julie_f Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 I am looking at tickets to go back to the UK for a visit and the difference in price is amazing. To go from BKK to London return is around 80% more expensive than going London BKK rtn. Why? Anyone any clue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholasday Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 My guess is that the sort of people in Thailand who can afford to take trips to places like the UK are generally the very wealthy and therefore have more disposable income. In Economics terminology is known as price discrimination and airlines are the experts at this. Price discrimination is charging each customer depending on their ability/willingness to pay therefore they reason that most of the people who live in Thailand who are going to travel abroad to places like the UK are rich and therefore will be willing to pay these higher fees. Although i have just got a degree in Economics so that means that I am probably totally wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter991 Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 I suggest you shop around. Lots of travel agencies in BKK. Or, check online for the best price: Best online airfares Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomjoad56 Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Julie's correct. The fares out of here are outrageously high. Something's askew (big surprise for Thailand). This is not an efficient market at work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJo Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Forex rates, demand and supply. I would assume that there is no one from UK buying at the moment so they discount heavily. Same going on in other european countries at the moment. First time i remember in past 10 years that you can get cheaper ticket from europe than from BKK... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briggsy Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Julie "The Undescore" F is correct. Air fares ex-UK are much cheaper than ex-BKK. I've heard 2 reasons postulated. I don't think they are the true reasons but here goes. 1. Travel agents in the UK buy banks of tickets at discount rates so tickets can be sold more cheaply. 2. Like the mid-market and up-market hotels in Pattaya, Samui & Phuket, airlines charge Thais more as they tend to drop more litter, use sheets [hotels] and blankets [aeroplanes] as cleaning rags, take anything that is free, shampoo [hotels], toothpaste [hotels] & [aeroplanes], drinks [aeroplanes], etc. and do not spend money on ancillary services such as restaurants [hotels] or duty-free [aeroplanes]. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie_f Posted June 3, 2009 Author Share Posted June 3, 2009 Have shopped around but so many sites show the prices minus taxes etc so the actual price is much more. And the amounts of tax have varied a lot too! Just annoying. Pity I can't book the reverse, just doing my return journey first. Don't think they'll let me though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syd barrett Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 These days it is better to get a single back to London and starting a return trip from the UK again. eg. single to London=250 quid, return LON-BKK=400 quid Return BKK-LON= 650 quid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennkate Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 And could you tell All. Who is doing a single to London for £250. ?? Please Syd I could be in the market for 2 singles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
selftaopath Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Julie's correct. The fares out of here are outrageously high. Something's askew (big surprise for Thailand). This is not an efficient market at work. Some would say you needn't use all the words you did. Thailand is not efficient would have been enough. I have noticed this price gouging (sp?) practice. But what's new???? This is Thailand eh? LOS (Lack of Sanctions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phetaroi Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 My guess is that the sort of people in Thailand who can afford to take trips to places like the UK are generally the very wealthy and therefore have more disposable income. In Economics terminology is known as price discrimination and airlines are the experts at this. Price discrimination is charging each customer depending on their ability/willingness to pay therefore they reason that most of the people who live in Thailand who are going to travel abroad to places like the UK are rich and therefore will be willing to pay these higher fees.Although i have just got a degree in Economics so that means that I am probably totally wrong. Although, this concept would go against the other economic principle -- what the traffic will bear...at least in terms of the overall population. I would guess another factor would be the class of Thai that would be able to get a visa for a Western counry. But, in my humble opinion, your degree in economics would not mean that you are probably wrong...it would just mean that you do not know when you are correct or when you are incorrect! Actually, I think economists get a bad wrap because the "laws" of economics are all wrapped up in human eccentricities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syd barrett Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 And could you tell All. Who is doing a single to London for £250. ?? Please SydI could be in the market for 2 singles Jet Airways Kuwait Airways These fly BKK-LON for 250 GBP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carmine6 Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 My guess is that the sort of people in Thailand who can afford to take trips to places like the UK are generally the very wealthy and therefore have more disposable income. In Economics terminology is known as price discrimination and airlines are the experts at this. Price discrimination is charging each customer depending on their ability/willingness to pay therefore they reason that most of the people who live in Thailand who are going to travel abroad to places like the UK are rich and therefore will be willing to pay these higher fees.Although i have just got a degree in Economics so that means that I am probably totally wrong. How about elasticity of demand? Just speculating, but I'd guess people departing Thailand for the UK are more likely to be going to the UK specifically. By specifically, I mean they're not selecting the UK among other places to visit, but are going to the UK to visit family, take care of business, etc. Are most people doing that round trip Thai or former UK residents? Coming the other way, people departing the UK are more likely to be choosing Thailand from among many possible destinations. Generally that round trip isn't for business, but for holiday. So they'd be much more sensitive to the relative price of the ticket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doggiestyle Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 My guess is that the sort of people in Thailand who can afford to take trips to places like the UK are generally the very wealthy and therefore have more disposable income. In Economics terminology is known as price discrimination and airlines are the experts at this. Price discrimination is charging each customer depending on their ability/willingness to pay therefore they reason that most of the people who live in Thailand who are going to travel abroad to places like the UK are rich and therefore will be willing to pay these higher fees.Although i have just got a degree in Economics so that means that I am probably totally wrong. How about elasticity of demand? Just speculating, but I'd guess people departing Thailand for the UK are more likely to be going to the UK specifically. By specifically, I mean they're not selecting the UK among other places to visit, but are going to the UK to visit family, take care of business, etc. Are most people doing that round trip Thai or former UK residents? Coming the other way, people departing the UK are more likely to be choosing Thailand from among many possible destinations. Generally that round trip isn't for business, but for holiday. So they'd be much more sensitive to the relative price of the ticket. Given the fantastically cheap low cost flights around europe from the UK, are there any countries you could fly to in Eurpope from Thailand where the price gouging isn't so bad? ie is it viable to fly to madrid or paris or frankfurt and then get a low cost flight to the UK? Any suggestions most appreciated as paying for two Thai family to visit is eye wateringly expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roamer Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 friend of mine just booked Air asia in June from Phuket to Stanstead via KL for £240...not too bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimjim Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 I have no idea. I've not found it the case with tickets to the U.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaiphoon Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 (edited) I've just booked (yesterday) Thai Airways flight Bangkok to London Heathrow return for THB 23,635 including tax. Is a superdeal price booked through their website, but if you can be flexible on dates then it may work for you. Edited June 7, 2009 by thaiphoon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomjoad56 Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 As an example, Asiana has a r/t originating in San Francisco, to Bangkok, that goes for under $740 US. They won't even sell you a ticket if you want to originate your travel from Bangkok. I also suspect something other than economics at work here. Why shouldn't I? TIT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gorshar Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 I have no idea. I've not found it the case with tickets to the U.S. ???? When we flew to the US in April fares were definitely higher on the BKK-California-BKK flights then in reverse, and by a fairly considerable amount. We were flexible on our dates and shopped many airlines and agencies and couldn't get anything for 2 adults and a kid for under about 115K taxes included. If we flew LAX (or SFO) to BKK and back to Cali it would have been about 25% cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaDog Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 How about from BKK to New Zealand and on to Rarotonga? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard_smith237 Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 Girlfriend and I - B70,000 (each) business class with Etihad, if we fly before 30-June - this is the best price I have observed since B76,000 with Emirates 4 years ago... I consider the Etihad pricing at the moment to be the most competitive in the industry for the routes I fly and they are one of the few with a 180 deg flat bed. That said, I too have noticed the pricing switch, perhaps not due to elasticity of demand unless this demand has also switched. Up until the end of last year it was cheaper to fly with Thailand as the origin, now this has switched so that in many cases its cheaper with UK as the origin. Could this be due the Thai Baht maintaining its value ? The Thai economic model being highly questionable ? The UK economic models of each airline being highly competitive ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FRM-BKK Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 I've just booked (yesterday) Thai Airways flight Bangkok to London Heathrow return for THB 23,635 including tax. Is a superdeal price booked through their website, but if you can be flexible on dates then it may work for you. Hi Thaiphoon, Your 'superdeal' with Thai Airways is a very good price. However, these deals are only available days, rather than weeks before travel has to commence. Often they offer a single only, or a return with a fixed date. Although this is very good if it suits your needs, it is rather a pot-luck way of trying to book / gamble an airfare. Good for you though! Frm-Bkk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR Texas Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 I've just booked (yesterday) Thai Airways flight Bangkok to London Heathrow return for THB 23,635 including tax. Is a superdeal price booked through their website, but if you can be flexible on dates then it may work for you. Hi Thaiphoon, Your 'superdeal' with Thai Airways is a very good price. However, these deals are only available days, rather than weeks before travel has to commence. Often they offer a single only, or a return with a fixed date. Although this is very good if it suits your needs, it is rather a pot-luck way of trying to book / gamble an airfare. Good for you though! Frm-Bkk Thais tend to raise prices when demand is low........the opposite of what most people do. I don't know who is teaching that to Thais, but they really should stop teaching it....maybe read an introductory book on economics. When demand is low, you should lower prices to attract more customers, not raise them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonobo Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 I needed tow round-trip tickets last summer to the US for business. Economy were in the $1400 price range, if I remember correctly. Our Thai travel agent then told us we could get United business class tickets for $2300. Out of curiousity, I checked online for IAD-BKK-IAD, and from the USA, the ticket was over $4,000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelepulse Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 I just got the SQ promotional email, and you can fly R/T from west coast of the USA to SE Asia for $679 all in. That's half of what it cost me to fly from BKK to LAX in April on TG...grrrrr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxtingtong Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 I did the same my last trip there due of the long permanence. i live in italy. On my way to thai I took an airberlin dusseldorf-bkk at 320€ the way back a bkk-milan for 450€ with Qatar that's not too bad. Look for some other destinations out uk maybe find some good options, and then a ryan air will take you home. Anyway you're right, the way back is normally more expensive. Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klons Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 I have no idea. I've not found it the case with tickets to the U.S. ???? When we flew to the US in April fares were definitely higher on the BKK-California-BKK flights then in reverse, and by a fairly considerable amount. We were flexible on our dates and shopped many airlines and agencies and couldn't get anything for 2 adults and a kid for under about 115K taxes included. If we flew LAX (or SFO) to BKK and back to Cali it would have been about 25% cheaper. I also found it the case with tickets to the U.S. while shopping around about 5 months ago. The only break I found was at the NWA Thailand site, the ticket was a couple hundred dollars cheaper than on the regular NWA site but the catch was you had to be a resident of Thailand and could only buy the ticket with credit card having a Thai billing address. That's another mystery to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sumrit Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 I am looking at tickets to go back to the UK for a visit and the difference in price is amazing. To go from BKK to London return is around 80% more expensive than going London BKK rtn. Why? Anyone any clue? Book on line with a UK travel agent and it's usually cheaper than booking in with a travel agent in Thailand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyc2006 Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 I have no idea. I've not found it the case with tickets to the U.S. ???? When we flew to the US in April fares were definitely higher on the BKK-California-BKK flights then in reverse, and by a fairly considerable amount. We were flexible on our dates and shopped many airlines and agencies and couldn't get anything for 2 adults and a kid for under about 115K taxes included. If we flew LAX (or SFO) to BKK and back to Cali it would have been about 25% cheaper. xBKK/USA tickets in business class run about about 60% the price of xUSA/BKK tickets in business class. They're usually about the same in economy class, and it's a matter of shopping around. I typically use United's BKK ticket office on Silom Rd ([email protected]) to ticket the nearly-half-off business-class fares ("D" and "Z" fares), but they'll also ticket the cheap "S" economy fares to the USA if you use them. United claims to give the discount in one direction and not the other in order to stay competitive on the same route (implying that it doesn't need to do so on the xUSA/BKK fares). Over the years, people who live in the States "abused" this discount meant for people living in Thailand, so UA no longer allows you to book the fares online, you need to book them when you're in Thailand (in theory), but if you establish a relationship with a local office (BKKCTO, for example), they'll book them for you without you sitting there in front of them. Same with ticket offices in Colombo, Brunei, Kuala Lumpur and India -- all of which offer similar discounts (better, actually). But a common issue is that airlines won't make their cheap xAsia fares available on the Internet, or some Americans (and maybe other countries -- I don't know...) would do a one-time one-way ticket to Asia and buy their remaining Asia tickets xAsia. They're trying to avoid that, and by not putting their cheap fares online where Kayak.com and the likes can pick them up, most Americans don't even know they exist. So... try to get some help from a local ticket office -- they'll be able to see any existing cheap xBKK fares. For a better understanding of why they price differently, I'd suggest flyertalk.com instead of thaivisa.com. Just in this topic alone I've read some very inaccurate statements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coventry Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 I am looking at tickets to go back to the UK for a visit and the difference in price is amazing. To go from BKK to London return is around 80% more expensive than going London BKK rtn. Why? Anyone any clue? Book on line with a UK travel agent and it's usually cheaper than booking in with a travel agent in Thailand. I believe it's impossible to book a flight through a UK travel agent if your departure point isn't the UK. I'll appologise if I'm wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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