# Why does it cost less to fly with Emirates from Doha



## Juu (Jan 22, 2013)

Hi,

I am sure many of you have noticed that, but I am really looking forward to clearly understanding why Emirates is such a reap off when flying from Dubai.

Very simple example: I am looking at flights to go to Italy this summer: 

-Direct flights from Dubai are @ 4,600 AED economy saver
-Now, if I start my journey from Doha, i.e. Doha - Dubai then Dubai - Italy (exactly the same flights as above), the cost drops down to 3,000 AED. 

I understand the concept of marketing strategies, fine. But the basics imho is to avoid having "regular customers" feeling reaped off. The price would have been the same either from Dubai or Doha, I would have understood. But such a discrepancy in fares does not sound right at all.

So maybe I am not factoring in some other variables (taxes, etc...). Hence this message. If you have any clue please raise your hand.

thanks!


PS: I asked Emirates for clarification (email + phone), no answers were given.


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## Mr Rossi (May 16, 2009)

Juu said:


> If you have any clue please raise your hand.


At a guess, demand. Planes have to fly to their advance schedule regardless how many people are on board. Prices are leveraged against popularity rather than the practicalities of their operational costs.


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## twowheelsgood (Feb 21, 2013)

Nah, its just their reliance upon us being lazy. they do it, because they can and in reality neither Doha or Abu Dhabit are alternative hubs.

Some people cba to change or hub somewhere else and we pay a premium for the laziness.

A lot of my colleagues going to Birmingham, in the UK won't take the Emirates flight but will go KLM and change at Schipol instead - saving about £350 a head. As long as you are prepared to change, and limit luggage and site in transit for a while, thats a lot of cash.

Personally I CBA and my company travel gets me a Gold Emirates card so me and my personal money, being a fool, are easily parted.


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## xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxStewartC (Mar 3, 2012)

Spot on Mr Rossi. Costs the same to fly to Bangkok from London as from Dubai, though half the distance from here.


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## Juu (Jan 22, 2013)

Emirates just reply stating the reasons were:
- seasonality
- frequency of flights on this route
- competition with other airlines

Although the third one is technically a valid argument in that case, the first two have absolutely no impact as we are dealing with exactly the same flights. 

Mr Rossi's guess makes sense. Annoying though for Dubai-based customers.


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## sm105 (Jan 9, 2014)

I'm sure people in Doha are asking why it costs less to fly Qatar Airways from Dubai than from Doha! 

People are willing to pay a premium for the convenience of a non-stop flight on European routes, so Emirates is simply charging what the market will bear.


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## Juu (Jan 22, 2013)

StewartC said:


> Spot on Mr Rossi. Costs the same to fly to Bangkok from London as from Dubai, though half the distance from here.


When prices are at par, I can understand that. However there is a certain limit. This limit is when flights become cheaper from abroad. If flying from London to BKK through Dubai was cheaper than flying Dubai-BKK, I would find it wrong. 

Re-thinking about Mr. Rossi's suggestion:

If prices are leveraged against popularity, their model would also factor in the popularity of the second leg (people flying from Dubai). Because there are less people willing to fly to Italy from Doha does not make the Dubai- Italy flight less popular.


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## Juu (Jan 22, 2013)

sm105 said:


> I'm sure people in Doha are asking why it costs less to fly Qatar Airways from Dubai than from Doha!
> 
> People are willing to pay a premium for the convenience of a non-stop flight on European routes, so Emirates is simply charging what the market will bear.


I am sure of that too 

This topic is in fact a collaborative case-study on airlines business model


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## Mr Rossi (May 16, 2009)

I'm sure convenience plays a factor too however Emirates posted a net profit of USD 845 million for 2013. 

As I said on another thread, their pricing structure will be akin to keyhole surgery and profits like that suggest they have some of the finest financial minds on the job. 

That said, I could imagine a someone in a cigar room somewhere going "lets piss off the gob****es on expat forum and ramp up the prices for their summer holidays"


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## Juu (Jan 22, 2013)

Mr Rossi said:


> I'm sure convenience plays a factor too however Emirates posted a net profit of USD 845 million for 2013.
> 
> As I said on another thread, their pricing structure will be akin to keyhole surgery and profits like that suggest they have some of the finest financial minds on the job.


And you must be about right. Just a wee bit frustrating as a customer not to get any clarification from the company.


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## twowheelsgood (Feb 21, 2013)

Juu said:


> And you must be about right. Just a wee bit frustrating as a customer not to get any clarification from the company.


Why would any clarification help ?

Its a simple choice over how much you want to pay and the convenience that the price gets you ? No amount of explanation should alter your choice under the above criteria surely ?


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## Juu (Jan 22, 2013)

Whether you can afford a service or not still allows you to question how the pricing is made. 

Call it customer relation services.


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## sm105 (Jan 9, 2014)

Juu said:


> And you must be about right. Just a wee bit frustrating as a customer not to get any clarification from the company.


Emirates used a proprietory algorithm developed by their former Mercator IT division to determine their optimal pricing strategy. Although Mercator has now been sold, they may still be using that tool.


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## XDoodlebugger (Jan 24, 2012)

More interesting is looking at flights between the same city pairs, for example DXB-BKK.

Going on Emirates is $3471 in business class DXB-BKK, Thai about the same.
The other way, BKK-DXB on Emirates is $1982 in business class on the same routes and dates.

As I go to Bangkok several times a year I booked a one way Muscat to Bangkok ticket in business for $623 (they often have good pricing on that route but the return day doesn't work for me) and a round trip BKK-DXB ticket in business on Thai for $1395 with no charge to change the dates.

I like to fly in the front but I am not stupid with money, there are ways around price gouging.


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## w_man (Apr 16, 2010)

Oh things have changed with Emirates since we first got here in 2010. I remember I was using Emirates for work flights as well as personal but since 2012ish, Emirates is way too expensive to fly compared to other options.

We fly to Canada yearly and just comparing prices of flights from 2010 to now it's absolutely unacceptable in my opinion. We used to be able to fly to Toronto for 1700ish before and now it's almost impossible to get anything less than 2200 or more. Give or take around the same time of the year. Other airlines haven't changed much though - we were able to find flights for 1100ish before and we can find flights for the same cost now.

Of course the direct flight concept is there but that's why I was OK with paying the extra $4-500 for the directly flight - now they are basically asking for double the price?!? 

I won't pay that kind of crazy money so I normally fly other airlines for personal but still fly Emirates for work. 

At the end of the day, I think it's supply and demand but personally I feel something is up and Emirates is cost cutting. I fly to Doha regularly and a year+ ago, you got a full warm breakfast on the morning flight, even though it's a short flight. Now I get a small cold cut sandwich and you're lucky if you get tea/coffee (but that might just be because there's no time).


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## sm105 (Jan 9, 2014)

w_man said:


> Oh things have changed with Emirates since we first got here in 2010. I remember I was using Emirates for work flights as well as personal but since 2012ish, Emirates is way too expensive to fly compared to other options.


Unfortunately, this is indeed the case. The Skywards program has also lost most of its value for a traveler whose corporate policies require lowest fare Economy Class travel. The stealthy changes started in 2008 and have gotten progressively tighter. The only time I fly Emirates nowadays is to burn my Skywards points on upgrades before they expire. On my usual business travels to/from Africa, I've found Ethiopian to be far better value for money - and with their new 787s and 777s to/from Dubai, the inflight product is also better than the crappy old A330s and A340s that Emirates uses on the African routes. Plus, as an elite level frequent traveler they treat you a lot better than Emirates does.

Emirates still has its plus points, don't get me wrong. The premium product on SOME aircraft types is excellent. But especially from Dubai, they are pricing themselves out of the discretionary travel market in favour of higher yields and corporate deals. Probably intentional, but still annoying for those of us who have flown hundreds of flights with them over the years and remember the great value it used to be!


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## LesFroggitts (Dec 30, 2013)

EK empty seat DXB-LHR = No revenue

EK full seat DXB-LHR = Revenue

EK full seat DOH-DXB-LHR @75% price = 75% revenue + *major brownie points for QR losing a passenger*


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## omar92 (Oct 8, 2013)

If you look at the prices of tickets to/from Doha, you'll find that Qatar Airways is significantly more expensive. GF, EK and EY will be much cheaper for Qatari-based folk. I've been travelling on QR often, and over the past year or so, they have consistently been the cheapest on the routes I search to/from Dubai. They also increased capacity to DXB, started flights to DWC and reintroduced SHJ. 
I remember last year I was searching for flights to the West Coast out of Cairo. I was expecting to see the usual suspects (BA, LH, AF/KL) but instead found Emirates to be the cheapest. I think something like $650-700 for a roundtrip Cairo-Los Angeles/San Francisco. Ridiculously cheap, considering that DXB-West Coast flights are ultra longhaul. They had either just started/increased capacity, so must have been introductory fares, but you get the idea. Airlines sometimes undercut their competitors by a large margin.


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## chestnut (Apr 1, 2013)

I was a bit curious about this and thought I would play with it a little. I priced-up DXB-LHR-DXB and DOH-DXB-LHR-DXB-DOH out 10 July back 31 July...

It came back with (among others, of course) FlyDubai+Emirates and Emirates+FlyDubai for the return at £613 (Apologies for the currency change).
The curious thing is that the direct flights (same flights/times/dates) are £1027.

Really curious.

Might be a caching thing as Hipmunk (which I used to price the flights) sometimes caches (i.e. keeps a copy of information it got earlier) results rather than retrieve them again from the carrier's or provider's website.


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## Felixtoo2 (Jan 16, 2009)

I am flying DXB-BKK one way in August, wish that was the end of the sentence but i've gotta come back lol. Anyway these are some of the options and prices that day,

Qatar = 1460
Emirates = 2460 *
Gulf Air = 3150
Thai = 1570 *
Singapore = 1440
Sri Lankan = 1150
Jet Airways = 12.50 

* = direct flights.

So Gulf Air obviously don't have many seats left that day and Emirates are just about 1000dhs more expensive than even the direct competition of the non-stop Thai flight. Unfortunately Emirates don't even look after those employed in aviation in the UAE, when I lived in the UK I could get EK ID90's whilst here my discount code sometimes puts the price up!


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