Really expensive return flight?

Wink · 2 Feb 2015 at 20:37

Has anyone else come across flights which are double or even triple for the same journey but the return leg?

Me and the missus are going on our honeymoon in August to Santorini and have booked the trip ourselves. We left booking the return flight home at the time because we were pondering going somewhere else on the way back but hadn't decided.

Started looking at return flights and I can't get my head around the huge difference.

Manchester to Santorini
August 17th 07:50 - Direct flight
£70 each

Santorini to Manchester
August 29th 20:20 - Direct flight
£279 each

Tried all sorts of combinations, some with a stop in between etc but everything flying home from the region seems to be really expensive compare to going out there.

We're actually meant to be heading home on 27th August but can't even find something that isn't a ridiculous flight. The one option means flying home at 06:40 in the morning, for £200 each taking 16 hours!

Does anyone have any idea why it's so expensive to come home?

Doesn't look like there's much we can do here but seems a bit weird to be so much more than the flight out.

Feef · 2 Feb 2015 at 20:59

Could be anything, routes fluctuate by hundreds of pounds for all sorts of reasons, special events, demand, booking time etc, though I'd tend to get a return at the time of booking.

Anyway, you can do Santorini > Manchester via LHR with BA for £119 on the 27th, 6h30m in total. Cheapest direct seems to be £233 on the 29th. Don't know anything about the route myself, so can't offer much more than that, sorry!

Wink · 2 Feb 2015 at 21:00

Feef said:
Could be anything, routes fluctuate by hundreds of pounds for all sorts of reasons, special events, demand, booking time etc, though I'd tend to get a return at the time of booking.

Anyway, you can do Santorini > Manchester via LHR with BA for £119 on the 27th, 6h30m in total. Cheapest direct seems to be £233 on the 29th. Don't know anything about the route myself, so can't offer much more than that, sorry!

That £119 flight you're talking about is some sort of bug. Appears on Skyscanner but none of the other websites like Expedia and if you try book it, it fails. Bit unsure about it!

BA themselves sell that flight for £400 when you search it.

mjt · 2 Feb 2015 at 21:02

Flying back on a Saturday, so that'll jack the price up.
Have you looked at alternate times/days/airports?

Maybe there just aren't many seats left at that time..?

Wink · 2 Feb 2015 at 21:05

We're free to leave from 27th (Thursday). Just everything around those dates seems nuts compared to the flight out.

No choice really but just seems mad being triple the price near enough

mjt · 2 Feb 2015 at 21:07

Wink said:
We're free to leave from 27th (Thursday). Just everything around those dates seems nuts compared to the flight out.

No choice really but just seems mad being triple the price near enough

People coming back home for the school start..
End of the peak season I guess.

Wink · 2 Feb 2015 at 21:09

Yeah looks that way. Flights out there are still the same sort of price we paid though, just the return.

Balls

Wink · 4 Feb 2015 at 20:51

Cheers for the help.

Ended up booking Easyjet flights back to London rather than Manchester at £500 for the both of us (only £150 to go out from Manchester!). Not ideal but it's a direct flight and not much difference price wise to the others.

Never really visited London other than with work so may as well spend a few days there to finish off our honeymoon before heading back up north