TheFiend

I'm 140 miles north from MAN, so I wouldn't qualify.... And yes she could fill a container every trip..... Her record weight for 1 suitcase was 36KG, before I redistributed some of if prior to checking in.

LOL.... just tried it for my dates for October and still worked out more expensive than what I've paid with Qatar. Their luggage allowance also puts me off. Enjoyed a free upgrade to Biz class on my last trip with them. I'll stick with Qatar or Emirates, with their higher allowance.

Both the Sun and Daily Mail are heavily biased towards the Tories. The Mirror having more of a left wing swing in it's political stance. I don't buy any papers but do get to read both the Mirror and Sun at work and actually think the Sun is more of a joke as a newspaper than the Mirror.

You can take the piss out of Thai engineering, but the company I work in the UK for was in the middle of constructing a new facility...... Groundwork completed and they were well into the construction phase and had nearly completed all the concrete pours when it was pointed out that it was meant to be built at another site 400 miles away.... The cock-up is still standing 40 years later and being used as a storage shed.

BigD always plays the victim!

I had no problems what so ever with VFS when we applied for Mrs Fiend to come to the UK..... Did everything myself and included lots of proof.... Granted first time of asking!!!

Normally I book direct with the airlines, but for the trip to my Brother-in-Laws funeral netflights.com was coming up as the cheapest option for Qatar, so I booked on-line with them...... this was for a flight that was going 32 hours after I clicked "confirm" on the website...... It took 8.5 hours before I received confirmation of the booking with a PNR. It turned out to be a different PNR to the one that Qatar had for the booking. A phone call to Qatar Customer services desk was required so I could print out the documents,... luckily the CS rep was very helpful in assisting with my enquiry and stayed on the line until I confirmed that I had received the email. It's not the first time where I've booked on-line through an agent and the had to chase up afterwards for PNR/eTicket numbers.

I've read his comments on tripadvisor as well...... He also wrote a review on his hotel in Pattaya and made a comment about sleazy bars and massage parlours near his hotel..... good job he didn't stay on Soi 6!!!

Picking up cheap fares is all about timing and knowing when to pull the trigger...... My October trip, MAN-BKK with Qatar is the cheapest I've ever paid and that was before the £60 cashback from my bank. Within a couple of days my itinerary had shot up £150.

I found economy in the Nightmareliner even more claustrophobic than a 10 abreast 777 and the seating is very cramped. The positioning of the IFE boxes is very poor and they have sharp edges on which can easily scratch your legs. Reading reviews it looks like Qatars Nightmareliners are very poorly rated from the economy passengers point of view. Going to have to suffer the Nightmareliner again in October.....

Just booked myself an absolute bargain with Qatar for my October trip.... Net cost £383pp MAN-BKK return.... Should have been £413 but thanks to a Cashback offer through my bank account I have now paid the lowest fare I have ever paid in 10 years in travelling to Thailand... By flying back on 1st November rather than 31st October I dropped the price by £155 each!!! Sadly Qatar are changing the A380 diagrams so I'll have to suffer 773's from Doha to Bangkok and back, with a Nightmareliner and a 333 on the Manchester - Doha legs.

Just booked with Qatar for my second trip with them... Get to sample the Nightmareliner on the Manchester - Doha- Manchester legs and the A380 on the Doha -Bangkok - Doha legs. Was the cheapest option of the ME3 for a flight booked just 32 hours in advance... £475 return compared to £650+ for Emirates and Etihad..... Could have got flights with Turkish for £400 but the return flight times weren't good.

Stayed 3 nights in Hua Hin 10 years ago... loved the place but haven't been back since..... Maybe some time in the future I'll go there again....

Yep, definitely a fun car!!!

Yep.... that's one of the perks of being married to a Thai... We're through immigration in minutes!!! On the other hand Mrs Fiend doesn't want a British passport, even though she could get one now, and that means queuing in the Non-EU passport line when we return to The UK after immigration at Manchester stopped letting her go through with me.

Like I said in my original post, both Glasgow and Edinburgh are both a wee bit closer to where I live than Manchester Airport I've also used the Emirates flight from Newcastle a couple of times, another airport that is closer to me than Manchester. If the prices are comparable to prices from Manchester I would be tempted to use them as an alternative.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-35801274 Both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports are a wee bit closer for me than Manchester Airport, so if the result is cheaper flights to Bangkok I'll be tempted to switch to flying from Glasgow or Edinburgh!!!

Excellent as always Monkeyman!!! S2 or Turbo? I had an 87 944S

My daughter couldn't believe it.... if was her first trip on Etihad. I've had upgrades before and those were with Emirates and on both occasions they were on trips booked using my accumulated air miles and before they dropped the number of tier miles awarded when 2 trips a year would give me "silver" status.

My daughter is not really a problem as she is 25.... Etihad currently have 6 777's on lease from Jet Airways.... I saw a couple of them whilst waiting at Abu Dhabi

The transit wasn't too bad in Abu Dhabi.... we had 4 hour waits in both directions, and the security queues weren't as bad as the first time we flew with them. On the return from BKK, we had to walk from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 for our onward flight.

On our way back to Manchester with Etihad on my last trip me, Mrs Fiend and my daughter all got upgraded to Business class at the gate at Abu Dhabi....I suspect it was because it would free up 3 seats together the fully booked economy cabin - they had substituted an Airbus 340-600 for what was normally a 777 flight.. It was my daughters first trip with Etihad and it shocked her getting an upgrade.!!!!

Nowt wrong with a bit of culture although I'm not into opera, but as a youngster I learned to play the violin and viola so do appreciate more than a little bit of classical music... I do have some of violinist Vanessa Mae music in my collection (half Thai/half Singaporean), very talented musician.