Free Tickets To Thailand

[Jai Dee]

Free tickets to Thailand

KUALA LUMPUR - SOUTH-EAST Asia's top budget carrier AirAsia said on Tuesday it would offer 100,000 free tickets to Thailand under a regional marketing campaign to support its tourism industry battered by recent political unrest.

AirAsia said it would collaborate with Tourism Authority of Thailand to bring back tourists and businessmen by 'reinstating the core message that it is now safe to travel back to the Land of Smiles.'

Under its campaign themed 'Get Your Baht To Thailand' - a play on the Thai currency - AirAsia will give away 100,00 free tickets to Bangkok from Vietnam, Cambodia, Myammar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and China, as well as for flights within Thailand.

Passengers will only have to pay airport taxes and administration fee. AirAsia last month abolished fuel surcharges on all its flights.

'We hope that this campaign will instill the confidence among travelers and also help to boost tourism which is vital at this juncture,' Group Chief Executive Tony Fernandes said in a statement.

Tickets can only be purchased online at AirAsia's Web site over the next three days from Wednesday for travel between Jan 6 and March 31.

AirAsia operates over 400 international weekly flights that connect Thailand to the rest of South-east Asia and China. Within Thailand, its affiliate, Thai AirAsia, operates 378 flights weekly.

Thailand's tourism industry is suffering after months of anti-government protests culminated last month with demonstrators taking over Bangkok's two main airports for a week.

A measure of political stability has returned to Thailand after the parliament selected a new prime minister on Monday, but the political turmoil and airport shutdown are expected to discourage travellers from visiting Thailand.

Source: AP - 16 December 2008

[Jai Dee]

AirAsia Offers 100,000 Free Seats In Massive Regional Campaign

AirAsia is offering 100,000 free seats from its hubs primarily in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Johor), Thailand (Bangkok) and Indonesia (Jakarta) in its massive regional marketing campaign as part of its initiative to support Thailand's travel, trade and tourism.

The campaign, aptly themed "Get Your Baht To Thailand", "Mai Pen Rai Thailand" and "Same Same Thailand".

The Thailand tourism sector has been severely affected by the declining number of visitors due to the recent political upheaval.

This proactive campaign, initiated by the "People's Airline", is a joint collaboration between AirAsia and Tourism Authority of Thailand to bring back tourists and businessmen by reinstating the core message that it is now safe to travel back to the country.

In a statement Tuesday, AirAsia Group Chief Executive Officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes said the airline hoped this campaign will instil confidence among travellers and help boost tourism.

"With close to 800 domestic and international flights weekly to and from various points in Thailand, we are more than confident the country's tourism will bounce back," he said.

The 100,000 free seats allocation include all international flights on AirAsia's route network in Thailand.

Free seats are also available for domestic destinations. The seats also include routes from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket, Chiang Mai and Krabi.

This regional campaign will be launched exclusively online at www.airasia.com for the booking period between Dec 17-19 for travel between Jan 6 and March 31, 2009.

Source: Bernama - 16 December 2008

[londonthai]

maybe there should be a minimum stay restriction, so tourists won't come back the same day, so not much contributing to the local economy.

another matter - most international travellers will have to pay full fare on return, as price on budget airline very much depends on demand, those fares will be heavily inflated.

[QED]

How do you qualify - is it just a random selection.

Just looked at flights from BKK to Chiang Rai for mid Jan, and there weren't any free ones, should I just try and keep searching until it offers me a freebie?

[londonthai]

it's from wed 17.12 - so wait another 1.5h bangkok time

[onethailand]

How do you qualify - is it just a random selection.

Just looked at flights from BKK to Chiang Rai for mid Jan, and there weren't any free ones, should I just try and keep searching until it offers me a freebie?

... sale starts tomorrow... Dec 17-19.

[QED]

it's from wed 17.12 - so wait another 1.5h bangkok time

... sale starts tomorrow... Dec 17-19.

Doh!!

I will look again later and report back

[onethailand]

Funnily enough, I heard this being reported on Jor Sor 100 earlier this evening - don't be surprised if their servers get overloaded

[onethailand]

Definitely real - I checked Macau, Singapore and Chiang Mai - and always had a 0 fare in one direction or the other. Haven't seen one which is 0 both ways, don't think it's possible. Basically, it amounts to a "Buy one way, get the return leg free" deal.

[pichai]

Definitely real - I checked Macau, Singapore and Chiang Mai - and always had a 0 fare in one direction or the other. Haven't seen one which is 0 both ways, don't think it's possible. Basically, it amounts to a "Buy one way, get the return leg free" deal.

All LCC are trying to woo customers on "FREE SEATS" or "0" fare. I found that Airasia(AA) give the best deal as AA don't charge fuel surcharges. I had booked for next July travelling from Sin-Bkk return for less than Sin Dlrs 83.00 (previous promotiom).

Good deal huh..

[kat]

The only thing is I'm finding that you can't book. Maybe someone else has had better luck than I. When you select the free ticket tab, you get a page with all the destinations and a price field of 0 baht, but when you select the destination nothing happens. When you then select the booking field, a price comes up. Either this was a gimmick, or all the seats have been sold, in which case they should reflect this on their website.

Has anyone been able to book a free ticket?

[onethailand]

The only thing is I'm finding that you can't book. Maybe someone else has had better luck than I. When you select the free ticket tab, you get a page with all the destinations and a price field of 0 baht, but when you select the destination nothing happens. When you then select the booking field, a price comes up. Either this was a gimmick, or all the seats have been sold, in which case they should reflect this on their website.

Has anyone been able to book a free ticket?

Selecting the destination in the page just causes the left-side form to be populated with your selected destination. Choose your dates and then book...

[kat]

Thanks for your response, but as I mentioned previously, it doesn't work either way. I select the destination, and the booking field destination changes, but nothing else. When I then follow through on the whole process of booking from there, it very clearly shows a price and asks me for a credit card at the very end. I have yet to see a free option, even though I am selecting on the "free" page.

Gimmick.

[philo]

I have tried it too. May be you need a PhD in Scam or Stupidity science to get one of these tickets.

LOS - What is the S representing?

(Please do not bother to answer...)

[jeffer]

Booked Singapore Bangkok last night for 1775 baht return, travelling January. First option I went to book and my internet connection dropped out. When I logged back in the fare was sold so tried another but just as I was about to pay for it, got a message that someone else had booked it first but third time lucky 

When I looked last week, the same dates were 4500+ baht. JetStar have also had free flights the past week, but when you add on the service costs return is always 4200+ Dropping the fuel levy meant my return ticket was the cheapest I have ever booked on the Singapore route. I thought the days of 2500 baht return were over so I'm a happy customer.

I had a look at Bangkok KL and every day in the last two weeks of January had at least 3 free flights available, 1465 baht return. I suspect though there would have only been a few seats on each flight so you do have to be quick so on the busier routes there might not be any free seats still available. 

Kat, hope I'm not stating the obvious but you do realise 'free' doesn't mean Air Asia are going to pay your departure tax and service charges, you still have to pay for them. If you have trouble seeing the booking screen properly then you might try using a different browser. Considering all the people who would have been trying to book then I thought Air Asia did a good job as I didn't have any problems with the website crashing.

[kat]

Thanks for your feedback, Jeffer. Of course, I fully expect to pay tax and service charges, but I don't expect a "free" flight to be only 4.40 USD less than a regular Air Asia flight I checked last week.

[onethailand]

Seats are limited, they say, so I suppose it depends on which flights you are trying to book. Also, these fares apparently only appear when Thailand is one of the endpoints.

I just booked a ticked to Macau in Feb, around 3600 baht before Xpress boarding and insurance (which of course are optional). So it's definitely working fine.

Either that or you're missing something out. Only one leg is going to show 0 baht, if at all. Also, when I checked for a similar flight to Hong Kong, there were no 0 baht seats being offered.

[kat]

Thanks Onethailand. I tried to book Hong Kong/BKK one way, and Hanoi/BKK one way. Never saw an option for free seats after the initial screen that I described above. But, it is cheap enough, so I will still end up buying a ticket through Air Asia. I just don't feel so pressured to buy them now, since the "free" seat thing doesn't seem to be working for me.

Oh well. I have more time to figure out which direction I want to go from Sichuan: overland to Vietnam, or overland to Hong Kong.

Thanks for your help.

[onethailand]

Thanks Onethailand. I tried to book Hong Kong/BKK one way, and Hanoi/BKK one way. Never saw an option for free seats after the initial screen that I described above. But, it is cheap enough, so I will still end up buying a ticket through Air Asia. I just don't feel so pressured to buy them now, since the "free" seat thing doesn't seem to be working for me.

Oh well. I have more time to figure out which direction I want to go from Sichuan: overland to Vietnam, or overland to Hong Kong.

Thanks for your help.

Having not tried to book one-way tickets, I can't say for sure whether that might be the problem. I strongly suspect that the "free" ticket has to be part of a round-trip.

Enjoy your trip - sounds like fun!

[jeffer]

Hong Kong may be a problem finding tickets as it looks like they only have one flight per day unlike Singapore four and KL with six flights daily.

One way tickets are available e.g. Singapore Bangkok March 18, four flights and all still available with free tickets as I type, total with taxes SGD 34. 

[kat]

Thanks Onethailand. I tried to book Hong Kong/BKK one way, and Hanoi/BKK one way. Never saw an option for free seats after the initial screen that I described above. But, it is cheap enough, so I will still end up buying a ticket through Air Asia. I just don't feel so pressured to buy them now, since the "free" seat thing doesn't seem to be working for me.

Oh well. I have more time to figure out which direction I want to go from Sichuan: overland to Vietnam, or overland to Hong Kong.

Thanks for your help.

Having not tried to book one-way tickets, I can't say for sure whether that might be the problem. I strongly suspect that the "free" ticket has to be part of a round-trip.

Enjoy your trip - sounds like fun!

Yeah, I had previously tried to book return trip, and the price was $354 USD. Both tickets were showing a price. No luck for my routes, I'm afraid. I think it is because of number of flights, as Jeffer's mentioned.

[samgrowth]

I have bought BKK-Krabi returns for my whole family. About 400 Baht (rtn) each. Good deal, and simple to book. AirAsia will slip in Insurance & Baggage. If you don't need them, you have to click it out.

Here is a link (not the AirAsia official site) where it will list out all the prices for 15 days in one go. Extremely useful. http://www.airasiaplus.com/ But you still need to go back to AirAsia web site to do the actual booking.

[jeffer]

Excellent link Sam. Taking a look you can see there are still some 0 baht tickets available to Singapore, KL and Jakarta if you can be flexible with your travel dates.

Kat, try using that site for Ho Chi Minh flights. Took a look and still found some 0 baht tickets in January and February, not as popular a route as Hong Kong.

The Singapore March 18 free tickets I mentioned earlier have all gone.

[kat]

I can't do Ho Chi Minh because of the timing and route of my trip. But, Singapore does sound tempting but I think I would have the same trouble flying out of Hong Kong.

I'll take another look just to be sure, though.

Thanks again, guys.

[wileycoyote]

Good Posting

[erobando]

Today I was able to book the 0THB ticket BKK to HCMC, but the return was 999THB.

I was able to get 0THB tix on both legs BKK to HK when AirAsia offered free tix in mid-Nov.

If you can't find a good flight deal now and you're flexible on your dates, wait until AirAsia has their next promotion.

Then again, AirAsia's fares are pretty cheap even when they're not "free".

[Sept]

Last night I was able to book a Krabi-BKK flight in march for THB 220, but then I always got an error saying that my visa card was declined when I tried to book BKK-Krabi on march 31st. This morning I'm not able to find any THB 0 flight from anywhere to anywhere...

I find it hard to believe that they sold 100,000 'free' tickets just yesterday. Last night at 11pm there were plenty of them but this morning at 8 there appears to be none left? I suspect they advertised 100K tickets but only input maybe 10K in their booking system :/

[ozfarang81]

I got surat thani to bangkok for 175 baht. very nice. Most of the popular destinations sold out quick, there is still a fair few to Surat Thani and Udon Thani domestically.

[NewGuy]

I got March '09 tickets, Bangkok - Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai - Bangkok for 2 people each leg, with one checked bag each plus insurance - all in, Baht 1,419.80. Happy Guy

[jeffer]

Sept, with the number of flights Air Asia have daily and the length of the travel period, if they distributed the free tickets evenly across all flights then my guess is there would be no more than 10 free tickets per flight. Keep in mind this promotion made news in countries around the world, not only South East Asia so I'm sure they would easily have sold more than 10,000 tickets in a day. Try the site Sam mentioned, makes it easier to search but for most destinations tickets have been sold now. Still 0 baht tickets to Ho Chi Minh City in March so not everything has sold out.