Backpacking Abroad - Travel info for backpacking in Thailand, Laos, China & Vietnam

When do the airlines start getting desperate to fill seats and start slashing prices?

ReindeerF, May 17, 2008

I haven’t seen any pattern to this as international markets (particularly flag carriers) don’t always obey the same revenue management models as we do. Usually the best deals for an airline that doesn’t use the train cars to Auschwitz as its business model are on the Taiwan/Hong Kong carriers like Cathay and EVA, though not always. Last year Malaysia had a really good special. This year Singapore opened up direct flights to Houston (hizzah) and are keeping that pretty cheap which is good if you happen to be American and live in a city in the middle of the country that’s not NY or LA. If you can get to KL or Singapore cheaply then you can add on a R/T to Bangkok as your connector for a hundred bucks and change usually on Air Asia, Nok Air or Tiger (but beware the baggage charges muhaha).

I use a travel agent here, but in Thailand they still prefer you to pay in cash mostly so that won’t help. Still, looking for bucket shops and consolidators abroad is usually the way to go. Also, check out Emirates, they seem to fly literally everywhere these days for pretty cheap.

Personally I fly THAI anytime I can, though this isn’t a cheap option - just the fastest for me as it flies directly to BKK from either LAX or JFK and I hate those long ass layovers in like Narita where you get back on the plane and you’ve still got 7 hours. Also I love the service on THAI and the coach seats on that route have 7 extra inches by default, business economy another 7-9 more on top of that. Long live the corrupt inefficiency of THAI!