Thailand/Hong Kong flights - HELP!
 

Hello

I'm planning a 4 week trip from London to a) Hong Kong (to visit my sister) and b) Thailand (general holiday) from mid Feb - mid March 2006.

I'd be very grateful for advice on flight routes / best flight prices as I'm not sure where to start !

My initial thoughts are :
Fly London to Hong Kong (5 days HK)
Fly HK to Koh Samui (meeting my parents there - c 6 days KS)
Overland Koh Samui to Krabi (3 days)/ day trip to Phi Phi
Fly Krabi to Chiang Mai (4 days CM)
Fly Chiang Mai to Bangkok (4 days BK)
Fly Bangkok back to London

How does this sound ?!!

Many thanks in advance
Susie

Try airasia.com, they fly out of Macau.

The cheapest way to do it is to try and stick with one airline for the long haul to your furthest point, in this case HKG. Use an airline that can give you both HKG and BKK.
Thai Airwys, Emirates, Gulf Air would be good options. So that would be a London-Hong Kong 'return' that 'permits' a stopover in Bangkok on the return. That would be a simple and cheap ticket, Emirates and Gulf probably the cheapest. The reason to go for those is that they all fly the sector between HKG and Bangkok. So you would just be getting a HKG return with a 'stop' allowed.
In order to do Koh Samui plus krabi area plus Chiang Mai ( note here that only Bangkok Airways flies to/from Samui domestic ): Bangkok Airways has a Discovery pass so you would get a BKK-Samui sector, then a Phuket-Bangkok sector, then 2 sectors to cover Bangkok-Chiang Mai Return.
Although there is an aiport at krabi only Thai is flying in at the moment and Thai don't fly to Samui, Phuket airport is a few hours by road from Krabi. Also instead of a day trip from Krabi to Phi Phi you could do an overnight, then from Phi Phi go to Phuket and airport for flight to Bangkok.
So altogether you would only need to sort out 2 things 1> London to Hong Kong return that allows stopover in Bangkok on return ( Thai, Emirates and Gulf are the ones that can do that ).
2> Bangkok Airways Discovery pass ticket 4 sectors, BKK-Samui, Phuket-Bangkok, Bangkok to Chiang Mai and return.

Now, there 'are' budget carriers between BKK and Phuket and also Chiang Mai if you want to go down that avenue but you would still have to get a one-way BKK-Samui and then also considor on a fairly tight schedule if you wanted to us budget carriers, it would work out cheaper but balance that with ease.

There 'is' a direct flight with Bangkok Airways from HK to Samui but a one way would work out expensive and that throws out somewhat the benefits of getting an easy London to HK return.

If you used Thai you would simply on the outbound change planes in Bangkok and fly onwards to HKG. If you used Gulf you would route from London via either Bahrain or Abu Dhabi ( maybe Muscat ) onwards with a brief stop in Bangkok to HKG. Then you would fly Gulf (daily) HKG to BKK, then fly back via Gulf to london.
On Emirates similar via Dubai except that some flights are non-stop Dubai to HKG, so it would be London-Dubai-HKG, then HKG-Bangkok with Emirates and then return via Dubai ( they have up to 3 daily flights ).

There are of course a lot of other various options but you will keep the costs down by sticking with one carrier for the long hauls and then either go for the bangkok Airways Discovery pass, or, get a BKK-Samui one way, ferrby/road to krabi, then budget airline( Thai Air Asia, Nok Air, One-2-Go ) to Bangkok and then to CM and return.

Thanks for your very helpful replies - much appreciated. I do however have a few more questions !

I've emailed Bangkok Airways UK branch about the Discovery Airpass as it says on their website that you can't book it online. I presume it will be USD 50 x 4 sectors = 200, which is c£113 and therefore a decent price.

However, I'm having difficulty working out how to find London - Hong Kong flights with a Bangkok stopover on the way back. Both the Airline Network and Emirates websites only showed Dubai as a stopover - and when I searched under multiple stops on the latter, it came to c £1300 ! Any idea which websites to look on / how to amend my search to take in the Bangkok stopover ?(sorry, I'm a bit of a novice at this !).

Thanks once again
Susie

I agree wit James except a small case in point where it comes to the Bangkok Discovery Pass. The pass for domestic flights is $50 + fuel surcharges & insurance of $7.50. Thus 4 sections would be $230 as compared with regular fares of $276. Better would be to get 3 sections (minimum) and use a discount airline to get to or back from Chiang Mai. Using Nok Air the total cost of all flights would be $209. If money is not a consideration then stick with Bangkok Air for all flights.

I booked a direct flight from Koh Samui to Hong Kong on Bangkok Air...didn't have to stop over in Bangkok. I'm sure you could go the other way too

A travel agent can help you book your flights, including using different airlines for LHR-HKG and BKK-LHR. There are probably good European-based internet sites that can do the same, but I'm not too familiar with them.

I know one site is opodo.com. Might want to see if they can do it.

Just a thought. Does anyone know if the Bangkok Discovery Pass covers Hong Kong to Samui. Some routes into China are $150 + $27 extra charges, but no mention is made of HH. Their discovery route map shows it.

Brilliant, this is really helpful.

Scotters : unfortunately, money is a consideration so I would like to find the cheapest route, although convenience is also important.

For now, let's assume I do the "London - Hong Kong return with a stopover on the way back in Bangkok" option.

I would then get a Discovery Pass ticket from Bangkok to Koh Samui (USD 50 + charges) and go overland to the Krabi area.

I'd then like to fly from there (or from near Phuket) to Chiang Mai DIRECT rather than taking two separate flights (Krabi to Bangkok / Bangkok to Chiang Mai - as is required on the Discovery Pass). However, I can't seem to find an airline that does that route (maybe Nok Air - haven't had chance to check yet). Any thoughts ?

Thanks guys / gals !

There are 'no' direct flights from Krabi or Phuket to Chiang mai, you have to go via bangkok. Currently Thai Airways has about 4 flights per day krabi to Bangkok, and about a dozen a day bangkok to Chiang Mai. from Phuket you have about a dozen Thai Airways flights to bangkok, Nok Air I think twice, Bangkok Airways about 4, Thai Air Asia a few and One-2-Go also a few, they tend to change seasonaly, so far more flights from Phuket.
If you want to take the budget option you might considor buying the Bangkok Airways 'one way' to Samui, ferry/road to krabi, boat to Phi Phi and Phuket and then Budget airline to Bangkok and then to Chiang Mai and return.
You need to seek out some budget travel agent in your home country that deals in flights to Asia for the HK and then stop in BKK option.
There is of course that direct HK-Samui flight but on a one way it could be pricey.

Hi James and others

Thanks again for the tips - I note what you say about the internal Thailand flights.

Re: flights from London to Hong Kong / Bangkok, I've found a direct 'open jaw' flight from London to HK / Bangkok to London for £536 including tax with BA (outward) and Qantas (inbound) on Opodo. So that's a start !

But I haven't managed to find a cheapish flight from HK to Koh Samui : the Bangkok Airways website quoted c £200 (one way!) from HK to Koh Samui (I tried it for 19 / 20 February).

So I may have to go from HK via Bangkok i.e. the original idea of London to HK with a return stopover in Bangkok. So I'll try to find a good travel agent !

I'll keep you posted :-)

Susie

A couple of other suggestions. You can fly from Macau (an easy ferry ride from Hong kong costing around £11) to Bangkok with Air Asia for about £48. Instead of flying to Samui, take the overnight train to Surit Thani, then bus/ferry, arriving in Samui before noon. Quite a saving over air fare.

Thanks. I called around several travel agents at the weekend and the cheapest London to HK (with return stopover in Bangkok) is £590 including taxes - with Cathay Pacific.

So I might try instead looking for a cheap London - HK return (poss £400 ?) + a HK to Bangkok return on Air Asia.

I looked on the Air Asia website and there's a return for 778 MOP on the dates I want - but what currency is MOP ?!

Thanks
Susie

MOP is Macau Pataca. It's about even with the HK$, 1US$ = 7.8MOP. or 1GBP = 14MOP.

Make sure that the 778 MOP fare includes the taxes /service charges of around 390 MOP or £28. Also be aware of the baggage limitions.