London To Bangkok - Christmas

[jitagon]

I have a young friend, not particularly well heeled, who insists that Christmas will be the best time to come and visit me in Thailand, despite my warnings priciest flying time of the year.

I'm completely out of touch with more recent flights and prices, as haven't been back to the UK for over five years, nor want to.

I have had a look at cheapflights.com - but on another thread here there are several airlines mentioned, at cheaper prices than I could find!

Any recommendations gratefully received

[Prakanong]

I have a young friend, not particularly well heeled, who insists that Christmas will be the best time to come and visit me in Thailand, despite my warnings priciest flying time of the year.

I'm completely out of touch with more recent flights and prices, as haven't been back to the UK for over five years, nor want to.

I have had a look at cheapflights.com - but on another thread here there are several airlines mentioned, at cheaper prices than I could find!

Any recommendations gratefully received

I was talking about this only last night!!!!

Book early - if he has never been get him a direct fligh. Not that he can not travel well its just so much easier

Look at Eva now or try WestEast Travel (google for it) and book now - WestEast only used to take deposit and pay 6 weeks before flight (may have changed I am out of UK a while)

[citizen33]

I have a young friend, not particularly well heeled, who insists that Christmas will be the best time to come and visit me in Thailand, despite my warnings priciest flying time of the year.

I'm completely out of touch with more recent flights and prices, as haven't been back to the UK for over five years, nor want to.

I have had a look at cheapflights.com - but on another thread here there are several airlines mentioned, at cheaper prices than I could find!

Any recommendations gratefully received

I was talking about this only last night!!!!

Book early - if he has never been get him a direct fligh. Not that he can not travel well its just so much easier

Look at Eva now or try WestEast Travel (google for it) and book now - WestEast only used to take deposit and pay 6 weeks before flight (may have changed I am out of UK a while)

I'd say book early but take your time looking around and choose the right moment to get best value. West East Travel is not as cheap as it was. Taking another example, if you visit the Finnair site to check out the sale mentioned in an adjacent thread, you'll see that most of the flights near Christmas are well over £1000. However, from time to time bargains do seem to come along. Last Christmas I went with Etihad at about £500. I have found that Southall Travel is one of the most competitive agents at present - most of the websites mentioned on recent threads are a little way off the pace.

Edited May 31, 2008 by citizen33

[craigsh]

try moneysupermarket.com .i paid 474 pounds for december but i booked in march i use it all the time.

[roamer]

This is an easy one. just google kayak uk, input your dates and it checks EVERY airline as well as all the agencies mentioned and shows you the lot. We are doing it Xmas at £410 on Qatar...damm good airline but booked as soon as flights become available in March, last time I checked same flights were around £800.

Tip. Peak finishes on some airlines on 24/12 so Xmas day can sometimes yield a cheaper flight.

[cophen]

And be careful reading the WestEast site. Their prices don't include taxes/surcharges etc which can add £150 to the cost of a ticket.

[cophen]

This is an easy one. just google kayak uk, input your dates and it checks EVERY airline as well as all the agencies mentioned and shows you the lot. We are doing it Xmas at £410 on Qatar...damm good airline but booked as soon as flights become available in March, last time I checked same flights were around £800.

Tip. Peak finishes on some airlines on 24/12 so Xmas day can sometimes yield a cheaper flight.

Paek usually starts on 10th December.

[wensiensheng]

This is an easy one. just google kayak uk, input your dates and it checks EVERY airline as well as all the agencies mentioned and shows you the lot. We are doing it Xmas at £410 on Qatar...damm good airline but booked as soon as flights become available in March, last time I checked same flights were around £800.

Tip. Peak finishes on some airlines on 24/12 so Xmas day can sometimes yield a cheaper flight.

Paek usually starts on 10th December.

It's always a trade off between convenience/comfort and cost. Cheaper airlines sometimes require a longish layover in an out off the way location that adds many hours to the trip. Or, the service can be lousy, Eastern European airlines generally, being case in point.

I have found the Middle East Airlines to be competitive on price and the stopover to be not too bad. Ettihad, Qatar and Emirates are airlines my teenage kids have used when visiting. The service is pretty good and safety record ok. I'm sure there are cheaper, but depends what you want to give up.

My brother in law is flying from London on 2nd Jan and has paid GBP465 for a direct Thai Airways flight. A few days delay from 25th Dec may save money.

[citizen33]

This is an easy one. just google kayak uk, input your dates and it checks EVERY airline as well as all the agencies mentioned and shows you the lot. We are doing it Xmas at £410 on Qatar...damm good airline but booked as soon as flights become available in March, last time I checked same flights were around £800.

Tip. Peak finishes on some airlines on 24/12 so Xmas day can sometimes yield a cheaper flight.

Well I may have been unlucky, but I have tried Kayak for comparison purposes the last two times I have booked and found the prices it quotes quite a lot higher than I paid. I think this is because the search uses only a restricted range of agents/airlines. So I don't think it is a genuine one-stop solution.

Edited June 2, 2008 by citizen33

[PhilHarries]

When ever I have flown out of the UK at my own expense I have used Trailfinders.com and have always been satisfied with the service. Couldn't, a few years back, book on line but you can phone up and talk through the options with a person and make adjustments to save time/money.

[roamer]

This is an easy one. just google kayak uk, input your dates and it checks EVERY airline as well as all the agencies mentioned and shows you the lot. We are doing it Xmas at £410 on Qatar...damm good airline but booked as soon as flights become available in March, last time I checked same flights were around £800.

Tip. Peak finishes on some airlines on 24/12 so Xmas day can sometimes yield a cheaper flight.

Well I may have been unlucky, but I have tried Kayak for comparison purposes the last two times I have booked and found the prices it quotes quite a lot higher than I paid. I think this is because the search uses only a restricted range of agents/airlines. So I don't think it is a genuine one-stop solution.

Strange, as it covers ALL airlines (with the exception of budget airlines and that doesn't apply in this case either) and certainly all the major agents discounters etc. In my case above I got the flight on ebookers but via Kayak. It does pay to make sure you've checked the flexible option and it helps to play around, a friend just saved £100 or so by booking Emirates out via Gatwick but in via Heathrow.

[citizen33]

This is an easy one. just google kayak uk, input your dates and it checks EVERY airline as well as all the agencies mentioned and shows you the lot. We are doing it Xmas at £410 on Qatar...damm good airline but booked as soon as flights become available in March, last time I checked same flights were around £800.

Tip. Peak finishes on some airlines on 24/12 so Xmas day can sometimes yield a cheaper flight.

Well I may have been unlucky, but I have tried Kayak for comparison purposes the last two times I have booked and found the prices it quotes quite a lot higher than I paid. I think this is because the search uses only a restricted range of agents/airlines. So I don't think it is a genuine one-stop solution.

Strange, as it covers ALL airlines (with the exception of budget airlines and that doesn't apply in this case either) and certainly all the major agents discounters etc. In my case above I got the flight on ebookers but via Kayak. It does pay to make sure you've checked the flexible option and it helps to play around, a friend just saved £100 or so by booking Emirates out via Gatwick but in via Heathrow.

Well I suggest that you try a little experiment yourself. If you get on the Kayak website right now and search for London to BKK departing on 12 Dec and returning Jan 3rd, you will find that it comes up with Qatar as the best deal from both Gatwick at £805 and LHR at £815. If you then try the sites of Southall Travel, Travel Bag and even E-bookers (which is supposed to be included in Kayak) you'll see that they can all beat these prices. In some cases the difference is marginal, but the cheapest flight that I could find from Oman Air (okay you may not want to take it!) was under £500 on these dates. Another interesting point is that Kayak itself was giving £713 from Heathrow for these dates earlier in the day! 'Twas ever thus in my experience, and I have never understood people who keep repeating that Kayak is the simple answer.

[cophen]

I've just done a search on a specific Emirates flight through all 4 sites and get exactly the same price from all 4 of them.

[citizen33]

I've just done a search on a specific Emirates flight through all 4 sites and get exactly the same price from all 4 of them.

Don't understand why you didn't check the example I gave. The original question was not whether Kayak sometimes gives the same prices as other agents on certain flights but whether it throws up the cheapest prices. Of course, the beauty of the non-transparent example you just gave is that nobody else can verify your finding - that seems entirely pointless.

Edited June 2, 2008 by citizen33

[edwardandtubs]

The agent doesn't take that big a cut. The price is determined by the airlines who own most of the online agents. Do you think some travel agent has some magical way of getting cheaper flights, or can undercut the airlines own agents? Flight Centre (telephone only) guarantees a cheaper price than any online agent. They do this by simply undercutting it by £1. Just go to one of the many price comparison websites. There's no secret way of getting much cheaper flights unfortunately. Some online agents quote prices that are no longer available. The available tickets are pretty much the same price from all the major online agents.

Edited June 2, 2008 by edwardandtubs

[cophen]

I've just done a search on a specific Emirates flight through all 4 sites and get exactly the same price from all 4 of them.

Don't understand why you didn't check the example I gave. The original question was not whether Kayak sometimes gives the same prices as other agents on certain flights but whether it throws up the cheapest prices. Of course, the beauty of the non-transparent example you just gave is that nobody else can verify your finding - that seems entirely pointless.

Emirates BHX-BKK outbound 15/11/08 inbound 5/12/08 £602.

[citizen33]

The agent doesn't take that big a cut. The price is determined by the airlines who own most of the online agents. Do you think some travel agent has some magical way of getting cheaper flights, or can undercut the airlines own agents? Flight Centre (telephone only) guarantees a cheaper price than any online agent. They do this by simply undercutting it by £1. Just go to one of the many price comparison websites. There's no secret way of getting much cheaper flights unfortunately. Some online agents quote prices that are no longer available. The available tickets are pretty much the same price from all the major online agents.

It's true that the margins are quite small if one is comparing the same flight with different agents, though I have often noticed differences of £20 to £30 in the past. However, my point is that sometimes a lower cost flight will come up that isn't on most of the data bases (even Kayak) and needs to be snapped up. For example today, the two cheapies that I found for the Christmas period were Oman Aviation at under £500 and China at just under £600, both out of Gatwick (didn't fancy either though because the connections were not ideal). This compares with over £800 (for Qatar, Royal Jordanian etc) showing up on the price comparison sites. Both these flights seem to have disappeared this evening. It seems to me that the argument that all the agents give roughly the same prices and you can therefore just go to the one website will mean you probably don't tap into these opportunities.

[cophen]

I used to fly China regularly and the best prices I ever got were at a travel agent in Nottingham who was a China agent. They beat online prices every time but unfortunately have closed.

[edwardandtubs]

The agent doesn't take that big a cut. The price is determined by the airlines who own most of the online agents. Do you think some travel agent has some magical way of getting cheaper flights, or can undercut the airlines own agents? Flight Centre (telephone only) guarantees a cheaper price than any online agent. They do this by simply undercutting it by £1. Just go to one of the many price comparison websites. There's no secret way of getting much cheaper flights unfortunately. Some online agents quote prices that are no longer available. The available tickets are pretty much the same price from all the major online agents.

It's true that the margins are quite small if one is comparing the same flight with different agents, though I have often noticed differences of £20 to £30 in the past. However, my point is that sometimes a lower cost flight will come up that isn't on most of the data bases (even Kayak) and needs to be snapped up. For example today, the two cheapies that I found for the Christmas period were Oman Aviation at under £500 and China at just under £600, both out of Gatwick (didn't fancy either though because the connections were not ideal). This compares with over £800 (for Qatar, Royal Jordanian etc) showing up on the price comparison sites. Both these flights seem to have disappeared this evening. It seems to me that the argument that all the agents give roughly the same prices and you can therefore just go to the one website will mean you probably don't tap into these opportunities.

I bet you that if you'd actually tried to buy the cheaper ticket it would have told you that it's no longer available and offered you the higher price.

[roamer]

This is an easy one. just google kayak uk, input your dates and it checks EVERY airline as well as all the agencies mentioned and shows you the lot. We are doing it Xmas at £410 on Qatar...damm good airline but booked as soon as flights become available in March, last time I checked same flights were around £800.

Tip. Peak finishes on some airlines on 24/12 so Xmas day can sometimes yield a cheaper flight.

Well I may have been unlucky, but I have tried Kayak for comparison purposes the last two times I have booked and found the prices it quotes quite a lot higher than I paid. I think this is because the search uses only a restricted range of agents/airlines. So I don't think it is a genuine one-stop solution.

Strange, as it covers ALL airlines (with the exception of budget airlines and that doesn't apply in this case either) and certainly all the major agents discounters etc. In my case above I got the flight on ebookers but via Kayak. It does pay to make sure you've checked the flexible option and it helps to play around, a friend just saved £100 or so by booking Emirates out via Gatwick but in via Heathrow.

Well I suggest that you try a little experiment yourself. If you get on the Kayak website right now and search for London to BKK departing on 12 Dec and returning Jan 3rd, you will find that it comes up with Qatar as the best deal from both Gatwick at £805 and LHR at £815. If you then try the sites of Southall Travel, Travel Bag and even E-bookers (which is supposed to be included in Kayak) you'll see that they can all beat these prices. In some cases the difference is marginal, but the cheapest flight that I could find from Oman Air (okay you may not want to take it!) was under £500 on these dates. Another interesting point is that Kayak itself was giving £713 from Heathrow for these dates earlier in the day! 'Twas ever thus in my experience, and I have never understood people who keep repeating that Kayak is the simple answer.

Ok took up your challenge, used your dates, and at first glance it appeared you were right, I could have saved myself a massive, wait for it, 40 pence by going to Southall travel as they quote £813.60 as opposed to Kayaks £814, what about Travelbag then ? What a bargain they turned out to be, they want to charge me £879 for the same flight I can get for £814 via Kayak. So it looks like you win, Southall travel 40p cheaper, except I decided to click through on Kayaks £814 price, got taken through to the Qatar site where the price was.....£813.60 so the 40p saving has now disappeared. How inconvenient of Kayak to round up their prices to the nearest pound.

["'Twas ever thus in my experience, and I have never understood people who keep repeating that Kayak is the simple answer."

I'm not asking you to understand me. I tried the experiment you suggested, the answers are here, no doubt you will further demonstrate your pedantry by saying I didn't do it exactly when you posted, sorry but I have a life.

For most of us the fact remains that Kayak remains the simplest one stop solution,and it also offers far more options than any of the other sites.

The left hand pic is the travelbag quote but cropped the top in error.

Edited June 4, 2008 by roamer

[citizen33]

This is an easy one. just google kayak uk, input your dates and it checks EVERY airline as well as all the agencies mentioned and shows you the lot. We are doing it Xmas at £410 on Qatar...damm good airline but booked as soon as flights become available in March, last time I checked same flights were around £800.

Tip. Peak finishes on some airlines on 24/12 so Xmas day can sometimes yield a cheaper flight.

Well I may have been unlucky, but I have tried Kayak for comparison purposes the last two times I have booked and found the prices it quotes quite a lot higher than I paid. I think this is because the search uses only a restricted range of agents/airlines. So I don't think it is a genuine one-stop solution.

Strange, as it covers ALL airlines (with the exception of budget airlines and that doesn't apply in this case either) and certainly all the major agents discounters etc. In my case above I got the flight on ebookers but via Kayak. It does pay to make sure you've checked the flexible option and it helps to play around, a friend just saved £100 or so by booking Emirates out via Gatwick but in via Heathrow.

Well I suggest that you try a little experiment yourself. If you get on the Kayak website right now and search for London to BKK departing on 12 Dec and returning Jan 3rd, you will find that it comes up with Qatar as the best deal from both Gatwick at £805 and LHR at £815. If you then try the sites of Southall Travel, Travel Bag and even E-bookers (which is supposed to be included in Kayak) you'll see that they can all beat these prices. In some cases the difference is marginal, but the cheapest flight that I could find from Oman Air (okay you may not want to take it!) was under £500 on these dates. Another interesting point is that Kayak itself was giving £713 from Heathrow for these dates earlier in the day! 'Twas ever thus in my experience, and I have never understood people who keep repeating that Kayak is the simple answer.

Ok took up your challenge, used your dates, and at first glance it appeared you were right, I could have saved myself a massive, wait for it, 40 pence by going to Southall travel as they quote £813.60 as opposed to Kayaks £814, what about Travelbag then ? What a bargain they turned out to be, they want to charge me £879 for the same flight I can get for £814 via Kayak. So it looks like you win, Southall travel 40p cheaper, except I decided to click through on Kayaks £814 price, got taken through to the Qatar site where the price was.....£813.60 so the 40p saving has now disappeared. How inconvenient of Kayak to round up their prices to the nearest pound.

["'Twas ever thus in my experience, and I have never understood people who keep repeating that Kayak is the simple answer."

I'm not asking you to understand me. I tried the experiment you suggested, the answers are here, no doubt you will further demonstrate your pedantry by saying I didn't do it exactly when you posted, sorry but I have a life.

For most of us the fact remains that Kayak remains the simplest one stop solution,and it also offers far more options than any of the other sites.

The left hand pic is the travelbag quote but cropped the top in error.

If you had read my earlier post above you will see that I had already said that the cheap Oman and China flights that showed when I first checked quickly disappeared. It could be that the previous poster was right to say that they were never really there, but I have had several bargains of that kind in the past. These would have been the big saving: what you point to is what I described as the 'marginal' saving. You seem to have a commitment to Kayak that is almost religious in its intensity. I've always thought pedantry was preferable to blind faith.

[roamer]

This is an easy one. just google kayak uk, input your dates and it checks EVERY airline as well as all the agencies mentioned and shows you the lot. We are doing it Xmas at £410 on Qatar...damm good airline but booked as soon as flights become available in March, last time I checked same flights were around £800.

Tip. Peak finishes on some airlines on 24/12 so Xmas day can sometimes yield a cheaper flight.

Well I may have been unlucky, but I have tried Kayak for comparison purposes the last two times I have booked and found the prices it quotes quite a lot higher than I paid. I think this is because the search uses only a restricted range of agents/airlines. So I don't think it is a genuine one-stop solution.

Strange, as it covers ALL airlines (with the exception of budget airlines and that doesn't apply in this case either) and certainly all the major agents discounters etc. In my case above I got the flight on ebookers but via Kayak. It does pay to make sure you've checked the flexible option and it helps to play around, a friend just saved £100 or so by booking Emirates out via Gatwick but in via Heathrow.

Well I suggest that you try a little experiment yourself. If you get on the Kayak website right now and search for London to BKK departing on 12 Dec and returning Jan 3rd, you will find that it comes up with Qatar as the best deal from both Gatwick at £805 and LHR at £815. If you then try the sites of Southall Travel, Travel Bag and even E-bookers (which is supposed to be included in Kayak) you'll see that they can all beat these prices. In some cases the difference is marginal, but the cheapest flight that I could find from Oman Air (okay you may not want to take it!) was under £500 on these dates. Another interesting point is that Kayak itself was giving £713 from Heathrow for these dates earlier in the day! 'Twas ever thus in my experience, and I have never understood people who keep repeating that Kayak is the simple answer.

Ok took up your challenge, used your dates, and at first glance it appeared you were right, I could have saved myself a massive, wait for it, 40 pence by going to Southall travel as they quote £813.60 as opposed to Kayaks £814, what about Travelbag then ? What a bargain they turned out to be, they want to charge me £879 for the same flight I can get for £814 via Kayak. So it looks like you win, Southall travel 40p cheaper, except I decided to click through on Kayaks £814 price, got taken through to the Qatar site where the price was.....£813.60 so the 40p saving has now disappeared. How inconvenient of Kayak to round up their prices to the nearest pound.

["'Twas ever thus in my experience, and I have never understood people who keep repeating that Kayak is the simple answer."

I'm not asking you to understand me. I tried the experiment you suggested, the answers are here, no doubt you will further demonstrate your pedantry by saying I didn't do it exactly when you posted, sorry but I have a life.

For most of us the fact remains that Kayak remains the simplest one stop solution,and it also offers far more options than any of the other sites.

The left hand pic is the travelbag quote but cropped the top in error.

If you had read my earlier post above you will see that I had already said that the cheap Oman and China flights that showed when I first checked quickly disappeared. It could be that the previous poster was right to say that they were never really there, but I have had several bargains of that kind in the past. These would have been the big saving: what you point to is what I described as the 'marginal' saving. You seem to have a commitment to Kayak that is almost religious in its intensity. I've always thought pedantry was preferable to blind faith.

No commitment, just recognise a product thats good. In actual fact I also check the few sites not covered by Kayak like West East travel etc though I have never actually bettered a Kayak quote as far as I can recall. To return to the original point of this thread I stick to my belief that for most of us its the simplest one-stop solution.

[thaigene2]

I still prefer going into a bucketshop in London. Trailfinders used to be ok. But these days you can often go right to the airline themslves and pester the agent til you get the best code/routing.

I find the web-based bucketshops aren't really bucket shops at all - ever looked at travelocity or expedia? They seem to be regular rate tickets - despite all their talk about hottest deal etc..Hotels are starting to go the same way on these big sites - sad, as hotels choices used to be very good through these guys.

The way I do it is I fix in my mind when I will travel, then start the long slog of checking allt he available flights, then begin the grind of finding the cheapeast ticket - you need to learn the codes (e.g. - H Class, V Class, Q Class..etc) Q, H and V used to be pretty good..

One major final thing - make SURE the ticket will be issued at the moment you pay your money..and that the ticekt they issue has "OK" on it in the right spot - that means flight is confirmed

Edited June 7, 2008 by thaigene2