crewmeal,
If one is flying outside of EU (ish) then unless one is occupying 24 hours in EU transit, or doing it as two seperate bookings, one still pays UK rip-off tax.
Here's a booking I travelled on over (busy thus expensive) Xmas 2009, £415.60 (less £5.00 cashback) was a bargain, particularly, to fly from my local convenience store:
Outbound flight: Birmingham - Hong Kong via Zurich
Mon. 14.12.2009 18:50 BHX - 21:40 ZRH LX 425
Mon. 14.12.2009 22:40 ZRH - 17:25 +1 HKG LX 138
Return flight: Hong Kong - Birmingham via Zurich
Wed. 30.12.2009 23:59 HKG - 06:10 +1 ZRH LX 139
Thu. 31.12.2009 07:15 ZRH - 08:05 BHX LX 420
Total amount to be paid: GBP 415.60