can anybody tell me what airways have great rates to and from australia from bbk...my time off has just been extended to 2 months and I have already made plans to travel to thailand,and thought while I was close(I am from California)I would get a flight out of BBK and head over to Australia for two weeks..How long is this flight and what the cost would be in the begging of feb.2005..I love to scuba and love great food(IM a chef)and hear lots about food in australia,where in australia would one go for food and diving...this is just a thought at this time...thank you all

quantas of course, but i would also check out thai air and singapore air...there may be some other a/ls that stop in bkk and then continue to australia....

tropicsteve, I can't talk about the flights, or for that matter diving, but visit the Australia/ Pacific forum for advice on eats - there are numerous threads. Follow the advice there and you won't go too far wrong. As a chef you'll probably enjoy the Mod-Oz style of cooking, not too distant from Californian fusion but wth a greater emphasis on SE Asian flavours. You can find every major ethnic style in the bigger cities (we're an immigrant society too). Go for the seafood in particular, but beware of tourist traps like Sydney's Darling Harbour. Back to diving - if you haven't been to Australia before, I guess there's only one choice, the Great Barrier Reef. Check Qantas and Australian Airlines for flights from Asian cities direct to Cairns. BTW, there are good restaurants in Cairns and surrounds too, but nothing like the variety you'd find in Sydney and Melbourne.

Singapore Airlines have good rates, around B 23,000 return ( that's about USD 575 return ), they have a very large number of flights into Australia, I think at last count it was close to 10 a day!!. Malaysia Airlines is often a few thousand Baht cheaper and they also fly to a lot of destinations but connections are not quite as good as Singapore Airlines. You can also get cheapies with Cathay Pacific but the flight routings via HKG tend to be a little longer. I would take a look at Singapore Airlines, all flights have seatback TVs even in Coach/Economy(as do malaysia Airlines) and transiting Singapore is easy and enjoyable.

Non-stop flights are around the 9-10 hours, if via SIN or KL then a couple of hours to those hubs and then onward flights range from 5hrs 15 to perth to about 7 hrs 45 to SYD. Also of interest with Singapore Airlines is they 'flat rate' fares, what that means to the traveller is that you can fly 'in' to say Brisbane and return from any other city, the fare remains the same, those fares are from Bangkok 'or' Phuket( Phuket-SIN sectors on Silk Air, SQ's regional airline). For domestic flights check Virgin Blue and also check Red Specials on Qantas. My 'personal' favorite city is Brisbane, but all the cities have their own character, Neil added a good point on Australian Airlines as they fly from SIN to Cairns, a good start off place.

where in australia

there are many airlines that ply the rout... I usually see bucket shops offer fares for 17,000+ baht bkk- somewhere in australia.



royal brunai via brunai

philipines airlines via manila

vietnam airlines via hoc hi man

Garuda via sin or DPS (bali

Quantas, Thai and other big boys were already mentioned..

one travel site shows Phucket air flying direct too sydney but the official phucket airlines site doesnt show it scheduled.
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Depending on where u are starting and how your itinerary looks u could also look at round the world fares - normally cheaper than point to point

one way trips tend too run from 13,000 baht-15,000+++ baht

I just got off a BA flight from BKK this morning - 8.75 hrs nonstop. All the carriers mentioned are fine and all will have special offers at some time or another. Royal Brunei recommended if u fancy a stop in Brunei/Borneo and/or Darwin (for Kakadu) and also, from Nov they will fly into Sydney as well as Brisbane. If you like diving u might also consider (sacrilege!!) flying into Perth and going up to the Ningaloo Reef instead of the GBR.

ps - If you can, make it 3 weeks, not 2.
Cheers.