Flying To Perth - Advice Needed

[M&M]

Hi everyone,

I'm going to fly from Bangkok to Perth early next year - probably early January.

I will need a round trip visit valid for a year - going there to study but will be making regualr trips back to BKK to see my son... well, regular as far as time and money will allow!

Can anyone recommend the best airlines (actually I mean the cheapest for that route!!), best prices or good web-sites to check out and travel agents in BKK.

Many tanks in advance for your help.

M&M

[M&M]

Hi everyone,

I'm going to fly from Bangkok to Perth early next year - probably early January.

I will need a round trip visit valid for a year - going there to study but will be making regualr trips back to BKK to see my son... well, regular as far as time and money will allow!

Can anyone recommend the best airlines (actually I mean the cheapest for that route!!), best prices or good web-sites to check out and travel agents in BKK.

Many tanks in advance for your help.

M&M

[Chang_paarp]

It seems to vary, which airline is cheapest, it depends on your needs and the time in the middle of your travel. Better to find a good travel agent who keeps abreast of the offers available at any given time. Some are not very motivated to look for for the best fare.

Check zuji.com for the range of fares available and see if the travel agent can match.

I have tried cheap flights to SIN and KL and low cost couriers from there. With the messing around, it is worth the extra $20Au to get a flight with a single airline. Only Qantas and Thai go direct. Just be aware that Brunei involves an overnight stay to change planes.

Do your booking from BKK-PTH-BKK it is a lot cheaper.

[udon]

This is a good one for Burnsie & Old Croc.

[greenwood]

It seems to vary, which airline is cheapest, it depends on your needs and the time in the middle of your travel. Better to find a good travel agent who keeps abreast of the offers available at any given time. Some are not very motivated to look for for the best fare.

Check zuji.com for the range of fares available and see if the travel agent can match.

I have tried cheap flights to SIN and KL and low cost couriers from there. With the messing around, it is worth the extra $20Au to get a flight with a single airline. Only Qantas and Thai go direct. Just be aware that Brunei involves an overnight stay to change planes.

Do your booking from BKK-PTH-BKK it is a lot cheaper.

Unfortunatley there is no cheap airlines available from Perth, upto last year we had Value Air in Perth as an alternative, but they have now been taken over by Qantas and are now part of Jetstar Asia.

The only cheap way I can think is to fly BKk to Singapore with say Tiger Airways (or any of the cheaper airlines that are available from bkk) and then fly with whover you can get the cheapest available flights with from Singapore to Perth.

Be aware that there are not to many direct flights from BKk to Perth, majority are BKK to Singapore and then Singapore Perth.

Also one other thing, make sure that your study visa allows multiple in and out visits to and from Australia, because there may be some restictions on that. The immigration office are always cheking on students here to make sure that they are complying with their visa conditions and also that they do attend their study courses on a regular basis.

If there is anything else that you need to know about Perth send me a P/M and I will do all I can do to answer any questions that you may have.

[Pink Mist]

Try Royal Brunei, jetstar, Thai, even Tiger air (if you want to travel to Darwin, ((Darwin to BKK return $100 Oz))

A few airlines fly direct to Phuket then BKKalso so they could be worth a search.

You may have to junp from one carrier to another.

All of these airlines have websites, so with a bit of research I'm sure you'll find something.

We came up with a fare from Adelaide to Bangkok in feb / march of approx $600 including taxes.

[Pink Mist]

double posting moving to travel forum and merging, hang on to your hats folks

[terry57]

i fly this route 3 times a year.

perth to singapore on the cheapest flight i can get.

singapore to bangkok on airasia. internet booking well in advance.

last time i flew for $ 40 aud.

on returning to bangkok from perth you might have to overnight in singapore airport.

take a light blanket, eye mask, ear plugs and crash out somewhere.

have a shower in the morning and its all sweet mate.

cheers

[Old Croc]

It all depends on how you like to travel. I pay a bit extra to get most direct/shortest layovers.

Since Qantas bought out, then closed down, the Perth link by Valueair (pricks) generally Brunei has the best prices. But, as mentioned, they've changed their schedules and it now requires a long layover in their shitty little country.

As Terry57 says, SQ to Singers (twice a day) and then a cheap link airline would be the cheapest way to go if you're not in a hurry.

[terry57]

best ever deal i had was brunie air.

perth, brunie ( 4 hour stop ) then bangkok.

they still have the best prices but you must hunt them down.

subscribe to this sight :

www.bestflights.com.

always unbeatable prices.

cheers

[Greer]

Well if you really HAVE to go to Perth... hehe...

I note that many here are talking about flights from Perth to BKK when the question was regarding Bangkok to Perth - a completely different kettle of fish.

Never having flown that route I can't offer direct advice, but as a frequent traveller on many different routes worldwide I would just say that you need to be very careful about going to an intermediate city (Singapore in this case) unless you have definite (confirmed) ticket prices for the onward sector/s. Once you are there you are stuck with whateve they offer you because you have no options.

I would caution you about the idea of looking at flights to other Australian cities and then flying internally from say Darwin to Perth - the local Australian airlines are notorious for charging huge sums for internal flights.

The only real way to get discounted internal flights is to book and pay way in advance via the internet - but such tickets are VERY inflexible and usually not refundable for sectors not flown.

As for coming home, I guess it's up to you, but I would buy your return ticket here in Thailand (as you will have to anyway), then once in Oz, look around at the flights Perth/Bangkok return with ticket validity for say a month or less so that it only just covers the time you need for a short visit home - that type of ticket is usually the most heavily discounted.

You then keep your original return sector ticket with it's 1 year validity and use short term package tickets to get back to BKK. You may of course find that even using heavily discounted tickets purchased in Australia the cost may be higher than buying a BKK/PTH/BKK return ticket from Bangkok on each trip!

Happy travelling...

[jackspratt]

Thai are the only direct flights from Bangkok to Perth. The cheapest flights at the moment are Singapore - Perth on Qantas (have a look at their website), with the additional attraction that it is a 12 month fare. Generally the cheaper fares from Asia to Oz are 60 days maximum.

So you still need to get from Bangers to Sillypore, but there are a number of discount flights available. I am about to book an Udon - Bangkok - Singapore - Perth/return flight (from mid Nov to mid Feb 07) for my tilak for about A$850 (including taxes etc).

Going the other way Brunei is definitely the cheapest, but involves an 11 hour stop-over in Brunei, plus a transfer in Singers - all up about $785 from memory.

jack

[Sporting Dog]

I've flown that route a few times. Thai is the only airline that flies direct to BKK and not that often each week. Sometimes it goes via Phuket.

The cheapest single airline all the way to BKK has usually been Singapore. It has flights every day from Perth to BKK and many a day from SIN to BKK. So the trip isn't any longer than the Thai flights via Phuket.

Also not only is it cheaper to fly Singapore, the planes and service are much better than Thai - and you can earn Thai frequent flyer points using Singapore. (and if you're flying regularly you'll pick up the money you would have saved by using AirAsia, Tiger etc by getting a free flight eventually)

I had a bit of a look at getting one of the cheaper airlines for the BKK-SIN leg but then the layovers get too long and it was hard to find out about baggage transfers etc.

I never use QANTAS even to SIN cos they are usually the most expensive. Also I've never seen a good airfare for this journey on any of the internet sites.

[Pink Mist]

check this way

jetstar to darwin and return

tiger to singa and bangkok and return

[M&M]

Really, thanks very much everyone...

This is a great help for me.

Cheers, I appreciate it!

M&M