We are planning a trip to SE Asia in February. Our two most important destinations are Luang Prabang and Hanoi. We live in the Washington, DC area.

We're looking for advice on how to most efficiently and economically arrange the flight to Asia to make travel to these destinations work best. Since there are no direct flights to LP and only a handful of flights to Hanoi from here...Bangkok is looking like the best bet, but we're looking for other suggestions to minimize # transfers, etc. Ho Chi Minh City? Other?

i believe united has a direct flight from LA to saigon if that interests you...i believe you can then fly from VN to vientiennne and then on to LP...have you checked your feb hotel res in LP...they are very difficult to get this year at the high end places like pansea...

bkk is of course a good central place but the flight to hanoi is quite expensive...

i used eddie at sea tours for a great [email protected]
over 50% as i remember on reg. airlines.

bkk air is the way to LP from bkk...its an easy flight..not cheap for what it is however...

I use Bangkok as my entry into SE Asia. From there, you can fly non-stop to Luang Prabang (on Bangkok Air). I found the tickets from Bangkok to Hanoi to be relatively cheap on Thai Air.

"Oriental" makes his comments as a travel agent. In my experience, prices from the internet bookong agencies are MUCH better than most travel agents.

I have found, from repeated experience, that internet fares are NOT the way to go for travel in SE Asia beginning in Thailand. Tickets purchased in-country are much cheaper. Even though I do not use a travel agent in the US (they make too many mistakes; easier to do it myself), I always use a local travel agent in Bangkok. If you want a recommendation of sometone reliable, email the concierge of the hotel where you are staying. The concierge can make one or several recommendations. Travel agents will have tickets delivered to your hotel at a date and time specified by you. Hope this helps.

I recently used Eddie to book some flights within Asia, flying out of Bangkok. He was very quick and efficient. I used him on Bob's recommendation. Bob gets a gold star for this.

Flights on Bangkok Air, however, seem to be the same price on the internet as anyplace else. Indeed, my flights on Malayisan Air in and out of Bangkok were the same price from Eddie as from Malaysian Air. I expect there are some airlines where he can get better prices, but Bangkok Air and Malaysian Air are not.