TheFiend

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.

I'm in Thailand for Songkran, but I won't be suffering the chaos of the Pattaya festivities instead I'll enjoy the much more sedate version up north....

Sadly there is 3 of us travelling this time, so I've got seats on the lower deck, but in October when it's just the 2 of us I'll be booking upstairs.

My April flights with Emirates the MAN-DXB and DXB-MAN legs (EK18 and EK17) are down as being 3 class version 2 A388, EK19 and EK20 was the one being changed to the 2 class version. The DXB-BKK leg on EK376 is 2 class A380 but our return on EK385 is 3 class A380.

I was eyeing up Finnair to try the new A350 to Bangkok but the long stopovers in Helsinki was putting me off.

Last flew on Emirates in Nov 14 and my April trip with Emirates is 15% cheaper - and that was booked when a "Black Friday" email offer popped up in my inbox. In the 10 years since I started visiting Thailand last 3 trips to Thailand have all been cheaper than my first trip 10 years ago.

Merry Xmas to all BMs....

Booked for Manchester-Bangkok next April and the 2 class A380 is on the EK376 diagram so I'll get to enjoy it on one of the 4 legs.... might be tempted to book one of the upper deck seats...

The front porch has a light as does the carport and every night could spot at 2 or 3 ready to feast.... a walk around the house I could see at least 10 geckos at various locations on the walls.