Nephew wants to visit me here on Phuket asap (wants to escape post holiday slump). He told me he was thinking about buying one of those cheap all in (hotel included) and jettisoning the hotel, until I reminded him that he'd have a restricted stay. He wants to stay here for a month. He's not particularly well off. Anyone can suggest cheapest return LHR-BKK flight only?

Thanks

This pinned topic has lots of websites and recommendations to find cheap airfares. Unfortunately, there's no silver bullet. He needs to spend time doing the research and comparing prices. Which includes talking with several travel agents, looking in the travel section of the newspaper for ads, etc.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/527870-airline-information-and-flight-deals-for-expats/

Check this site for the best airfares

http://www.skyscanner.co/

Edited December 30, 201312 yr by Sceptict11

Check this site for the best airfares

www.skyscanner.co

Great website. It's in that pinned thread I referred to. I try to have as many of these "meta" search engines as possible. You never know when one will come up with a great deal.

Air India are usually one of the cheapest out of Heathrow as are Jet Airways but much depends on the dates etc,I would guess given the new year you would be hard pressed to find anything under £750 return,but with some searching they may get lucky.

Edited December 30, 201312 yr by stoneyboy

Etihad are doing very cheap flights at the moment, under £500.

But use one of the comparison sites like Kayak.

In the UK I've often found Trailfinders to be pretty good, they have even found me flight and hotel deals for less than a cost of flight only.

And when using sites like Kayak, Kelkoo and others, clean out the cookies. Then you get fresh up to date info. I've found that their tracking cookies keep your data and the prices do not seem to drop.

Eva are doing a good deal for around £540 direct. If you want a lot of hassle Air India and Jet can route you with stop off's in Mumbai and Delhi. Terrible terminals with a nightmare immigration process. Jet run 737's to Bangkok on a route that takes around nearly four hours and with very hard seats.

Etihad have LHR-AUH-HKT direct (avoiding BKK) for GBP 490ish.

https://booking.etihad.com/SSW2010/EYEY/webqtrip.html?execution=e1s1

Emirates fly to Phuket via Dubai, and Qatar via Doha (with a stop in KL en-route), but prices look higher right now.

Thanks for all the replies. I called my nephew last night and passed on the info. He told me there was a Trailfinders office close by and would call in. I used to use them sometimes when in the UK. I took a look at Kayak and saw that prices seemed to drop significantly after the first week of January. I'd taken a look at Etihad a couple of weeks ago and their prices seemed quite high then, for them. Hopefully Trailfinders will be able to sort something out for him.

Thanks again for all your advice

Edited January 1, 201412 yr by jpeg

Air India and Jet are almost always the cheapest.

Air India and Jet are almost always the cheapest.

Agreed and it's understandable why !

I now always use Skyscanner to book flights.

The trick is to input your dates and route, wait for it to give you the fares then go to the top and press 'Select Dates'. This then shows you a graph of the cheapest outgoing and return dates etc. But each outgoing date will have a different set of return date prices, so you then need to select a few and check.

By using Skyscanner to choose the best price I save around £100 compared to Flight Centre (who I used to use)

Jet are rubbish and Mumbai is the worst stopover hub bar none. Oman and Qatar are probably the best carriers for the cheapy deals.

I pay the extra and go direct with EVA to Bangkok.

Edited January 1, 201412 yr by fish fingers

I now always use Skyscanner to book flights.

The trick is to input your dates and route, wait for it to give you the fares then go to the top and press 'Select Dates'. This then shows you a graph of the cheapest outgoing and return dates etc. But each outgoing date will have a different set of return date prices, so you then need to select a few and check.

By using Skyscanner to choose the best price I save around £100 compared to Flight Centre (who I used to use)

I use these meta search engines to find the best flights and then go to the airlines website and book there. We got stuck in China one time with a ticket purchased through Expedia. The airline was taking care of passengers who booked direct first, even putting some on other airlines. We had to wait some 5 hours for another flight.

I now always use Skyscanner to book flights.

The trick is to input your dates and route, wait for it to give you the fares then go to the top and press 'Select Dates'. This then shows you a graph of the cheapest outgoing and return dates etc. But each outgoing date will have a different set of return date prices, so you then need to select a few and check.

By using Skyscanner to choose the best price I save around £100 compared to Flight Centre (who I used to use)

You can also obtain that helpful feature on Skyscanner, by selecting 'Whole month' rather than a specific date, for outward & return-flights.