heleni

Singapore Air is offering a Bangkok pkg including economy class airfare, airport - hotel transfers by private car, 4 nights accom. at Royal Orchid Sheraton or Sofitel Silom Hotel, half-day Grand Palace Tour for $1280 per person from Detroit ( Singapore Air from JFK, refuelling stop in Frankfurt, then on to Singapore & Bangkok) plus $120 in taxes. For an extra $180 per person, we can have a 2 night stop-over in Singapore at The Regent. Another add on could be Chiang Mai, flight and 2 nights at the Sheraton for $220 per person. We are tempted to book the Bangkok and Singapore portion, and make our own arrangements for travel to Chiang Mai and possibly Phuket. Any advice from experienced travellers? We have never been to Thailand or Singapore. We've heard great things about Singapore Air and this does not sound like a bad deal.Another option is just booking air with on Thai Airways, non stop to BKK from JFK for $1092 plus taxes with connections from Detroit. Any advice from someone familiar with these flights would be most appreciated.

laurieco

It's a good price, but having done the Singapore Airlines flight to Asia several times, the routing through Frankfurt is inconvenient and adds on quite a few hours to an already long trip. Pricewise, I guess it would depend on how much it will cost you to go r/t Detroit-JFK. If I'm not mistaken, the price from Thai already includes taxes, etc. And you can get the ROS for about $110 per night, including taxes and services (from asiahotels.com), possibly even cheaper on other sites. So it seems to break about even. If you book seperately, you get to stay in the hotel of your choice and do things on your own timetable.

heleni

CORRECTION: taxes are $220, not $120.

laurieco

That's an awful lot for taxes. I would book through Thai myself. Also, the new Thai non-stop from JFK gives lots of extra legroom in economy, either 36 or 37 inches, depending on which Thai webpage is correct. That's a whopping 4 to 5 inches for no extra money. And, the Thai non-stop is just 17:10 JFK-BKK and 16:55 BKK-JFK.

You can also fly BKK to Chiang Mai on Air Asia for about $20.00 each way and get the hotel for less. It's a no brainer.

glorialf

I would do thai air. A MUCH shorter flight and you will have the flexibility to book whatever you want. I suspect it will come out only a teeny bit more money if at all. You can do much better than the Sheraton in CM and you don't want to take a big package tour of the Grand Palace. And the thai economy class on the JFK flight is one of the best (if not the best) in terms of comfort and amenities.

Kathie

Occasionally, airlines do have great value packages. But in my experience, it's not often. (One I remember was a Singapore Air package where you got to stay at Raffles Hotel in Singapore for $199 a night...) In terms of this package vs. booking your own, I think it's a wash in terms of dollars. But the flights will be MUCH longer (something you don't need). And there are so many hotels to choose from, you really want to choose the right hotel for you.

rhkkmk

i did a modified package this spring on northwest...it worked out fine and i saved about $250 per passenger and got 3 nites hotel thrown in...transfers are nice to have as well...

my concern would be the hotel ...the sheraton is ok, but only ok...it is on the river which is a plus...the sofitel is in a good location but i do not think it is that great a hotel...ok but not great...are there any other choices??

sing air would be fantastic and the two day add on great also...i would skip the other add ons...

traditionally going through europe took longer but there have been some flight pattern changes which make that not always true any more...i would check it out...it would be nice to have the frankfurt break just to walk around a bit before continuing...it would be like a break in LA when going that way from the east coast...

i assume sing would add on the detroit flight for little or nothing...have you looked at northwest direct from detroit??

going on your own is always the best but some parts are not always the cheapest....the hotel is important to me, more so than the flight...