Hey guys. I have been looking for the last 2 weeks for a flight from either Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok to England (any airport). The flights all seem to be ridiculously expensive even with airlines such as AirAsia - £740 with all the taxes included. I had a look for flights from England to Asia return and they are coming up at £200 less. I really don't see why this is as surely it is the same flights. Does anyone know of any flight offers or cheap airlines at the minute? The most I am looking to pay for a return flight is £500 maybe £550 if the plane arrives in Manchester (UK). Hope someone out there can help. The dates I am looking for are 9-24 June but the return date can be changed if need be. Would it be cheaper to check out a travel agent? Argh I'm really tearing my hair out at the minute lol

Wish you luck everybody is complaining about the cost. There are no low fairs at the moment.

I believe the pricing difference relates to supply and demand.

eg there is more competition/demand for flights from UK-thailand than thailand-UK so the prices are kept lower from UK to compete with other airlines.

This is a question I have asked many times and never had a satisfactory answer, people talk about load factors, competition, taxes and the like, but surly if their are 20 flights a day from London to Bangkok and 20 flights back the costs and competition should be the same. I really don't understand it.

Just for fun, I checked the dates you were looking at and found Etihad were offering flights to the UK for £780 whilst on the same dates in the other direction Kingfisher came in at £390 with even Thai at £527.

I think at the end of the day - just cheaper to travel from diff places mainly because brings affordability more in line for the local population. Thai(s) earn less therefore flights are less.

I think at the end of the day - just cheaper to travel from diff places mainly because brings affordability more in line for the local population. Thai(s) earn less therefore flights are less.

Sorry, but shouldn't that mean that it should cost somebody less to fly from Thailand to the UK, not nearly double, this is what I really cannot get my head round.

I rechecked the Kingfisher flights, just as an example, LHR-BKK £390 (18,720B) or BKK-LHR 36800B (£766).

This is a question I have asked many times and never had a satisfactory answer, people talk about load factors, competition, taxes and the like, but surly if their are 20 flights a day from London to Bangkok and 20 flights back the costs and competition should be the same. I really don't understand it.

Just for fun, I checked the dates you were looking at and found Etihad were offering flights to the UK for £780 whilst on the same dates in the other direction Kingfisher came in at £390 with even Thai at £527.

Exactly, I don't understand it either! I think I might write to the airlines to ask why the prices differ so greatly! A one way ticket from here to the UK is more than a return ticket from Europe also. It is surely the same flights people are getting, and the competition is the same in Thailand with the international airlines than it is in the UK surely. This is really making me crazy, I mean £390 is a great price for a flight why is it over double leaving from here?!?!

I think at the end of the day - just cheaper to travel from diff places mainly because brings affordability more in line for the local population. Thai(s) earn less therefore flights are less.

I'm not sure I understand this, surely if the Thais earn less the flights should be cheaper leaving from Thailand rather than more expensive?

I think at the end of the day - just cheaper to travel from diff places mainly because brings affordability more in line for the local population. Thai(s) earn less therefore flights are less.

eh? take time to read the initial post instead of panic-posting to up your post count britmav!!

This is a question I have asked many times and never had a satisfactory answer, people talk about load factors, competition, taxes and the like, but surly if their are 20 flights a day from London to Bangkok and 20 flights back the costs and competition should be the same. I really don't understand it.

I thought someone might mention this.

my understanding of it is that the majority of the flights thailand-UK will be return legs of flights bought departing from UK, therefore the competition is greater departing from UK, which drives down prices.

Edited April 7, 201016 yr by game4shame

Well my wife and stepdaughter have just gone back to Thailand for 3 weeks I spent all day on the Internet looking for a reasonable cost Return Flight from Manchester

Best I could obtain was with Qatar Short 2 Hr Stopover each way in Doha £650 Including Taxes

Could have saved a few pounds by accepting a long 7 Hr Layover. But no way could I get the price down Much below £600.

I do agree it is more expensive to do it the other way round. The reason for that well who knows Only the airlines will know the real answer to that.

You might have noticed there has been a shift particularly marked over the last year or two, it hasn't always been historically so that East to West is more expensive. One reason is that airline fuel is priced in USD, the more competitive the local currency is against the $ then the seat charges will rise. How expensive it is to work out of a particular airport is one factor, but sometimes airlines have to grin and bear it if the competition is particularly fierce as it is at LHR for example. Another reason less often referred to is the amount of online booking, industry research shows that where online booking increases by 10% ticket prices fall by 5%. Yet another reason is load factor , if the sector your operating operates at close to max capacity then the less of an incentive for airlines to introduce lower ticket costs.

Those are just a few of the factors. Its a highly competitive industry. The margins ain't great, no reason to believe tickets are going to get cheaper, think most analysts agree that the days of cheap air travel are numbered.

have you tried massictravel.com 2nd rd pattaya,dont have a number but i use them regular

I just found the price of 25,xxx baht to LHR ret with Air India for September, i.e nearly 18,000 baht cheaper than my preferred choice of Emirates.

It's going to be a tough decision to make, but for that saving .......

I have always believed it is because the majority of Thai's are in two groups...very poor and very rich.

The poor cant afford to fly anywhere anyway...and the rich dont care how much the ticket costs. There are no mid-way flyers except a few ex-pats and their spouses, and not enough to count when the airlines set their prices.

Just my view, I dont know any facts though.

I needed a single ticket for my son to return to the UK last december and managed to get him on Jet Airlines for 16,000 baht, which was the cheapest I could find at the time.

HL