Please advise. I'm considering buying a Discovery Pass for travel in Thailand/Cambodia later this year; however, through Bangkok Airway's regular booking engine, I'm already starting to see flights full for my desired dates/city pairs. Am I better off spending a little more now to buy all flights for the dates I want? I'd rather have flexibility once I get there. So, for those of you that have used the Discovery Pass, were you easily able to get the flights you wanted within a few days notice in peak travel season? Or did you find too many seat limitations, etc. and felt like a second class citizen using this pass?

You can book all of your flights at the time you purchase your Discovery Pass. I believe there is a small fee for changes, but I'm not 100% sure so it would be good to check. Note that the Discovery Pass prices do not include taxes and surcharges. Some routes serviced by other airlines may be less expensive than the pass. Bangkok Airways is the only airline that flies BKK - Siem Reap, but Air Asia flies to Phnom Pehn, so if you were headed there anyway you could fly into Cambodia that way rather than through Siem Reap.

Just to add to what Kim said you have to weigh all your options. The pass with taxes cost $117 for internation (90+27) routes and 59.50 or 69.50 for domestic (taxes 9.50). Also flying Chiang Mai to Samui is excluded.

personally, i'd book the flights, and then see if i could change them if needed when i was in the country.
air asia is cheaper, but its reviews are mixed, and their luggage limit is very tight and expensive if you go over its limit!

All, thanks very much for the feedback, very helpful!

My wife and I are going to Thailand next month and were hoping to book our trips to Siem Reap, Chiang Mai and Samui with the Discovery Airpass. First, I called the Bangkok Airways number (866-BANGKOK) and asked to book my flights with the Discovery Airpass. The guy took all my information and quoted me a price that was a lot more expensive than if I had booked online at bangkokair.com. Then I picked up the phone and got a different Bangkok Air representative on the phone and asked to purchase a Discovery Airpass. This second person told me that the Airpass had been discontinued by Bangkok Airways. They are no longer selling these. Has anyone else heard this?

Call again!

read the thread about "another Bangkok Discovery" question. Someone just wrote in saying the same thing that the pass are no longer available. I'm picking up my discovery pass tickets from the Bangkok Airways ticket office here in Toronto tomorrow and will ask what the situation is.

oops sorry, I just realized it's the same person, Edwardm. Edwardm, I'll ask for you tomorrow when I'm picking up my tickets and post the answer here.

Thanks Haliburton! Look forward to hearing what they say.

i thouhgt that you were required to book all flights at the time of the purchase of the pass, but you can change flights for open slots later on

Fyi, Bangkok air has updated the Discovery Airpass section of their Web site. The domestic leg flights will increase from 50USD to 55 USD October 31st, 2006.

Also, it seems a lot of flights are booked for the dates I want to travel, but when I check their Web site to purchase an individual flight, it's available. The representative I spoke to was difficult to understand. Does anyone know if these "pass" seats are limited in supply and they only allocate so many per flight? Thank you.

Here's some other helpful info I found out:
1. no change fee, but there is a rerouting fee
2. tax for thai and cambodia legs falls in the $14-$18 range per flight
3. chiang mai to phnom penh counts as 1 domestic and 1 international leg, whereas Siem Reap to Phuket counts as 1 international leg

The seats allocated for pass use are indeed limited.

The Siem Reap to Phuket route only uses one international coupon IF you take the one flight that is direct to Phuket with a stopover in BKK...it's the same flight number for both flights. Other options during the day where there are two flight number require an international coupon and a domestic coupon.

Highly recommended, especially if you want to go to Siem Reap because the fare is expensive. But you do have to be flexible with your dates. I am flying BKK to Siem Reap to Phuket and back to BKK for $310 with all taxes!

I was just in the BKK Air office in Singapore yesterday to book a trip for March next year.
It's only required to book the first leg of the trip when you purchase the coupons. You can leave the rest open, but of course it's all subject to availability. I knew exactly which flights I needed, so I reserved the seats while I was there.

The good news is that I don't have to pay for the coupons until one week before travel! So I can make any flight changes I need, without penalty, until the coupons are purchased.

I bought 4 coupons for each of us. We are starting from BKK, flying RT to Luang Prabang, then BKK to Samui, then Samui to Singapore. Cost of the entire 4 legs, including taxes is SG$661, or about US$440. When I priced it all out normally on the Bangkok Air website it was a lot more than that. BKK-LP round trip alone was US$329.

The person who helped me in the BKK Air office was extremely helpful in organizing all this. If anyone needs to pick up coupons here, it's on the 20th floor of the Wisma Atria building on Orchard Rd.

Posting this in case others have been in the same dilemma over whether to purchase the bangkok air discovery pass. I think I will be purchasing flights individually because you really need to buy your flights at least 2 months in advance with the pass. If not, you will find that "pass" seats are simply not available for the days you want, or only at the least desirable times. This also concerns me because if you want to change the days/times once there, it seems you will not have a prayer, as these are already booked a month in advance. I spent way too much time on the analysis, but in a nutshell, you are only saving less than $10 on the domestic legs, and about $15 on the bkk-phnom penh route. As others have noted, the savings are with the siem reap to phuket route - $107 including tax with pass, around $197 without pass.