Air From Thailand To America Rt

[Jingthing]

I am now planning my first roundtrip ticket back to the old country.

I was an expert going the other way, getting the absolute best deals.

Going from Thailand to the US, I don't know jack.

Any ideas? Are there bucket shops or consolidators in Bangkok like they have in the US or are we stuck paying the very high retail?

Edited November 4, 2007 by Jingthing

[meandwi]

It depends on the dates you want to travel. If your planning to come during the holidays "high season"? Expect to pay top dollar. I usually fly Thaiair non stop From BKK to New York. Takes about 17 hours and worth every penny. If your looking for the lowest fair? Go to all the travel sites like orbits, expedia, etc. see what airlines go to and from your destinations and go directly to their web sites. Saving the cost of the "middleman". I have used koreanair/Delta from bkk to korea/japan to atlanta to final destination. But yawn,,, 36 hours +++. Maybe Thaiair has a "standby" with hope of finding an open seat at the last minute? Hope this helps.

[Spaniel]

For a start you might check with one of TV sponsers, THAIVISA Travel. From reading your other posts you seem to be a pretty savy buyer so would be interesting what kind of deal you finally get. Post and let us know.

[Jingthing]

I don't plan on going for several months yet but when I checked the local fares I was shocked. I always had a way to get a deal in the US through consolidators when the fares were so high, but I don't know how to do that here. I think I might do better waiting until a few months out.

[xbusman]

Last year I had to turn my purchasing around and go back to buying US-BKK-US tickets. I started by purchasing a one way BKK-LAX and then buying the tickets in the US. I can usually do a round trip for around 700 all in whilst the Thai tickets are running a pretty stiff 1100 round trip if your lucky. I did not find a way around that problem that was reasonable. Things in the US are becoming very cheap, wish I could buy a few dozen cars and bring them back with the Harleys.

[ngangu]

I use China Air. They're good and the connection in Tapei is shorter than going to Japan. I usually just go to their website for the best fares but last time(6 months ago) I used Majestic Travel in BKK and they saved me a couple thousand baht.

[chicowoodduck]

I use China Air. They're good and the connection in Tapei is shorter than going to Japan. I usually just go to their website for the best fares but last time(6 months ago) I used Majestic Travel in BKK and they saved me a couple thousand baht.

I've used China Air multiple times (BKK-SF-BKK) and just use their website as they meet or beat what I could find other places. I like the Tapei connection as well. The Tokyo stop over makes the trip seem soooooooooo much longer.

[jonniebkk]

EVA Air China Air if your life insurance is current Also check-out travel classified pages of the Post for listing of cheap flights.

[bkkharry]

If you want to save money fly out of Malaysia when going to the US, much cheaper. Take air asia down and fly from Penang or KL to US. Big savings.

[WentRTW]

If you want to save money fly out of Malaysia when going to the US, much cheaper. Take air asia down and fly from Penang or KL to US. Big savings.

1st post!

Great advice bkkharry! Could not agree more. For even more options, check out cheap flights to other

US gateway cities and compare prices from there. Try to travel weekdays and be flexible, you should be able to find a good deal.

[jonniebkk]

If you want to save money fly out of Malaysia when going to the US, much cheaper. Take air asia down and fly from Penang or KL to US. Big savings.

Any specific examples...the public fares on major web-booking sites show a few hundred dollars in savings but these would surely be eaten up by the cost of the BKK-KUL flight and possible food/lodging costs if one had to overnite in KUL to catch your connecting flight on one or both legs of the trip. Are rates substantially cheaper from local KUL based travel agents?

[bkkharry]

If you want to save money fly out of Malaysia when going to the US, much cheaper. Take air asia down and fly from Penang or KL to US. Big savings.

Any specific examples...the public fares on major web-booking sites show a few hundred dollars in savings but these would surely be eaten up by the cost of the BKK-KUL flight and possible food/lodging costs if one had to overnite in KUL to catch your connecting flight on one or both legs of the trip. Are rates substantially cheaper from local KUL based travel agents?

You have to think outside the box when you arrange these tickets. Last July I flew from KUL to Anchorage Alaska. My routing was Kul to Bangkok have to overnight in Bangkok then the next day flew to Tokyo to Los Angles to Denver and then up to Anchorage. Came back the same way but did not complete the last leg to Kul, just

got off in Bangkok. These flights were on Thai Air KUL to Bangkok, and then on united the rest of the way.

Just had to buy a one way ticket on Air Asia and had a 6 hour wait in KUL to connect to my kul flight to the US. saved over $500 by flying that way.

This was booked through United Airlines here in Bangkok. The key is you have to give the specfic routing to them.

[Robbie Dye]

I don't plan on going for several months yet but when I checked the local fares I was shocked. I always had a way to get a deal in the US through consolidators when the fares were so high, but I don't know how to do that here. I think I might do better waiting until a few months out.

I am afraid it is a fact that fares from here to USA and indeed to Europe are often higher than from the other end. This can be for many reasons, many carriers hub via Taipei and thus have clients from Japan and places with more money than Thailand and they want to maximise their revenue, and also the number of business class passengers commencing their journies from BKK is minimal and so they jack up the economy rates to compensate. You WILL get deals occasionally BUT you have to remember that taxes/fuel surcharges and security charges are now 10000 baht to all intents and purposes. Waiting will do you not a lot of good although we would expect "winter sales" after Christmas, maybe 2000 baht off a USA ticket.

[jeebusjones]

I used to use China Air and EVA, but recently I found that KLM is cheaper to most destinations and certainly MUCH safer than the death-trap China Air.

klm.com

[ngangu]

Why haven't I heard of all this trouble that "death-trap China air" has had? I've flown at least 6 round trips and had a good experience every time. When and where did they crash????

[sbk]

What is the record of China Airlines?

Since 1970, there have been nine fatal events involving China Airlines. The three most recent China Airlines events involved the A300-600 and the MD11 and there were a total of more than 460 fatalities in the two events. The estimated fatal event rate for China Airlines is about 11.4 fatal events per million flights. This is more than triple the rate of most major airlines in North America and western Europe.

source: www.airsafe.com/pr/asiasafe.htm

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, bkkharry, curious as to how you found the cheapest routing and how you bought it through United?

[ovenman]

If you want to save money fly out of Malaysia when going to the US, much cheaper. Take air asia down and fly from Penang or KL to US. Big savings.

Singapore is also a good bet, plus it is equally easy to reach cheaply from Thailand.

[bkkharry]

What is the record of China Airlines?

Since 1970, there have been nine fatal events involving China Airlines. The three most recent China Airlines events involved the A300-600 and the MD11 and there were a total of more than 460 fatalities in the two events. The estimated fatal event rate for China Airlines is about 11.4 fatal events per million flights. This is more than triple the rate of most major airlines in North America and western Europe.

source: www.airsafe.com/pr/asiasafe.htm

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, bkkharry, curious as to how you found the cheapest routing and how you bought it through United?

I travel a lot and always look for the best deals. I subscribe to something called EXPERT FLYER which gives me the lowest air fares between cities, the routing rules, and other information. Most of my flying is with United Airlines, am a million mile flyer with them, so keep up with all the fares and deals that United offers.. I find a fare I want I just go down to the United ticket office here in Bangkok and tell them what I need. I know all the fare rules and various routings that are available. When I go into the office I just tell them the routings, fare classes, and times I wold like to fly. Also have to be flexible to take advantage of many of the fares. If flying United to the US, its much cheaper to fly from Malaysia or Singapore, than from Bangkok. If you need some specfice informaton on fights, ie fares, routings, and rules just PM me, will be glad to help you.