The_Wookie

This constantly winds me up. The huge difference in flying to the UK in comparison to flying to Australia.

I've checked Emirates and found for the same dates:

London to Perth - 572 (pound)
Perth to London - $2047 (equivalent to 1152 pound)

That's outrageous. How can they justify the huge difference?

Swooty

I have been watching this for some time, its totally baffles me, I would love to know the Airlines explation behind it

bcworld

Simple supply & demand I'd say....if people weren't prepared to pay the Aussie prices they would be lower. Like the A$1400 returns in peak season (UK Summer) they were selling earlier this year...because the demand was lower.

johnnyx0

I'm just looking at flight prices at the moment for a possible trip back from Melbourne to the UK over Christmas and New Year.... and prices are p*ssing me off too!

I think Thai airlines are cheapest from Perth at the moment, price comes out about $1650 one way, on expedia.com.au

Lord_Farquar

I thought everything was cheaper in Australia?

bcworld

I was shopping for Xmas flights about this time last year due to a last minute decision to head over for Xmas. Ex Brisbane the best price was $3000+

I ended up taking Air Asia to KL and then getting Emirates from there...brought the cost down to a little over $2000. Buying a seperate ticket ex Asia can be a very good deal at the moment as most of the currencies are pegged to the US dollar.

johnnyx0

I'm thinking of doing that, maybe take the opportunity to do some back-packing in Thailand. Best deal I've found so far:

Melbourne to Phuket $411 with V Australia
Overland Phuket to Ko Phangan, and laze on the beach for a while
Ko Samui to Bangkok $180 Thai Airlines
Bangkok to London $560 via Mumbai with Jet Airways

Birmingham to Melbourne 620 GBP

canadaeh

Because Aussies don’t know any different, there are no good deals or cheap flights here, so people think that’s normal to pay that price. They take what is offered to them and don’t ask questions. They just put up with it. Not to mention a lot of Aussies don’t even leave their state, let alone the country!

People in the UK know that a price like that is outrageous, they are used to competition and cheap fares, they know they can get cheaper if they look, they are prepared to question high prices, and in the end get the better deal.

It’s a mentality thing, in other words, they Aussies are suckers and big companies know it.

bcworld

Have you tried Bangkok Airways?

I recently flew BKK - Phuket - Samui - BKK for $220. $180 is pretty expensive just for the Samui to BKK sector.

johnnyx0

I'm just looking at lastminute.co.uk, and they let you search for flights from outside of the UK and give prices in GBP, so for instance (for a random date in January) Perth to LHR is coming up at:

616 GBP - Malaysia Airlines
715 GBP - Royal Brunei
736 GBP - Cathay
836 GBP - BA / Qantas

On current exchange rate that seems a lot cheaper than buying from Oz. Anyone had any experience buying their Oz-UK tickets from a UK website?

johnnyx0

Thanks BC, I'll try that

jimbo_d

You're talking bollocks there, many Aussies travel abroad, the reason for price differences is supply and demand as stated. Britain is in the middle of a horrific recession, so people aren't flying on holiday, Australia isn't and people are. At xmas it's always the most expensive time to fly too as the poms go home.

canadaeh

Funny, I have booked to go at the end of November with Korean Airlines from Sydney, only cost me $1100 return all up, How? Because I booked with an overseas agent, looking at Aussie agents and websites it was a hell of a lot more... but I guess they can charge that when Aussies are willing to pay it.

bcworld

I'm not sure what you mean by this?

If you want to travel, say Aus to Canada you MUST pay the fare applied to the Aus market - you can buy that from an overseas travel agent, but you cannot pay the Canada to Aus fare to allow travel from Aus to Canada. The big difference between ex-Aus and ex-UK airfares is a result of the base airfare, not travel agents commisions so I don't understand your point.

canadaeh

Well the flight I booked for $1100 return, at all Australian travel agents the exact same flight was $2450, the same flight from the Korean Airlines Website AU was $4300.

Same happened with Qantas once, was booking from Bali to Sydney, the Qantas Indonesian website wanted $140 for the flight, but I could not use it as you had to be in Indonesia to show your Credit Card at the Qantas office, so went to book on the Qantas AU website, same flight.. They wanted $340.

In the end, I got a friend over in Bali to get me the $140 ticket.

Do I really care how it works? Nope, I just know that by booking from overseas my fare is always cheaper. I’m not saying it’s the travel agents commission, but base fare or commission, it’s usually always more expensive from Australia.

At it’s always been this way, long before the recession.

I don’t understand why people use Australian agents or travel sites at all.