3 of us were planning to go to Bangkok spring break in March (1 is a teacher) but will not be able to go then.
We are thinking of going in the summer which would allow extra time to add other places to our trip. Probably we would plan on a 10-day total trip.
We would appreciate advice from Fodorites on where else we might go in addition to Bangkok. To give a bit more info: we've been to Japan; we are not interested in going to beach areas; we want to do some shopping and going to tailors plus massages & a spa. We've considered Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, and, in Thailand, Chiang Mai. We know we can't go every place in just 10 days though. Also, is it better/cheaper to fly from the USA to Thailand and take trips to other places from there? We will appreciate your help!

you do not have a ton of time, so that will limit you a bit....but not hold you back....

bkk is worthy of lots of time for the things you have mentioned...ruling out beaches makes it easier....the primary shopping areas are in bkk and chiang mai....bkk has it all so i would concentrate my time there... at the least i would begin my trip and end my trip there for several days each...this would allow for any clothing you are having made to be completed without rushing....you will need to have some fittings for this as well...

you might want a break from bkk so you could go to chiang rai or chiang mai as alternatives, but you would miss nothing by staying the entire time in bkk....if you pick your bkk hotel carefully you can have a really good experience...my favorite is the marriott resort and spa on the river...i prefer river locations as do many fodorites, especially for first timers...

i do not know your budget so this hinders what i can suggest...

a good hotel site is: www.huahin.20m.com
this focuses on hua hin, but if you scroll down a bit you can click on other thailand destinations and then pick bangkok...i find their prices to be about the best....most of the hotels listed include tax and service, which amounts to a whopping 17.7% country wide and in many cases a fabulous breakfast..

one way to save money and i am doing it on my upcoming trip is to book through an airline's packaged web-site...in my case i am using northwest airlines' world vacations...they allow you to fly and pick a hotel for as few as 3 days...then for the rest of your stay you can pick the hotel you really want...in my case i choose the cheapest-- the royal river hotel...i have stayed there before and it was ok...by doing this i saved about $250 per ticket...i think $1212 is our fare including everything--may departure...i then pick the other hotels i want ...it works out great...

united has been offering a fare of about $695 for ages as well...thai air has a new flight from nyc starting in may and it is quick and cheap...

go as early in the summer as you can...it gets hotter the longer you wait...at the end of summer you are approaching the heavy rain season...

food is fabulous in thailand and especially in bkk....all types and varieties...it is also cheap even in the lux restaurants...

Rhkmk... bying the plane hotel. day tour package is one of the few things I recomend cant believe yourr trying that option..

frommers has a section for package travel wich offers many good choices I've seen some offers for the PEN including airfare.

rhkkmk, thanks for good practical info.
We had not thought of pkgs. Our preference is AA because of ff mileage. Fare seems much more expensive fr DFW than fr your area. We plan to stay at the Marriott resort because of positive feedback from you and others as well as the location.
We could extend to 12 days.
Budget is not a major factor, tho we like to get good value.
If we allowed 12 days, would airfare likely be more reasonable from BKK to someplace else & back to BKK (for final fittings, etc.) rather than a stopover coming or going?
10-12 days are more than we want to spend in BKK; what other place(s) would you suggest we visit? We like experiencing other cultures (as long as it doesn't involve much up close & personal w/nature - like hiking thru the jungle!).
Thanks!

If you can extend your stay to 12 days, you can add another location such as Lunag Prabang, Laos, Siem Reap, Cambodia (the temples of Angkor) or a location in Northern Thailand such as the Anantara at the Golden Triangle (interesting locale and a great spa!). Flights within Thailand or to neaby countries are reasonably priced. Don't buy those with your transpacific ticket, buy online, in Thailand or from a Thai agent.

i think kathie is saying, and i agree....buy usa-bkk and then buy the other legs....bangkok air is a good site to look at and a very good carrier...thai air also...

we usually fly to bkk and then branch out from there....it is a hub for SE asia...

options: bali, myanmar (burma), vietnam, malaysia, laos, cambodia come to mind quickly....

luang prabang in laos is my branch out destination this spring....it is a one hour ten minute flight from bkk and costs about $150 round trip on bkk air or maybe a bit more...maybe $250 to siem reap cambodia (angkor wat)---very interesting....
we loved yangon in myanmar...it too is a 1 hour flight...

bali is fantastic but more money to get to and 3.5 hours....

understand the FF miles bit...i really wanted to try another airline this trip but northwest has me in its grips...it also has dfw in its grips doesn't it?? american is not noted for asia flights generally...n/w and united are the american leaders...i think a/a uses thai as a partner, which is a good thing....

try pricing at a direct bkk flt. and then add ons or doing a 2 area visit using hotels supplied and air....OR start over with n/w and do what i am doing with world vacations...

you will love the marriott...i have it scheduled for 2 six day stints this trip and maybe more...

Domestic flights within Thailand are quite reasonable anyway, a fully flexible Coach/Economy return to Chiang Mai from Bangkok is about $115, that is the highest price you can pay really, there are lots of promotions going on at the moment and Thai is offering some good deals.
The Budget carriers are very very cheap but as always with Budget carriers you really need to find your plans or pay the penalties to change your flights. March is not too busy and you can probably just wait and then grab local bargains once in Bangkok, budget carriers are Thai Air Asia ( www.airasia.com ) and Nok Air ( www.nokair.com ), another big budget carrier is One-2-Go, trouble is their website is not that good ( www.onetwo-go.com ), I would stick with Nok Air or Thai Air Asia.
You can also check Thai Airways (www.thaiairways.com ) and bangkok Airways ( www.bangkokair.com ) for deals and offers.

Instead of flying out of DFW (AA's fortress hub), try to price the trip out of Austin. It may be cheaper. The irony is that you will in all probability fly through DFW.

If you are concerned about AA miles, then make sure you pick AA codeshare flights coming out of Tokyo. AA will get you to Tokyo and JAL has AA codeshares to BKK from there. A codeshare flight will get you full elite qualifying miles and points plus whatever status bonus miles you may be entitled to. If you fly the same but JAL coded flight then you ONLY get 70% of the actual miles flown and they will not be elite qualifying miles (that's true for most economy fares).

If you don't have status with AA consider signing up for a Gold or Platinum challenge. If you fly out of Austin (AUS-DFW-NRT-BKK-NRT-DFW-AUS) you will be within few hundred miles of copleteing a Platinum challenge. A short trip (DFW-AUS-DFW) within 3 month period after your first trip will give you enough miles to complete the challenge. With Platinum status you get 100% bonus miles on top of the actual miles flown, AA and OneWorld partners airport lounges access when travelling internationally, plus many other perks. If you don't feel that you can take the short flight later then sign up for Gold challenge. Gold status gives tou less perks but it still better than no status at all. This one trip will give you enough for Gold status challenge. You need to call AAdvantage customer service to sign up and you will have 90 days to complete the challenge which could be started on the 1st or 15th of the month so pick the closest date before your first flight. If your start date is after June 15th and regardless of which challenge you complete, your status will be good till the last day of Feb of 2007. Also, if you complete the Platinum challenge and you don't requalfy the normal way in 2006, you still will have the Gold status for another year, till 2/2008 as AA only drops you one level at a time.

Have a great trip!. I just came back from BKK flying AA and AA codeshares/operated by JAL.

i was confusing dallas with detroit...sorry

i think eva air uses A/A partnership...billT uses them from texas...

Kathie, James A, rhkkmk,Orgy7 - Thanks for helping us think out of the box. We had not considered Cambodia or Laos but are interested. Will do some research.

Good to know we'll be able to do Asia flights from BKK; AA flies direct fr DFW to Tokyo; the flight to BKK counts as AA but is flown by JAL, I think. DFW is a hub for AA, and there is not a lot of competition fr other carriers.

AA Frequent Flyer - All of us have gold status w/AA but are not familiar w/the challenge you mentioned. Tried searching on the AA site but got nowhere. Please send details. Thanks!

For info on the challenge, go to http://www.unofficialaa.com/
It is in the "undocumented" section.

EVA uses continental onepass..

seriously I think many should consider Bali from bkk since you can find many flight that are only $50-$75 more expensive then going too cambodia or vietnam..

Richard1148, thanks for the web site info. Very interesting.

Orgy7, the problem w/Bali is the time involved in getting there.

Obviously, I'm still learning how to post messages - not well, it seems.
We are considering the Landmark downtown because of its convenience to shopping the first days we are there.
Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Just remember that it is going to be very, very hot in Summer. We just came back from our trip and it is already hot.

Landmark is good place to be. We loved SHERATON GRANDE SUKHUMVIT. It is close to everything. The river hotels are good but not convenient to other popular restaurants and shopping.

As JamesA suggested, try booking online for your trips within Thailand. Air Asia is good option and have the cheapest flights. I booked them online and had no problems. With Bangkok Airways, you can check out their Discover Pass Program esp. if you plan to go to Cambodia or other neighboring countries. You have to remember to confirm all the sections of you trip as soon as you can. We did the mistake of keeping one flight open from Chiang Mai and could not get on the flight on the day we wanted so I had to eat that ticket. They have limited seats assigned to the program and it fills very quickly. The only problem with Bangkok Airways is that nobody in US seems to sell the tickets and their US Office phone is always busy. I had to call their office in Bangkok to make reservation. The good thing is that you don't have to pay up-front. Just make the booking, get the confirmation number and then pay before you take the flight.

For flights from USA check out http://www.thaifly.com/ or try contacting local Thai Travel agents. I asked my favorite Thai Restaurant owners and they gave me number of contacts. It works because they are consolidators for flights to Thailand and other parts in Asia.

They also have hotels. For discount hotels without any headaches and good prices, try http://www.hotelclub.com/. At all costs avoid www.farangs.com and its subsidiaries. They take forever to respond and this is after you have handed over your credit card number - nobody wants that kind of stress.

Hi,

I don't know about AA as we use Continental FF. I would think AA works the same way with their co- shares. Last Nov. we flew Continental Houston to Portland and changed to NW to Narita and on to Beijing. The return was from Bangkok to Narita to Portland on NW then Continental on to Houston. We used One Pass FF flyer rewards and it was considered a round trip and was actually less total one pass miles because NW, their co-share, cost fewer miles, and only about 2 hours more time with the stop in Portland. We went bussiness class, had to buy a few thousand miles to do it, but it was worth it because the 1000 mile units were so cheap!

Everyone is saying make short flights in Thailand from Bangkok, that's great. However, if you want to go to Hong Kong or Singapore, and Bangkok (for Chiang Mai), call AA FF service and talk direct with them. You may have to call several times till you get someone who will really work with you. The third time I called the lady got it set up with NW so we could both use FF miles.

You should be able to round trip to-from Bangkok with a stop over one way for a few days in another city- Hong Kong or Singapore. We have done that before on other trips. The flights are so long and costly you should see as much as you can.

10 -12 days is more than enough time to see some of Thailand and a few days in Singapore or Hong Kong. I would do Hong Kong. It is very different and was more interesting, I thought, than Singapore. Singapore is a beautiful modren city though.

Vietnam and Thailand have a different feel from the two big cities and we loved both countries, but would think flight schedules might be more difficult with Veitnam.

Tailors and dresmakers in Bangkok can get things done on three days. The dressmaker made three outfits for me in 24 hours- they were simple and copies of two favorite things I took her, along with some silk I had bought in China. My husband had two suits, a sports coat, 6 shirts and three pair of pants made in three days with two fittings after the first visit- Beautiful material and great workmanship and very good price.

From what you said you wanted to do, I would go to Hong Kong for shopping (nice things, many that you see in Dallas and much cheaper) and Bangkok for pampering, tailors and more native type shopping - beautiful crafts and fabrics. Both places are full of great but very different sites.

Most would say we didn't spend enough time at the places we went to enjoy them. Like your group, we are limited in our travel time, but love to go, do and see as much as we can on every trip!

We were on a cruise that ended in Bangkok. Were there for 4 days. We took one day trip and explored the city the rest of the time. Yes, a week in Bangkok with a day tripor two would be great and you will have time to see and do what you have listed.

The humid and heat are at least as bad as it gets in Houston, so be sure the hotel has a good pool. I liked the river area area as it seemed cooler, was nice at night and was easy to get down town to the main shopping on the skytrain. Kinda fun actually!

We had one day in Hong Kong. Did alot of shopping and saw most of the major sites, but it is diffinitely worth two or three days. It is a beautiful interesting city, a mixture of old and new and not as hot as Bangkok.

Hope this helps and have a great time.

<b>institcher</b>,

You will learn everything about AA program and challenges right here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=342145

Good luck!


BTW, don't use miles for intra Asian flights, especially out of BKK. You could purchase tickets the day of or a day before at any of the numerous BKK travel agents very inexpensively. SIN, HKG ranges from $150-$300 for economy and usually about $100-$200 more for business.

AAFrequentFlyer - Thanks for the info on flyertalk. Until you posted the 1st time, I had never heard of the challenge program. I couldn't get that thread to pull up &amp; haven't found a search option other than to go to AA AAdvantage. Any suggestions? (I did get info fr unofficalaa.com.)
rawatfelkner - Thanks for the Bangkok Air advice. It seems to be cheaper to do the 3-leg Discovery Pass rather than a regular rd trip even tho we wdn't need the last leg.
cwn - What tailor did you use? 2 of us have been to HK; none to Angkor Wat, &amp; we want to go there before it gets more touristy. Wd like to do HK &amp; Vietnam on another trip. So many places to go, so little time!
We are familiar w/Houston's sticky summertime heat, so your comparison is helpful.