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Which Websites For Flights To Uk ?


mja1906

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I am looking at booking flights back to the UK around September time. I read in an old forum thread, that its often better to book online directly yourself rather than using travel agents here.

I am wondering what websites people are using to do this? Is there a Thai equivalent of sites such as Expedia, kayak.com ? I assume I could not use expedia.co.uk as the flight would have to originate from UK ? (Maybe I'm wrong)

Or is going to the airline website the only way?

On a side note, any tips for booking flights last minute for example in an emergency case, if I need to return to the UK at very short notice

Thanks,

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I always book direct with Airline via their own website or in the Bangkok Office of the Airline.

Kayak is good for comparisons.

Personally, although the variations are small Qatar is usually the best deals overall.

Edited by CharlieH
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I always book direct with Airline via their own website or in the Bangkok Office of the Airline.

Kayak is good for comparisons.

Personally, although the variations are small Qatar is usually the best deals overall.

I agree with CharlieH. Good advice from the guy.

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Like the other posters I use one of the search sites and then either book at a local agent or follow the link.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ searches for the best fare and gives you the breakdown of the fare which you have to take to a local agent to book.

Whilst http://www.dohop.com/ will search out the best fare and link you to a provider of this fare, a number of airlines recommend dohop.

I use these sites to compliment my search, not to replace them, you will be aware that fares can change by the day and offers come and go.

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The advice given previously is sound. Is it just a single flight or return you are looking for? It seems it is always dearer to book BKK-LHR than LHR-BKK and it is hard to find a UK based agent to book flights from the BKK end, however, I have heard that there might be an exception, you have nothing to lose by having a look at Southall Travel.

I have just returned with aflight I booked with them for a good price 510GBP return with Emirates. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Edited by nong38
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Thanks all for the great advice! It's much clearer to me now, what is the best way to book tix

Nong38 - 510GPB return with Emirates is an excellent price! So you were able to book this with Southall Travel, flying from BKK-LHR, LHR-BKK ?

Indeed I never heard of a UK agent that could book flights starting from BKK

I would probably be looking at a return flight

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Thanks all for the great advice! It's much clearer to me now, what is the best way to book tix

Nong38 - 510GPB return with Emirates is an excellent price! So you were able to book this with Southall Travel, flying from BKK-LHR, LHR-BKK ?

Indeed I never heard of a UK agent that could book flights starting from BKK

I would probably be looking at a return flight

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I bought my ticket LHR-BKK-LHR in the UK and flew out on the 22nd of June, a day later and the price rose to nearly 600 and the following week 722! The website is www.southalltravel.com I think it is worth trying them to see if you can a booking in reverse. They also have a subsiduary called cheapticket.co.uk who I used last year. The chap who got me the good price was called spencer,so, maybe he knows his way about? His email is [email protected]

Hope this is off help and again let us know how you get on.

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I travel London to Bangkok 6 times a year and have done so for several years. I am used to using Opodo.com and it seems to give good results.

The Kayak suggestion was helpful - I'm always willing to find new and better ways and I liked the 7 day by 7 day grid of cheapest prices. On Opodo you can only do a 3 day by 3 day grid. Kayak shows comparisons on two web-sites by default. Vayama is a well-constructed website except that I could not see total journey time without doing some adding up. e-Dreams is a waste of space - very difficult to see a range of flight options and they will add some unspecified service charge at the end when you hit the payment process.

I had just done a search on Opodo for flights from London to Bangkok - outbound between 27-Ju and 4-Aug; inbound between 2-Oct and 12-Oct. I listed out my 6 possible best flights and have now compared the Opodo price with Kayak-Vayama. The main findings of the results were:

Vayama was often but not alway a few pounds (usually £5) cheaper than Opodo. Opodo trumped Vayama a couple of times by £13 and £41. Opodo was the same price or cheaper than airline sites (not surprising since Opodo is sponsored by a consortium of airlines). This is consistent with my findings over the years. Curiously Kingfisher's site and Thai Airways was more expensive than Opodo.

Here is the raw data. My search generated 6 final choices, plus the expensive direct flight, to consider because there are different UK airports and different flight time lengths. The cheaper priced flights tend to have one or both legs over 20 hours.

Prices given are Opodo, Vayama, Airline site:

Qatar ex Manchester £488, £488, £488

Kingfisher ex Heathrow (longer flights) £563, £579, £585

Etihad ex Heathrow £585, £580, £585

Kingfisher ex Heathrow (shorter flights) £617, £619, £625

Etihad ex Manchester £621, £613, £621

Oman ex Heathrow £629, £628, £629

Thai Airways direct from Heathrow £857, £898, £916

I will add Kayak-Vayama to my armoury in future. Those on TV who poo-poo Opodo (I have seen postings to that effect) need to reconsider. I shall not waste time searching airline sites except that some airlines, like Etihad, have a very extensive grid of prices which is worth double checking. If you are lazy (and all of the above research was probably a 4 hour exercise!!) you will not lose much money by using just one of Opodo or Kayak-Vayama.

I will go for the cheap Manchester Qatar flights - a bargain at this time of year, but a painful 22 hours outbound journey time. On the outbound a 6 hour journey time saving would cost £100 and a 10 hour journey time saving would cost £369.

All research done 3-Jul.

Edited by SantiSuk
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Have a look here for BKK-LHR-BKK it searches several sites including Opodo linky . I am yet to find anywhere cheaper ex BKK. I do also use linky for tickets Ex LHR, I just had a look at travelsupermarket.com and all the prices match or beat Santi Suks by a few quid.

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Try Thaifly.com  Many people on TV have had good experiences with it.  It proved by far to have lowest prices back to eastern usa for me this year. Further, it takes scb/kbank atm online. If you don't go online - you can buy at the office 15fl Central Bang Na. I was out there and can vouch that the office exists and looks as any large travel agency might. Buying with cash was easy. Register online for FF club of choice and they will get your number into system immediately and you can check validity of ticket onsite (hopefully). Open Saturdays.

I really hate kayak - its just an scam operation to direct you to the really big online vendors.

Also - try the airlines site direct as well. Before I went with KAL, ANA was cheapest onsite. This is not uncommon.

Edited by bangkokburning
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SantiSuk. Which of the sites had the flights from Manchester? I am interested.

All the big search engines do Manchester (and nearly all other airports). The two I have used are Opodo.com and (now) the Vayama engine that I accessed through Kayak. The Manchester option is always worth a look as 3 of the good middle east carriers (Emirates, Etihad and Qatar) have daily flights - though some of the total flight journeys are more painful than flights from Heathrow - typically 20 hours vs 15 hours - ie longer stopovers in a desert airport. There has historically been a price premium for using UK regional airports (and there still is if I was to use my local Leeds/Bradford) but this seems to be disappearing in a competitive spat at Manchester.

I was stunned by the Qatar offer at £488 in the height of the UK tourist summer. Prior to that I was contemplating, with deep despair, Kingfisher via Mumbai (for) having seen that my normal direct option from LHR was £857+ and other non-Indian airlines were typically £600+ from Heathrow.

I forgot to mention - someone posted that many engines will not do BKK-Lon-BKK. Opodo certainly do. Maybe you need a UK debit/credit card though (I don't know).

I have never used a wide enough array of engines to be sure that Opodo is one of the best. All I can say is that I have used them for upwards of 50 return journeys over 6 years with no complaints. If you need to change a flight you can call them on a non-premium (local) UK number and they will sort it efficiently. There are no hidden service charges, except that they will charge extra for credit cards (I'm happy using my UK debit card). It occurs to me that the airlines themselves may not charge for a credit card, so that might be a good reason for finally buying your ticket from the airline itself for doubled up airline collapse insurance (Opodo is IATA etc, so you should be ok) or if you need the free few weeks credit.

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SantiSuk. Which of the sites had the flights from Manchester? I am interested.

All the big search engines do Manchester (and nearly all other airports). The two I have used are Opodo.com and (now) the Vayama engine that I accessed through Kayak. The Manchester option is always worth a look as 3 of the good middle east carriers (Emirates, Etihad and Qatar) have daily flights - though some of the total flight journeys are more painful than flights from Heathrow - typically 20 hours vs 15 hours - ie longer stopovers in a desert airport. There has historically been a price premium for using UK regional airports (and there still is if I was to use my local Leeds/Bradford) but this seems to be disappearing in a competitive spat at Manchester.

I was stunned by the Qatar offer at £488 in the height of the UK tourist summer. Prior to that I was contemplating, with deep despair, Kingfisher via Mumbai (for) having seen that my normal direct option from LHR was £857+ and other non-Indian airlines were typically £600+ from Heathrow.

I forgot to mention - someone posted that many engines will not do BKK-Lon-BKK. Opodo certainly do. Maybe you need a UK debit/credit card though (I don't know).

I have never used a wide enough array of engines to be sure that Opodo is one of the best. All I can say is that I have used them for upwards of 50 return journeys over 6 years with no complaints. If you need to change a flight you can call them on a non-premium (local) UK number and they will sort it efficiently. There are no hidden service charges, except that they will charge extra for credit cards (I'm happy using my UK debit card). It occurs to me that the airlines themselves may not charge for a credit card, so that might be a good reason for finally buying your ticket from the airline itself for doubled up airline collapse insurance (Opodo is IATA etc, so you should be ok) or if you need the free few weeks credit.

I should correct myself, having just booked that cheap Manchester flight. Opodo are now going down the extras route. There is a well-signalled optional charge of £12.50 (which could be useful if you are the type who tends to change your booking) and they now charge a non-optional £1 for a debit card. I guess that the £1 will soon escalate the way this industry goes. I hate these unavoidable charges that are not signalled when you do the price comparison and for the sake of a measly quid they are going to pi$$ off their customer base.

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Try Thaifly.com Many people on TV have had good experiences with it. It proved by far to have lowest prices back to eastern usa for me this year. Further, it takes scb/kbank atm online. If you don't go online - you can buy at the office 15fl Central Bang Na. I was out there and can vouch that the office exists and looks as any large travel agency might. Buying with cash was easy. Register online for FF club of choice and they will get your number into system immediately and you can check validity of ticket onsite (hopefully). Open Saturdays.

I really hate kayak - its just an scam operation to direct you to the really big online vendors.

Also - try the airlines site direct as well. Before I went with KAL, ANA was cheapest onsite. This is not uncommon.

Just went to the thaifly.com website and, strangely, on the drop-down menu for the city you're flying from, Bangkok isn't an option!

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they now charge a non-optional £1 for a debit card. I guess that the £1 will soon escalate the way this industry goes. I hate these unavoidable charges that are not signalled when you do the price comparison and for the sake of a measly quid they are going to pi$$ off their customer base.

I thought the UK government had just banned companys charging a fee for using debit cards for airline tickets, or was that only if you book direct with the airline?

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they now charge a non-optional £1 for a debit card. I guess that the £1 will soon escalate the way this industry goes. I hate these unavoidable charges that are not signalled when you do the price comparison and for the sake of a measly quid they are going to pi$$ off their customer base.

I thought the UK government had just banned companys charging a fee for using debit cards for airline tickets, or was that only if you book direct with the airline?

opodo have 20quid off all flights booked on line offer on at the moment.

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Maybe you need a promotional code from some advert. I was not offered £20 off when I booked Manchester to BKK return this morning at 10am Thai time. Still, I'm happy with £488 in early august with a decent carrier (Qatar)

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Maybe you need a promotional code from some advert. I was not offered £20 off when I booked Manchester to BKK return this morning at 10am Thai time. Still, I'm happy with £488 in early august with a decent carrier (Qatar)

yes it was payday0611.was on web site yesterday??

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Maybe you need a promotional code from some advert. I was not offered £20 off when I booked Manchester to BKK return this morning at 10am Thai time. Still, I'm happy with £488 in early august with a decent carrier (Qatar)

yes it was payday0611.was on web site yesterday??

<deleted>$ (as in <deleted>$, I missed it, not a challenge to your veracity!)

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Maybe you need a promotional code from some advert. I was not offered £20 off when I booked Manchester to BKK return this morning at 10am Thai time. Still, I'm happy with £488 in early august with a decent carrier (Qatar)

Just so you know I can spot a good bargain too I flew with Royal Jordanian last month £404 return ex LHR with Travelpack.

Worth checking out if you want super cheap!

biggrin.gif

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I'll check it out next time Smokie, though normally I like to use the direct flights and am happy to pay £650 for that. Only in August and December/January am I forced to go 'bottom fishing'. Opodo and Vayama seem not to cover that option so presumably I have to remember to look at the web-site.

I was reminded of another irritation of using Opodo last night. Sometimes they send an email asking for extended passenger info requesting that you phone them in the UK on a premium line. I just respond that they can send me a regular number or take the info by email and they go away.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks folks. I checked out the above websites, all very good.

Dohop took me to the Ebookers site, and I was surprised to find that I can actually book tickets that depart from Thailand (BKK-LHR-BKK) as I thought with 3rd party sites such as Ebookers/Opodo that you had to book flights starting from the UK.

So can somebody confirm that you can actually book flights which originate from Thailand from www.ebookers.com ?

I have a UK credit card, so would pay using that

Currently the best price is Jet Airways - 597GBP / 28,000bt for BKK-LHR-BKK departing Sep18th Return Oct 8th

Anybody flown with Jet Airways are they any good? How about Kingfisher?

Nong38- thanks, I emailed Southall travel but didn't get any response from them,

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So can somebody confirm that you can actually book flights which originate from Thailand from www.ebookers.com ?

I have a UK credit card, so would pay using that

I did last November.

BKK-LHR on Gulf Air through Ebookers using a UK Credit Card.

No problems at all.

SL.

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So can somebody confirm that you can actually book flights which originate from Thailand from www.ebookers.com ?

I have a UK credit card, so would pay using that

I did last November.

BKK-LHR on Gulf Air through Ebookers using a UK Credit Card.

No problems at all.

SL.

What was GULF AIR like?

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Thanks all, sorry never travelled Gulf Air so cannot comment

But I just booked a returng BKK-LHR-BKK on the Etihad webiste for only 27,000baht depart 4th Oct

When I checked a couple of weeks ago, the same flight was about 37k

Etihad are running a promotion at the moment from Thailand to European destinations, its worth checking out!

Brussels THB 22760 25 Jul 11 - 31 Mar 12 0Day(s)/3Month(s)

Dublin THB 22435 25 Jul 11 - 31 Mar 12 0Day(s)/3Month(s)

Frankfurt THB 25050 25 Jul 11 - 31 Mar 12 0Day(s)/3Month(s)

Geneva THB 22440 25 Jul 11 - 31 Mar 12 0Day(s)/3Month(s)

London THB 26805 25 Jul 11 - 31 Mar 12 0Day(s)/3Month(s)

Manchester THB 25955 25 Jul 11 - 31 Mar 12 0Day(s)/3Month(s)

Munich THB 24610 25 Jul 11 - 31 Mar 12 0Day(s)/3Month(s)

http://www.etihadairways.com/sites/Etihad/th/en/home/pages/promotiondetails.aspx?Prom_Id=2375&viewmore=VRNRC

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noticed the Etihad promotion too, runs till 31 March next year as well.

Remember the 3-4-3 on the Etihad flights from BKK to AUH and back, that is the only thing that I did not like when I recently travelled with them.

Edited by beano2274
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  • 1 month later...

I am looking for a Etihads flight from Bangkok to Heathrow for my wife, She has just got her settlement visa and she will be traveling back to the UK with me. i paid 470 UK pounds Return and my Wife is having to pay 600 UK Pounds one way. We are not flying for another 2 weeks, So hoping that the price will go down before i have to book.

Malc

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