CheshireTom

There is no beach in Tha Sae; it's landlocked. The nearest beach is at Hat Thung Wua Laen ........ the Chumphon Cabana Resort is probably the best hotel around and is about 30 mins away from Tha Sae town. If the village you are going to is 1 hour west of Tha Sae then it is well and truly "in the sticks".

Don Meuang is two baggage scans, one prior to check-in and one prior to the departure gates. Suvarnabhumi is one scan prior to the departure gates. The scan of hold baggage takes place after it has been checked in and before it is loaded to the baggage bins or aircraft hold.

Very much so as well as restrictions on duty free booze if booked on a through connecting flight.

Probably to explain the Arabic script that is plastered over the pictures.

I presume that will be short-term from Oryx or whatever Qatar's leasing people are to be called. It will be interesting to see what they do with the interiors since Qatar's A340-600s are heavily in favour of 1st and biz class pax. I am flying on one in biz class next month between DOH and LHR ............ I'll try to get some pics and post them here. Thanks for the good, up-to-date info, BTW.

Greg, The quote refers to her performance on the LPGA tour, of which the SBS Open, forms part. Your figures refer to the Asian LPGA tour.

Brown1950, Is that decrease month on month or against Jan 2007?

Normally the UK bank gives you two choices ..... transfer an amount in Baht (converted by the despatching bank at UK rates) or transfer an amount in sterling (converted by the receiving bank at Thai rates).

I think most Thais were paying more attention to the European Tour event in Jakarta where the former World Junior Champion, Prom Meesawat, finished a very credible 3rd in something like his 6th tour event with a handful of other Thai golfers not that far behind.

Unfortunately, because of the Thais inability to handle some of our phonetics its advertising slogan would be ......... "Iron Barew ....... Made from girdles!" Not quite the ad-mans dream, I fear.

She's one hell of a golfer ............................. "In 17 career tournaments before the SBS Open, Russy had only made two cuts and earned $4411."

Brown1950, Thanks for the info. Very useful.

ranger, I wouldn't worry about it ...... I'd be pretty sure that southall will have little gems such as CC charges, safi insurance or booking fees to add on once you get to the payment options.

Of course ........... but that would be some considerable time before your ancestors emigrated to the US from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

I've no idea what B Class constitutes on Thai but it's really your call as to what you think a decent price is. As a rule of thumb, if you're going out between 10 -24 Dec and/or coming back between 2-10 Jan you're going to have to pay premium rates on the major carriers. Those dates will vary by a day or two either way according to the carrier and what they deem to be their high season. That said, there could be countless events take place that will dissuade folk from international travel and the airlines will lower their prices in order to fill the aircraft. It all depends on what priority you have given to travelling on given dates.

Their computerised yield management system figures that historically they have successfully sold the seats at a higher price therefore it won't allocate any seats to the cheaper booking classes until its booking trends indicates that isn't happening this year.

If you're being offered at flight at 600 quid for the end of July, I'd take it.

I agree with Fatboyfat. For value for money, their biz class is exceptional (flatbeds, computer power and a huge IFE screen in self-contained pods). As for Abu Dhabi ...... there will come a time when it is overcrowded, much the same as Doha/Dubai are experiencing at the moment, but it is currently only a few minutes between gates for arrivals and departures. The days of varying standards/delays on leased aircraft seem to be a thing of the past amd the airline does seem to have its act together. Not if, as per the OP, you are travelling from Manchester.

soi unwise, I wish I knew the answer to that .......... I'd be selling the secret. Without paying, either in cash or airmiles, there are a whole load of factors that have got to fall exactly right for you to get an upgrade on most of the major carriers nowadays. I would advise sticking to one carrier and accumulating miles in their FF scheme as there are sometimes good offers .......... a return biz class ticket between london and doha is currently only 37.5k airmiles until the end of May with Qatar.

Qatar has 11/12-31/12 @ 517 quid, 11/12-1/1 @ 561 quid and 11/12-2/1 @ 587 quid. All bookable on their website. My experience is that you can book early, i.e. now, or contribute to the annual threads later in the year when guys are struggling to get anything at all under 800 quid on the likes of Kuwait and Aeroflot. Also keep in mind that the form of passenger taxation is almost certainly going to change in the next budget and fuel surcharges are likely to increase as airlines hedging at 75 and 80 dollars a barrel comes to an end.

Unfortunately, Qatar Airways doesn't fly to Birmingham.

Thanks for that. Any idea/heard any rumours whether MAN has managed to get AirAsiaX over Stansted?

Any idea why?

No airline, other than SQ, has announced dates for specific routes but Emirates will start LHR-DXB services during the second half of this year. As for BKK ....... could possibly be the arse-end of this year but more likely to be Emirates or Qantas in 2009.

Depends on what time of day you are going to arrive.