I will be flying to Phnom Penh from Raleigh around the middle of december and back to Raleigh from Hanoi around the end of december. Does anyone have suggestions for low cost flight discounters. Are they legit? Which ones have you used. What are the ins and outs.

that's a very tough time of year to travel on a discount....spaces are very limited....you may in fact already be too late to get good fares...

you cannot fly there directly from the usa, so you must use a staging point...

the united flights to VN might be a good suggestion....cathy pacific might be another...china air another...koren air....raleigh probably has no flight going where you need to stage from so you may have to use another city for that: atlanta, nyc, chicago, la....

the best thing you can do is run a search on www.kayak.com and www.sidestep.com. these sights search all the major airfare sites, so you will find the best deal there. it is the high season, so expect to pay at least $1K.

What are the other stops on your itinerary? there may be better cities to fly in and out of for better fares.

I've used orbitz for my atlanta, hanoi trip. I've also used vayama and zuji. I've been lurking for fares since april, and they have not changed for the exact flights that I want. Good luck. Alana

If there's a Vietnamese Travel Agent near where you live, you might see what is the best fare they can provide.

All the prices I've been quoted by agents so far have been at least $20-100 higher than the same flights I am able to quickly find online. Most travel agents don't get commission from flights nowdays, so you always almost get better deals on websites like www.kayak.com etc.

I agree that online usually is better than Travel Agents. sometimes, they have very good deals, however.

I have had better luck with fares on www.asia.com. For example, round trip Des Moines, Iowa to Saigon, April 16 to May 6, 2008 is only $909.70 plus tax and fee of $150.00 (through Dallas, TX and Tokyo). When I checked in May a similar flight through Denver and Tokyo the fare was $1094. And believe me, Des Moines is NO major hub.

The really cheap discounted fare are not on the search engines. You need to find out if any of the big discounter airlines fly to to destinations that you are going to and then use their own sites. It is very time consuming and I can't help you because I assume you are coming from the US. I have recently booked with Tiger Air from Melbourne(Aust) to Bangkok for $600(Aust) return. About $500 of that was taxes. This is a realy good deal but they don't advertise these fares and to get them you need to get onto their emailing list. Most of the discounters are affilliated with some of the major airlines. Tiger is associated with Singapore airlines. Asia Air is another big one. I have no idea whether they fly to the US but they are very cheap for domestic flights around Asia. They are coming to Australia soon I hear.
I don't know if any of this is any help to you

Hi Becky - nice to see someone else from NC - I live in Cary. You might try airtreks.com. I use onetravel.com for travel to Europe, haven't tried them for Asia, which I usually do on FF miles. It's also worth looking on the airlines own websites.

None of the discount airlines from from the US to Asia.

Not the US, but Oasis fly from Vancouver to Hong Kong. Decent fare, especially in business class.

That's useful info. What do you know about Oasis?

It's based in HK. Pretty well run. 2nd hand 747-400s from ANA and Singapore. All with individual screens. [Planes are newer than some 744s that Cathay fly.] So, while fairly low-cost, it still provides good service. CEO used to work at Cathay Pacific.

www.oasishongkong.com

Problem is that looking at their fare, after you add a ticket from wherever to Vancouver, it's probably no cheaper than other airlines. But their ~$2,000 business class fare is easily 50% or more cheaper than most.

For some of us, Vancouver is a close neighbor! The problem for me is that they only fly to Hong Kong. That and no frequent flier miles. But the $2000 biz fare is excellent.