mister_handy

Obliged! Any sense of when I should start looking for that period?

I'm looking at a trip (with the farang wife, so avoiding Pattaya for this one) around peak season late Dec/early Jan ... been able to get free tix into Singapore on miles... altough I may be able to switch them into Bangkok, I hadn't expected it to be a problem, as there are several low-cost airlines flying SIN-BKK and SIN-Phuket... right? Hadn't expected it to be a problem, but it seems I can't find any tickets for that period... anyone know whether the issue is: A) I'm looking too far in advance or They're sold out already ...and ideally, how I tell which? Any other options for getting from Singapore to either Phuket or Samui, then to Bangkok, and then back to Singapore?

All new airframe: yeah, even in this day of all-CAD designs (pioneered with the 777), only missing the target by 6 months is pretty damn good for a program this big. Of course, I haven't followed it closely enough to remember if there were much in the way of delays previous... As for passenger loads and "putting 800 on the plane," not necessarily... the issue to shareholders is dollars/euros/yen per dollar/euro/yen invested, not passengers per plane. Look at it this way: if you can fit 800 coach seats at an average of $500 each (one way), that's $400,000 .... if you can fit 20 1st class seats at $5000 each, 100 business class seats at $1500 each, and 400 coach seats at $500 each, that's - if I'm doing my math right - $450,000. While the cost of food and amenities is higher in business or first class, they also involve less weight - a lot fewer passengers' bodies and bags - so there's fuel savings (hence Singapore's going to NO standard coach class on their ultra-long-range fleet), or the weight can be used on cargo instead (often more profitable than coach passengers.) Airlines will do what makes them the most money. If there's enough demand for the coach product AT A HIGH ENOUGH PRICE, I'm sure they'll start increasing the number of coach seats... just as if there's enough demand for paid first and business class seats, the number of those seats will go up. But the demand for coach seats is on most routes quite dependent on price.

800 also wouldn't be economical most places... on long haul international routes, high-priced passengers in first and business tend to pay more than their share and actually subsidize part of the cost of coach passengers... only on a few routes would an all-coach A380 actually be possible. Look at the 747 - right now it CAN hold well over 500 passengers, but about the only place that's been done is for domestic Japanese flights - the worst single air crash was a packed 747 with 500+ passengers aboard in Japan back in the 1980s. But very few carriers can operate it profitably, without the higher-fare-paying business- and first-class passengers.

First of all, the award tables are not an agreement, and haven't been in quite some time... if you read the fine print, they're well within their rights to do that. If you had miles with American from far enough back, those were subject to an agreement and some lucky individuals still have "old miles" that are tracked separately. Second, there was advance notice leaked out quite a ways in advance in fact... if you know where to look. Lastly, this is only on discount coach tickets. A lot of airlines like United don't even let you upgrade many cheaper fares... higher fares on American are still upgradeable without the fee. Yeah, it sucks, but it's hardly a matter of "screwing" people.

Don't know about Thai's pricings, but a $250-300 difference is about what Singapore Air charges for their "Executive Economy" premium economy product (although Singapore only has either Executive or Regular economy on a given plane... no 4 class as Thai uses on the new ones)

Either I know exactly which one you're talking about, or they've got another one just as bad

Yup. Basically anywhere between South Pattaya Road and North Pattaya Road, and either on Beach or Second Road or on the Sois in between is "in the Center of the action" ... ditto for the places just off walking street. The places just a bit off Second Road are probably fine too, although since one has to walk all the way to Beach Road to get a Southbound baht bus, I wouldn't want to go too far past 2nd.

Stayed there first two days on my last trip Upsides: Relatively nice rooms, in-room safe, nice pool, nice buffet, helpful housekeeping staff. Downsides: Rock-hard bed, some attitude from security staff if you bring a lady in (though no joiner fee), room smelled of smoke badly (and no non-smoking rooms), weak AC.

Better yet, go when you can get the longest possible trip :) ... if you can go for a longer trip, but have to pay a little more in airfare, it's worth it.

I'm staying at the Lek this trip, no construction noise that can be heard with the balcony door closed yesterday or this afternoon; some very minor (but no worse than the second road traffic) with the balcony door open when I checked in yesterday.

Thanks, I will definitely try it sometime this trip...

Well, we get to shoot the brown bargirls we do like... oh wait, you meant with guns, not something more pleasant. :)

What do you recommend there? Never tried Hungarian food, might as well give it a shot when I'm in Pattaya next...

Anyone want to split a cab? If not I'll probably be a cheap charlie and just take the bus...

It seems a little early to me to be booking for July... it's more than 90 days out (more than 120 for later in the month!), a lot of the sales won't have started yet. I wouldn't even *start* looking until 90 days out, but if you don't see any good fares, it's safe to wait to within 60 for low season. What airport are you going out of? If it's not one with much direct international service, consider pricing fares from the nearest major internation hub ... and then separately pricing the flight to the hub if it's not in driving distance. If you are near a major international hub, consider checking nearby non-hub airports and connecting. Check some of the airlines on their web sites directly as many have web specials that don't make it to the major online travel agents. I know Cathay Pacific ( http://www.cathayusa.com/ ), American, and United all do this - not sure about other carriers. Also, avoid flying any time around 4th of July weekend, and in general, Tues/Weds are the cheapest and lightest days to fly. Right now the fares I'm seeing for July suck, but since Thailand is not exactly a summer holiday location for many Americans I would expect to see this fall. Also, you might try Priceline and Hotwire - right now Hotwire is down, so I can't tell if they have anything good, but they're worth a look.

Haven't taken any courses but have been on a couple of dive trips, dove with Aquanauts (http://aquanautsdive.com/) and thought they did a very good job, and nice folks one of their divemasters is a TG, though I highly doubt she ever worked bar. A day's diving is 2900 baht, price list shows 14,000 baht for open water diving certificate (pretty good price but not an exceptional one compared to the US)... that's the first course you want if you actually want to dive on your own, the earlier two are basically only good if you want to try it out with a simpler course than the full open water. I've also dived with a trip via the Aquarelax dive shop, nice people also though not quite as well organized as Aquanauts from what I saw. Can't find a website for them. Mermaid Dive (http://www.mermaiddive.com/) has been recommended here before, I think they're the ones that sometimes use the big pool at the RG. I haven't dived with them, so I can't comment. As for booking procedures, look at the web sites then email them.

The plugs on Cathay are standard "Empower" plugs, never seen an airline seat with any other kind _except_ on American which uses car-power-point (aka cigarette ligter) type plugs. But yeah, $29 adapter is unlikely to work - most laptop ones run around $80-100, Targus makes a good one.

Some airlines seem to only have them in Business class; Cathay Pacific, I think, falls into that category. American Airlines has them in coach on most flights although not in every seat (they're marked on the seat maps, though.) Unfortunately AA doesn't fly to LOS, so that only gets you as far as Tokyo.

I asked this exact question before. Answers were mixed... And *lol* of course I forget the URL ... here you go: http://www.pattayatalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12959 I'm probably going to try the Dynasty Inn this next time.

Might see one for Japanese domestic, or possible much further down the road when they start getting sold to second owners if one of the low-cost airlines wants more long haul business - aren't some of the Asian regional cheapies flying 747s now? And do they have first/business?

It's been my standby on past trips, last trip though (July last year) they hassled me about not giving a name for who I was with after booking a double. And the new web page doesn't have their old "yes, we're guest friendly" policy posted anymore. So, anyone stay there recently? If so, still guest friendly or not? OK - correction... their old web page is still there - http://www.pattaya.freeservers.com/GuestsInfo.htm is the same guest policy as ever - but there's also a web page at http://www.pattayacentre.com/ ... room rates appear to be the same on a quick glance at least. Anyone know what gives? Since the old page still has the manager's e-mail address, I may email to see. While we're at it, has anyone stayed in both a "Superior Room" and a "Junior Suite"? I've always taken the superior room, just wondering if the suite is worth the extra 250 baht per night.

Don Muang to Pattaya. Not sure which hotel yet... getting in the usual godawful late hour via JAL/AA (11:45PM) ... anyone else getting in late that night?

Thanks for confirming the point... as for the noise, it usually doesn't bother me (I've pretty much always lived in the middle of a large city), but it does depending on just how loud. Staying a night or two and then moving if the noise is too bad sounds like the way to go. Thanks once again. I've never heard the "soft and hard" side thing, maybe if someone is at the RG now they can check?