I am considering a 6-8 week stay in Asia this winter. What is the most cost effective way to get air fare to visit Burma, Sri Lanka and/ Vietnam . We will be flying from Boston and paying for the ticket, not using ff miles. Where is the best place to fly into and are there any air passes or inexpensive airlines to use once we are in Asia to get from one of the above countries to the other. I know that maybe this should be posted on the Air Forum, but I have faith that the Asia board Fodorites will know how I should begin researching the air fare portion of the trip.
How best to combine visiting Burma, Sri Lanka and or Viet Nam
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The two cities I have traditionally used as entry points for SE Asia are Singapore and Bangkok. Flights to these places are much less expensive from Bangkok than from Singapore these days.
From Bangkok, Thai Air has flights to Colombo. These flights seem to run full all of the time. Once you are in Sri Lanka, you'll get around via a car and driver.
For Burma, three airlines have regular flights to Yangon, Thai Air, Bangkok Air and Air Asia. Air Asia, is, of course, the cheapest. You'll want to fly some legs within Burma and you'll need an agent in Burma to purchase those tickets for you. Flights are pretty cheap - none was over $100.
For VN, you can fly to either HCMC or Hanoi from Bangkok. There are several airlines to choose from - the usual suspects plus VN Air. There is also a budget airline within VN, the name escapes me at present.
Bangkok is the best base for the 3 destinations. Kathie has laid it out pretty well for you above. Look at Kayak.com for routing and comparing prices. From Boston you can fly east or west - Bangkok is literally half-way around the world. Most on this forum seem to fly west with one domestic connection and one Asian connection prior to landing at BKK.
Cathay Pacific also flies Singapore and Bangkok to Colombo, but also seems to fly full.
Thanks for your responses. Kathie, you were so right about Thai Air to Columbo flying full. I checked some dates in Feb. and they are already sold out. Yesterday they were showing round trip air fare BKK to Columbo at $370.
i think bkk would work best and air asia to both vn and burma...the leg to sri lanka might even work for air asia travelling through kuala lumpur, but not sure of that...
consider a serviced apartment in bkk for some of your stay??
let's have a joe's dinner soon?
bob
I got a very discounted ticket to Singapore from NYC last fall. Then I traveled with an Asia pass which worked out quite favorably, bought from Bangkok Airways. Missed Vietnam since I had been there the previous year. Went to Singapore, Laos, Burma and Thailand.
Nywoman-That sounds like what I am looking for. How did you find the discounted ticket? Right now fares from NY for Jan. and Feb. are running around $1300. Bob-I do not want to spend a lot of time in Bangkok. I am not much of a shopper, more of a sightseer, and I saw much of what I wanted to see on our last trip to Thailand. I think another 5 or 6 days should be enough in Bangkok and then I would like to explore some new places. I am sure Joe would love to have us for dinner again. Email me so we can set up a time.