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How can that be?? Many of the Discovery Air flights are already booked?

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How can that be?? Many of the Discovery Air flights are already booked?

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Old May 19th, 2008, 05:18 PM
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How can that be?? Many of the Discovery Air flights are already booked?

I've been on the phone with Bangkok air for hours trying to rearrange my itinerary so that we can fly from BK to SR to LP and back to BK.
The SR to LP portion is already sold out in the morning and the one other flight is to late in the afternoon.
How can it be sold out for a January flight....? To tour operators perhaps? Or maybe very limited flights or???

I emailed Eddie about tickets for these flights also and he was very quick in his response and able to book us but at $180 more per ticket ($570) than what Bangkok air was charging.
That may be our only option....

Kind of disappointing as I thought we had it figured out....back to the drawing board I guess.
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Old May 19th, 2008, 05:25 PM
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Seats for use with the Discovery Airpass are limited, and some flights have none at all. Kind of like frequent flyer seats. January is high season, so Bangkok Air will likely limit seats quite a bit in order to collect the higher fare. You could wait and keep trying for seats with the pass, and if they don't happen, buy the ticket without the pass.
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Old May 19th, 2008, 08:01 PM
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Although you would have to get an additional domestic coupon you could try the flight that leaves SR to Vientiane at 10.05 arriving 13.00. Then there is a flight to LP at 13.40 which you could make if Laos could check you bags right though from SR to LP and the flight is on time. Extra ticket would be around $88net. Another reason, other than peak season, that no seats are available on the flight you want may be due to this flight operating on tues/thur/sun only.
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Old May 19th, 2008, 08:44 PM
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Scotters:
I've printed out your post and will see about our options when I speak with them again tomorrow.

The gal I was talking to today had to hang up because they only work limited hours and they were closing for the day.


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Old May 21st, 2008, 01:39 PM
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Is anyone familiar with the Discovery Pass? I went online, and the website said that you only had to book the date for your first flight. When I called Bangkok Airways, they said that you had to book all of the flights (date certain) and that there would be a penalty for changing it. Any suggestions? Is it worth booking the dates and paying the penalties? We are looking at flying from BKK to LP, Vientiene to Pakse, and Pakse to BKK.
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Old May 21st, 2008, 02:24 PM
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I can't speak to your question about "on line" booking because I had a difficult time naviagating their site.

As far as I know you have to book all 3 legs of your flight in advance. We were on the phone yesterday for over an hour booking our flights from BKK to Siem Reap, to Luang Prubang and back to BKK. The total fare was $540. pp and if you pay with a cc they tack on another 5%.

Many of the flights that we would have liked to have booked were already full.
KimJapan called "its like frequent flyer miles"
They only offer so many seats.

sorry I can't be more help...maybe someone else will chime in.

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Old May 22nd, 2008, 11:25 AM
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I knew that you couldn't book online, but what they say on the phone and what they write on their website are two different things. In the grand scheme of things, is it cheaper just to book the flights once I'm there? Does anyone know?
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Old May 22nd, 2008, 12:26 PM
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Absolutely not. If you wait until you get there, chances are good that your flights will be sold out. Bangkok Air is not and doesn't operate like a budget carrier--you should ticket with them like you'd ticket any other legacy carrier in any other country.

Just call a Bangkok Air office nearest you (local #s are on their site) and booked the Discovery Pass (and your flights) that way--it's one of the easiest things I've ever done. Took about 10 minutes to book our flights and another 20 minutes to receive and fax back a credit card authorization.

Good luck!
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Old May 22nd, 2008, 01:04 PM
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As filmwill says, it will be more expensive to book once you get there - if there are seats left at all.

The Discovery Pass cannot be booked from within Thailand. It's a good deal if you are flying several legs on Bangkok Air. Make a plan and book it as soon as you can, as there are limited seats availble for the pass on each flight.
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Old May 23rd, 2008, 03:27 PM
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filmwill:
Have you already received your tickets after paying for your Discovery Passes with your credit card? I'm asking because I just paid for mine on 5/21/2008 via PayPal and was told by the sales agent at Bangkok Air that the tickets for each leg of my itinerary will be issued as e-tickets but I still yet have to receive them. I just want to get an idea on how fast people generally receive their Discovery Pass e-tickets once they've been paid for. Thanks.
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Old May 23rd, 2008, 04:01 PM
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After we purchased our tickets over the phone we asked if we could pay for them at a local office in Encino California which is 5 minutes away from my home.
The said that would be fine if payment was by certified check. We could have also paid by CC but would have paid an additional $25. per ticket for processing.

The agent set up an appt for us and we drove to the office a few days later with a appt. at 11:00 a.m. We waited there while the checks were processed.

You might check and see if there is an office in your neighborhood.

The office is also not specific to Bangkok air, they ticket for many other smaller airlines.
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Old May 23rd, 2008, 06:49 PM
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bducla, we called the office directly in LA and after faxing our payment form, we promptly received the eticket via email (that's how you should be receiving it--it's not a hard copy.)

if you haven't received any email within a week of purchasing, I'd contact your local BA office.

Best of luck--happy travels!
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Old May 23rd, 2008, 07:18 PM
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And do make sure the e-ticket wasn't caught in your spam filter
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Old May 26th, 2008, 08:08 PM
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How easy or difficult is it to change the dates for a flight? We're not 100% sure of the dates that we'll be flying (except for the initial flight).
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