i thought this trip i might try to see if i could find a cheap flight from boston to bangkok....has anyone successfully used consolidators or similar?? i have been talking to malay air and eva in addition to the usual carriers but i thought i might try something else....all suggestions are welcome....my travel dates are in may/june, 2005...

thanks

bob

Bob, Consolidators can sometimes get you cheap tickets. However, the very cheap tickets are usually
1. absolutely unchangeable and non-refundable
2. Often such tickets don't give you frequent flier miles
3. Usually you cannot get advance seating on consolidator tickets - you just show up at the airport and hope you won't be stuck in a middle seat in a packed plane

So ask about those items when you talk to/email a consolidator.

Bob, it would be interesting to see what you could get Emirates for with their non-stop NYC to Dubai, a stopover in Dubai might be interesting too as it's a pretty fantastic place, great for shopping and restaurants and the overnight stay in the Desert Tents is a good experience too. Though their mileage would not be much use to you. I have no idea how they struxture their rates in the U.S but in Aisa their fares both Business and Coach/Economy are usually very good indeed. Their business class fares are usually much less than half.

Based on assumed outbound/inbound dates of 5/20 and 5/31, I just found a discount r/t fare of $810 + tax between BOS and BKK at <gatewaylax.com>. It's a United flight.

thanks very much...

kathie---you raise some interesting issues of course as usual...F/F miles are impportant when i am paying...so are seats we want and not in the middle....

emerites....i have been trying their web site with no luck...i will call them....also can't get malay web site to work but i have talked to them

We buy discount tickets in Oz all the time, however we often are unable to get a seat allocation until we check-in and have not once received mid row seating because we check in very early. Maybe we've been lucky.

Bob, you also need to weight up whether the pursuit of ff miles are costing you. We've given up on our ff with Qantas and now only amass points via Amex rewards which we transfer to ff miles. We've saved a fortune over the past two years by using discount agencies like travel.com.au. (No good for you guys as departure point must be in Oz).

Have you tried www.orbitz.com or www.zuji.com? Let us know what positive results you have, please.

Lyndy, your approach is worth considering. I know other people who have that approach. For me the biggest problem is that method doesn't assure me of business class upgrades, whereas my United premier Exec status mean I never fly across the ocean in coach.

My experience with orbitz.com is that their prices were two to three times the prices of the airlines own website and their routings were awful! For instance, I live in Seattle and there is a United flight that changes planes in Tokyo and goes on to Bangkok. You would think that would come up on a search by them. Noooo... instead they wanted me to take Aeroflot from Tokyo to Bangkok!! If the price was wonderful, I could have understood why they recommended it if it was very cheap, but the total price was in the upper $2000 range, whereas I can get a United ticket for under $1000 even for an upgradeable ticket.

As with everything, do your research. Just because they say they are a discount site doesn't mean the prices will be lower!

Try www.skyauction.com..they have two trips to Thailand offered with R/T air
at bids starting at $1100..but travel
is in Jan, Feb, Mar..just watch this site a few months from your travel date
and they may just offer air...it is the cheapest site I have found for R/T air
to Europe, Africa..r/wes

Cathay pacific has just launched at flight from LA for $563 return to Bangkok

I agree with you, Kathie, about discount sites, so we always ring or email two or three sites and give the exact same dates, routes etc. and whoever gives us the best price using Amex or Visa, gets the gong!

I used orbitz for car rental in the US. They were super cheap for that. Zuji were cheap for my trip to Sing/Mumbai in Feb but not as cheap as MAS direct. You are very fortunate to be able to fly business class. It costs 4 times economy price from Sydney to anywhere-a cost I cannot justify. We've been incredibly lucky with seating and usually manage to get satisfactory, even good seats, especially flying Thai. My favourite airline to Asia! Have fun!

Lyndie, it's the frequent flier miles along with my very frequent flier status that gets me the business class seats. I'm sure you can understand my reluctance to fly another carrrier when I can fly business on United!

why not talk too your peeps at seatours or other bkk bassed agaencies too see what they can offer and maybe including shipping of ticket too bos it could end up cheeper.. actually this was the old way of doing things.. but at the least you may be shown flight that you may not have thought about.

as I've posted before seatours is not a great place too look for consolidated flights.. Thats not really thier specialty... maybe the guys at Olavi can help ya out better..

RHK you've been talking about using EVA deluxe for a while now, why not try it if budget and schedualling permits.

if ya want too stick too NWA ff.. I think Korean tends too offer better deals too bkk over Malaysian..

i have been looking at them all...sea tours gave me a price of 63,880 B which is too much...

eva looks interesting but the connecting flight might be a problem and they don't want to help with it...malay may be the same but i found a source for malay at $1266 from boston using combo with american, which i hate...
time will tell...i will try your ol. suggestion too.

lets meet up orgy...

We've had very good luck with H.I.S (Highest International Standards!) Travel. They tend to use ANA or JAl and you get miles that are good with AA or UAL. Tel: 1-877-HIS-USA1. Ask about specials.

Our last trip, we got HNL to BKk with a 4 day layover in Tokyo for $732 when everywhere else was quoting $1500+.

As the tickets are non refundable, and I have some unpredictable health issuses, I buy trip insurance on just my airline tickets.

yes the biggest probs with EVA is the schedualing that why I may not use them again.. for me EVA arives in EWR at 10M +/-.. and there are no connecting flights too hartford and no busses/trains going that way at the time.. so my options are too sleep in the streets of NYC till the next Peterpan leaves are go too my aunts house in NJ...Anyways I learned something.. PLAN THE WAY BACK.

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have you checked out the ANA premium seats.. I think they are only available from new york (JFK) too tokyo.. but hell thats the roughest part..
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when are you comming too Bangers?

presently look to arrive about may 20

to rhkkmk: You may have already purchased tickets, but did you know Thai Airways will have a non-stop NY to BKK starting in May? My travel agent(Thai) in the U.S. gave me a price of $1080 from NY end of June, or $1190 from Boston to NY to BKK. Its almost the same fare as NW or United.

all done now....i ended up with northwest yet again....i'm using their world vacations arm which is our flight as 3 nites hotel and transfers...all for $1212 each...the regular airfare on the same day was $1445.....so i am very pleased....not thrilled with hotel but who cares...i saved a bundle overall...

the turning point was when they offered 5000 bonus miles each...that did it....bonus miles have since been reduced to 2500....

to rhkkmk- Did you book the NW package online? I wonder if the same rates would apply the end of June. Its supposed to be the high season. What hotels came with the package?