That's what I thought, but I called today and was told that they can't fare a ticket iad-ath, but can do ath-iad. Doesn't make sense to me either, but the representative says it happens all the time. I got *A from iad for 57,000 business class and return on A380 via dxb first class for $2800. Doubt even if they could do RT it would be cheaper than this, but maybe EK is not what it used to be?