Flight to Dublin question: Avoiding an initial domestic flight on purpose

I dont mean to sound like an idiot, but why dont you just book a flight between Atlanta and DC. I assume your DC to Dublin flight leaves in the PM, cant imagine why you couldnt get on an early AM flight to one of the 3 DC airports, and then head to departure airport?

But then again, I might be missing something.

Why not fly out of Nashville. I think southwest flys to all three DC airports or book on another airline. That way you leave from home and don't have to drive all the way to Atlanta.

But as the post in front of me said am I missing something

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If I just book the R/T from DC, can I intentionally miss the first flight and then initiate my travel in ATL, or will they not allow me on the plane?

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No. All remaining segments of your itinerary are cancelled when you do not show up for a flight.

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However, there is such a huge price mismatch, and I don't know why.

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My initial guess is DL is the only airline that flies ATL-Dublin. While from DC (not sure which airport) to Dublin has varying options/competition on the route.

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I could fly from Nasvhille to DC via Southwest. Then I would go from DC, to Atlanta, then Dublin. I would rather fly direct from Atlanta to Dublin. However, there is such a huge price mismatch, and I don't know why.

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I would do this. BUT, I would call the airline first and see if they can explain it to you (why the huge price difference, that is). Unless you think it might be a screw up, and pointing it out to them might cause them to remove the deal.

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BUT, I would call the airline first and see if they can explain it to you

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Susan in their call center in Chisolm, MN does not have access to revenue management's pricing structure. As I said earlier, someone on the WAS-Dublin route(s) is offering a discounted fare for whatever reason (new route, attempting to gain market share, etc.). And DL has chosen to match or undercut them.

You'll see this a lot when a discount carrier starts up on a route. For instance, Frontier will start offering once-daily service on a A320 from Tampa to Denver for $220 Round Trip. In this case, United with their DEN hub will counter this with 4x daily service on 757's at $199 Round Trip.

UA can take the loss for a few months, and people will continue to use their service, and Frontier can't compete with the price, product, and times offered.

They will cancel the ticket if you miss the first leg.

The real question is why the strange routing / pricing for that trip which unfortunately is tough to answer
Whatever algorithm they are using is missing a common sense piece for this particular route. I have only really seen this come up with flights to DUB that include layovers.