Useless rant. [Flight costs in Australia vs. other destinations]

Useless rant. All who flying long enough knows that price for ticket from A to B and back is not equal price for ticket from B to A and back. And we even guessing why is that so - prices NEVER reflect cost, but freighters simply charge as much as market happy to pay. We in Australia ALWAYS pay more than anyone else around the globe just because we have no choice but fly and freighters doing us as much as we happy to be done. But recent example really make me think how much enough is enough. I quote ticket DME-MEL-DME by EK and was surprised how little it cost. Then I quote MEL-DME-MEL for the same dates (1 Jul - 15 Jul). Business MEL-DME-MEL is nothings excited, $8671, but DME-MEL-DME is 4250! It is more then twice cheaper! But economy even worse - $2826 vs $1120!!! 2.5 times dearer if you start in Oz!. I may accept 20% difference and even 50%, but 2.5 times? Something definitely wrong here.

Yes sadly its true....my last trip to europe (from PER), i booked 2 tickets, economy (JQ) to singapore, and then business from SIN was less than half the price than from PER (i tried UL..was very impressed, brand new a330, same seats as CX!)

You can do something about it, involves a one way flight and basing your travel out of that country. 

However, for it to work effectively you need to travel consistently to said country (at least once a year).

I should also mention that this works best for continental Europe only.

Also you can combine your flight with stopover in "cheap" country like Thailand. Does not make much sense for economy, but makes a lot for business.

i agree with you....useless rant.

I wonder why the ACCC seems completely disinterested?

Have you raised it with them?

because flights are sold from the country of origin of the trip - as a consequence flights from say SIN - SYD return are seen as a matter for Singapore, and SYD-SIN return are matters for Australia.

Urgh, the 'being' Australian tax....And Perth is a classic example of that within Australia....why.

with this you need to take into account the local costs of living associated with operating out of one country compared to another . Its no difference to the cost of Ikea in Australia as apposed to USA/Europe or Asia , or any other global clothing company . The cost of operatingin Australia is higher then most - but keep in mind our cost of living is much higher than most places , our wages are higher . Sometimes it works but not always and with these airfares you have to compare apples with apples , flying a low cost for 1/2 the trip isnt like flying EK/CX or SQ then whole way . A good travel agent can show you the benefits of both fares , dont always beleive that online fares are best , there are many airfare combinations for worldwide flights we have access to in Australia ....

This is incredibly moot point. I can agree that it is possible that freight from A to B is twice more expensive then from B to A. However A+B will be still B+A. It DOES NOT matter from cost point of view where flight originated as long as it the same route. However somehow it does matter indeed from price point of view.