travel to thailand over xmas

Doshwaster

jimi_man said:

Yes I looked on Google flights and other than a stupid 30 hour layover in China for about £800 or so, it was about £950+.

We are going in April towards end of UK school holidays and ours is one stop (Qatar) for £600. Asia is really expensive at the moment.

£600 on Qatar is pretty good though April is the start of the tourist off season in Thailand so demand will lower. Nice airline too. Flew them to Bangkok last month and couldn't fault them. Doha is also an easier transit than Dubai. Thailand is a little to far to fly non-stop in Economy so I prefer a stop.

You can get cheaper on Chinese airlines but the connection times are usually stupid. The Middle Eastern airlines plan their timetables around connections as their business model depends on it while the Chinese airlines don't as they are mostly catering to a domestic market.

jimi_man

Doshwaster said:

jimi_man said:

Yes I looked on Google flights and other than a stupid 30 hour layover in China for about £800 or so, it was about £950+.

We are going in April towards end of UK school holidays and ours is one stop (Qatar) for £600. Asia is really expensive at the moment.

£600 on Qatar is pretty good though April is the start of the tourist off season in Thailand so demand will lower. Nice airline too. Flew them to Bangkok last month and couldn't fault them. Doha is also an easier transit than Dubai. Thailand is a little to far to fly non-stop in Economy so I prefer a stop.

You can get cheaper on Chinese airlines but the connection times are usually stupid. The Middle Eastern airlines plan their timetables around connections as their business model depends on it while the Chinese airlines don't as they are mostly catering to a domestic market.

Yes it’s Songkran (water throwing festival) which we’ve been Thailand over that time before. Usually pretty warm then! 

Qatar are quite good, agreed. We used them to Vietnam just before Covid and were impressed. We wanted a OneWorld airline as we have BA status so we can book seats/use the lounges etc. Looked at Business but they are two shortish flights, we are going with friends and the prices were horrific (£5k each). 

tightauldgit

Doshwaster said:

jimi_man said:

Yes I looked on Google flights and other than a stupid 30 hour layover in China for about £800 or so, it was about £950+.

We are going in April towards end of UK school holidays and ours is one stop (Qatar) for £600. Asia is really expensive at the moment.

£600 on Qatar is pretty good though April is the start of the tourist off season in Thailand so demand will lower. Nice airline too. Flew them to Bangkok last month and couldn't fault them. Doha is also an easier transit than Dubai. Thailand is a little to far to fly non-stop in Economy so I prefer a stop.

You can get cheaper on Chinese airlines but the connection times are usually stupid. The Middle Eastern airlines plan their timetables around connections as their business model depends on it while the Chinese airlines don't as they are mostly catering to a domestic market.

The potential good thing about long layovers in China is you should be able to get a short visa to cover the period and go explore Beijing or Shanghai or Guangzhou for a day. If it was going to be a lot cheaper I wouldn't have too much of an issue doing that but wouldn't bother with it to save £100 or whatever. 

I've found Saudia has been doing the best deals recently though I wouldn't particularly recommend them as an airline compared to Emirates or Qatar - but if price is the main concern they are worth looking at. 

I find doing a transit stop in the Middle East just makes the trip much much longer though - if I could get a direct flight (or a connection at AMS or whatever) I'd definitely just go for it. You're going to be on the plane for 8 hours anyway so might as well just go for the extra 3 or 4 and make it all the way to your destination.  

jimi_man

tightauldgit said:

Doshwaster said:

jimi_man said:

Yes I looked on Google flights and other than a stupid 30 hour layover in China for about £800 or so, it was about £950+.

We are going in April towards end of UK school holidays and ours is one stop (Qatar) for £600. Asia is really expensive at the moment.

£600 on Qatar is pretty good though April is the start of the tourist off season in Thailand so demand will lower. Nice airline too. Flew them to Bangkok last month and couldn't fault them. Doha is also an easier transit than Dubai. Thailand is a little to far to fly non-stop in Economy so I prefer a stop.

You can get cheaper on Chinese airlines but the connection times are usually stupid. The Middle Eastern airlines plan their timetables around connections as their business model depends on it while the Chinese airlines don't as they are mostly catering to a domestic market.

I find doing a transit stop in the Middle East just makes the trip much much longer though - if I could get a direct flight (or a connection at AMS or whatever) I'd definitely just go for it. You're going to be on the plane for 8 hours anyway so might as well just go for the extra 3 or 4 and make it all the way to your destination.  

Yes, transit stops in the ME do add to the journey time, no question. Tbh so does any transit stop - at AMS for example. The only saving grace to my mind is that if you do have a transit stop it’s quite nice to break it halfway rather than one hour into it but YMMV. 

Like you I’d rather go direct though, but as BA have stopped and not going to start again and there are no other OW airlines going direct, then it’s Qatar via Doha. Finnair via Helsinki was the other option but Qatar was quicker, with only 75 mins connection time. 

Doshwaster

jimi_man said:

Doshwaster said:

jimi_man said:

Yes I looked on Google flights and other than a stupid 30 hour layover in China for about £800 or so, it was about £950+.

We are going in April towards end of UK school holidays and ours is one stop (Qatar) for £600. Asia is really expensive at the moment.

£600 on Qatar is pretty good though April is the start of the tourist off season in Thailand so demand will lower. Nice airline too. Flew them to Bangkok last month and couldn't fault them. Doha is also an easier transit than Dubai. Thailand is a little to far to fly non-stop in Economy so I prefer a stop.

You can get cheaper on Chinese airlines but the connection times are usually stupid. The Middle Eastern airlines plan their timetables around connections as their business model depends on it while the Chinese airlines don't as they are mostly catering to a domestic market.

Yes it’s Songkran (water throwing festival) which we’ve been Thailand over that time before. Usually pretty warm then! 

Qatar are quite good, agreed. We used them to Vietnam just before Covid and were impressed. We wanted a OneWorld airline as we have BA status so we can book seats/use the lounges etc. Looked at Business but they are two shortish flights, we are going with friends and the prices were horrific (£5k each). 

Same here. I am Silver with BA so it made sense to fly Qatar rather than Emirates (who are also good in Economy). I've also recently flown BA Premium Economy and it's hard to tell the difference between that an Qatar Economy especially on an overnight flight. Just a shame Qatar don't do a Premium Economy as I'm sure it would be excellent.

The lounge situation in Doha is quite confusing though as their flagship lounges are only available to their own premium passengers and don't allow access to OneWorld status members so you get redirected to their Gold lounge as a Silver member (which is still OK) and the Platinum lounge if you are BA Gold. Told you it was confusing.

Always fancied going to Thailand during Songkran but the temperatures at that time of year put me off - though I suppose being drenched with water is sure to cool you down.

tightauldgit

jimi_man said:

tightauldgit said:

Doshwaster said:

jimi_man said:

Yes I looked on Google flights and other than a stupid 30 hour layover in China for about £800 or so, it was about £950+.

We are going in April towards end of UK school holidays and ours is one stop (Qatar) for £600. Asia is really expensive at the moment.

£600 on Qatar is pretty good though April is the start of the tourist off season in Thailand so demand will lower. Nice airline too. Flew them to Bangkok last month and couldn't fault them. Doha is also an easier transit than Dubai. Thailand is a little to far to fly non-stop in Economy so I prefer a stop.

You can get cheaper on Chinese airlines but the connection times are usually stupid. The Middle Eastern airlines plan their timetables around connections as their business model depends on it while the Chinese airlines don't as they are mostly catering to a domestic market.

I find doing a transit stop in the Middle East just makes the trip much much longer though - if I could get a direct flight (or a connection at AMS or whatever) I'd definitely just go for it. You're going to be on the plane for 8 hours anyway so might as well just go for the extra 3 or 4 and make it all the way to your destination.  

Yes, transit stops in the ME do add to the journey time, no question. Tbh so does any transit stop - at AMS for example. The only saving grace to my mind is that if you do have a transit stop it’s quite nice to break it halfway rather than one hour into it but YMMV. 

Like you I’d rather go direct though, but as BA have stopped and not going to start again and there are no other OW airlines going direct, then it’s Qatar via Doha. Finnair via Helsinki was the other option but Qatar was quicker, with only 75 mins connection time. 

Yeah I'm not sure on the routings and timings to Thailand specifically - I was probably thinking more of the trips I used to do to China and Korea where it was like an 10/11 hr shot from AMS straight (with an hour flight to connect) or two 8 hour hops via Dubai. 

Mind you nowadays I tend to just pick the cheapest option that's not stupid (no 36hr 3 stop extravanganzas).