Originally Posted by
LHR/MEL/Europe FF
Perhaps it is partly explained that in many parts of the world tickets come with massive fuel surcharges that are usually included in the base fare in the USA.
While component pricing has been stamped out in plenty of countries, the fuel surcharges still appear on our tickets... and can be half (or more) of the actual 'fare'.
Qantas for example might charge $400 fuel component on an $800 fare.
CX fares (if booking via their portals in Thailand or HKG just as an example) can sometimes double the advertised fare on the booking page by the time extras are added.
only on fanfares for CX exHK would YQ be even close to doubling the price of the ticket (i.e. MNL for 490 RT + 120 HK tax + 426 YQ)
As for QF the YQ is something like 600 USD for USA-Australia.
And exUSA the fares actually do not include YQ (take a look at the fare structure of any recent ticket purchase that is not within N America.)