Razzler1973

Travel sites only get limited slots.Book direct,cheaper

I have had mixed results with booking direct

Some places have said yeah, come do it, no need to pay the booking site and got pretty much the same price. One place I got for 1000 instead of 1500 going direct and that's emailing them, not even a walk in

Others are 800 or 900 baht but walk in and it's 2500 or something insane

I mean, jeez, I get drumming up hype and getting people to make decisions but surely this is bordering on misleading

I actually googled it and came up with some results about some booking sites having to remove this as it's a marketing tool and misleading well ... not sure they listened

I will be around and about and checking 3 or 4 different cities and towns for places and pretty much every single hotel I check it's 'only 1 more room' or 'room booked 5 minutes ago' and all that guff

What is quite amusing is '5 people looking at this now' and '1 room left' and then 'last booked' date is like 3 or 4 days ago. So, no one booked for 3 or 4 days but RIGHT NOW the whole world is looking at the exact hotels I am looking at!!

I tend to right-click and open many many tabs and they're ALL like that, jeez, so much for low season, eh

Of course, return next day and the rooms are still available

I generally ignore it but it's a bit silly, isn't it?

Having read the other replies appreciate the response and think it's made my mind up, will definitely give them a shot

Thanks all

Used their service Chiang Mai to Don Muang and return about 8 round trips, adult Thai son, his wife and two kids used them I guess 3 trips. No negatives whatever, no delays experienced.

Website easy to use.

No fee add on for 1 suitcase check in.

Insurance available on website.

Can pay by CC on the website or at 7/11 etc. (Takes less than a minute to pay at 7, the receipt gives all the flight details: date, flight numbers, times etc.)

Check-in focused and professional, in my experience good English every time, staff seem to always listen carefully and give clear answers.

Cabin crew focused and polite and quick to answer any requests, well focused on safety routine etc.

All passengers get a small plastic tub of water and two wrapped cookies, similar to Oreo.

New aircraft very clean.

I know most of my schedule several months in advance and I book early and get great prices.

Good luck.

Cheers

1 bag, free 15kgs like the other budget airlines, isn't it?

I have no issue with Nok Air but Air Asia have tried my patience a few times. I just googled cheap flights and this lot came up, vaguely recall hearing their name so thought I would ask, seems all positive so far

Some TV poster's wife

not hiso or chinese enough

Online check in means you can print your boarding pass. If you only have hand luggage you can turn up proceed straight to the gate. If with baggage then just drop the bag off rather than go through the whole check in procedure at the airport itself

You may think there's not much advantage but it's free to check in online, save any time it's a benefit

Can't remember the last time I didn't check in online for a flight

I have seen a bit of stuff on the internet, cheap, some complaining about delays (I got plenty of delays on Air Asia before)

Anyone use them recently

Their prices for going to Krabi are about half of Nok Air, what's the catch??

I don't mind 'seats are small' type grips as for an hour and a bit I can handle it. Decent planes? Any hidden charges I need to take into account cause on the surface it's all looking good, to me

@Razzler

What's the point of your reply? Except maybe to show us that (some) thai girls are not the only ones who lack the ability to use their brain.

I initiated this topic with a bunch of questions and got some interesting replies and some less interesting (from probably the same old bored dudes). So now, as my experience in this field is limited (and as i don't like to speak to say nothing) i'll let the more experienced of you speak and will read the interesting replies with pleasure (and those who nothing to say, please do me a favour: save my time by keeping your mouth shot).

Cheers

Yeah, I'll just start this and sit back and read the replies ... I'm really looking for information, honest

That's exactly what happened, isn't it. It's certainly not just posting a popular topic and leave everyone to bicker and never re-enter the thread, like, you know, about 3 times a day ... except I called you on it so you felt the need to reply

What have you learned from these replies? I am sure they will be very useful in this very real situation you came across!!

See you in the next thread

They're getting worse at this, aren't they?

The 'ol hot topic about girlfriends and stuff and then never reappear in the thread again leaving everyone to bicker amongst themselves. Need a new tactic, I think

Isn't the heavy rain a bit early this year?

Many a July/August I spent in BKK and Thailand with no hassle at all with regards to rain, bit here and there but that's all

Really gonna change lower suk, aren't they

I don't have a problem with it. They have some OK pubs around there anyway, you can get a beer cheaper in those places than in the beer bars of Nana anyway and not much interested in the bar girls and all that stuff

I like agoda, probably my most used

To add to the 'it's cheaper to go direct' I have found some places offering more than agoda prices but also had some actual hotel sites display less than agoda price, I called them and got 1000 baht room as opposed to 1500 from agoda and paid directly

Another place, also on an island, knew the place and called to book a specific room I like and asked if I should book (was ahead of time) through agoda and specify in comments our conversation about that room and she said no, do it direct with them so no need to pay tax and boom, done

Have also had some being more expensive and going online much better and others the exact same price so ... whatevs, depends, I guess

HotelsCombined is my favourite:

https://www.hotelscombined.com/Place/Thailand.htm?a_aid=145426

This is one of those sites that groups things together and looks at ALL deals, right?

So, when you book, what do you do, just check which they say is the best and then go to that site?

I checked some stuff and it said 'compare 9 sites' (3 of them were booking.com, mind) so would you go to booking.com and make the booking or do it from that site? i.e. how do hotels combined make their cash?

Never quite sure with these aggregator things :/

how is it sneaky? its the same on airline sites which adds in the TAX AFTER the first page

Airline taxes are variable though, that's why they don't mention them

For agoda 17% is fixed across ALL bookings, there is no way you can get a different price then what they quote plus the 17% .... so, just show the 17%!

That's probably people's issue. It's not sneaky per se but I don't want to do calculations, just tell me the price! It's not going to be 17% sometimes, 15% others and 5% another time, it'll always be 17%

The difference between agoda and booking.com seems to be agoda shows price then add tax whereas booking.com shows the all-in price

They sell beer in Terminal 21? I don't remember seeing that in the food court

I take it you must be Thai. It's not permitted for foreigners to buy property in Thailand with the exception of condominiums.

Ah, Thai Visa, never change

From first hand accounts it seems they are not doing anything ropey, checking people and moving on, no idea why but nothing dodgy going on like fishing for bribes from what I have read so far

Not heard of bad experiences with this yet just 'bit strange'

I remember they have a superstition about not accepting a sharp object as a gift, they'd always give even a 1 baht coin in return. I remember reading about that

Then I remember seeing this happen in the provinces years back, an old girl handed someone scissors that she'd asked to borrow and the other made a big deal out of giving her 1 baht. The other one seemed to be like 'don't be silly' but the woman insisted

Maybe it's an old fashioned one but always remembered that

I know, I am naturally cynical and protective of myself, I find it hard to be 'all in' with anything let alone stuff not in my name, etc

If you're constantly battling over various individuals that aren't yourself or your missus then you got a long, rough life in a village

Don't position yourself as the 'enemy' of your family, really fruitless and a long hard slog of a life like that

You probably have to accept certain things are going to happen and that's the way it is, don't get involved. The bike thing is a liberty but you shouldn't have given it to him, he sounds like a waster, what did you think he'd do with the bike? Write that off

Do you have locks on the doors of important rooms in the house? Maybe a smaller fridge in another room to keep those important things you may have that you don't want someone nicking. Tell your wife in a nice way 'look, I don't mind him eating but not this stuff' even if you don't really feel like that

Your village sounds horrid, by the way. Not sure how invested in this relationship, you are and if you have money tied up there in anyway but be nice to know if you wanted to leave you can just up and go

Any Thai related issues, let them sort it out even if it makes you shake your head

I thought the manager of Check Inn actually posted on here?

No surprise whatsoever,always empty,ridiculously overpriced for a beer it's not rocket science is it?Probably run on the expert marketing strategy so prevalent in Thailand that the emptier you are the more you charge for a beer,just to make up the shortfall TiT!

100 baht for lao dark before 8.30 overpriced?, you sound like my mrs moaning about the price of water when 'it's only 10 baht in the shops' It's always been full when i have been

Haha, I like your missus! Like her style

If you want to do it on the cheap take the airport shuttle bus 30 baht to Chatuchak BTS then 50 baht to Ekamei bus station about 120 baht to Pattaya. I would not take a minivan only a couple of months ago two crashed while racing each other.

Aren't there some buses that go to Pattaya from Mor Chit also? If he gets to Chatuchak he can just go from Mor Chit Station nearby

From the title this looked like another example of 'post hot button topic title ... OP never appears in thread again' classic and you nearly got away with it but you over reached on the age of the Mum

If you'd have said the Mum was 54 then you'd have pages of guys talking about how they banged a 50 year old and she was amazing and also how it's possible but for sure the wife is cheating and so on

Lesson for next time you make up a story

The bus from Ekkamai takes a long time, best way is a minivan from Victory Monument, transfer to a songthaew 15 km outside Trat (which you would have to do if you if you took the bus anyway) I think the fare is 350 for the minibus and 120 for the songthaew

Flying Bangkok Air only saves a couple hours and costs several times more and you will still have to ferry to the island. I paid 2600 for a ticket, then another 500 for a songthaew from the Trat airport.

Once I tried private taxi for 3000 and then he refused to take it on the ferry (I deducted 300 from his fare)

If you take the Laem Ngop bus you don't have to transfer, it takes you directly to the pier

You only need to transfer if you take the regular Trat buses but with a couple of morning buses direct to the pier it's not really worth doing that tbh

A few options:

1. Go by Airport link Skytrain to Suvarnabhumi. On floor one (1) you can catch a large bus to the Koh Chang ferry terminal and transfer on the island by mini-bus. You need to check departure time and get there early. Allow plenty of time - it is not a quick trip. Take a book. Plenty of stops along the way.

2. Go by plane to Trat. Much safer and quicker. Many ways to transfer to the island from the airport.

3. Go by minibus from BKK. Check out services and pick-ups online. A far quicker trip than the big bus but a far greater chance missing out on your holiday altogether and instead being re-routed back to BKK in a mortuary van. I know I have done it once only. Never again.

Going all the way to the airport to get on the bus?

It's much quicker from pretty much anywhere in BKK to get to Ekkamai

One of the Ekkamai buses stops at the airport, it's the same bus