Going to Thailand for our honeymoon in mid-june. The price of a non-stop flight to/from BKK has been steady at $1700 pp. Does anyone know if this is a good price? Do prices usually drop between now and then, or should jump on this price and book the flight?

seems a bit high to mr, but summer prices to asia are most often high...normal would be more in the range of $1200-1600

you should be able to get on the non-stop for $1265+tax if you avoid flying Sat or Sun.

Last week I was seeing JFK-BKK on Thai for July/August travel for about $1350, with all taxes. Maybe June is a bit more expensive but look around a bit more, perhaps.

I just checked this flight today and the price was $1991.60 with taxes for June and July. The price was the same for every day of the week. The price has definitely gone up since Nov/Dec. when it was about $1500.

To clarify- the flight I checked was the non-stop on Thai Air.

These were weekday prices. Rizzuto, where were you thinking I could get the $1265 tickets?

The $1265+ price (and the '+' would include both taxes and fuel surcharges -- and they can be substantial) is from the ExpertFlyer site. (EF is a pay site. I subscribe, but I have no financial interest in it.) The fare is for H booking class, and there seems to be plenty of H availability.

I checked the Thai air web site. You are correct, they quote a price of $1991.60 -- but that is actually for Premium Economy, not regular economy! I could not see any way to get a price for regular economy on Thai's web site.

Travelocity quotes a price of $1691, all-inclusive. I suppose that taxes and surcharges could add uo to $430 ... yikes. Anyway, if indeed those are the choices, the extra $300 for Premium Economy is well worth it: you get a lot more legroom, more width, footrests, and greater recline.

Direct flights from Thai Air cost more than other airlines that make short stops in Korea, Taiwan or Japan. TG is not known for having the cheapest normal fares.

The price of your airline tickets usually go up on June 1st. If you check a few days before in May you might be able to find a cheaper rate.

I have flown from JFK several times on China Airlines, they do stop in Alaska and then Taiwan and from there go to Bangkok. These stops do add time to your trip - but China Air is usually cheaper than other airlines. One thing I used to like about CI is that I would arrive in SEAsia during the daytime not late at night like from the U.S. carriers! You can also check with Asiana, EVA Air, Cathay Pacific and Korean Air for price comparisons.

Every now and then an airline will drop their prices when cancellations come up, but you do have to keep checking. Sales come up every now and then, check the websites. Sometimes traveling on Fridays, holidays and weekends make the fare even higher.

It's the price of fuel oil that is keeping the prices higher than usual! Make sure you do have the final price that includes the surcharges and taxes added in when comparing prices.

If you have a gold card or silver card from one airline already I would consider using an airline that you can take advantage of those elite perks. I only fly on the same airline all the time now, sometimes the price of the ticket is $50 or $80 higher but the free perks I get more than make up for the small difference. Perks like bonus miles, free VIP lounge for me and guest on international flights, extra weight allowance and one I like a lot - first to board, when all of the overhead bins are still available near my seat! Not to mention for me, free upgrades to business class for my connecting flights. Your elite card also gives you priority seating, some airlines reserve the better seats for their elite members.

Good luck.

Rizzuto, how do you like EF? I am thinking about signing up to help figure out what our options are for our trip back to bkk this year, we have banked a ton of miles and want to get a couple of F seats, then next year a couple more seats in F to OZ and I know those are so hard to get without the help of EF!

travelduo, the value of EF depends hugely on they type of traveling that you're doing. I'm doing a RTW on *A this year, along with 3 RTs on FF tickets (BOS-Krakow, BOS-Tokyo, and ZRH-BOS). EF has been invaluable in comparing RTW fares and in determinimng which intercontinental flights offer F. For *A, EF is not especially useful in determining FF seats, as relatively few *A carriers show FF seats on EF. I understand that many more OW airlines show award seat availability of EF.

Well I am in luck then because we are looking for an OW award! Everybody over on flyertalk talks about EF so it good to hear about it from someone else! Thanks for your opinion!

jeffrey and April

Just wanted to add my two cents. I know that many people don't like tours. But when you look at the price of Smartours' two week trip to Thailand, less than $1500. including air, hotels, some meals, taxes and insurance, I feel it is hard to beat. If you take a tour, you still have ample time to do things on your own. For me, it's kind of the best of both worlds.