Help me out understanding this flight nonsense

[GinaCarbonara]

I can fly from London-Christchurch, NZ for half the price of flying Dubai-CHCH.

Emirates, the London flight literally connects through Dubai.

How the fuck does this happen?

I have to fly out of Dubai, why do I have to pay twice what I would if I was leaving from London?!

Its bonkers. But presumably on the London -NZ leg they are competing with Qatar, and not on the Dubai-anywhere leg? I cant check Qatar go that route tho, as the website is blocked.....

It just seems insane. At this rate it would be quicker to fly to the UK and then fly to NZ from there. Which doesn't make ANY sense at all

It's pretty standard that flying with the 'home' airline from their 'home' airport is more expensive than flying that same airline but connecting. They tend to have the local 'home' market captured (epecially frequent flyers, business travellers etc) but they need to attract non-local travellers with cheaper prices.

So flying Emirates out of Dubai is more expensive than flying Emirates out of London and connecting in Dubai.

Other examples: British Airways is a well known one. Savvy travellers flying from London to Australia or the U.S. will frequently start their flights in Dublin / Oslo / Amsterdam etc and connect to the flight in London (i.e. the actual flight they want from London anyway) as it's often cheaper, especially if you fly Business / First. I've done this several times myself and saved thousands. Same with Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong. People start their journey in Taiwan and connect back to Hong Kong for the flight they want from Hong Kong as it's cheaper and often makes business class fares suddenly affordable.

That makes a bit of sense actually.

Is there a way to book London-NZ but only board at Dubai? Or is it not possible as it's a connection?

Do you have any tips on how make it a bit cheaper?

Not bonkers at all, it's supply and demand.

If you don't board at London your connecting flight will be cancelled.

Is there a way to book London-NZ but only board at Dubai?

Unfortunately not. If you're a no-show for the first leg, the remaining legs will be cancelled.

Have you looked at how much Cathay Pacific would cost from Dubai to NZ? I know they codeshare from Hong Kong to Auckland with Air NZ so might be worth a look just in case. Or have you looked at how much it would cost starting in Dubai but flying with Qatar or Etihad and connecting in Doha etc?

I'd suggest going on www.flyertalk.com/ and asking there. It's an amazing forum for travel advice and quite a few airline staff use it.

Thank you, I'll have a look there. Might just have to suck it up, as annoying as it is.

Thanks for all the help!

You're very welcome! And good luck! I envy you the warmth of Dubai right now compared to cold and wet London.

I used to fly Royal Brunei between NZ and Dubai, they were much cheaper. Have a look into them?

HundredMilesAnHour part of the problem is Etihad and Emirates seem to price check with each other. And the blockade in the middle east means Qatar is out for the UAE, Saudi and Bahrain folk. The planes literally cant fly between the two countries, so the people cant either. Our tickets home have got much more expensive since summer 2017 when this mess started, and Qatar airlines was prohibited for us.

It's insane. Last year DP flew to Berlin for work via Brussels. I saw the booking and it appeared to be very cheap, especially how short notice it was and I started thinking about various minibreaks we could take and played around with the pricing, to then find that booking Manchester to Brussels cost far more than flying Manchester to Berlin via Brussels on exactly the same plane for the first leg.

It was stupid - something like Man - Bru £250 one way, but Man Bru and then Bru - Ber was a total of £80, even though you got two flights instead of one.

I don't know what they would do if you booked the cheaper through ticket but just never got on the second plane and stayed in Brussels? I know they can cancel returns, if you don't take the outer leg, but would they take more money off your card if you didn't get on the second flight?

It's bonkers. I once flew Calgary-Vancouver-Calgary-London.
What a fun day that was.
Got to see sunrise 3 times in the same day.

The same thing happens on trains. You can halve the cost, at least, if you get off one and wait a bit and get on the same train, just later.

As said its supply and demand.

Qantas codeshare with emirates so might be able to get it cheaper through them?

This is insane.

All these unnecessary air trips. Of course travelers will look for the cheapest option, but it’s immoral that the airlines encourage it with their pricing and the bleat about insufficient capacity.