go out and don't plan on using the return leg (and have done so repeatedly over the last 10 years). It isn't only the gaijin that do it.

I once got a return ticket for a boat to Latvia and never came back....... it's not quite the same thing though eh..... well actually my mates who took the return boat got a lot more space in our cabin haha.

Actually i booked my NZ flights through No. 1 Travel and wondering about this situation - will test it out next time by getting a J-mate to call up and ask for a quote...... my next flight will be to Vladivostok - which airlines go there anyway?

BP:
I know how you feel, but HIS in their stupidity made a policy decision based on how they thought they could get around a troubling issue. They could have handled the issue better.
All they had to do was get a contractual agreement in place with the customer (Japanese or Non) saying that if the return flight was not used, the customer would be charged the full fare.
If the conditions are there, it's up to the customer to accept or decline them. If they decline them they don't get the cheap fare.

I've had Japanese mates do the same thing, but I imagine that had the figures to back them up on the gajin Vs Japanese aspect of this.

I imagine it was a group of upper level suits, all 50+ yrs, who are totally insensitive to issues like this. Ignorance may not be an excuse, but these guys don't exactly think outside the box. It was probably the only option they could come up with.

i think you have to take the boat. my friend did it, said the visa work was hell. was denied twice with no real explanation despite having all the required hosting and invitation documents.
it is interesting to hear people blame the airline for this issue, despite ANA's demands that HIS cease the practice.

regardless to whether or not this practice is justifiable from a finacial point of view, which it is clearly not, descrimination is never justifiable. lets imagine they went a little bit further and started to penalize individual nationalities on "common" travel practices. would more people get upset about the issue? lets imagine they were creating policies for religious groups and using finicial reasons as their grounds, would more people be upset? i think so.

how far off is the current scenerio really? is discrimination OK if it is broad and sweeping?

there is an option though, choose a different provider. there are others out there; ones that show the airline's quoted prices, and thus cannot shaft you with different "service charges" or "policies".

Misorano, what are you actually saying? You seem to be agreeing/sympathizing with what we are saying yet you say it isn't discrimination. You admit that they could have handled the issue better, but instead a bunch of suits came up with this clumsy policy. Do any of these things make it not discrimination? Take it the extra degree (ie, singling out specific nationalities)as Daver just pointed out and then it is clear disrimination regardless of what the execs intentions were. And you are right Dave, just don't use them if you are aware of such practices. As I said above anyway, I don't use them. I almost always use local Japanese travel agents.

*** sorry off topic a bit folks...... daver - yeh yeh russian visas are a nightmare, i've been to russia before - i crossed the border from estonia to russia and got interrogated and my passport examined for a LONG time - but by far and away the most interesting country i've ever ever been to... i know about the boat it's like totally expensive though - i heard you could fly there, but i'll have to check it out..... ok back to the debate of travel agents....

I flew to Russia's far east from Niigata on (owch) Aeroflot. But I think we flew in and out of Khaborask (spelling) or Komselmosk (spelling), not Vladivostock. If my memory serves me right it was Valdivostock that we took an overnight train to (this was in 1992, so awhile back now).

I was going to buy a one way tix to bali to return to OZ with my wife.
my travel agent suggested a return ticket for almost half the price and to not use the return leg. we did so and it saved us around 6-7man yen.. thanks travel agent!