We normally travel from Glasgow to Melbourne return without any stopovers. Usual route is EK 28 (prefer to leave in the daytime rather than night flight) and 408 (via KUL); return is 405 (via SIN) and 27 (to get into GLA in daytime).

We've just returned from latest trip and we're planning the next! We thought about having a stopover on the way back and want to visit Perth and the Margaret River area so I had a look at a return route of MEL to PER, 3 or 4 days in WA then PER-DXB-GLA. I used advanced search and added Perth but it's coming up as over �13K each Business Saver (vs just under �4K for the usual flight).

I'm thinking I've not entered the flights correctly and it is pricing it as a series of one-way flights rather than a return trip (?)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions on how to get a fare closer to �4K!

Are you pricing in an internal MEL-PER flight using EK's system? The system sometimes will force one-way expensive fares on all sectors if you have a one-way QF domestic added in.

Try just GLA-MEL // PER-GLA and you should get 3.4k for J savers; purchase the MEL-PER sector separately.

Sorry, off topic, I've just come back from Perth, beautiful city loved every minute.

Isn't it the Swan River or are there two?

Thanks for the help, it works doing it that way.

Perth/Fremantle on the Swan River, Margaret River is another area to the south which we want to visit.

http://www.australia.com/en/places/w...ret-river.html

Got you - we just did Perth / Fremantle.

We've been to Perth and Freo before but heard excellent reports on Margaret River area so thought that would be a good way to break up the return journey.

Even further OT...

We did a wine "tasting" boat trip up the Swan River. It was actually a wine "drinking" tour... everybody was slaughtered by the end of it. The staff that were serving coffee and tea at the beginning were singing and dancing by the end!

A couple more drinks in the bar after the tour, followed by the car service to Perth airport for the overnight to DXB. Great day out... although the early morning arrival into DXB hurt.... a lot

You are correct, the Swan River runs through Perth, Margaret River is a region about 3-4 hours drive south of Perth, Massive wine region, beautiful area!

Bg

Ironically we don't drink wine but enjoy visiting the wine growing regions - frequent visitors each year to the Yarra Valley nr Melbourne and have been to Barossa and Hunter Valleys as well.

Here's a couple of photos taken at Domain Chandon and Balgownie wineries, Yarra Valley, < 2 weeks ago:

Just as a matter of interest, on the EK website you can't book MEL-PER (the system assumes you want to fly outwith Australia from MEL and doesn't offer Perth at all). Obviously I can book with Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin etc for the internal flight. What does that mean for lounge access at MEL? We're silver Skywards so can we use EK (or QF) lounge at MEL if flying MEL-PER economy? (Obviously if we booked business on QF we can use the QF lounge).

EK don't have permission from regulators to sell purely QF domestic itineraries hence it doesn't appear on their website

QF's website has individual rules for each lounge but MEL-PER as a standalone (i.e. No onwards J/F flight) generally means EK Gold or above. YMMV if you are a QF elite or have QC access.

Thanks again, (the over �13K pricing did actually show EK flights GLA-MEL, QF flights MEL-PER then EK flights PER-GLA). Way to go is book the international flights with Emirates and the domestic with Qantas and will see what price it is for J MEL-PER.

A pricing query on this route:

Out of interest I was pricing GLA-MEL-GLA with identical dates to this year and Emirates.com came up with �3,995 p.p J saver whilst exactly the same thing came up at �3,845 with Travelbag. Why would the flights be �150 dearer buying direct from the airline compared to buying the flights from a travel agent?

The agent may be rewarded for sending EK lots of business by being offered cheaper fares; the fares could be consolidator resales so from the pov of EK the tickets are already sold; resold special fare to agent might be more profitable for EK than a public fare with associated GDS, payment processor and back office costs.