Flight costs OZ/Asia?

[Southwest]

im looking into this for SIL/BIL and am horrified............
They need to fly OZ to Uk and not vice versa which seems to automatically add about 30% (if not 50!!) to the cost, I'm trying all sorts of combinations and can't get the cost below about 1,500 if book OZ to UK or 700/800 if booking only Asia UK by that I mean Singapore or KL. I'm figuring they might be able to get jetstar or similar to get that far!

So please tell me what am I doing wrong? Is that really what they cost? Is it worth waiting/hoping for cheaper?

Were looking for flights in late May or early June to return mid July or mid August ie missing school holidays and we thought high season.

If that's the cost it's totally non viable for them to come so please help me.....

Late may/early June are school hols here and the queens jubilee and July is Olympics maybe they're making it more expensive?

"Were looking for flights in late May or early June to return mid July or mid August ie missing school holidays and we thought high season".

Presumably you are talking about this year; its very late to be booking such if you are (a year earlier it may have been cheaper). What you've been quoted now actually sounds about right. Also July is the Olympics month so flights into Heathrow in particular will be at capacity.

The 1st week of June is the Queens Jubilee week along with it being the Whitsun half term so the schools are off then. Also schools in the UK tend to finish in mid July and do not return till the beginning of September.

I don't know about the flights from Oz, but I do know that flying from KL to the UK and back is more expensive than the other way round. For instance, with Emirates a return trip starting from the UK is > about £600 ish whereas a return trip starting from KL is > about £750 ish.

I don't know whether that's to do with demand and competition, or exchange rates, or what, but it has certainly dismayed me as I live in KL and before I came out here had assumed that my flights home were going to be cheaper than they actually are.

I'm another who thinks you've left it very late.
Have you looked at Air Asia? they are a very basic budget airline whose hub is in KL I think.
They fly into Stanstead IIRC.

Thanks guys to be clear I'm Well aware of all the holiday dates.
The lateness or otherwise of it all is out of my control I'm afraid.

They are flying OZ to Uk and their dates don't coincide with any OZ school holidays, they are trying to fly out in July not in so again should miss Olympics.

I'm trying all sort of different combinations and dates and it doesn't seem to change at all which is what really surprised me ( there are individual variations around weekends etc)

We are also avoiding all half terms etc etc

Marjorie I was horrified how much more expensive it is to fly from there to here than here to there, interesting that it is for KL too, since flights in and out of there is one way I am trying to get the cost down

Ripsishere AirAsiax stopped flying into Stansted over a year ago and have stopped all Europe flights ie London and Paris since Jan (I think), from what little I have read they said Europeans weren't flying long haul because they had no money in the recession!!

I guess what I am asking is does anyone know what are the shoulder / low seasons and in reality how much is anyone actually paying?!

I am used to seeing all those offers to fly here there and everywhere in the back of the Sunday papers, certainly my experience has been that they are never available and when I have asked travel agents when do I need to fly to pay this they either can't tell me or it is 1 specific date the following Jan!!

Thanks for all the speedy replies guys I really didn't expect that many.

glad you let me know, I was planning to go with them to BKK.
When we went to Aus, on all three occasions we went in October. We are stuck with school holidays - DH is a teacher.
I know what you mean about the £29 seats. There is only half a one and it's available on 30th Februrary.

Any flights into or out of UK around the time of the Olympics and in the UK school hols will be expensive - it's where the profit is! And all airlines will ramp up prices the closer you get to the date of travel. Also bear in mind increased taxes for airlines using UK airports - the days of cheap long haul are well over. The only real discounts available are if you boook the day the flights go on sale, 11 months or so in advance or in Sales which will never include school holiday periods. I'd have thought around the £1k mark is fairly standard

Oct- Jan is top peak Oz holiday time, but June- August is peak too, which is what you are seeing. TBH, £1.5k return from Oz is probably about standard, you will really struggle to better it. Can BIL/SIL go into a local cheap flight agent and see if they can help?

Just to add to this I s inspired by this thread to do a random early Nov search ( thought that might be lowish season everywhere) one site came up several hundred dollars cheaper another came up considerably more expensive lol!

XIL has been locally but because of the difference between flights from here to there and vice versa I offered to try for her!!

It's always been more expensive to book Oz-UK-Oz than the other way round. In addition, flights have gone up dramatically in price in the last couple of years due to oil-price hikes. You are booking very, very late; in order to get the best deals you need to book about 8 months in advance (or alternatively at the very last moment). The Olympics have made everything more expensive in the UK this summer. And it's peak visiting time.

Try Air Asia OZ to KL and then KL to London. Japan Airlines and Korean Airlines also often have flights where you have to spend the night in Tokyo/Seoul (paid for by the airline) that are cheaper. I like Malaysian for relatively inexpensive flights too.

It's more expensive to book from oz to uk from the uk than it is to book them from oz

I want am looking on OZ sites too, although recent research would suggest it is the same ish

Don Air Asia X have stopped flying to Europe

Does anyone know why OZ to Uk is more then UK to OZ?

because of the taxes - it's more expensive for airlines to land at UK airports. Plus we are hosting the Olympics and it is our summer - less popular ro travel to Australia in their winter therefore cheaper!

Have you tried looking at flights to Ireland instead and then getting a no frills flight across to the UK? My BIL tells me that's often the way to go as the taxes are lower (he flies to Dubai & Australia all the time).