There’s an old showbiz anthem, It’s Not Where You Start, it’s Where You Finish, which has been an earworm for me today.
It started during a Twitter conversation I had with another travel blogger about how some airfare structures were, at first glance, confusing.
Quite often it’s not the length of the trip that determines the price you pay. Sometimes it’s the popularity of the route (if demand is high, airlines can pay more; but if they have competitors, they may charge less to win over customers) or the fees charged by airports and other authorities at certain destinations that make flights more expensive than they ought to be.
It’s a complicated business, but one rule of thumb that seems to hold true is this: try not book an airfare from the hub of the airline you are booking with.
Why? Because that’s where they are boss, and where they set the rules. And, almost always, they charge more for flights from home base than they do from other airports and other airlines do from their airport.
I live in Abu Dhabi, but I flew Munich-Abu Dhabi-Brisbane-Abu Dhabi- Munich on my most recent trip home to Australia. The journey was spaced over four months with lengthy stops in Abu Dhabi both ways on Etihad Airlines (which is based in Abu Dhabi) for two-thirds of the price the same airline would have charged for Abu Dhabi to Brisbane return.
That was 12 more flying hours (in business class, no less) for far less money. I travelled to and from Munich on reward flights, so I got to Australia very affordably and had a nice time in Germany to boot.
By the way, if I’d started in Brisbane, a return flight would’ve been cheaper too.
I’ve had two very affordable trips from Abu Dhabi this year by eschewing Etihad (which remains one of my favourite airlines) and going with Oman Air. The inconvenience of going via Muscat was more than compensated for by the discounted fare. The comfort level was about the same (again in business class, meaning I also had lounge access all the way).
A friend recently flew British Airways from Abu Dhabi (rather than the default of Etihad) and was very pleased with the price and the service. Others in this region fly Qatar Airways via Doha, or Turkish Airlines, via Istanbul, and get to their final destinations cheaper than the price offered by the home airline.
In other words, and you can sing this bit, It IS where you start …
