Why the difference in cost?

Damaged

I recently looked at the cost of flying to New Zealand from London around April next year.
I then looked at the cost of flying return from New Zealand to London on exactly the same dates and with the same airline.

The price from London to AKL return was £770
The price from AKL to London was $3250 or £1550

So basically double the price if you reverse the sectors.

Any idea why there would be such a difference?

My only thoughts are, is that for a long time, NZ'ers expect to pay around $3k to get to the UK, and the Brit's expect it will cost around £800. So all they do is match their prices to expectation.

whatmichaelsays

Damaged wrote: »

I recently looked at the cost of flying to New Zealand from London around April next year.
I then looked at the cost of flying return from New Zealand to London on exactly the same dates and with the same airline.

The price from London to AKL return was £770
The price from AKL to London was $3250 or £1550

So basically double the price if you reverse the sectors.

Any idea why there would be such a difference?

My only thoughts are, is that for a long time, NZ'ers expect to pay around $3k to get to the UK, and the Brit's expect it will cost around £800. So all they do is match their prices to expectation.

You're flying to NZ in their winter whilst NZ'ers will be flying to Europe in our summer. The demand for flying into a destination when it is winter is lower than the demand for flying into a destination where it is summer.

HXDave

there is also the scenario of many airlines having special deals when booking from the same country that you depart from, as opposed to booking the ticket from a different country from where the ticket is departing from.

working in a travel agency, using the regulations that ensure our flights are fully protected, we always advise people if they want a flight that originates outside the UK (say for example they are travelling to San Fransisco for a month, and fancy a quick trip to somewhere like Hawaii) then unless it can be done in conjunction with the transatlantic ticked deoparting from the UK, then its usually cheaper to book in the USA (either when they get there, or if they have friends / relations there then they can book it for them).

Hope this gives a bit of an insight.

Regards

Damaged

whatmichaelsays wrote: »

You're flying to NZ in their winter whilst NZ'ers will be flying to Europe in our summer. The demand for flying into a destination when it is winter is lower than the demand for flying into a destination where it is summer.

surely if you are flying return, the winter / summer demand for seats would even out?

Eitherway ,just checked lhr to akl leaving mif Jun, so a brit leaving summer to winter, and the airfare to akl is £778 return
Doing the reverse it is $2740 or approx £1300.

Still does not stack up to the demand theory

geordieracer

Damaged wrote: »

surely if you are flying return, the winter / summer demand for seats would even out?

Eitherway ,just checked lhr to akl leaving mif Jun, so a brit leaving summer to winter, and the airfare to akl is £778 return
Doing the reverse it is $2740 or approx £1300.

Still does not stack up to the demand theory

no they wont even out as demand from Nz to anywhere is higher in theri summer months just like it is for us to go anywhere.

Heliflyguy

Well for a start is the booking class the same, may be same dates but check the class booked on both sectors, you dont say so this might be whats changing the cost.
Then your going to be buying flights in a local currency (NZD) and converting it back to pounds so that could add to the price.
If your online with the airline trying putting in your country as New Zealand, dont know if it will make a difference though.

Damaged

geordieracer wrote: »

no they wont even out as demand from Nz to anywhere is higher in theri summer months just like it is for us to go anywhere.

in the comparasions I have done, it makes no difference to the extra over that you pay in NZ$ I am just wondering why it could be such a large difference

Damaged

Heliflyguy wrote: »

Well for a start is the booking class the same, may be same dates but check the class booked on both sectors, you dont say so this might be whats changing the cost.
Then your going to be buying flights in a local currency (NZD) and converting it back to pounds so that could add to the price.
If your online with the airline trying putting in your country as New Zealand, dont know if it will make a difference though.

All sectors are like for like.

That is my point why does the local currency cost so much when equating back to £'s

I looked through a NZ website and from experience this is what they generally cost. For the last 10 years it has always cost between $2500 - £3500 to fly to london, this is regardless of what fuel is costing, the exchange rates and the economies.

All I can put it down to is economy of scale.

geordieracer

Damaged wrote: »

in the comparasions I have done, it makes no difference to the extra over that you pay in NZ$ I am just wondering why it could be such a large difference

when i was over there the fares were certainly higher to come home then they were to come out. I actually had to pay $4500 NZD to get home on the day which was steep but could not book it from British websites as they would not let you.

Heliflyguy

I just had a look at a fare display for LHR-AKL return 1st Apr 11 and the same date but AKL-LHR return all priced in USD on both countries national carriers.
In economy all return fares out of AKL were about 800 to >1000 USD more expensive, class structure was very different i.e lowest class out of UK is O, out of NZ is S.
I guess its down to what the local market will support.