I'm just trying to work out why it's more expensive to fly return from Australia to the UK compared to UK to Australia, with Qantas on exactly the same dates;

UK->Australia £782/$1876
Australia->UK £1139/$2735

Thats about a 46% increase in fares. Anyone know why? Maybe they don't want to let any of us skilled brits go once we arrive

Back to the old supply Vs demand I believe.

That and taxes levied by the Oz Govt.

Airlines do it because they can. Australians have been conditioned to being ripped off and accept it.

Taxes are the same whichever way you go.

People complain of "rip off Britain" - it's far worse over here.

Add in on top you could well be earning less $ and the percentage that the flight costs in terms of disposable income means it will seem even more expensive.

Because Qantas can.

I'm with you on that one.

Use your consumer power!

We shopped hard for flights back to the UK in September.

Looked at doing Tiger Air up to Singapore and contacting a Singapore agent. This would have worked out at about $1800 per person - less if we'd booked more in advance.

Eventually got Emirates (who have relatively low taxes btw at a touch under $200) for $1800 incl tax - direct and with excellent connections in Dubai. Quite pleased with this.

One other tip. try travel.com.au these tend to give good prices. Flight Centre say that they will beat a quote - so screenshot travel.com.au, send it to Flight Centre and they will beat it by $20.

However, they told me that they only beat cash prices so if you want to pay by CC they add a credit card fee - which may take the price over competitors. travel.com.au don't charge for CC's (although they do add a $14 booking fee). So in the end I booked with travel.com.au and got two adults and two kids for $6250.

The fact the Flight Centre could not beat travel.com.au for over $6000 worth of flights and were prepared to let the sale go suggests that it is airlines who are profiteering not travel agents.

Another thing is that it's free to join their frequent flyer club if you don't live in Australia. If you are Australian resident, you get to pay an $80 fee.

I still can't understand why people even consider flying Qantas. They are quite possibly the worst airline I've ever flown with.

(with the exception of Merpati who went bust shortly after I flew on a dodgy turboprop between two remote Indonesian islands in 1998 - I kissed the ground when I got off and took a photo - "I survived this!")

I once flew with Merpati in Flores. It was like a flying bemo.

I quite like flying Qantas - beat BA and Emirates hands down.

Well I haven't flown with Emirates before so I'll tell you when I get back.

BA and Qantas were both as useless as each other from my experience.

Fat, bloated organisations (particularly in the case of Qantas) with far too much protection and not enough competition to improve sloppy service.

Maybe it is peak season in the UK