Is UK to Australia return, always much cheaper than Australia to UK return

Hi, quick question. I am about to head back to Australia. Return to UK for a wedding in Jan 2015.. A return flight would not be valid for that date, so do we go one way? One way is £700... A return is £850, its not much difference... I am wondering if I should get the return and come back for a week or two maybe Easter 2014. Then buy another return from the UK to get back to Australia and be able to return for the wedding in 2015.... we would then buy a return to get back to Aus and back to the UK for a currently unknown 2015/16 holiday.

Is this worth while, will it save money long term if we continue to holiday in the UK every year? I have it in my head that UK - AUS returns are a lot cheaper than AUS - UK returns... is that true, or a wives tale?

Should I just get a one way then a return from Australia for the wedding?

At some point you will be better off booking a one way flight (of course unless you think you will be moving back to the UK within a few years, in which case you might want to do returns)

I just used a flight price search engine to price an identical return flight UK-AUS (random dates in August and October) in AU$ for sale in London and Sydney. The price gap for Virgin and Malaysia Airways was zero, Quantas was about 80$ cheaper in the UK. (strangely Singapore Airlines, the cheapest when booked in the UK, didn't show up for the search in Aus). Not sure whether that is really worth the effort of having to carry forward a return flight (you might have to consider changing fees, which likely kill the advantage).

If you still have money in the UK (or a cheap way to transfer), travel agents there can actually sell you a return trip originating in the Aus (at least I bought in the UK a flight leaving another EU country, so I guess it should be possible to get a ex-Aus flight as well)

A little side thought, if you college Airline miles many programs will allow you to redeem for one-way flights, usually at half the rate of return trips (but still quite a lot of miles needed for a UK-AUS trip)

Thanks, I will check those out. Im going June 17th, so i put in June 17th leave Birmingham fly to Melbourne return 17th March 2014, its £840 directly on the emerates site. If you switch to the emerates Australia sites using the same dates but switch the destinations, its $2780..

Good idea, it's double to fly aus-UK return than UK- aus. Been told by the airlines it's about supply and demand..!!!

For intercontinental flights I am actually back to using travel agents, they usually price match anything you can find on the internet and you get the added service in case there are issues with your booking...

anyway I use http://matrix.itasoftware.com to start my search for fares (though it's not possible to book through this site). That site also allows to price the same flights for different countries. Looking at your Emirates flight Birmingham-Melbourne the results actually show the same costs regardless whether it's booked in the UK or in Australia (the same holds for the opposite direction Melbourne-Birmingham, but the price is much higher regardless whether you book in the UK or in Australia)

So my impression is that the price difference for IDENTICAL flights is pretty small, but small changes in the flight (like the reverse routing) can make huge differences in the price

so I started playing around with three flight combos (i.e. price a one way and a return) and for the same three flights (of one particular date set and particular airline) the return ex UK seemed substantially cheaper than the combo with the retun ex Aus. I have to admit I am somewhat surprised at that, but it really seems to be financially considerably better to use ex-UK returns than ex-Aus ones

Yes, travel agents in the UK will sell you a Oz-Uk-Oz return ... at exactly the same inflated price you'd pay booking it in Oz. Uk-Oz-Uk works out a lot cheaper (which still makes me grind my teeth in annoyance!) You'd think those of us in Australia would have risen up in an armed rebellion by now, wouldn't you? But no...........

One thing to watch out for on the price matching promises the travel agents here make is the credit card surcharge they'll hit you with on top. Lots of online sites now don't do this, so make sure you're comparing like with like.

You never know when you might want to return, especially as your partner is a UK citizen so it's definitely worthwhile to have the return portion there - doesn't cost much and if you don use it you haven't lost much! I actually got a refund of the taxes on the return half of my ticket that I didn't use when my circumstances changed. I thought I wouldn't get anything at all so it was a pleasant surprise when they told me I could apply.

Just a thought

I always book mine with travelbag or austravel flying with Singapore airline as personally I think there the best. The cheaper special offer flights tend to say you must return to uk within 3 months but if you book a normal one. For example I rang the other day for a flight to perth leaving mid June and retuning Christmas was around £1000, so I would book the furthest date away I could on there system, then if I decided I want to stay in oz longer than my return date I just change it over that pay the extra, it still works out cheaper I find.