British Airways cancels all Bangkok flights for another year.

[soi3eddie]

Just read on Head for Points that British Airways has cancelled all Bangkok flights until late March 2023 (likely last Sunday of March when seasonal schedules change). Whilst I wouldn't choose BA, this will likely have an impact on all who fly the London/Bangkok route as there's less competition. Prices for many flights have risen since the pandemic and as demand increases. This will possibly get worse too due to the oil price. I'll be booking my next few trips early to lock in prices and availability. A search on ba.com only lists Qatar airways flights. The £746 shown is only for the first leg and not round-trip! The trip back in January is £843 so that's £1,589 return in cheapest economy option. 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by soi3eddie

[blackcab]

Moved to the Travel Forum.

[internationalism]

TG is doing direct daily. 
there are some 20 airlines to chose from, little playing with dates, departure times. 
skyscanner is comparing fares for the whole month. 
very strange with BA. I think they still have time to october to make their mind, depending mainly on covid situation. Until thailand cancels all the existing barriers its a risky business for airlines. 
The emirates do have now over 30% of thailand passenger traffic (plus some cargo on top of it), so entering this market is tight for new slots. 
personally i would not book more than 2 flights ahead. Situation is still too fluid to plan long term. 
i would also avoid TG, they are bankrupt. Still not paying refunds for 2 years, since covid. They use to be my favourite 

Edited April 9, 2022 by internationalism

[KhaoYai]

I don't think prices are up so much across the board at the moment.  It appears to be the same old story - the price changes daily/hourly.  I looked at an Etihad flight in June a week ago and it was over £1000 economy.  By Friday just gone it had dropped to around £700 direct with Etihad and £561 through an agent. Clearly though, the oil price is going to affect prices at some point but I believe airlines forward buy their fuel so increases might not have filtered through yet. 

 

One thing I've noted recently is amount of booking sites that as their first price, list one that does not include hold luggage.  The amount of people that are able to fly long-haul without any checked baggage must be extremely limited.  I almost booked a flight last year without realising the price didn't include luggage but that factor was hardly noticeable on the booking site - especially when you've used the same site for years and such things didn't exist before.  I regard it as a con and wonder how many people turn up at the airport not knowing they have no baggage allowance?  I thought this practice was limited to budget shortfall carriers such as Ryanair - now it seems you have to read the small print on all sites.

 

Direct websites seem to be much clearer about what you get for the price.

Edited April 9, 2022 by KhaoYai

[soi3eddie]

5 hours ago, internationalism said:

TG is doing direct daily. 
there are some 20 airlines to chose from, little playing with dates, departure times. 
skyscanner is comparing fares for the whole month. 
very strange with BA. I think they still have time to october to make their mind, depending mainly on covid situation. Until thailand cancels all the existing barriers its a risky business for airlines. 
The emirates do have now over 30% of thailand passenger traffic (plus some cargo on top of it), so entering this market is tight for new slots. 
personally i would not book more than 2 flights ahead. Situation is still too fluid to plan long term. 
i would also avoid TG, they are bankrupt. Still not paying refunds for 2 years, since covid. They use to be my favourite 

Of course BA could reinstate the route fairly quickly if there's demand but it was stated that the route is not as profitable as a business destination. Also, after retiring all their 747s they are utilising other widebody planes on more profitable routes.

It is good now that Thai is doing daily flights London/Thailand. From end of May they will be also offering TG916/TG917 4 times a week too making 11 roundtrip flights per week.

EVA Air are currently selling tickets for LHR/BKK route from 1st June 2022 on a daily service so hopefully that goes through.

Thai Airways cancelled repeatedly on me during 2020. One trip I simply changed dates until they were flying again, another cancelled trip I decided not to use and got a refund from my AmEx credit card (in less than 3 hours) and the 3rd trip extended the ticket validity for another year. No reason to not book with Thai if you like their service. They will not be allowed to cease business as too important for the country.

 

[soi3eddie]

3 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

I don't think prices are up so much across the board at the moment.  It appears to be the same old story - the price changes daily/hourly.  I looked at an Etihad flight in June a week ago and it was over £1000 economy.  By Friday just gone it had dropped to around £700 direct with Etihad and £561 through an agent. Clearly though, the oil price is going to affect prices at some point but I believe airlines forward buy their fuel so increases might not have filtered through yet. 

BA used to offer sub £600 tickets. Hopefully BA will start flying the route again and they don't drop it permanently. Last month I needed to book LHR/BKK/LHR (24/3 & 16/4) and even Emirates was charging £800+ Cheapest Thai Airways was £790 when pre-pandemic it could usually be purchased for £496. The Full Flexi tickets with Thai that normally used to cost £840 are now £1,400 or more for all dates I've checked. There will be occasional bargains with certain carriers but the days of easy cheap flying seem to be over.

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by soi3eddie

[Mac Mickmanus]

9 minutes ago, soi3eddie said:

BA used to offer sub £600 tickets. Hopefully BA will start flying the route again and they don't drop it permanently. Last month I needed to book LHR/BKK/LHR (24/3 & 16/4) and even Emirates was charging £800+ Cheapest Thai Airways was £790 when pre-pandemic it could usually be purchased for £496. The Full Flexi tickets with Thai that normally used to cost £840 are now £1,400 or more for all dates I've checked. There will be occasional bargains with certain carriers but the days of easy cheap flying seem to be over.

 

Maybe it was expensive because the dates are during the UK school holidays and Songkran ?

[KhaoYai]

6 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

BA used to offer sub £600 tickets. Hopefully BA will start flying the route again and they don't drop it permanently. Last month I needed to book LHR/BKK/LHR (24/3 & 16/4) and even Emirates was charging £800+ Cheapest Thai Airways was £790 when pre-pandemic it could usually be purchased for £496. The Full Flexi tickets with Thai that normally used to cost £840 are now £1,400 or more for all dates I've checked. There will be occasional bargains with certain carriers but the days of easy cheap flying seem to be over.

 

You are quoting for direct flights.  I travelled with Etihad over the Christmas period for less than £600 and again in March with Qatar for £451.

 

Flights in June returning July today (no crazy layovers and with hold luggage):

 

Austrian Airlines £570 Agent

Lufthansa £584 Agent

Qatar £590 Agent

Edited April 10, 2022 by KhaoYai

[sandyf]

15 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

Just read on Head for Points that British Airways has cancelled all Bangkok flights until late March 2023

Very misleading statement and headline.

BA have not cancelled flying to Thailand, only the direct flights which happened at the start of the pandemic. They resumed flying to Thailand in conjunction with Qatar Airways, both companies belong to IAG and cost reduction is the name of the game.

It was Qatar aircraft and crews that came to the rescue of BA during the strike.

Could be a long time before there is a direct flight again, if ever, the middle east airports are fast becoming the major hub between east and west. It was this status rather than infection levels that put them on the Red lists during the pandemic.

Every chance going forward there will be a move to shorter more frequent legs.

[sandyf]

50 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

You are quoting for direct flights.  I travelled with Etihad over the Christmas period for less than £600 and again in March with Qatar for £451.

 

Flights in June returning July today (no crazy layovers and with hold luggage):

 

Austrian Airlines £570 Agent

Lufthansa £584 Agent

Qatar £590 Agent

I booked with Austrian last August BKK/LHR/BKK via Frankfurt, about 90 minute transfer, and that was £590. I couldn't use my Emirates ticket as they had been red listed, that ticket was carried forward from 2021 and had cost £488.

I didn't use the Austrian return leg and got that moved free of charge to June this year, came back with Emirates ticket. This year going with other Emirates leg and coming back with other Austrian leg via Vienna.

[topt]

58 minutes ago, sandyf said:

Very misleading statement

As is this I believe -

59 minutes ago, sandyf said:

both companies belong to IAG

Unless I missed something when did Qatar get bought by IAG?

[sandyf]

9 minutes ago, topt said:

As is this I believe -

Unless I missed something when did Qatar get bought by IAG?

Apologies, wrong way round,  it is Qatar that owns part of IAG.

Bottom line, there is still a benefit from cost reduction with Qatar and BA working together.

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-iag-qatar-stake-idUKKBN20D0PE

 

[Steve80]

Scoot are also doing direct flights from Gatwick to Bangkok, which I guess would also reduce demand for the BA flights.

[Lancashirelad]

BA are short of cabin crew to operate flights. They are offereing a GB£1,000 welcome bonus to new recruits.

[soi3eddie]

1 minute ago, Lancashirelad said:

BA are short of cabin crew to operate flights. They are offereing a GB£1,000 welcome bonus to new recruits.

But then a <deleted> salary thereafter. A neighbour of mine in London was given ultimatum to accept new terms and conditions or get laid off. Not happy crew. 

[Pmbkk]

On 4/10/2022 at 8:50 AM, KhaoYai said:

You are quoting for direct flights.  I travelled with Etihad over the Christmas period for less than £600 and again in March with Qatar for £451.

 

Flights in June returning July today (no crazy layovers and with hold luggage):

 

Austrian Airlines £570 Agent

Lufthansa £584 Agent

Qatar £590 Agent

 

Problem with agents, is if something goes wrong your generally screwed. It's a matter of table tennis of the agent and airline blaming each other. You sitting in the middle unable to plan.

 

I would never book through them ( Did once to SA via BA and it was a nightmare)

 

Great if all goes to plan, in these uncertain times, I'd prefer the better odds of direct with the airline.

[Pmbkk]

I usually fly with BA to BKK, I know they are not great, but they are direct from LHR and usually a very good price direct. My comparisons over the years much better than competitors.

 

My missus flew back from LHR- BKK with Emirates at the start of March, she got a price of just under £500 return with a 2 hours 40 mins break in Dubai. 

Edited April 15, 2022 by Pmbkk

[KhaoYai]

1 hour ago, Pmbkk said:

Problem with agents, is if something goes wrong your generally screwed.

Been using agents for 20 years.  Its not ideal but I've never really had a problem and things have gone wrong in that time.  I've never had any of the table tennis you suggest - the biggest problem is that you might have to discuss the problem with the agent and if its urgent, that means by phone so there's cost and time issues. However, that's just about been eliminated since Apps like Whatsapp became available.  I won't book with an agent that won't give me a Whatsapp number. In any case, unless its a booking problem or something that requires a date or flight change, the airline shouldn't be asking people to contact the agent.

 

I always check the airline price before I book though and if the difference is less than £50, I go with the airline - most of them, certainly Etihad, have a Bangkok number to call. although at the moment it diverts to Abu Dhabi - no cost to me though.

[cyril sneer]

I recently paid £220 one-way BKK - LHR (Singapore Airlines)

Then £330 one-way LHR - BKK (Thai Airways direct)

 

prices aren't bad at all but have noticed them creeping up since Russia kicked off