OneWay (stopover London)-which country best end destination?

I like www.bestflights.com.au - an online travel agency with good RTW tickets. search for "flight specials"
I also like www.expedia.com.au - just look for flights to london and see where they stop over on the way (make sure stop overs are permitted)
Flights usually stop over in the coutry of the airlines origon. ie, malaysian airlines stops in Malaysia, JAL stops in Japan. Maybe japan would be a good choice? Its quite far away from Australia, so if you can stop over there for free that much better value than a free stop over in Thailand on Thai airways!

Im actually using LONDON as my stopover country, so Im looking for a ONEWAY flight where the final destination is somewhere in Europe, Middle East or Africa.

Somewhere where if i bought the oneway ticket from London, it will cost a lot, so i'd save money if I buy it now, passing by London.

I'm not an expert by any means but I don't think you'd be able to get a stopover in London from a fly that departs Australia. The reason is that most flights that depart Australia for Europe have a stop over in Asia (except flights that go via the middle east like with Emrites airlines). Thus you've already had your stopover. If you wanted to fly into Paris (for example), you'll more than likely still stop over in Asia before flying then directly to Paris or another mainland european destination before transferring for a short flight to Paris. It's very unlikely you would fly to london and then back to continential europe.

Flying to middle east...there are direct flights with Emirates to Dubai and also with ethaid airlines, so again unlikely to get a stopover in London. Flying to Africa (say south africa) again is generally a direct flight, maybe with a stopover in Perth.

Ok, just plugged a few random destinations in Zuji.com.au...

Flying into Prague - most flights stop in Asia (thailand or singapore) and then Europe (Vienna or France) before flying to Prauge. there is a flight that goes to London, but it's about $300 dearer than the others that dont. For that price you could easily buy a cheap flight (or two or three) on easyjet or ryan.

Flying to Paris - also stops in Asia and then London. SIGNIFICANTLY dearer than the flights to Prauge for the same dates ($500 +) Again you can get cheap flights with easyjet etc instead.

How long are you going for? If you are only planning on going for 12months, and want to see several places, you're probably better off with a RTW ticket. Then you could go to London for a couple of months, before flying to America or South America (as an example) and then back to Australia. If you're going for longer than 12 months then a RTW ticket is no good and i think you're better off with a one-way to london, have a nice stop over in a tropical destination in Asia and then buy cheap tickets as you go.

Whatever you decide, the best thing is to go a see a travel agent, such as STA travel.

HTH,
Scubamel

Flying to Cairo - also stops in aisa (mostly singapore) some also stop in Dubai. Dearer than prauge, but cheaper than Paris, but doesn't go to London.

Whoops, that bit about Cairo was meant to be a new paragraph under the 'flying into Paris' bit.

Also for a lot of stopovers the maximum stay is 30days which would be no good for your trip to London.

I think it would be cheaper to get a one-way flight to London, once you hit London continue your flight to Europe with a cut price airline such as EasyJet. Flight times from London to Europe are between 45min (Northern Europe, eg Amsterdam) - 3 hours (Southern Europe, eg Athens) so you should be able to "endure" the cut price service you get on the planes.... It's very easy to book these flights on-line and there are plenty of good deals, you can get flights from about £30 (AUD$70) and much cheaper if you book at the right time.

As above it is nearly impossible to get a direct flight to London, I think there might be one or two flights out of Perth that are direct, but I'm not sure. Most of the flights stop somewhere in Asia for a few hours, if you like you can make it a couple of days and see the sights. Most popular flight pit-stops are made in Singapore and Bangkok, but it will depend on the airline. Airlines will sometimes make a stopover (or additional stop) in their home port, eg we flew with Swiss Air to Athens from Australia and we stopped in Bangkok and then Geneva before continuing to Athens.

If you're going to be travelling a bit through Europe, look into a Eurail pass before you go.. they're expensive to buy (eg ~$1500 depending on the type of ticket) however they reduce the cost of rail travel significantly. Although obviously slower, rail travel is a much better (and more convenient and cheaper) way of travelling through Europe. You cannot buy a eurail pass once you've left Australia, you have to buy it there.

The main thing that makes flights out of the UK (relatively) expensive is the tax, and you would still have to pay that even on a single ticket.

Anyway, if you want your time in London to be a stop-over on the way to somewhere else, look at a flight on British Airways to Moscow, or anywhere that would be served by their flights to London. The problem would be that in order to get a visa for Russia you would need to show a ticket out, and a one-way flight from Moscow to anywhere would be rather pricey.

Yeh the tax is quite hefty, they doubled it recently didn't they? ...to £10 for economy flights. But even still, you're probably looking at £10-£20 for taxes depending on where you fly out of. Other airlines like Ryan Air offer flights for as little as 1p so all you're basically paying is the taxes.

I just priced a flight for London to Madrid with EasyJey in August and you're looking at a £20 for the flight and £17 for all taxes (flying out of Gatwick)... of course there's the slight hassle and cost of transferring to Gatwick/Luton/Stansted airport, I think you can opt to fly into these airports though, rather than into Heathrow as most international flights do. However you can transfer cheaply with National Express Coaches for about £20.

Thanks everyone for the replies! :-) ... after looking at the links (love the links), ive decided to just buy a flight to London. I'll be in Europe longer than 1 year. So i'll just buy oneway/return tickets in london to places i really want to visit, and currently researching costs of land travels and ease/accessibility around there (new topics created in this forum).

Muchos gracias again!!! :-)