Direction of travel versus cost
 

Hi all,

I am trying to book Sydney to London return flights for my parents. I live in the UK. Most UK travel agents offer London to Sydney return flight from £700. They don't offer the cheap deals for Sydney to London return flights.

So I have to book via an Australian travel agent for Sydney to London return. The specials are almost twice the price (from £1300) and beyond my budget.

How can the cost be almost double for changing the direction of travel? Has anyone encountered and overcome this problem?

Thanks very much for the help.

Simple economics. The airlines think that is what the market will support.

Have you tried using an online booking service?

Oh, and welcome to FT.:)

Thanks!
Ah, yes, I guess it must be some sort of supply and demand reason as you suggested. It's very frustrating! I am using flightcentre UK and flightcentre Australia. The flights are for later this year (September - November).
Cheers

True on many carriers world-wide and not just on long haul. From the carrier's perspective, it's not about a return ticket, but rather what the market in a given city supports. I presume that people in SYD are willing to pay more than those in LON.

jacob2211, welcome to FT.

As a generalisation, flights ex-London (to anywhere) tend to be less expensive than comparable flights ex-Sydney, presumably because of levels of demand and competition. I agree, though, that this still seems counter-intuitive for a reverse of the same flight, as in this case, since most people that make the journey one way are going to want to make the return journey - although time of year could also have something to do with it: it is coming up to higher season for people travelling from Sydney to London and lower season for people travelling from London to Sydney.

Have you tried on-line bookings, either through general on-line sites or airline sites?

Thanks for the welcome. Yes, it’s a strange concept for me that on the same flight a person could be paying almost twice the price compared to someone else because he is outbound rather than inbound on a return flight, but I now understand thanks to your comments. I’ve tried comparing costs with airline sites directly and the same situation occurs. What do you mean by “online” sites? Thanks

Those price points are pretty typical for ex-UK and ex-AUS economy fares.

Different markets, different fares. Similar thing to say AMS-LHR-AUS costing less than the same LHR-AUS on its own. *Here AUS = Australia all airports, not Austin airport

Kayak.com and Skyscanner.com are good for UK and AU, also Webjet.com.au for AU. But as I said, those fares are typical.

Thanks for the tips. I checked skyscanner and everyone’s comments are confirmed. It seems that is the way the market works. Can you believe I can book 4 London to Sydney returns for only a fraction more than 2 Sydney to London returns! If only tickets were transferrable! :)

The concept is similar to other fares.

Say I want to fly to city B. A ticket from A-B may well cost more than a ticket from A-C with a connection through B.

Mind you, my parents could actually have 2 holidays for the price of 1 by booking 4 returns from the UK and using careful date selection! Something that might be handy for other travellers in a similar situation! :)

Well, they would need at least 1 ticket originating from Australia (you cant book LHR-SYD return and start the journey in SYD).

For regular travel from Australia to UK/Europe/America then nesting tickets is a good idea.

eg:
SYD-LHR May 2013, returning LHR-SYD Dec 2013 ($2,000)
LHR-SYD May 2013, return SYD-LHR Nov 2013 (£700)

Take leg 1 of first ticket, return by starting leg 1 of second ticket. Take Leg 2 of second ticket, then leg 2 of first ticket. Would need to lock in dates, as the change fees to move the dates after booking may well erode any savings.

Ah yes, my mistake, thanks Nux!

Direction of travel versus cost
 

Just entered some random dates for that period on kayak and found flights for around $1580 US, which is about 1,000 pounds.

That is certainly a method, but with a caveat: airlines frown on this practice. Don't try this with the same carrier, or same alliance if claiming miles.

Thanks for the tips. Yes Gamecock, it's probably not something I would do.