2 hours ago, koolkarl said:

Thanks to Iran holding the world hostage by controlling that strait and also having the potential to having or getting a nuclear bomb.

They want oil prices to rocket. They bomb neighboring oil producing countries and they know they will get world pity by blaming US and Israel.

Israel and America are directly to blame for the high prices of gas right now, and worldwide they should be calling it the Trump Tax.

2 hours ago, koolkarl said:

Thanks to Iran holding the world hostage by controlling that strait and also having the potential to having or getting a nuclear bomb.

They want oil prices to rocket. They bomb neighboring oil producing countries and they know they will get world pity by blaming US and Israel.

With many people, once they got attached to a theory, it was hard to get them detached. They’d screen out unhelpful facts, invent favorable ones, and ignore contradictions in their own claims. Look at those Sandy Hook, multiple fraud convictions, and Jan. 6th truthers, babbling about false flags and crisis actors and all the rest. When people were motivated enough to believe something, they were going to believe it no matter what. There was no such thing as a bridge too far.

8 hours ago, BKKBike09 said:

Qatar just cancelled BKK-DOH-LHR next Tue 31 Mar, a day after they rescheduled the DOH-LHR leg (from a 90 min layover to 15 hours 30).

Qatar have also parked quite a few aircraft at Utapao.

As a result paid THB 53,620 for a one-way flight on TG (at least its the night flight, direct and decent baggage allowance). This was by far the cheapest of any available option.

A friend suggested Norse Atlantic (which goes to Gatwick). The cheapest one way ticket was USD 2,320 which didn't include a meal, any checked baggage (and specifically stated 'last to board').

No not really £308 one way bkk London small stop over in Istanbul free vip lounge with food and beer!🤣

On 3/26/2026 at 5:37 PM, Merlin said:

I remember grumbling a couple of years ago when flights from Bangkok to Europe crept past the thousand pound mark. I wish that was still the problem.

Just been looking at fares back to the UK for a family visit later this year and the prices are genuinely eye-watering. What used to be a manageable fare is now pushing close to double what I'd expect to pay, and that's if you can find a seat at all on the route you want.

The main issue seems to be the ongoing Middle East situation forcing airlines to reroute away from Gulf airspace, making flight paths longer and burning more fuel. The Gulf carriers — Emirates, Etihad, Qatar — were always the ones keeping prices competitive through their Dubai and Doha hubs. With that corridor disrupted, everyone's feeling it on the Bangkok to Europe routes.

Thai Airways has also announced fare increases citing rising fuel costs, and today Thailand just put fuel prices up 6 baht per litre, so that's not heading in the right direction either.

Anyone else been hit by this? Found any decent alternatives or are you just holding off hoping it settles down? I'm genuinely not sure whether to book now and take the pain or wait and risk it getting worse.

Thanks

I booked Thai from BKK to Perth for $2900.00 plus travel insurance, about $ 500, this is a return for 2 people.

1 minute ago, still kicking said:

I booked Thai from BKK to Perth for $2900.00 plus travel insurance, about $ 500, this is a return for 2 people.

You booked it in the last 2 weeks?

16 hours ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

SHOCK!!!!!

I don't understand, flight costs to Brisbane. 👍

BKK Perh return 1450 AUD

3 minutes ago, CallumWK said:

You booked it in the last 2 weeks?

Yesterday

8 minutes ago, still kicking said:

Yesterday

That's amazing. When I look up Bangkok > Perth on Skyscanner for April flying mid week, the cheapest I get is 32K

Edit: I see that is in line with what you quote in AU$, but that is not cheap for a 7 hour flight

1 minute ago, CallumWK said:

That's amazing. When I look up Bangkok > Perth on Skyscanner for April flying mid week, the cheapest I get is 32K

I did quote Perth BKK return in AUD

1 minute ago, still kicking said:

I did quote Perth BKK return in AUD

I see that is in line with what you quote in AU$, but that is not cheap for a 7 hour flight

42 minutes ago, CallumWK said:

I see that is in line with what you quote in AU$, but that is not cheap for a 7 hour flight

My experience in pre-war times, the BKK-PER non-stop was always expensive if you could get a seat. Very high demand. My cheaper alternative was with Malaysian via KUL. Mind you, their 2 am arrival time wasn't handy.

1 hour ago, cowellandrew said:

No not really £308 one way bkk London small stop over in Istanbul free vip lounge with food and beer!

That cheap BKK-IST on Emirates indicates it has 1-stop. That will be in Dubai. With a total flight time of over 15 hours, that's at least a 4 hour layover in DXB. Check your travel insurance.

5 hours ago, still kicking said:

BKK Perh return 1450 AUD

11 hours ago, still kicking said:

Yesterday

Yesterday, Jetstar had direct fights to Brisbane (Aussie dollars), next month, $4**, June $3**

Many of the still reasonable priced ones, specially those with transfer in Dubai and Qatar, all get cancelled or delayed last minute. I know several people that at this point are waiting for 2-3 refunds on overstay. This while direct would cost them 2-3K euro, one way.

Becomes quite a gamble when you think to have gotten a flight + book it, to then find out it never departs or cancels you days before + holds your refund for 4-8 weeks. As well without a miracle happening, this is only gonna escalate further in the middle east.

In terms of prices it is not even about just the oil price and demand but also that there simply barely is direct flights to begin with. To fly direct from Europe to Thailand was already a luxury since years in general. Via China used to be my cheap way but even those cost 30-40K baht.

I wonder if they will have to pay the fine or not, they can't get any paper from the embassy that Thailand says to get, there is even queues of months to get a new passport to begin with at many embassies right now.

Last but not least i hear about a lot of people with delayed transfers and payments in general. All this doesn't bode well. I would advice people to keep at least 1K USD cash / baht on you.

13 hours ago, cowellandrew said:

No not really £308 one way bkk London small stop over in Istanbul free vip lounge with food and beer!🤣

Thanks. But as pointed out subsequently in this thread those are all BKK-IST via somewhere, presumably in Middle East eg BKK-DXB-IST. Apart from the hassle of a 3 am departure and a 15-hour journey to Istanbul, I'd say very high chance of a least one leg being delayed or cancelled.

2 hours ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

Yesterday, Jetstar had direct fights to Brisbane (Aussie dollars), next month, $4**, June $3**

This appears relatively normal doesn't it?

I have been thinking of going to Melbourne and wondering what the situation is. According to this picture not much different to what I have paid in the past. Surprising, given that all the news I read coming from Australia is about a desperate fuel situation.

5 hours ago, BuffaloRider said:

Becomes quite a gamble when you think to have gotten a flight + book it, to then find out it never departs or cancels you days before + holds your refund for 4-8 weeks. As well without a miracle happening, this is only gonna escalate further in the middle east.

Qatar did a full refund within 2 days of asking but you do need to wait for the email from them that offers you free cancellation (got mine 2 weeks before I was due to fly, which funny enough was supposed to be today).

On 3/27/2026 at 2:24 AM, SamSpade said:

Was booked to fly to Manchester on Qatar tomorrow, had to cancel it so I booked on Hainan on 31st March, cost me an extra approx. £350 (Qatar flight was 86K this one is 105K THB) but still cheaper than I've had to pay in the past.

I've always ignored the Chinese carriers but if you need to get back & don't want to pay the >200K that some of the European carriers are gouging people for then worth looking at.

Edit: On the day I cancelled (approx 10 days ago) I could still book the exact same itinary on Qatar's website (& Gulf, Emirates etc...) obviously the airlines will still take bookings (& your money) even though they know there's very little chance that the flight will go ahead.

That is so true . You can easily book a long haul flight to Europe via the middle East . Some flights will happen but it really is a risky booking . They will happily take your money but you try getting it back on a cancelled flight . It can be a lot of hassle . I posted here last week , stating that Thai Air were quoting over 2000 pounds for a one way flight to Heathrow and then the budget airline Norse Air quoted just over 4000 pounds for the same flight . Even Chinese flights ( normally low cost ) are over a grand for a one way to London in the next week or so . They still use the same flight path over Russia so no added costs for route diversions .

Its pure profiteering on a vast scale by all airlines bar M/E airlines that are prone to cancellations

38 minutes ago, superal said:

That is so true . You can easily book a long haul flight to Europe via the middle East . Some flights will happen but it really is a risky booking . They will happily take your money but you try getting it back on a cancelled flight . It can be a lot of hassle . I posted here last week , stating that Thai Air were quoting over 2000 pounds for a one way flight to Heathrow and then the budget airline Norse Air quoted just over 4000 pounds for the same flight . Even Chinese flights ( normally low cost ) are over a grand for a one way to London in the next week or so . They still use the same flight path over Russia so no added costs for route diversions .

Its pure profiteering on a vast scale by all airlines bar M/E airlines that are prone to cancellations

Not is is not, the fact they have a fixed price for fuel over the next e.g. 1-3 months does not change the fact they already pay more for the months that are purchased today, at today's prices. Effectively it is always directly tied to the spot prices + fuel is the main cost which at the moment is like 40-50% higher already on just crude oil, let alone refined ready products, easily up to 60-70% mid-term increased.

14 minutes ago, BuffaloRider said:

Not is is not, the fact they have a fixed price for fuel over the next e.g. 1-3 months does not change the fact they already pay more for the months that are purchased today, at today's prices. Effectively it is always directly tied to the spot prices + fuel is the main cost which at the moment is like 40-50% higher already on just crude oil, let alone refined ready products, easily up to 60-70% mid-term increased.

Yes , I accept that there has been a significant rise in aviation fuel but not enough to justify the huge increases in long haul flights costs . You can look for fares in a month or so when the fuel crisis will have an even bigger effect on airlines , yet their fares are much lower . Strange how many M/E airlines have kept their fares reasonably low compared to many other Asian or European airlines .

6 hours ago, superal said:

Yes , I accept that there has been a significant rise in aviation fuel but not enough to justify the huge increases in long haul flights costs . You can look for fares in a month or so when the fuel crisis will have an even bigger effect on airlines , yet their fares are much lower . Strange how many M/E airlines have kept their fares reasonably low compared to many other Asian or European airlines .

Not enough to justify the prices?

Petrol and diesel prices in Thailand have increased by around 22% over the past month.

Crude oil has gone up maybe 40% over the past month.

Meanwhile, Jet A-1 fuel price has more than doubled over the same period, and it wasn't exactly cheap before that either.

Middle East countries, along with the US, China, South Korea, India, Singapore and Japan, are a major refiner of Jet A-1. Accordingly, their airlines only need to rely on a tanker truck and not an oil tanker.

20 hours ago, superal said:

That is so true . You can easily book a long haul flight to Europe via the middle East . Some flights will happen but it really is a risky booking .

Four flights daily. All arrived, none canceled.

About one third with delays max 1.5 hour.

A mate from Hamburg found it worth to tell me yesterday that Emirates from DXB has landed in time.

Sidenote: another mate booked for next Jan - Mar from Germany (Duesseldorf) with Qatar for 600 EUR. Call it the price for the fearless 😁

54 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

Four flights daily. All arrived, none canceled.

About one third with delays max 1.5 hour.

A mate from Hamburg found it worth to tell me yesterday that Emirates from DXB has landed in time.

Sidenote: another mate booked for next Jan - Mar from Germany (Duesseldorf) with Qatar for 600 EUR. Call it the price for the fearless 😁

https://www.traveltourister.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/middle-east-march-28-2026-480-disruptions-bahrain-91-cancellations-kuwait-closed-dubai-limited-saudia-emirates-gulf-air-geopolitical-crisis.webp

14 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Middle East countries, along with the US, China, South Korea, India, Singapore and Japan, are a major refiner of Jet A-1. Accordingly, their airlines only need to rely on a tanker truck and not an oil tanker.

Although in most countries they fly to, they still need that oil tanker to refill for the return flight.

16 minutes ago, superal said:

https://www.traveltourister.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/middle-east-march-28-2026-480-disruptions-bahrain-91-cancellations-kuwait-closed-dubai-limited-saudia-emirates-gulf-air-geopolitical-crisis.webp

I look up serious sources and that's what I cited.

This poster type piece of art that you link is of no value for me.

"Emirates" "closed" is simply nonsense.

Limited and certain routes canceled is another thing.

19 minutes ago, CallumWK said:

Although in most countries they fly to, they still need that oil tanker to refill for the return flight.

The Jet A-1 in underground storage at the airport costs the same in LHR, BKK, DXB or SYD, but the middle east carriers can afford to warm stack some their fleet on foreign airport stands, like Emirate's A380's at BKK or Qatar's 777's at UTP.

36 minutes ago, superal said:

https://www.traveltourister.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/middle-east-march-28-2026-480-disruptions-bahrain-91-cancellations-kuwait-closed-dubai-limited-saudia-emirates-gulf-air-geopolitical-crisis.webp

Dead link

15 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

The Jet A-1 in underground storage at the airport costs the same in LHR, BKK, DXB or SYD, but the middle east carriers can afford to warm stack some their fleet on foreign airport stands, like Emirate's A380's at BKK or Qatar's 777's at UTP.

That was not my point. BKK for example has reported already that they may run low on jet fuel, because they have to get it from the Middle East, and so do other countries in Asia as far as I know. Because some countries in Asia have jet fuel refineries, they first will need the crude before they can refine

Checked again for today (29 March) for Bangkok - Dubai on Emirates.

Three flights departed in time.

Two already arrived in time.

One in the air.

Second one of the day:

3 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Dead link

There are some flights but also many cancellations too . Have a check on the link below , new ink 😁

https://www.thenationalnews.com/travel/2026/03/29/uae-travel-advisory-which-flights-are-suspended-or-delayed-at-dubai-and-abu-dhabi-airports/