jfchandler Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 $1030 to Seattle, assuming that's including all taxes and fees, seems like a very good price to the west coast. right now, every now and again, China Eastern is offering flights for around $950 RT (at least to LAX) if you hunt for them... But their flights go thru Pu Dong, which for me is a lousy, unpleasant airport, and their cheap flights often have very long layover periods there... I did it once with an 8 or 9 hour daytime layover on one way... Ended up finding someone interesting to chat with the whole time... But the airport there sucks... Other than that, the best I've seen lately is a bit over $1000 RT from some of the major U.S. carriers like American... It does seem like those pleasant memories of $800 RT flights are just that now.. memories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 (edited) Is it really worth it though? Yes -- especially when you are not getting off at the west coast or JFK. Also -- as I have noted elsewhere -- I rent a car for 3 weeks in USA and booking that well in advance I can save far more than what I might save on bucket fares to the coast. Edited January 7, 2011 by jazzbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterMan Posted January 9, 2011 Author Share Posted January 9, 2011 I used them 2008, and found a special like 24k to LAX on EVA. I used my ATM to pay too, printed out something and scanned it. They are in Bangkok. So you don't need a credit card. Their blog list current deals with airlines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreedomDude Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 I was pleased to find today that the price for 2 people to a midwestern US city on American Airlines (2 stops:Tokyo, Chicago)has DROPPED $500 since I checked last week. This is for a 3 week trip starting at the beginning of March. I didn't bother checking competitors as the best price I found last week was on American also. You all might want to try your luck there. I'm sure glad I didn't buy last week! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfchandler Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Also, my Kayak.com search for RTs between BKK and LAX today sent an email showing RT flights every month from now until July for $895 all in.... That's the good news... The bad news is they're all one-stop flights thru Shanghai's Pu Dong Airport, which I consider to be pretty boring and unfriendly, and usually one of the segments has a 7 hour or more layover... whereas the other segment usually has a shorter 3 hour or so layover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelepulse Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 That must be on China Eastern. After reading their trip/seat reviews on airliners.net, I'll give them a pass for what little bit of savings there are. They only get a 3 star rating with no or minimal IFE and horrid service and food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfchandler Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 (edited) Yes, it is China Eastern, but I'd disagree with the review comments you cited above... I flew them last year for the first time... BKK to LAX... The flight and inflight service and food were perfectly OK and not much different from recent trips on EVA and AA by comparison... There were though three differences I'd note: --the inflight entertainment in economy was substandard, and included the old aisle mounted TVs vs seatback ones. --the length of the typical layovers on those bargain flights is long... usually 8 hours or more on one direction in Pu Dong... --Pu Dong a pretty lousy airport to transit thru, with particularly unfriendly and unhelpful immigration procedures and a terminal that's about as boring and lacking in any activity to pass the time as you can get. All of my flight segments were on-time... The cabin service was polite and efficient. And the cabin attendants spoke English enough for their tasks... And while of course I would have preferred personalized IFE, I brought my own entertainment, so it wasn't a bit deal. The airport and long layover, however, I hated. Edited January 19, 2011 by jfchandler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelepulse Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Looks like it must be a mixed bag,but with an overall 3.8 out of 10, I'll not risk it. http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/c_eastrn.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfchandler Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 I read some of the reviews in the site you linked above... generally, I'd agree with them... although some of the very bad comments were for domestic China flights on China Eastern vs. the international ones and particularly a very main route for them like PuDong to LAX... The aircraft I flew on on that trip was in perfectly good condition...no problems with that... As for the 3 stars out of 5 rating, that puts them in the same group with Air Asia, KLM, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Philippines Airlines, Midwest, Mexicana, SAS, Southwest, Continental, Delta, United and US Airways, among others. And plenty of folks fly those airlines all the time.. The one comment about China Eastern not having online check-in and advance seat selection also is correct. I found that odd and annoying, but not a dealbreaker... All of the above really comes down to priorities... How much inconvenience or lack of features is it worth to save $300 to $500 on a transpacific RT flight... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfchandler Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 PS... I see this comment and review of PVG airport on the Skytrax site... This is exactly, EXACTLY what I experienced transiting thru there (although my wait times and crowd numbers were a bit shorter/smaller than the comment below), which left me with a very poor impression of the airport... far worse than my acceptable impression of China Eastern as an airline....at least on the BKK-PVG-LAX segment... I'm not sure if it was the E-tickets issue, or the fact that I, and others, were just transiting thru the airport... not actually going into the city and leaving the airport... It seemed like they were totally unprepared for dealing with transiting passengers... And having to clear immigration on arrival, exit and then re-clear immigration to depart (even without ever leaving the airport) was a real pain in the A**, including for the reasons explained below. Although, as best as I recall, I didn't have to claim my check-in luggage, it just went from my one flight to the other, no problem. Transiting thru PuDong from Kuala Lumpur enroute to the USA (Chicago) on 18 Dec. Prior to departing Malaysia, Malaysian Airlines informed me that I had to clear customs, retrieve my luggage, re-check in with my connecting airline, clear customs, and clear security (would have been nice to have been notified of this in advance as I would not have used Shanghai as a gateway to US had I known this). Luckily I had a 2.5 hours scheduled stopover though even with this significant amount of time I just made my connection. Waited approx 50 minutes to get to the front of the Customs queue. I then learned that Chinese Customs was not prepared for business travelers who do not travel with paper tickets (who does travel with paper tickets today ?). As a result, my passport along with that of many other travelers in apparently a similar situation (traveling on e-tickets) was taken by a Chinese Customs official and a group of approximately 20 of us were told to follow the official to a crowd of approximately 80 others (who were already amassed) and we were then told to wait. No queue, no explanation, and a Customs official disappears in to the crowd with my passport. Not a comfortable situation, even for an international road warrior business traveler. Thought I had seen it all - apparently not. After 15 minutes, passengers names were called out in apparent random order and we are instructed to reclaim our passports. Along the way, it was obvious that most of the Chinese officials I encountered throughout the airport had no working knowledge of English. Signage was poor. Lounges were also very dated and overcrowded. Overall, a very disappointing experience. I for one will not use Shanghai as a gateway again. I strongly suggest anybody daring enough to transit thru Shanghai as a gateway allocate at least 3.5 hours for the change of planes, customs clearing, luggage retrieval and recheck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterMan Posted January 26, 2011 Author Share Posted January 26, 2011 moxtravel.com THB 27,095 Including Taxes & Surcharges THB 27,095 per Adult on China Eastern. Waiting for the Korean Airlines Phuket to lax flight to come down.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigt3365 Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 moxtravel.com THB 27,095 Including Taxes & Surcharges THB 27,095 per Adult on China Eastern. Waiting for the Korean Airlines Phuket to lax flight to come down.. How did you get that price? Did they send you a quote? What the the dep/arr cities? I need to head back around the end of april for 6 weeks. Which puts me returning in June...start of the high season. I'm seeing around $1200 fares now BKK to Las Vegas. I did a search on Mox and they gave me 50k Baht ++!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfchandler Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 The flights from BKK to LAX on China Eastern that I see for under $1,000 typically involve at least 24 hours in transit...and sometimes longer of 30 or 35 hours...with long Pu Dong layovers (7 hours and longer) on at least one of the inbound or outbound segments... About the best I usually see with them is a total of 21 hours in one direction and 24 hours or so the other direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigt3365 Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 The flights from BKK to LAX on China Eastern that I see for under $1,000 typically involve at least 24 hours in transit...and sometimes longer of 30 or 35 hours...with long Pu Dong layovers (7 hours and longer) on at least one of the inbound or outbound segments... About the best I usually see with them is a total of 21 hours in one direction and 24 hours or so the other direction. The flights I get are normally 21-24 hours. I did a few trips with Korean Air that had a long layover, but haven't done that in quite a few years. I found a fare with Continental that has great departure and arrival times for $1250 to Vegas. Delta is a bit cheaper, but the departure is way too early in both directions. Hate getting up to early! I've been using the Yapta search program. Sends me an update every day with the prices for my dates. I'll monitor it until the week before and let everybody know how much the fare changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gk10002000 Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Thanks! Will try all! EVA has had some "promotional" fares recently from LAX to BKK that were the cheapest I have seen from the USA. They may have some in the other direction also. Go directly to their website and check. Not sure of the timelines, how long they will last, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfchandler Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Been a long while since I've seen a competitive fare between BKK and LAX on EVA... Used to fly them every time, but the past couple years, their fares seems to have escalated quite a bit... I'll have to take a look at their web site and see if anything is shakin'... Thanks for the tip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelepulse Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 (edited) moxtravel.com THB 27,095 Including Taxes & Surcharges THB 27,095 per Adult on China Eastern. Waiting for the Korean Airlines Phuket to lax flight to come down.. Have a look at Malaysia Air. They have a Phuket LAX flight that is much cheaper than Korean. Asiana also flies this route, but they are more than MH, but less than Korean. I've ruled out Cathay in economy as their seats don't recline and all reports indicate these are the worst seats for long flights, even though Cathay has the shortest flight times HKT-LAX return. Edited January 27, 2011 by steelepulse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfchandler Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 I looked at the Yapta site... It looks virtually identical to the Kayak site...and produced similar fare results... Here's the top results in mid $800s, all including 30+ hour transit times at least one way with China Eastern... China Southern next best, but at $1,100+...for trips this coming June. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterMan Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 (edited) "Mox Travel The US dollar is still very cheap so now is a great time to visit the United States. And American Airlines is flying you from Bangkok to the United States for just ฿19,855 (plus taxes) all this spring. Fly to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco and many other cities now until 30 April and enjoy this very special fare. www.moxtravel.com/blog" Still to early for me though sadly.. Thanks will check out Malaysian Edited February 1, 2011 by MisterMan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelepulse Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 >>฿19,855 (plus taxes) I dropped Mox travel a note to see what the total is with taxes ( I'm going to guess around 33K). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterMan Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 moxtravel.com THB 27,095 Including Taxes & Surcharges THB 27,095 per Adult on China Eastern. Waiting for the Korean Airlines Phuket to lax flight to come down.. How did you get that price? Did they send you a quote? What the the dep/arr cities? I need to head back around the end of april for 6 weeks. Which puts me returning in June...start of the high season. I'm seeing around $1200 fares now BKK to Las Vegas. I did a search on Mox and they gave me 50k Baht ++!!! Their Blog. http://www.moxtravel.com/blog/ Oh do let us know the total..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbk Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Using sidestep I see my ticket has gone up more than $40 since a week ago. I booked today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigt3365 Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Using sidestep I see my ticket has gone up more than $40 since a week ago. I booked today. I'm using a few automated search engines for tickets, email updates everyday. I bought 2 weeks ago for a late April trip for about $1250, return, to Las Vegas. The searches are now showing $1500 minimum per ticket. Prices have gone up for sure, at least in the short term! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterMan Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 Just in on my facebook feed Mox Travel EVA Air flights to United States and Canada are on sale now. Fly from Bangkok to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Vancouver or Toronto now until 31 May. Oneway fares start from ฿16,800 and roundtrip fares from ฿26,000 (plus taxes). www.moxtravel.com/blog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfchandler Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Well, I just checked the EVA web site as a FF member with them... Interestingly, they no longer even list a BKK-LAX trip as available via their "Hot Fares" section, which usually is the best place with EVA to find deals... Using their regular online flight booking service... For a random date in March, I got a lowest total RT price including taxes of 37,090 baht. For a random date in April, I got a lowest total RT price of including taxes of 42,090 baht. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterMan Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 Japanese Airlines ANA (Star Alliance) Total Price THB41,585 Is it my imagination or did Thai raise their fares. I thought it was 37k but today it says 47k for mid june Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phuketrichard Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 i use Mox and sidestep to compare, seems mox has better rates. I am also going in June and looking at one way Cathy from phuket to SFO 34,000 China had the best deal thou and found a flight for only 16 hours out of bangkok 23,000 figure in June u can get flights hkt-bkk for 1,500 baht each way Note June 30 is the last day and the frist prices double just about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfchandler Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 I priced Mox today for a random date in June both BKK to SFO and BKK to LAX... Best price, 35,000+ to SFO on Air China...and 27,110 to LAX on China Eastern (with long layover) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traveldog Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I took the China Eastern, BKK to LA. My wife and I are going in April....the layover is 6 hours which is bad but not intolerable and the savings vs other carriers and the much more expensive SF route made the decision, palatable. Also leaving from Phuket but again so much more expensive to originate from there as we can get Air Asia for about 1500 RT to BKK. Good luck to those who wait, I couldn't stand the tension...ha! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traveldog Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Also forgot to thank whoever posted the bit about clearing your cookies from the internet browser. The websites do raise the fares every time you return back to the site...at least they did for me. Once I cleared the cookies the price went down by about 75-100 $US...significant no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.png.3b3332cc2256ad0edbc2fe9404feeef0.png)
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now