LOnDON TO BKK - BEST DEALS AT MOMENT???

[papalazarou 0]

I suddenly find myself with 3 weeks spare time on my hands from next friday and want to spend it in LOS.  I checked out the internet and the best deals I could find departing on or after 21 June  are £421 on royal jordanian inc tax, or £458 on swissair inc tax( which will will be crossair to zurich and then thai airways to bkk).  I intend to book one of them unless any of you guys are aware of anything better??

[Woody 0]

If money is your criteria you could try Aeroflot at £320 + taxes:-

 

http://res.travelocity.co.uk/cannonball.ct...LANG=EN#charges

[Guest]

Paparazarou,

 

If you have confirmed availability I would go for it.  

 

There are a lot of headline fares quoted but in reality the availability of seats at those prices over the next few months is zilch.

 

Both Gulf Air and Air Lanka are still advertising prices similar to what you have been quoted, but again the availability is limited.

 

Over the last 6 months BA, Qantas and Thai have all cut flights on the Bangkok route.  In addition, the situation in India/Pakistan is diverting a lot of travellers to SE Asia, including Bangkok (Last month's passenger numbers up 8% on last year).

 

Whatever you decide to do, have a great trip!  8)

 

Tom

[papalazarou 0]

I just booked the Swissair flight.  The flight is going out at 9.55am on Friday so I guess I'll be watching England v Brazil at Heathrow, should be quite an atmosphere.   COME ON ENGLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!  The great thing is that if we fail to beat em then at least I have 3 weeks of blissful debauchery to look forward to and if we do beat em, I will have 3 weeks of blissful debauchery to look forrward to.

[Guest]

Papalazarou,

 

It will test your loyalties if it goes to extra time......I can just imagine the number of "last call for the remaining 56 passengers" that will be made......  :'(

 

Would appreciate if you post your views on your Swissair experience.  They have some good deals if you are flying from Manchester and i would be interested to know how they have recovered from their time in administration......

 

Many thanks and have a great time,

 

Tom

[papalazarou 0]

Tom

 

Whoops!  My mind was clouded with images of scantily-clad gogo bar girls.  I completely forgot about the extra time aspect.  Lets hope the Spanish air traffic controller strike delays my flight, doubt it  ::)

 

I will give a review of my flight when I get back.    

[Woody 0]

Over the last 6 months BA, Qantas and Thai have all cut flights on the Bangkok route.  In addition, the situation in India/Pakistan is diverting a lot of travellers to SE Asia, including Bangkok (Last month's passenger numbers up 8% on last year).

 

I am not aware of any flights Thai have cut on the LHR-BKK route over the last six months??

[Guest]

Woody,

 

Sorry for the confusion ...... perhaps I should have said cut seats and not flights.

 

The background is that TG/AC reached agreement on an eastabout codeshare from east coast Canada (Toronto and Montreal) to BKK via LHR using the existing Thai schedule for the LHR-BKK segment (previously flights were trans-Pacific).  The negotiations were concluded on 10 Sep 2001 but for obvious reasons the agreement wasn't implemented until 1 Mar this year.  At the same time BA/Qantas re-routed one of their codeshares (to Melbourne I think) via Singapore rather than Bangkok.

 

The overall weekly net loss to passengers travelling on the LHR-BKK segment only is approx 1,200 seats.  This has been partially offset by the introduction of the 4th EVA service (Sunday flight).  The purpose of the whole exercise of course is to increase aircraft utilisation yielding higher paying customers - it will be interesting to see the availability of discounted seats during the low season (Mid Sep to early Dec).  From what I can see Thai is currently retailing at approx £540-£560 during this period with variable availability, even at this stage, in this discounted class.

 

On a brighter note Thai has announced, at last, that it is going to upgrade and refurbish the economy class cabins on 31 of its aircraft "in response to the standards offered by its competitors".  Don't know what that means for Joe Punter or what the timeframe is ..... maybe for the opening of the new BKK airport?

 

Hope this clarifies the situation.

 

Regards,

 

Tom

[Woody 0]

Tom,

 

Garunda started flying again from Gatwick which may also offset the loss partially.

 

BTW Where are you getting all your flight info from?

[Guest]

Woody,

 

Firstly, I must admit that I didn't even realise Garuda had actually suspended its services from Gatwick.  :-/  I know they made a botched announcement in February that they were going to do so but reversed the decision about 24 hours later.  The situation, as I understand, is that they currently have a twice weekly service until the end of the month increasing to three from 2 July for the summer period.

 

I have been employed for 25 years in the travel industry, albeit not always in air travel so most of my info originates either from the usual agents or trade net sites such as http://www.btbtravel.com and http://travelweekly.com or the trade press.  I maintain close day-to-day contact with friends in the industry who also provide the odd snippet of information.  My wife, who is Thai, works at Manchester airport and she also manages to pick up a lot of info from the MS and SQ crews in transit.  There are also a couple of guys on this board, such as Stevoh, who are obviously seasoned travellers and they are a good source of reliable info as well.

 

I subscribe to the theory that the best value flight is not always the cheapest (in fact, very rarely is the cheapest) and since most agents advertise on the basis of price so you have to dig around a bit for the deal that suits you best.  I would say that if you have a good travel agent who knows what you are about makes tracking down the deals that suit you so much easier.  I personally use a guy called Matthew at Travelbag in Knutsford for that reason - plus it's easy for me to pop into the shop and sit on his shoulder harrassing him until he comes up with something that I like.

 

If you are by any chance in Pattaya round about November time let me know and we'll hook-up for a drink or two.

 

Regards,

 

Tom

[gerald 0]

http://www.travel4less.com    After looking at many sites, i have to say this is by far the best ..... i only look at non-stop flights to Bangkok from London ... as i will return in September and i found .... Thai air £559.oo inc tax ... Eva air £473.00 inc tax and Garuda  £440.00 inc tax .... all non stop flights

[Woody 0]

.

The overall weekly net loss to passengers travelling on the LHR-BKK segment only is approx 1,200 seats.  This has been partially offset by the introduction of the 4th EVA service (Sunday flight).  The purpose of the whole exercise of course is to increase aircraft utilisation yielding higher paying customers - it will be interesting to see the availability of discounted seats during the low season (Mid Sep to early Dec).  From what I can see Thai is currently retailing at approx £540-£560 during this period with variable availability, even at this stage, in this discounted class.

 

 

Spot on Tom!!!  :)

[papalazarou 0]

Cheshire Tom

 

 

Been back in the UK for a few weeks now since my return from LOS.  Finally getting over the post holiday blues and plan to head back in OCtober if I can for a couple of weeks.  I would definately recommend Swiss at that price.  The flight from London to Zurich went in a blink and I only had to wait 2.5 hours before boarding a Thai airways 747 to BKK.  I've used Thai before and as usual it was comfortable and the meals were good and there were the complimentary free drinks so I drank Gin and Tonic till I nodded off.  The thing about Thai or similar carriers is that the experience can be really good or really bad depending on the cabin crew.  This time they were friendly and attentive.  I have travelled with them once and they were arseholes but this time I was defintely happy and £460 for a return at short notice with them is well worth it.

[Guest]

Papalazarou,

 

Glad you had a good time.   Been pissing down in Manchester as normal!

 

Are you aware if you are able to credit your miles (ZUR-BKK) to Thai's Frequent Flyer Programme?  If you are it certainly moves the Swiss/Thai option near to the top of the list of preferred carriers carriers, especially at the prices from Manchester.

 

Thanks for posting the info.  :)

 

Regards,

 

Tom

[papalazarou 0]

Tom

 

I'm not sure to be honest.  I'm guessing you can't because officially I was flying Swissair and they are not part of the star alliance group.