Now that the volcanic dust is clearing over London you can  see… sky high prices.

But not if you read The Age or Sydney Morning Herald.

Both papers have killed the link to their exposé yesterday of airlines posting rip-off economy class fares to London as high as $11,429, which is exactly $100 less than this morning’s Qantas.com quote for business class return to Heathrow from Melbourne leaving mid June and returning mid July.

It seems that having lost its grip on real estate dollars in Melbourne there is no way Fairfax is going to let consumer interest stories cost it the travel advertiser dollars as well.

These are the facts. There is always a very high full economy fare in airline tariffs in general which has historically been the basis for calculating pro-rata sector fares where carries host another carrier’s passenger over part of their route structure.

It should never, ever, be offered to consumers. It is a relic of a past era that makes inherently misleading appearances on some on line retail sites from time to time, sometimes with beguiling references to the added security or benefits of a ‘full’ economy fare over a discount fare.

Crikey could not find such a stratospherically outrageous fare on the main sites this morning, but did discover some really disgusting rip-offs, such as a British Airways quote (out mid May, back mid June) of $4306 in economy for a fare which Qantas.com, on BA code shared flights, had for a much more reasonable $2809, which is consistent with high season economy offerings on the kangaroo route, whether shrouded in volcanic ash or not!

Be warned. These put-ons with ‘unconditional’ economy fares that are ‘flown’ at an altitude higher than the 747s fly, will rattle around the travel retail scene opportunistically lying in wait for those who are either gullible or desperate to get a confirmed booking in the aftermath of the air space closures.

Singapore Airlines pointedly emphasised this morning that it would not be selling its economy fares at inflated prices in the coming weeks, even though it said getting a seat in economy class would be difficult on its Europe and UK services for some time.

The background to the Singapore position is that Flight Centre, which controls more than half the shop front travel outlets in Australia, and which has been at loggerheads with Singapore Airlines over the commercial relationship between them, yesterday told the travel trade media that the flow on effect of the ash crisis was that fares were set to rise.

Flight Centre may be right, but the alternative scenario is that if there are more disruptions and eruptions, and consumer uncertainty discourages travel to Europe, prices will not go up, but collapse.

This price uncertainty, sky high, or rock bottom, is especially true of other travel products, such as hotel rooms, hire cars and all inclusive packages.

The BBC today is crammed with horror stories about hotels doubling their full or rack rates, and car rental companies hitting those who tried to arrive in Europe from the dust free airports on its edges with 5000 euro fees for dropping off a vehicle rented in Bratislava in Birmingham.

Which is really daft. You can buy perfectly roadworthy ‘bomb’ in Slovakia for well under 2000 euros and just abandon it in the UK.

If European and British travel does take a dive because of fears about more ash related strandings  those travel service providers who have to make monthly payments for rents or loans are going to switch from trying to gouge their way out of trouble by robbing the few, and revert to distressed inventory sales to the many, just to get across the line.

It is too early in the ashen aftermath to work out whether the Flight Centre prediction of higher prices, or a sudden frenzy of deep discounting, will apply to Europe and UK travel.