LHR-Adelaide-Bangkok-LHR flights nightmare!!!

markalanious

Hi Guys, some help would be greatly appreciated since you lot seem to know what you're talking about!

I'm going to see friends in Adelaide at the end of the year and i've booked a month off work so i'm going to have a few weeks with them and then a few weeks in thailand before coming back. Since this is a few stops planning flights seems to be a nightmare. I went on kayak.co.uk and just put in all destinations lhr-adelaide-bangkok-lhr and the price came to over £3400 which is a joke, so i then tried individual prices and got the following:

Cathay Pacific - LHR to Adelaide £508 (25/12/09)
Singapore Air - Adelaide to Bangkok £396 (10/1/10)
Kuwait Air - Bangkok to LHR £334 (28/1/10)

Which works out at £1238 which is a lot cheaper but i'm not sure about flying with these airlines or if there is a better overall option that i'm missing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

Mark

RedCanadaHat

i can tell you that cathay pacific is amazing. i've flown with them several times and it's been 5 star all the way (i fly economy)

do you mean singapore air as in singapore airlines? if the latter then that is also an awesome airline. I don't know about kuwait air i'm afraid.

airlines based around asia tend to me the best in my opinion.

markalanious

Thanks for that. If anyone has any suggestions for getting a better deal I would be happy to hear them.

I'm wondering if a travel agent would be a good place to start - or would I end up getting stung that way?! As I don't need any hotels though I have avoided them so far.

Smiley82

Hi,

I definately think you should go see a travel agent. While you're travelling in peak season, and it's likely to be more expensive, it definately shouldn't be as high as you are quoting. You could also look at flying into Sydney or Melbourne, rather than Adelaide, and taking an internal flight, as there will be alot more competition into those airports as they are larger.

Maybe try STA Travel? You haven't said how old you are, but they do great flight specials for under 26's, as well as good deals for everyone else.

At a quick look, I found Qantas fares for about £1280, but I would honestly think you'd be best going to a Travel agent and seeing what they can do for you. Try a few (maybe Trailfinders as well?) and compare prices.

Hope this helps.

Moonchild

markalanious wrote: »

I'm wondering if a travel agent would be a good place to start - or would I end up getting stung that way?! As I don't need any hotels though I have avoided them so far.

Why would you get stung? They don't force you to give them your card details!

And for multi-stops many online sites can't deal with them very well.

Definitely give a couple of good ones (i.e. Trailfinders, Travelbag, STA etc)

If they are more expensive so be it, don't book. Cathay Pacific and Thai offer their cheapest fares as Inclusive Fares - i.e. you get a package including a couple nights accommodation, probably in Thailand cheaper than a flight only.

Also Adelaide is not the biggest airport in the world, and you can't fly direct from Thailand to Adelaide. Consider looking at a return to Melbourne / Sydney on Thai or Malaysian Airlines and utilise Virgin Australia (or whoever) for internals.

than4

I hear you!!
We flew LHR-MEL-BKK-MEL last year and that was hard enough. Sorry, but Adelaide will be harder.

Our main options were:
Thai airways which fly direct from MEL-BKK on a proper plane. This was over £1000 each for November departures.

Qantas LHR-MEL via Hong Kong and then MEL-BKK via Sydney. We could have gone direct MEL-BKK with Qantas but this was on a budget Jetstar plane, and sorry, but for that distance I want to go on a proper plane and am prepared to go via Sydney for that. That fare was just over £900pp.

I would look at flying direct to Sydney (there are some good deals at the moment) with a domestic connection to Adelaide. You could even use a budget carrier such as Virgin Blue or Jetstar for this bit. For domestic flights try webjet.com.au

A travel agent can probably outline your options and the prices you will be looking at - then you can choose to book yourself on the web if you want.

markalanious

Thanks guys, I'll probably give STA a call then, or pop in. But i'm 29 now so won't get the great discounts (when i did my around the world trip after uni i used them and the price for the round the world ticket was brilliant!).

markalanious

STA have quoted £1280 which isn't bad and it's with BA/Qantas but i'll give a few others a try.

richardw

Call https://www.trailfinders.com and see what the best days to fly on for Thai Airways flights, with a free stopover in BKK, there might be an 'inclusive tour' fare where you get a cheaper flight and only have to pay for one night in a hotel in BKK.

richardw

than4 wrote: »

We could have gone direct MEL-BKK with Qantas but this was on a budget Jetstar plane, and sorry, but for that distance I want to go on a proper plane and am prepared to go via Sydney for that.

Interesting Jetstar reviews http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/jetstar.htm

lorweld

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