Does anyone know why return flights with VA/EY from SYD to AUH are about $300 to $500 dollars more than return flights all the way to Europe?

Does anyone know why return flights with VA/EY from SYD to AUH are about $300 to $500 dollars more than return flights all the way to Europe? And while on the subject of AUH, does anyone know why you can't book a flight to anywhere from AUH on the Virgin website?

Or book anywhere from Europe/Asia on codeshare flights back to Australia? What if I hot air ballooned across to Europe, did some travel and wanted to fly back with VA?

The whole booking system to / from europe is ridiculous at the moment.  The prices seem to have skyrocketed across the board since the change of booking system.  It seems it is also no longer possible to book a ticket 1 way in business/premium economy and 1 way in economy (then use Velocity Points to upgrade the economy seat to business/premium economy).  Very annoying!

This may be wrong however it could be linked both to VA's change to Sabre and also EY's. Both at the same time creates to many issues that could go wrong. Both have quite a few glitches to iron out.

However, I was booking tickets last year before either system was changed and it was still the case with bookings. You couldn't book a one way flight from say Paris, Abu Dhabi or Hong Kong on the VA website and it was more expensive to fly return to Abu Dhabi then fly return to Europe.