Flying To Thailand From The Uk - Open Return?

[NanLaew]

beano2274, on 08 Mar 2013 - 13:54, said:

hate to say it again but you seem to be lazy, I bet NanLaew got the information from own experience or using seatguru.com or airlinequality.com. ....

Lighten up beano <deleted>. The OP has said thanks several times and even if I did use websites as well as experience, who cares? I don't. The OP doesn't. I used some of the websites you chose to post links to so by your argument, you have encouraged the OP's laziness more than I have!

The ones I don't like are the really friendly forum members that can't be bothered to type and just post a link to someone else's 'research', a forum link. They must have TV all cross-linked and have pages and pages of saved links for that special moment when they want to be really, really helpful.

[Finlaco]

Hi Guys

If you sign up for the airlines reward card, many airlines will give you an additional allowance. On my return leg from Dublin to BKK, the check in clerk was charging me for excess baggage before i reminded him that my allowance was 28kg v 23kg.

[Stjohnm]

BA do a one year world traveler ticket, its a direct flight sign up to their executive club and you'll get extra baggage allowance Thai are good but way too expensive & they only give you a max of 3 months to use the return portion of the ticket. If you don't mind a stop over or two stops then Gulf Air, Qatar, Emirates, Etihad & a couple of the Indian based carriers are all good options with slightly cheaper prices but not sure about their open return rates or dates, I've only ever bought a use it or loose it ticket from the Middle Eastern Airlines & it does add an extra 3-4 hours onto the total journey time. If you're going to fly into BKK then my personal sugestion would be to get the 1 year ticket from BA and then sort out your ticket to CM once you're out here. I wouldn't take the train to CM from BKK with several bags in tow once you arrive go to the TG ticket desk or head over to Don Meung to catch a lift on one of the low cost carriers.

[Gnasher328]

Hi

Re luggage, most airlines give the option of 'upgrading' your allowance in advance at a reasonable rate.

T.

[osiboy]

book thru expedia.com,and most if not all there flights have free date changes and the fares are about £10-20 more than others

[srn89]

Be careful if you use Air Asia for your Domestic flight Bangkok/ Chiang Mai, I personally was stuffed by them, having arrived in Thailand on ''a proper airline '' with the usual baggage allowances i found that the Luggage allowance was only 15 Kilogrammes and everything over that was an Extra charge, how clever they are knowing that anyone using them after arriving from a long haul flight is bound to have over their allowable weight's and have to pay extra.Down the drain goes the Cheap Flight then.

Use Thai Air for your Domestic flight's they are a bit more expensive but normally no hassle in fact if you are travelling straight to Chiang Mai via Bangkok from the U.K. you can Check your Luggage straight through, clear Immigration yourself in Bangkok, transfer to Domestic Terminal/Flight to C-Mai and clear Customs with your cases in C-Mai, and from my personal experience the Customs Officials in C-Mai are very nice and helpful people.

I have flown Air Asia once and my one and only flight was not a very nice experience,i really felt that the Cabin crew were not interested in the Passengers, apart from the fact the plane was B/D on the Boarding gate for over 1.5 hours while Technicians carried out some repairs in the Cockpit, i personally nearly got off the plane, that is how confident i felt with what was happening.

[wigantojapan]

I actually found it cheaper buying the CM flight at BKK when i arrived rather than booking all the way through.

[wigantojapan]

forgot to add easy to get a flight at the bkk to cm though sonkran will be a nightmare for any tavel air train or bus if not well booked in advance

Try Southhall travel in london They always seem to have competitive rates and flying from london shouldnt pay more than 600 for a one year open,closer to 500 if you are lucky

[Malthus101]

Thanks wigantojapan, good tip on the travel agent, I'll look them up. My original time for coming would have landed me in Thailand exactly in the middle of Songkram so it's good to have advice from people who know the lay of the land there. I think I'll come just after, when do think is the earliest time that things have settled down again?

PS - did you ever make it to Japan or did you get sidetracked by Thailand?

[Malthus101]

Thanks everyone else too - I've bought a digital scale for weighing my suitcase. Maybe I'll join a reward scheme for extra weight if I need to. I have a friend currently in Bangkok so it might be a nice introduction to Thailand (I was there 15 years ago but I bet it's changed a great deal) to hang out with her for a couple of days. I think a flight to CM will be the least hassle and she is Thai so maybe she can do the booking for me!

I'll ask the travel agent about straight through prices vs. buying a ticket in BKK, see what their take on it is. (obviously commissions!)

[mad mary]

Open tickets are good and useful if not sure of your return date just make the changes via a local agent and you get a sticker to put on your ticket with new date. Otherwise the cheaper option would be to book a non changable outbound with changeable inbound ticket so give them a date you intend to return and then if you want to change then you can do at local agent and pay a fee, you would need to pay the fee each time you change though and a limit on stay.

Most 12 month tickets would have an option in the conditions to change the inbound at a fee I would say whichever airline?

My brother has just booked RTN tickets on Emirates to Australia ,He paid £59 extra for the option of upto 3 seperate date changes on his return ticket back to the UK .Not a bad deal ,I think.

[MaiChai]

Jet Airways £575 rtn. Suggest visas in advance and then buy a one way ticket. Leave all the heavy luggage behind and buy what you need as you go along. Small laptop/smartphone is all you need. Can pickup 2nd hand books easily or get yourself an ereader to save the weight.

Once went to Vietnam with just a small backpack. I felt so free with so little luggage! Think i had 3 pairs of underwear, swimming trunks, a pair of shorts, a sweatshirt and three rolled up teeshirts. Wore jeans going. Then just a smartphone, small camera, and chargers for both. Then i never needed to worry about luggage! Could take off in the day and then find accommodation in the evening wherever i ended up!

Edited March 12, 2013 by MaiChai

[sustento]

Open tickets are good and useful if not sure of your return date just make the changes via a local agent and you get a sticker to put on your ticket with new date. Otherwise the cheaper option would be to book a non changable outbound with changeable inbound ticket so give them a date you intend to return and then if you want to change then you can do at local agent and pay a fee, you would need to pay the fee each time you change though and a limit on stay.

Most 12 month tickets would have an option in the conditions to change the inbound at a fee I would say whichever airline?

I liked your comment regards middle east airlines, made me laugh and it's a concern sure regardless of how much oil they are sat on, backward attitude if they can give a 4 year sentence to a poor guy who has a micro crumb of marijuana on the insole of his shoe ?

Thanks - there are a lot of people on these forums who are very knowledgeable and very forthcoming with useful informtion (just look at NanLaew's post about seat pitch - only a frequent flyer with years of experience would have that level of detailed information and now I have it within 30 seconds - amazing!) - in reply to the "do you own research" attitude - well, what I have done is find blogs on living in Thailand, then emailed the people who run those blogs - they have then told me about this and other forums, so I have come to ThaiVisa, a forum solely populated by people who fly to Thailand from the UK and US and other countries all the time and / or have relocated to Thailand just as I plan to do. I have then registered myself with the forum, read the threads and then asked questions where I felt I could not find the information - i.e. DOING RESEARCH!!!

Really? Is that why you're expecting other people to go around Chiang Mai taking photos of apartments for your inspection?

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/625306-bang-for-your-buck-photos-of-apartments-in-cm/

Edited March 12, 2013 by sustento

[Maestro]

I have deleted some off-topic posts.

[Malthus101]

Open tickets are good and useful if not sure of your return date just make the changes via a local agent and you get a sticker to put on your ticket with new date. Otherwise the cheaper option would be to book a non changable outbound with changeable inbound ticket so give them a date you intend to return and then if you want to change then you can do at local agent and pay a fee, you would need to pay the fee each time you change though and a limit on stay.

Most 12 month tickets would have an option in the conditions to change the inbound at a fee I would say whichever airline?

I liked your comment regards middle east airlines, made me laugh and it's a concern sure regardless of how much oil they are sat on, backward attitude if they can give a 4 year sentence to a poor guy who has a micro crumb of marijuana on the insole of his shoe ?

Thanks - there are a lot of people on these forums who are very knowledgeable and very forthcoming with useful informtion (just look at NanLaew's post about seat pitch - only a frequent flyer with years of experience would have that level of detailed information and now I have it within 30 seconds - amazing!) - in reply to the "do you own research" attitude - well, what I have done is find blogs on living in Thailand, then emailed the people who run those blogs - they have then told me about this and other forums, so I have come to ThaiVisa, a forum solely populated by people who fly to Thailand from the UK and US and other countries all the time and / or have relocated to Thailand just as I plan to do. I have then registered myself with the forum, read the threads and then asked questions where I felt I could not find the information - i.e. DOING RESEARCH!!!

Really? Is that why you're expecting other people to go around Chiang Mai taking photos of apartments for your inspection?

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/625306-bang-for-your-buck-photos-of-apartments-in-cm/

Hey Sustento, why don't you shut your computer down and go outside for a run or talk to some women?

Might do you the world of good!