I'm planning to fly to Phuket from Los Angeles on September 1st. When is the best time to buy my ticket? Will it be cheaper if I buy it in the off season, or does the ticket price depend on your actual flight date rather than when you buy it?

That's a tough one. I don't think Sept 1st is actually "low" season. It usually starts a bit later than that and many airlines start announcing lower prices around the beginning of Sept or so...even more towards the end of the month...for travel starting around mid-sept and later.

I would start looking now. Here are two threads worth looking at for recommendations:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/426101-purchase-timing-for-international-air-tickets/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/429373-tickets-to-america/

Crap shoot. You need to track the fares. Look at the historical fares for the time period. Expect that fares have all increased 10-20%.

So, if you see a fare either at a historical low or within 10% grab it.

Avoid booking LAX-HKT until you look at LAX-BKK and the cost of the ticket for the separate leg of BKK-HKT. It can save you a few hundred$$

Check out the LAX-NRT-BKK routing. UA and DL are trying to fill their empty seats something awful.

Crap shoot. You need to track the fares. Look at the historical fares for the time period. Expect that fares have all increased 10-20%.

So, if you see a fare either at a historical low or within 10% grab it.

Avoid booking LAX-HKT until you look at LAX-BKK and the cost of the ticket for the separate leg of BKK-HKT. It can save you a few hundred$$

Check out the LAX-NRT-BKK routing. UA and DL are trying to fill their empty seats something awful.

I leave in one week...booked my flight in January and it has now been changed 2 times! I booked with Continental, they slagged me off to UA who then slagged me off to ANA. Lost my seat assignments and had to spend an hour on the phone trying to get them back.

Seems flights through NRT are not full for sure!

Normally I would say 6-8weeks before departure but good to do weekly searches

to see how fares fluctuate. Oil prices etc. have alot to do with it.

Dohop

I only searched 1 time and found this.

Korean Air (ebookers) 36950bht sounds a good deal.

Only 1hr50min @ICN

ooops just found 6hrs the way back. Keep looking.

ICN has great facilities, massages, showers, beds, you name it so 6hrs would fly by.

Thu 01 Sep 2011

12:30-17:10+Flight KE18 (Korean Air)Los Angeles (LAX)-Seoul (ICN)12h 40mCAL

Fri 02 Sep 2011

17:10-19:00Wait Seoul (ICN)1h 50m

19:00-23:15Flight KE637 (Korean Air)Seoul (ICN)-Phuket (HKT)6h 15mCAL

Thu 15 Sep 2011

00:45-08:55Flight KE638 (Korean Air)Phuket (HKT)-Seoul (ICN)6h 10mCAL

08:55-15:00Wait Seoul (ICN)6h 05m

15:00-10:30Flight KE17 (Korean Air)Seoul (ICN)-Los Angeles (LAX)11h 30mCAL

Edited April 19, 201115 yr by LindsayBKK

Check out Asian, also thru Seoul then on to Phuket avoiding Bangkok.

or if u have the additional $$ book Cathy/dragon air

Before Sept. 1

I usually buy my intercontinental travel 3 months before departure.

Then I ALWAYS find cheaper 1 week later....

Awesome, thank you all for the advice. I'm going to look into how to track previous fare trends.

Just wanted to run a flight by you guys. It's with Thai Airways from Los Angeles to Koh Samui on Sept 1. There's 1 stop in Bangkok before heading to Koh Samui and it is about $1180 including taxes.

The cheapest flight is with Cathay Pacific and is only $800, but it has 2 stops (one in hong kong, one in bangkok). I'll be traveling with my dog and I've read Hong Kong is not pet friendly. I've heard very good things about Thai Airways as far as shipping a dog.

Does the Thai Airways fare seem good? Too high? Normal?

is that a one way price>> $1,180?

Thai is a good airline and great for long distance though if i had my choice i would go with Cathy

$800 is a good deal. I just booked Phuket-SFO via Seoul for 24,300 baht ($810) for end of June