European Flights

You cannot. It is just the pricing policies. At the moment there are more empty seats going to SF than to Athens and it is priced accordingly.

John - I'm intrigued by your question. I noticed it also and was going to ask. I don't think Frank's reply makes sense, since in both cases, there is one flight in each direction. I am finding this even when I search both fares on the same site (e.g. Expedia). For instance, for Pisa to New York in May, I find fares of $738 when I start in Pisa, but when I start in New York, the fare is $1250. This is where one of the flights is the exact same flight and day, the other is the same flight number 2 weeks earlier. In checking several examples, I see a strong pattern of this. Is it as simple as the airlines think Americans can afford more, so they charge more when starting in US? Would be interested in others' theories / thoughts!

Perhaps local taxes airport improvements etc add to costs differently?

Perhaps it's basic supply and demand... a reference to Frank's point. More people are flying from NYC to Pisa and back to NYC.... rather than starting in Pisa roundtrip. Why? Well, more people in the USA can afford to fly from New York to Pisa. Many Italians would love to head to the States but an airline ticket, even at that reduced price, is a huge portion of their paycheck. To fill those flights with locals perhaps they have to be priced according to the market. Certainly the "market pool" coming from NYC is far deeper (and wealthier) than those folks in Pisa or Athens. Our Italian landlord has been a schoolteacher for 30+ years. Her salary... approximately €1850 a month. (Yes, when I heard that I felt bad about what little rent we paid). And that's before she pays taxes, union dues, etc. So she nets about €1300-€1400 a month. To spend half of that just to get to NYC would be a huge drain. She has been once to the States and would love to go back... but it's far cheaper for her to go to spots in Europe, Africa, and even the Far East. So she travels where her income allows. Living overseas we do take advantage of the "pricing" system to head home for visits. But supply dictates and at Christmas this year flights were about the same in both directions. So we stayed in Europe this year. (Starting to feel like my landlord...).

Try playing around with your dates if you can. I just put in April 15 departure and April 21 return, JFK to Pisa. It was $1100. When I switched, same dates but Pisa to JFK, it was $1297. All part of that big airline conspiracy to slowly drive all logic from our brains.