from London to BKK in July

[poskat 0]

I just found out that I'll be travelling from Chicago( where I live) to London for business in mid July. I looked at flights from London at that time ( to travel 21/7 to 12/13/14/8) and they are in high season rates . All "special" deals I see are for travel prior to July. Can I expect any lower fares to become available later? Will some airlines drop some fares to sell off any remaining seats, or should I just get the best deal I can find right now? I've looked on many "travel".co.uk sites but haven't yet called any agencies like trailfinders, westeast, etc. Any suggestions?

poskat

[valentinoxxx 4]

See KLM post.

[poskat 0]

My travel dates are depart London July 21/22 to return from bkk aug 12-14. So I don't fit the KLM deal. In fact I don't fit any "special" deals it seems . So that's my question, will any deals come up later for high-season travel?

poskat

[BigDUSA 71]

Have you tried booking ORD to LHR to BKK to ORD? What about Priceline or Hotwire? I know it tough to find deals in the summer for flights from Philly to BKK.

[CheshireTom 1,377]

poskat,

 

It is considerably more expensive to buy a one-way ticket London-Bangkok-Chicago.

 

Your best bet would be to purchase a round-the-world fare with either Oneworld (AA and BA/Qantas) or Star Alliance (United and Thai and/or Singapore) from Chicago with stopovers in London (and any other European hub if you would prefer to fly the Europe-Bangkok leg with the likes of LH, SAS or Iberia) and Bangkok. That way you will have more options and flexibility as to routings, date changes and carriers.

 

Personally, I would get two prices - one Chicago-Heathrow return and one RTW with Star/Oneworld - get my company to pay the RTW fare and reimburse them the difference.

 

Generally speaking, deals tend to dry up from UK between mid-July and late-August as the airlines need to maintain some sort of margins with the increased number of child fares occupying seats.

 

Tom

[valentinoxxx 4]

My travel dates are depart London July 21/22 to return from bkk aug 12-14. So I don't fit the KLM deal. In fact I don't fit any "special" deals it seems . So that's my question, will any deals come up later for high-season travel?

poskat

Deals/High Season travel....

 

They don't go together.

 

What the best price you have found thus far?

[poskat 0]

Thanks for the responses guys. Since I'm travelling to London on business, they are picking up the Chicago to London round trip. So i just need to get the London to BKK ticket. I just found out about this trip Monday and want to take advantage of cutting off a lot of hours of flight time I'd have from ORD-BKK.

 

Tom- thanks for your idea but I work for a university and they are inflexible on that idea. And I didn't consider the child fare issue.

 

I plan to call Trailfinders. From what I've read here and on other boards they sound like the best options, unless anyone has another specific suggestion.

 

poskat

[valentinoxxx 4]

Just let us now the price you are quoted.

[marxere 0]

Contact Phuket Airlines as they are starting a new LGW-BKK service on june 3rd and probably have some good deals on the first few weks of service.

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Contact Phuket Airlines as they are starting a new LGW-BKK service on june 3rd and probably have some good deals on the first few weks of service.

Phuket Air are using some cast-off KLM and Garuda(?) aircraft on this route. Not an option that I would even consider.

 

Tom

[BigDUSA 71]

Tom,

 

I would think the KLM metal would be OK as I would trust their maintenance procedures compared to Garuda.

 

When foreign carrier's fly into the US our Federal Aviation Administration has some stiff maintenance requirement's that they have to meet. I would imagine your equivalent FAA has the same?

 

I wonder who does the heavy maintenance for Phuket Air, possibly Thai?

[CheshireTom 1,377]

BigDUSA,

 

I'm sorry Denny but any airline that can't even afford to paint its aircraft gets a place on my "dodgy" list. They were both parked up in Bangkok a couple of weeks ago and had simply painted "Phuket Air" onto the Garuda and KLM colour schemes. Hardly inspiring stuff.

 

Tom

[Crackpot 2]

When foreign carrier's fly into the US our Federal Aviation Administration has some stiff maintenance requirement's that they have to meet. I would imagine your equivalent FAA has the same?

Yep Foreign Aircraft are checked in the UK, as are ships too.

[nidnoyham 30]

BigDUSA,

 

I'm sorry Denny but any airline that can't even afford to paint its aircraft gets a place on my "dodgy" list. They were both parked up in Bangkok a couple of weeks ago and had simply painted "Phuket Air" onto the Garuda and KLM colour schemes. Hardly inspiring stuff.

 

Tom

You mean the paint makes them safer ?

 

The priority is, to get them earning their keep I would think, no matter what colour they are. I can't afford to have my car resprayed , gawd knows what a blooming airplane is !!

 

What would you say to a surcharge for a paint job ?

[CheshireTom 1,377]

You mean the paint makes them safer ?

 

The priority is, to get them earning their keep I would think, no matter what colour they are. I can't afford to have my car resprayed , gawd knows what a blooming airplane is !!

 

What would you say to a surcharge for a paint job ?

nidnoyham,

 

Unfortunately, from the perception of your average traveller it probably does. As you well know, that's why airlines spend millions on branding. A duff paint job can have serious financial consequences as the BA tail designs fiasco demonstrated. :crying

 

As it is they are going to have a hard job getting anyone onto their aircraft for them to earn their keep especially with both EVA and Thai still offering flights under 400 quid. Add into that equation the recent arrival of Etihab on the route and the imminent arrival of Backpackersxpress, albeit from Manchester, and the competition is pretty keen.

 

Funnily enough there is no mention of the route nor the aircraft on their website.

 

Tom

[Crackpot 2]

Sorry but I cant see this Backpackersexpress being around long enough to do anything.

 

Firstly, flying from Manchester ?? Why ? cos they cant afford LHR, LGW or STN ?

They think theyre going to fill the plane in Manchester or Munich? Nope sorry, I dont.

 

I dont believe there are that many back packers around who will all want to get together at the same time.

 

I doubt their prices are going to be any cheaper than the present offerings from Thai or some of the others.

And more seriously they themselves admit they are starting with only 2 planes.

3 flights a week with 2 planes ???????????????????? OH NO !!

That was the reason for the collapse of Phillipine Airlines, they only had 2 planes on the European run, when one got delayed or broke down it screwed everything up.

So with this mob, if one plane gets seriously delayed or has to be taken out of service you are going to have to wait around 36 or 48 hours for the next one.

That only has to happen a few times and the company has to trans ship their punters onto other airlines and theyll be broke. The Germins wont put up with that crap.

 

But.

Most of the back packers I met always wanted to fly as comfortably as possible, hence their reason for not flying Rumanian or Turkish so I cant see them having such a big market.

£550 to Melbourne ? That aint such a big deal is it ?

 

Remember, practically all the big airlines tried running a direct or semi direct service from Manchester in the past, (even Thai) and all of them ended up pulling out eventually.

 

ETIHAB ???? Yeah right ! As if there arent sufficient raghead airlines already.

[jimmac 66]

Postkat,

 

I would recommend you examine Tom's advice re the RTW ticket. Maybe you could entice your employer into participating, especially if you could add another, future North American trip to the ticket.

 

Look at a Star Alliance RTW ticket. It is valid for up to a year. You can only stop over in a city once. You can only cross the Atlantic and Pacific once but there's no limit to what you can do within the Americas. So look for a trip you're likely to do in the next year and book it on the end of the RTW ticket. You can change dates and flight times later at no cost. An itinerary change costs $75 or $100. Leave for London and BKK from Milwaukee or somewhere else very close to Chicago so when you come back to Chicago you are on a stopover until the next trip.

 

Star Alliance has total miles limits on the RTW tickets with the lowest being 29,000. You can fly ORD-LHR-BKK-ORD in less than 21,000 miles so when you get home you can take a return trip in the Americas, North and South, with a round trip distance of up to 8,000 miles.

 

RTW tickets can be a very good deal if they are managed effectively. If you can wrap in a second business trip at a modest, shared cost maybe your employer would look at it. And you'd get to BKK cheap.

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Crackhead,

 

As everybody in the travel industry knows (apart from you it seems) Thai pulled out of Manchester as part of the deal for them to join Star Alliance so that they would not be in competition with Singapore Airlines. That agreement expires soon.

 

The reason that you can't do direct (as opposed to non-stop) flights from Manchester through European hubs is to do with 5th/6th Freedon rights and crew duty time not passenger loads. It is a problem that Thai continually comes up against as witnessed by their recent decision to pull out of the Geneva leg from Zurich.

 

Your comments re Backpackersxpress and ETIHAB show that you know nothing about either airline.

 

Tom

[Crackpot 2]

Cheshire Prat

You really dont like 'The law according to Cheshire Prat' being questioned do you ?

 

As everybody in the travel industry knows (apart from you it seems) Thai pulled out of Manchester as part of the deal for them to join Star Alliance so that they would not be in competition with Singapore Airlines. That agreement expires soon.

 

But why did they try it in the 80 and then pull put??

 

However as everyone in the travel industry knows, (except you, it seems, )

Thai were dead happy to pull out, the route was losing money hand over fist.

The reason that you can't do direct (as opposed to non-stop) flights from Manchester through European hubs is to do with 5th/6th Freedon rights and crew duty time not passenger loads. It is a problem that Thai continually comes up against as witnessed by their recent decision to pull out of the Geneva leg from Zurich.

So I was right then ?

History proves me right, I repeat, practically every mainline airline that has tried to run a Manchester BKK service has eventually given up. Its unprofitable.

 

Your comments re Backpackersxpress and ETIHAB show that you know nothing about either airline.

Your right I know nothing about them, neither do you other than what they say on their website which you seem to ignore.

 

Foot in mouth time matey ?I quoted directly from Backpackersexpress website or do you know more about their business than they do ? seems like it.

I repeat, with two aircraft the whole thing will collapse if one plane goes down, or are they going to run a back up bus service from Manchester to Bangkok

 

I said nothing about ETIHAB, but Im sure the raghead investors will pour billions into it. I wont fly on it though, Backpackersexpress either I want to know Im going to get there, or at least know which day I will arrive and not which week.

 

In flight Karaoke ? Oh please !!!!!!!

 

BTW I didnt see you at last years WTM ??? Wouldnt they give you tickets ?

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Crackhead,

 

What route did Thai fly from Manchester in the 80s? I thought the bilateral agreement didn't come around until '97.

 

Direct flights to SEA from Manchester don't seem to be unprofitable for either Singapore or Malaysia - what makes Bangkok so different? BA don't want to fly anywhere long-haul from Manchester so it only leaves Thai (Qantas slots are fully taken up at LHR) with bilateral rights to go into Bangkok from Manchester. Thai can't do it at the moment because of a lack of airframes since United pulled the plug on their 747 order.

 

What mainline airline, other than Thai, has flown Manchester-Bangkok?

 

Tom

[Crackpot 2]

Crackhead,

 

What route did Thai fly from Manchester in the 80s? I thought the bilateral agreement didn't come around until '97.

 

Direct flights to SEA from Manchester don't seem to be unprofitable for either Singapore or Malaysia - what makes Bangkok so different? BA don't want to fly anywhere long-haul from Manchester so it only leaves Thai (Qantas slots are fully taken up at LHR) with bilateral rights to go into Bangkok from Manchester. Thai can't do it at the moment because of a lack of airframes since United pulled the plug on their 747 order.

 

What mainline airline, other than Thai, has flown Manchester-Bangkok?

 

Tom

Cheshire Prat

 

They flew Manchester-Frankfurt-Bangkok and I was on the inaugural flight with Steve Brindle, sale manager for Thai Airways in Manchester. The service started in 1987 or 88. It was practically doomed from the start but I was told there were other more beneficial reasons for starting the service.

 

I think you will find that both SIA and Malaysia use their Manchester flights as loss leaders and also gives them the added bonus of being able to reroute to LHR if they have a serious breakdown. I would seriously doubt that any of their flights ex-Manchester, have ever gone out full or near full except maybe on a few rare occasions.

 

 

Gulf Air tried a service Via the Gulf. I could swear BA ran some flights out of Manchester in the 80's and I know Quantas did, via Paris I think.

[ROLAND 1]

When I first started going to LOS and I flew Qantas, the flight originated in Manchester then LHR then off to BKK.

This was the old QF2 which left Heathrow at lunchtime and got to Bangers at 6am.

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Crackhead,

 

As Roland says, Qantas are the only other major player that has done a direct (same flight number) service from Manchester. BA put a stop to that with the advent of OneWorld and the preference, understandably, for the LHR hub. Qantas, as things stand at the moment, cannot do a non-stop service because all their agreed weekly slots are taken up at LHR.

 

Both Qatar and Emirates operate indirect connecting services through Doha and Dubai and are doing quite nicely.

 

Tom

[Crackpot 2]

Crackhead,

 

As Roland says, Qantas are the only other major player that has done a direct (same flight number) service from Manchester. BA put a stop to that with the advent of OneWorld and the preference, understandably, for the LHR hub. Qantas, as things stand at the moment, cannot do a non-stop service because all their agreed weekly slots are taken up at LHR.

 

Both Qatar and Emirates operate indirect connecting services through Doha and Dubai and are doing quite nicely.

 

Tom

Cheshire Prat

 

Qantas did a service ex- Manchester via Paris, cant remember the exact year but think it was 87.

 

Same year they started the £399 LHR-BKK-LHR service which was pounced on and then subsequently shut down and stopped by BA.

 

Gulf Air were a major player and openly advertised their Manchester-BKK service via the Gulf, yet they too pulled it because of lack of punters. They probably dont have the money behind them that Qatar and Emirates have

 

But, Qatar and Emirates 'doing nicely' ? Are you privvy to their accounts as well as knowing more about Backpackersexpress than they do, (I see you have gone rather quiet on the BPexpress rubbish)

 

I suspect that Backpackersexpress will go the same way as most other airlines running Long Haul from Manchester. They shout and scream about their projected service but it will all end in tears or probably end up running out from Stanstead, thats assuming they stay in Business long enough (which, with only 2 planes I seriously doubt)

[sinbinjack 251]

hi guys, i dont wish to flame you at all but i came here to find the cheapest flight prices, not listen to a businness discusion about airlines, please keep these topics on topic thank you jack