Chivas

I have already indicated I must have saved a minumum of £10,000 down the decades Just use Travel Trolley part of Southall Travel who also have 5 other online agents. earlier in thread I had indicated on just 5 occasions since 1992 I have used airlines direct. On 2 occasions had issues I have never had slightest issue with an agent

33 years worth then......lol Have just uploaded that flight review and make a positive if minor concession to booking with that airline directly

Have to say overall they were well behaved...no real issue at all very quiet onboard

I had originally come to Thailand in October 2023 with the intention of staying through to end of March 2024 but two months into the trip fatigue exhausation too much sun and everything inbetween forced a rethink I had originally flown one way in on Etihad last at £374 with a 60 day Evisa.......out of interest Etihad didnt even bother to open the printed Evisa lol let alone show any interest in a one way ticket......very fortunately and on an aside somehow I managed to get upgraded to Business on both sectors. I was dressed smartly and travelling alone I assume the only reason on overbooked flight Fast forward to Christmas and I've had enough and buy a return ticket on Christmas day on Singapore airlines at just £589 returned January 17th just gone (best carrier by country mile I have ever been on period) I was one day over on the visa leaving Xmas day (IO wrote words in Thai "one days grace no issue" and obviously no fine Any way back to China Eastern.....had come in on another SETV which was due to expire March 17th......I was thinking of extending trip into April but I'm thinking Songkran at which point I'm thinking lets get home Went on my favourite agent site Travel Trolley for one way and I've got Eva and Thai both in the £500's Etihad at around £460 and right at the top of the pile is China Eastern at..............£212 lol Thinking this could be an error fare switch to Travel Supermarket and to my surprise find its not with a whole list of agents starting with Crystal Travel at just £198 up to about £240....China Eastern themselves were £221 Check real "airtime" which was absolutely no different to using Singapore Malaysia Cathay out of BKK back to London so no issue...transit just 1 hour 25. All good Check what motors are in use and 737-800 to Pudong Shanghai....ouch single aisle with a plane full of and I'll be polite Chinese lol but main leg is on my favourite long haul motor A330 so called by me as with only 8 seats across in economy half the seats available will be aisle...result Despite being cheaper deals available I plump for my decades long use of Travel Trolley at £212.......I need not have even checked but immediate acknowledgment and 22 minutes later Eticket lands.....those guys are ace Love those guys Fast forward to online check in ......now things go awry lol.......its "finding" me within CE's system but not allowing me to proceed to check in.......glitch I think come back later.nope still the same Never one to panic I find the Bangkok Office number and Airport office number of CE (sorry we are closed till Monday lol) I find China Easterns Twitter page and message....no response lol I find China Easterns FB page and message....no response lol I'm thinking let me whack an overnight email off to Travel Trolley knowing how responsive they are......their office opens 9am on the Saturday. At 09.22 Email back saying absolutely nothing to worry about but China Eastern are one of only a handful of airlines where you can only check in online if ticket bought from airline itself Fair enough and for first time ever an extremely minor positive for booking direct ! Get to Swampy well early and am literally first in the queue.......opens up and I'm getting asked questions about the usual sharps lithium batteries (I had assumed within checked bag) etc etc Boarding cards issued....2 aisles all good Go to immigration.....EMPTY. Baggage scans and immigration (its about 3.30pm afternoon).......from walking away from check in to clearing immigration less than 5 minutes ! China Eastern use Shanghai Airlines to codeshare up to Pudong Shanghai......absolutely full. No individual screens. No seat power. Food pretty shight but I'll eat anything so no big deal...bang on time Arrive into Pudong into what I expected would be a seething cauldron of noise (its about midnight) to be met by utter silence.....its morbid......around 8 or 9 of us are wondering where the hell to go for connections. I get barked at when I object to stickers being placed all over me but think better of it......theres NO "obvious" route or someone to ask where the hell we are going. No english at all......someone spots large red arrow on floor which says connections (theres literally no one to ask) If I had been a female travelling alone I would have been slightly frightened.....eventually find our way to bag scans again (just 9 of us where connecting to Gatwick) where the fun and games start We've all done it so grin and bear it stay silent grit your teeth until...........first guy goes through "POWER PACK" screams the 2 searching ....yes he says.....Confisicated" NEXT lol 😁 Everyone had their power packs confiscated no arguements no pack drill even my genuienly very small one was off to the chop squad As you can imagine many were arguing lol......every bag was tipped out literally into a tray lol Anyway on to main leg....8 across as expected. I'm in 2nd to back row centre section and as is entirely predictable the middle seat to my left is empty. No Avod boxes underneath and better still none of those stupid footrests......33" seat pitch great stuff......this one has individual screens but very little showing so just put on moving map....had USB port for power but not electrical........2 hours into flight I popped 2 of Gods little helpers and woke up with 4 hours to run...result Departed to the minute and landed 2 minutes eatly at Gatwick......food was much improved. Very polite flight crew......didnt see booze on trolleys as they came around but didnt ask anyway I'd say 90% Chinese on flight give or take.......Gatwick was deserted. Immigration deserted. Bags came within 5 minutes.....very good and efficient all around China Eastern have 3 a day into London 2 to Heathrow one to Gatwick...... Value for money I would be hard pressed to give them less than 10/10....period (the same seats were available 2 days before flight still at only £279) Overall rating...I'll give them 5/10 Marked down 1 because of the single aisle Bangkok Pudong Marked down 1 because of an absolute shightshow at Pudong somewhat intimidating Would I fly them again.....an absolute resounding YES ! Great value all round !

so why have I never ever had a problem with agents I jave used for decades and at least 120 return trips plus around 50 with BA/Qantas staff ticketing !! I'm just going to start seperate thread over China Eastern booked through Travel Trolley so bear with me......for the first time there WAS a (very) minor caveat incurred by not booking through the airline Give me a few hours and will get it uploaded

ok live example.... Have picked dates in August knowing fare will be expensive So I entered 1st August till 22nd August The best fare as you can see is £1115 with Travel Junction....using the drop down alternates you can see direct from Eva airline at £1255 £140 more expensive via the airline Standard in my opinion and experience

Just use google flights kayak skyscanner or Travel Supermarket albeit some are powered by same search engine If you use Travel supermarket though it will list the individual prices for a particular flight (not always in ascending/descending order I might add) but it also lists normally around 10 alternates for same flight and normally (but not always) includes the airlines direct price I reckon I've saved £10.000 a least down the years probably lot more

Why someone would put a sad emoli above I have absolutely no idea lol

Absolutely classic case in real time yesterday of why I will ALWAYS use an agent 99% of the time rather than direct with airline Friday I had issues with China Eastern (not huge but something that needed sorting)......As in Thailand I attempt to get hold of them via Phone Calls to Bangkok offices and Airport office (closed all weekend)......I contact via Twitter....no response.......I contact via FB page....no response Instead I email to Travel Trolley back in London knowing that office wasnt open until 9am the Saturday morning.........at 09.46 back comes the soothing email that all is well its a glitch with the China Eastern website we've checked and checked and status is good to go both sectors as expected This is WHY I was always use an agent because they are there to serve you because you're their customer Out of interest the fare I paid was available for just £9 more direct from CE....not a chance in hell would I have paid it and rightfully so because I'd be sat in hotel waiting for taxi wondering if their was a real problem

I could name at least 10 without drawing breath Travel agents whether physical or online are the life blood of the aviation industry They exist as consolidators by buying blocks of discounted seats ensuring that the airline reaches minimum income on any one flight I'd love to know how much I have saved long haul via agents

Wrong 330 days at which point the system will throw out the request if you go couple days over etc

No standard return on Oman Air in fact half the price of what the OP was suggesting Lot of you guys enjoy throwing money away by booking direct with airlines is half the problem and this myriad of spurious information which claims if you book with an agent you cant contact the airline subsequently for any reason Utter boll****

First random date outbound taking into account OP's inbound date and Oman £723

Baht has weakened again against the USD on one side of the pairings which effects every nationality coming to spend money in Thailand Sterling also at 5 year high against the Baht (AUD x USD) x (USD x Baht) equates to AUD/Baht Movement in either pairing effects that bottom line Slightly bemused that Baht is weakening out as lot of financial news here indicating the opposite would be true

Mine just "opens" on the app whatout ever putting password in That rate few seconds ago of Sterling at 45.74 (gross) must be the highest for 5 years plus

Assuming you have a Thai account nothing comes close to Wise on rates or speed of transfers in normally seconds

I've found a wide smile and a polite greeting to the IO solves all problems....... You just watch how surly 95% of the travellers are approaching the kiosk

I wont screenshot but I just put in £1000 which lands "in seconds" according to app I then put in £1250 but now it reverts to "arrives on Thursday" Thats RBS to Wise to SCB Effectively unless we were in an emergency it hardly matter anyway I guess

No not really Arriving in 3 to 4 seconds as always All my transfers are £1000 or slightly less. I have noticed though that if I put say £1250 in and it stretches out to 2 hours or something I'm only surmising that when it exceeds 50.000 Baht landing it takes a little longer ??

You've been offensive to multiple people on this thread and elsewhere Off you pop fella x (out of interest I suggest you get a proper bank where all transfers are instant)

I dont need it explaining to me lol I use bank transfer every time and the money lands in SCB before I can even log in to the app.....in fact 1-2 seconds from pressing send to Wise the ping hits from the SCB app RBS to Wise to SCB 24/7...

I havent added any emoji but if you send money to Wise its simply instant. If I sent £10 as I type this by now its already there

Have gone back and looked at my last 20 transfers using Royal Bank of Scotland to Wise to SCB here in Thailand 19 landed within 10 seconds and just one took 3 hours There are Saturday and Sundays where monies were dispatched included in the 19 Edited in.....all were for £1000 or less

I'll copy and paste last sentence and alter 1 word Nick.... "I'll repeat for example if you are aged 40 with no elite visa and you have a 12 month return ticket to Thailand it was simply impossible to have an advance visa to cover that period " That now covers the period up to a few days ago when ground handling at Gatwick gave you wrong information

Wrong. Again you've completely overlooked just why its wrong and I gave you a perfect example earlier. Its completely spurious information you are giving I'll go further I arrived on Etihad on 25th October one way with 60 day Evisa....no return ticket all I arrived on Singapore on 18th January on return portion of round ticket (so now effectively one way) on 60 day Evisa with no further onward ticket again By your "rules" of previous I would have been hung out to dry I'll repeat for example if you are aged 40 with no elite visa and you have a 12 month return ticket to Thailand it is simply impossible to have an advance visa to cover that period