I am wondering why EK is so expensive for their short-haul sectors as compare to their long-haul flights. I am really a true admirer of EK but for quite sometime I couldn't travel on EK due to their expensive tickets.
Care to share some specific examples...??? For example, I can fly SIN-CMB-SIN for S$500 all in. And SIN-MEL-SIN for less than S$800 all in. One's a 3.5hr flight and one's a 7-hr flight. EK is cheapest to CMB out of SQ, CX, Sri Lankan etc. And always one of the cheapest to Australia...
Last I checked, EK was $700 or so all-in on BKK-HKG. For F. From what I can tell, EK are by far the cheapest premium option on that sector. In fact, their J was cheaper than TG Y on dates I was looking at.
It is overpriced within the GCC for two main reasons, because they assume that all the people that live in Dubai are well off and are willing to pay higher rates of airfare. The second reason is the point of Dubai or any other of the regional airlines QR, EY, WY do not focus on the local market but the expanding market abroad.
but in my case its not like that, I used to travel between the sector KWI-ISB and it used to cost me KD125 but now its usually above KD200+
Well in the old days I remember getting a ticket to DXB for less that 100 Omani Rials. Now it costs me about 120 to get where I want to go on a non-LCC due to higher wages in the Khaleej.
This has been true for years (now it shows up worse due to the higher fuel prices) The gulf carriers seem to have about five pricing tiers (which you can calculate as price/miles traveled). The highest have always been between the gulf countries The second is round trip travel originating from the gulf The third is round trip travel originating from Europe The fourth is round trip travel from/to the gulf from Asia And the fifth (and cheapest) is round trip travel between Asia and Europe (as they view these pax as seat fillers)
I think this is a case of "because people pay for it". European carriers do the same thing- an inter-europe shorthaul flight in economy can cost 3X an intercontinental flight in economy that has the SAME legs also in it. If people weren't paying, EK would probably adjust the fares.
It really depends. The very least expensive flights I have found are EK First to Australia ex- MXP or VCE: 2750 EUR roundtrip in First. This compares to the least expensive Star Alliance partner being SQ at 3750 and LH typically being ~8000: both for business. The least expensive first option I have ever found on STAR is with SQ at 7900 EUR or 300% of the EK fare (and a much longer flight time via SIN vs DXB).
I specifically meant journeys originating from asia - originating from Japan tends to be really expensive.
I have recently found that EK offers the cheapest fares between Tokyo and Europe. Back in July NRT-DXB-LHR was pricing at something like 100,000 yen on EK while nonstops were going for 150,000 yen +++ on other carriers.
