Stops means that you will be changing planes but check the time you will have in the airport as this can add substantially to your journey time. Not sure about flight prices. I have been pricing up for next April and am having difficulty getting a good price. Personally I don't think you have planned too much but perhaps members here could suggest which one would be the best to cut if needed.

thanks for replying to my post I have posted on three sites oand no one helped or even replied, I don't have a lot of confidence so I am tryig to get as much info as I can

A friend of mine travels to Thailand regularly and books her internal flights with Air Asia when they have special sales on, working out about £10 per head. We are travelling to Thailand in November and have our internal flights booked with Bangkok Air, which was not the cheapest option, but timings worked best for us, and to be honest it wasn't overly expensive. As Thailand is part of our one way RTW ticket I can't really quote on the international flights, but we are flying in with Cathay Pacific (from Hong Kong) and out with Qantas (to Christ Church). I think the problem you may have is the time of year you are planning, as all flights are expensive over the Christmas period, have you got a budget?

well the most we wanted to pay was 500quid, I have noted those airlines thanks soooo much hun would stretch budget if it meant it woukld work out less hassle ,..I am so excited

I think you will have to shop around for sale prices to get the international flights for £500 each. It is a very expensive time to fly and I can't find anything for less than about £800 direct. You can fly for about £600 to Bangkok but that is with stops, connecting anywhere from Dubai, to Sri Lanka or China, it would make it an extremely long trip, especially if you are only staying a couple of weeks. A direct flight would be your best option but they are not cheap in December.

Direct flights (all 5 of them pretty much daily) will be a big chunk more expensive then. BA & Qantas flights go onto Sydney, so often booked up for that reason, Thai are full, leaving EVA Air who jump their prices up.

However, indirect is not a bad option if you choose your connection well. I did Abu Dhabi (on Etihad) couple of weeks ago, and it stretches your journey time by 2/3 hours compared to a non-stop flight which isn't bad. It's only if you get a bad connection, or fly past your destination and back (i.e. Singapore, China, Hong Kong) that you can really pile on the hours.

If you see a cheap, good connecting flight with these, I'd say you'll be doing well (in order of my preference!) - Qatar, Etihad, Emirates. Triple check if you see a good Emirates fare - a good connection is around 14-15 hours. Sometimes, if you are online listing by price it might show a total flight time of 23/24 hours as they have so many flights.

European Airlines (Lufthansa, Swiss, Air France, KLM) can be quicker, but I'm not a big fan of European airlines, and wouldn't expect them to be cheaper.

I was planning to return to Bangkok (was there for the first time last December) this December but found the flights much more expensive than last year. The best I could find was with Jet going from Heathrow via Mumbai which was around £700-750 each.

My wife and I have ended up going to Phuket via Singapore with KLM which ended up cheaper for us as we can fly from Edinburgh via Amsterdam.

If you are travelling from UK, there may be another appealing option - which can also save money.

Try flying to Amsterdam (from your local airport) and then China Airlines direct to Bangkok.

If you can get a direct flight (ex LHR) EVA is likely to be the best price.

We have done the trip (China Airlines via Amsterdam) once from LHR. The greatest saving (over flying via Middle East) is on tax - you only pay the Europen level from the UK airport - very much cheaper.

: rant_on It is about time that the UK Govt realised the harm it is doing to travel from UK. They come up with a "green tax" which does not go to help global warming, but straight to the treasury, injures UK airlines and then makes people consider taking two flights to reduce costs - not too environmentally friendly! /rant_off

Peter

:offtop : rant_on It is about time that the UK Govt realised the harm it is doing to travel from UK. They come up with a "green tax" which does not go to help global warming, but straight to the treasury, injures UK airlines and then makes people consider taking two flights to reduce costs - not too environmentally friendly! /rant_off

We are now the only country in the world charging APD after Holland and Belgium dropped their equivilent (as 'harming' their economies). Meanwhile we have increased ours massively to crazy levels.

Beardy's got a ready written letter for anyone that fancies it: http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/tridion/images/MPletterAPD_tcm4-781569.doc

Hi Clairy

Given your on a budget have you considered Air Asia X ? I have just put in your dates and the price is showing 384 GB pounds return. However, that doesn't include baggage and food so that is extra (but reasonable) AAX goes from London Stanstead to Kuala Lumper. Flights from KL for 27th and 28th Dec to Bangkok (one way) are showing aprox 38 pounds.

As Air Asia is a point to point airline you must allow your self plenty of time between flights.

Hope this helps (I'm flying with AAX myself shortly )

Cheers Geri

Thanks every so much , I managed to get a flight on air asia for £550 quid we do stop but only for about an hour (we got out interna flights for £44 return (not bad but we go to to Surathani)
26 Dec 2009 Flight (Saturday) London Heathrow (Terminal 4) - Bahrain
GF6 Dep: 20:25 Arr: 06:00 (27 Dec)
Economy

27 Dec 2009 (Sunday) Bahrain - Bangkok ConfirmedGF158 Dep: 07:25 Arr: 18:30
Economy

return
13 Jan 2010 (Wednesday) Bangkok - Bahrain
Dep: 19:35 Arr: 22:50
Economy

14 Jan 2010
(Thursday) Bahrain - London Heathrow
GF7 Dep: 01:55 Arr: 06:35

thanks everyone you have been fab as usual xx

Hi Clairey

Glad you got reasonable priced flights.

Are you sure you are on Air Asia as they only fly to and from London Stansted and NOT Heathrow.

I understand GF6 is with Gulf Air. The good thing is this a full service airline and you don't have to pay for every crumb you eat.

Whoever you're flying with have a great holiday

hahaha oooops I mean tto put Dial a flight LOL

GULF Airways ...oh that's nice to know they are an ok airline
x

Clairey -

*Not* wishing to cause alarm, but can you double check the status of your flights directly with Gulf Air in the UK.

It's just that the Bahrain - Bangkok - Bahrain flights you mention are showing as cancelled. It's probably just that they havn't been loaded properly yet. Gulf Air are currently having to use leased planes from Jet Airways for a number of flights as they have a shortage of planes, so I expect that your flights are on their new planes, but just havn't been loaded yet. However they do have a daily flight from Bahrain to Bangkok (GF 150 & GF 151) that are showing fine.

It's almost definitely nothing, but for the sake of a quick phone call, i'd rather you check now than encounter any problems later,

Thanks TS

Oh - and to add Dialaflight are a very good agency so that's very re-assuring. And I have flown Gulf Air a number of times (not for a few years though) and always found them excellent. Once when going to Sri Lanka with my girlfriend they gave us 10 (small) bottles of wine to take with us on our holiday! And they upgraded us from London - Muscat (as they were flying to then)!

Hey
Just checked and my flight is perfectly fine, they managed to get me flights so cheap by spliting them, if anyone is interested in really cheap flights to Thailand call Dial a flight Theo 020-8490-6380

mmmm some free wine would go down lovely LOL