Carol Simpson -- Adelphi Suites
 

Carol: We will be in BKK the month of October, 2009, and have narrowed our hotel choices down to the Adelphi Suites.

As one who has stayed there many times, do you advise the deluxe studio or the one-bedroom for two people? Our stay will be broken up with a trip to CM after October 6. Is it possible to book a studio for this short time, and then negotiate an upgrade for the remaining time -- roughly two weeks?

Anyone else with advice? I am in a quandry!

I have spent the last two days -- my eyes are bleary -- searching the discount booking sites, but the Adelphi direct still has the best prices -- all inclusive.

Help!

Thanks,

Sandra (McBeanie)

we toured AS about a year ago....we liked the larger units, but did not dislike the smaller units...
like most serviced apartments they are more simple than most hotels, but adequate...

the location is great and with via vie and kineree just across the road your food issues are well taken care of.

the sky train is not far...

as a treat you might want to look at the plaza anthanee which is offering a 3300 B stay... this is a fantastic bargain and the hotel is very lux in a great location...look on www.spg.com... can't beat this price i don't think for this quality of hotel...

i think carol might be away

rhkkmk is on to something good - check out his recommendation!

I'm here!!

If you are traveling as a couple, I would opt for the 1-bedrm rather than the smaller studio. Yes, I've stayed in both. I just had a studio on my last 2-week visit in April/May. It was fine (but I sometimes wished I had booked the 1 bedrom).

Yes, the food on soi 8 is really great. And the escalator UP to the skytrain is but 1-2 minutes away!! That's what keeps drawing me back. I always seem to be on the go, and since the skytrain is my choice of transport, it is soooooo nice to have it only a few steps away.

I don't know about "negotiating" a price for your longer stay. They have never negotiated with me, and I've stayed there some 5-6 times now (it's my home away from home). I can tell you that the front desk will NOT give any special deals. The best, by far, are on line with their booking agent. You can always send an email and ASK... no harm in asking...

You can cut the price (maybe???) by asking to NOT have the breakfast in the morning? That was not an option for my recent 2-wk stay, that I could tell, but I didn't ASK first. I did not eat breakfast in the restaurant everyday (maybe all but 3-4 mornings). When we were there for one month, we did have the no-breakfast option, and that saved us some baht.

Bob talks about apartments being more basic than hotel rooms. This is true. I don't need the "lux" feel of a hotel anymore. I've "done" the Penn and the Oriental and the Intercontinental, as well as some other hotels that get mentioned here! As I've said before, the AS is my home away from home. I'm not planning to switch anytime soon.

Wish I could be in BKK in October... but alas, I'm going out east to the BOS GTG once again. DS will probably be in BKK for that month though, should you want to meet up with him.

Carol

Just thought of two other reasons for a 1-bedroom apt rather than the studio. The big soaking tub! (even though I always use the rainbath walk-in shower instead) And, the washing machine in the kitchen (even though I walked my laundry down soi 8 to a very handy and cheap place to have it done every couple of days). The washing machine has a dryer feature, but it isn't anything like my dryer at home. In BKK you still have to hang things to finish drying. Be sure to take some hangers with you for that (or buy some at MBK where they are very cheap).

I'm still thinking about BKK in August but ticket prices are not very good right now... :(

Carol

Carol: If you don't mind spending a little more time on the flight over, and enjoy the luxury of wider economy seats, Singapore has had some REALLY good fare cuts -- some about 50%. Of course, those were gone by the time I booked, and I had to take a slightly higher fare, but it is still saving us about $500.

From Houston SQ61 stops in Moscow for refueling before going on to Singapore. Then a 3-hour layover and on to BKK.

Bob, says the Singapore fares from the EAst Coast were pretty low, too, and that is why they are going in November.

Sandra (McBeanie)

nice try sandra... you can't get her off of united

lol....

Sandra, Bob is sort-of right... I am very stuck on UA. I'm a premier exec with them (50k per yr actual miles), which does get me some percs. I'd have to give something up if I flew on Singapore (although I'd love to give them a try sometime from BKK to SIN). They are with star alliance, I think, so at least I would earn miles with SQ. I don't necessarily need a wider seat, but I like lots of extra legroom! I can pick an exit row on UA and no one bats an eye. But I couldn't that on SQ.

BTW, what did you pay for your tickets? I'm curious. Right now the flts I usually take to/from BKK from ORD are over $1400. That's cheapest economy seats (but I get an automatic move to econ+ if I don't select exit row seating).

Carol

Carol:

The SQ price a couple of weeks ago was $1179, which was the cheapest I found anywhere -- but I just didn't book then as we hadn't settled on definite dates. Then when I read Bob's post, I look again -- and some of the same flights were listed as $670. Of course, these were gone by the time I even breathed deeply. The next tier was $804 (RT), but the dates weren't right, so I ended up paying $929 (RT -- all inclusive). We jumped on this and it was just the push that I needed to go back to my favorite country in the world.

We did fly UA back from BKK one year in eco+ and it was great! I think this would be my next choice.

We have been to BKK each year since 2005, and it just keeps getting better and better. But then, you already know this!

Sandra (McBeanie)

Great price, Sandra! I guess I should look at SQ after all, although I'm not sure what is available from ORD.

I will let you know if I find something. Did you get to select your seats? I always select my UA seats when I book the ticket on line. I'm pretty picky about seats, as I think you might have interpreted from my post above.

Carol

Um, SQ is showing over $3800 (economy) for ORD-BKK-ORD, via London on Virgin Airways from Chicago, switching to SQ at London. I guess I'll stick with UA...

Carol

to get the cheap price carol i think you have to book your tickets from ny or la....then get yourself there....that is what we are doing

also i think the speical ends nov 30

Carol, $680 RT from LAX to BKK (stop in Narita) for mid-October to mid-November. Seats still available as of earlier today. If I could figure out how to take the time, I'd try to squeeze in another trip at those prices.

i just tried a whole bunch of dates before nov 30 and the best i got was $800+

mine was from nyc

And mine from Houston.

Hmmm, guess I'll look again. But what sort of seats can you select if you've never flown on SQ before??

Looked again, from LAX, and the price is still over 2k on SQ for August. My dates were not available. Period. No "sweet deals" for me...

I'll keep checking UA and see if the fares take a drop.