Thanks for the info re the fuel surcharge. Seems a lot - nearly 50% of the 'fare'.
GY11 - thanks for those insights; they have given me food for thought. The last thing I would want is to arrive at LHR or LGW with my car at STN! If I decide to go to Bangkok I would probably book Thai or EVA from LHR and skip the DXB stopover (and then use my airline concessions to travel locally within SE Asia).
wowzz - I don't have a problem per se with STN; nearly twenty years of my flying career were spent operating out of there.