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[Sa-teef 44]

Just booked a trip via Airfare.com from MSP-NRT-BKK for $983.70 mid-March.

 

Good price for a one hopper from the Midwest to Bangkok.

 

The bad part is I'm flying Northwest Airlines!

 

Airfare.com

 

Afternoon departure from MSP with a midnight arrival in 'Poom Airport; 744-A330.

Departure is at 6 am BKK and arrival back in MSP early afternoon; A330-744.

 

 

~Sa-teef

Edited February 2, 2008 by Sa-teef

[BigDUSA 71]

I booked with UA 6 May, PHL-BKK for $1,114. two stops ORD and NRT return 27 May.

[WeezinGeezer 2]

Seattle - BKK rtn EVA current sale $877.50 all in until May class U only 80% mileage

 

Flight arrives BKK at 1120 am

Edited February 3, 2008 by WeezinGeezer

[PenName 1]

Funny that airfare.com doesn't have a price listed for NWA from Seattle - NRT - BKK. I think somewhere along the line, all of the west coast departures for NWA got to be prime connection cities as I often see them listed out at $1,400+ and given that we're two or three hours closer to NRT at the moment of takeoff as compared to the $983.70 out of MSP, it seems ulikely it's about the cost of fuel.

 

~ Pen

[Sa-teef 44]

Funny that airfare.com doesn't have a price listed for NWA from Seattle - NRT - BKK. I think somewhere along the line, all of the west coast departures for NWA got to be prime connection cities as I often see them listed out at $1,400+ and given that we're two or three hours closer to NRT at the moment of takeoff as compared to the $983.70 out of MSP, it seems ulikely it's about the cost of fuel.

 

~ Pen

 

Airfare.com has rock bottom prices for my next several trips at the moment. I'm going to watch the nwa.com website closely and if I can get them all for $1000-1200 like they are listed now I may well buy several more.

The last time NWA dropped prices like this United followed suit and that's how I got started flying United back in 2002-3. The one thing (and about the ONLY THING) that NWA has over United is a single stop in Narita, which eliminates most of the complications for me. The international flights tend to be on time but the connections inside the States get loused up on a regular basis.

 

~Sa-teef

[Emil 0]

it seems ulikely it's about the cost of fuel.

 

It's definetly not about the cost of fuel. Its based on the load factor. One time as I was checking UA fares from Sacramento to Bangkok based on lowest fare, the cheapest route was from Sacramento to Chicago and then over to Nariata. No way as it was during the winter and I didn't want to risk getting stuck in Chicago for a couple of days.

[PenName 1]

Given the shorter "commute time" to LOS, I should probably count my blessings at whatever cost. On the ff miles front, I actually use Alaska Airlines, even thought I don't fly Alaska more than half the time. The beauty of their corporate relationships is that I can deposit miles from Northwest, American and Delta whenever I'm flying domestically, all with full value and counting toward elite status. About 15 other airlines will allow me to contribute miles without the elite qualifiers.

 

Then, when it comes time to cash in (to LOS, of course), I have NWA (but it's unlikely I'll ever seek out their Business or First classes on a mileage ticket), but also Air France, British Air and, as I'm doing with a nice First Class ticket in November, Cathay Pacific.

 

Just one man's path in an imperfect world.

 

~ Pen

[Sa-teef 44]

Given the shorter "commute time" to LOS, I should probably count my blessings at whatever cost. On the ff miles front, I actually use Alaska Airlines, even thought I don't fly Alaska more than half the time. The beauty of their corporate relationships is that I can deposit miles from Northwest, American and Delta whenever I'm flying domestically, all with full value and counting toward elite status. About 15 other airlines will allow me to contribute miles without the elite qualifiers.

 

Then, when it comes time to cash in (to LOS, of course), I have NWA (but it's unlikely I'll ever seek out their Business or First classes on a mileage ticket), but also Air France, British Air and, as I'm doing with a nice First Class ticket in November, Cathay Pacific.

 

Just one man's path in an imperfect world.

 

~ Pen

 

Pen, I should mention how I find tickets on Airfare.com. I search on sidestep for the flight using flexible dates and they find the flight and give a hotlink to the available flight on Airfare.com.

 

The search engine on most of the other discount web sites don't seem to be as flexible.

 

I've booked by flights for the rest of the year. May, September and November all in the $1,200 range on NWA one hops MSP-NRT-BKK. I've been holding out for July because the prices have been silly but I finally found a ticket on the same flight for $1,583 tonight, again on Airfare via Sidestep. I just checked and it's back up to $1,683 at this moment. I'll be gold by September and platinum elite by the end of the year. If I stay clear of the NWA domestic flights we'll probably have a long and happy relationship again!

 

~Sa-teef

[PenName 1]

Sa-teef,

 

Yeah, I've had the same frustrations. Well, not quite the same as you have even fewer convenient options out of MSP. I haven't incorporated airfare.com to this point, but will certainly do so in the future.

 

For my trip in May, I ended up going with China Airlines SEA-TPE-BKK for $856.60 all in. The pros of NWA would have been the mileage only, with a fare of $1,360 or some such. With China Airlines, I can (evidently) put 60% of the mileage toward my NWA account (a somewhat dormant account but with one almost enough miles for a free economy ticket to BKK), the cost was $500 cheaper (pretty much my hotel for my entire stay, even with the crappy exchange rate), and arrival and departure times that don't require I be vampire. It was actually a fairly tough call, with the arrival / departure times ultimately being the tie-breaker.

 

As much as I hate missing a 15,000 mile dump into my Alaska account (if I'd ticketed on NWA), it looks like my other travels this year will ensure elite status and a healthy mileage balance. With a smaller plane capacity (the airbus vs. the previous 747), NWA has ensured higher loads and thus, higher fares into NRT and BKK (and I'm a card-carrying free-market economy adherent), but to me they've built a "false shortage" and that ultimately drove me elsewhere on principle if nothing else.

 

I've no doubt that NWA will survive just fine without my business this time around. Last autumn when they were the best fare, I had no problem adjusting to those times in and out of BKK, but it just felt like time to give the folks over at China Air a turn at bat. November is a cash-in of miles for a biz class on Cathay as I wanted to treat myself for a (regrettably) milestone birthday this year.

 

In the final analysis, it's 17 hours in sealed metal tubes that are necessary evils to get to our adopted second home (okay, first home for many).

 

Given that it looks like we've got a couple of trips in at the same time of year (I'm in from the 4th to the 26th in May), I'd welcome the chance to finally make you're acquaintance, and would gladly buy the first round for the privilege.

 

Travel well,

 

~ Pen

Edited March 30, 2008 by PenName

[Sa-teef 44]

I've had one sna-foo after the other with domestic flights out of MSP the past few years, but once I'm on an international flight it's pretty much smooth sailing. I'm counting on more of that with NWA this year!

 

NWA has one of the ONLY west bound international flights out of MSP these days. Avoiding the connecting flight to ORD or LAX should save me a fair bit of grief and delay based on past experience! The NWA flights 19, 21, 22 and 20 from MSP - NRT - BKK and back were trouble free for me in March so I'm hoping this is the start of a trend!

 

Sounds like a great idea Pen. I'll PM you.

 

 

~Sa-teef

[PenName 1]

Back when I was doing some work in the Midwest (USA), I often used NWA through both DTW and MSP, and I found the international flights to be fine and not fraught with the fumbles and gaffes seen on domestic NWA offerings. Given the relative ease of DTW and MSP for international travel at all, they are a joy that adds to the NWA experience from either of those origination points when compared to airports on either coast or ORD.

 

I'm not sure if NWA is flying the Airbus or still using the 747's out of MSP, but I suspect you'll do right by them (or right enough).

 

~ Pen

[Swami 0]

SFO - BKK is about $950 right now at United.

[Sa-teef 44]

They are using 744's from MSP to NRT and A330-200's from NRT to BKK.

 

Lots of good prices from the West Coast it seems Comaghee.

 

The only problem for me is getting there (reliably).

The only non-stop from MSP to LAX is: NWA domestic.

 

You can do United through ORD.

Or United/Frontier through Denver.

Or Sun Country through Las Vegas.

But those places all create havoc and I've been delayed and missed West Coast international flights sitting in all three of those locations.

 

Another consideration for me is NWA check-in at MSP. They have a remote kiosk at the charter/limo/regional bus terminal. It's off my shuttle bus, up one escalator and I'm there. They are never busy and three minute check-in is routine. You get your boarding pass and drop any checked baggage right there. When I walk the skyway across to the terminal I already have my boarding pass and can go right through security. That's worth something as well.

 

 

~Sa-teef

[perromalo 0]

I booked EVA from LAX-BKK for $836 inclusive of all taxes, no FF mileage credit.

I was able to book all 777 service on EVA which is much nicer to fly than the 747's(IMO)

Coming from the midwest (MCI) I am using the Southwest non stops at $169 RT, I had a credit that

was about to expire so my total airfare was just over $900.

[short 215]

I gave airfair.com a telephone call. A live person picked up the phone within 2 minutes. I called at 9pm EST.

 

They confirmed that they are a consolidator.

 

To change a reservation must be done two days before the scheduled date and costs $350 plus the difference in price.

 

Any change after that is between you and the airline. Airfair will no longer help you.

 

 

They did come up with a much better flight for me.

 

 

I used the new Panasonic DVD-LS82 for my last flight. Panasonic advertises 12 hours viewing on one charge if you use the low light setting which works well in a darkened plane. It has a 9" screen that is mounted is such a way that it doesn't matter if the idiot in front of you pushes his seat all the way back. He will eventually put his seat up after he gets tired of sliding out of his seat.

I used it for the flight from the US to Japan (13 hrs) and was going to use it on the Japan to BKK leg also but Japan Air has at least one good movie and then I slept the rest of the flight. It supports divx which means that you can put several movies on a single DVD. I took 16 movies on a total of 4 DVDs. It is expensive at over $200 but is well worth it on planes that don't have power at the seat to support a laptop or dvd player.