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jbirdie
May 11, 2004, 2:34 PM
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looking for cheap airfare to thailand (preferably from california but flexible) any ideas?
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katydid
May 11, 2004, 4:55 PM
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katydid moved this thread from Trip Reports to Regional Discussions.
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fiend
May 11, 2004, 5:32 PM
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Go find an asian travel agent and have a friend who speaks the language deal with them. My chinese friend pays way less than I did in chinatown in LA because he spoke mandarin and I didn't. He also gets killer deals on flights which I haven't been able to find.
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indigo_nite
May 11, 2004, 6:33 PM
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last summer, around the beg. of July, my travel partner got a good deal r/t to bankok about $500 through a travel agent (English-speaking and I don't know about the benefits of Asian-speaking agents). I don't remember the agent name but it was found thru the travel section ads in the LA Times. the ticket was purchased less than a week before the trip too.
I went thru northwest b/c I had a voucher already and the ticket cost $900 (but was made reasonable w/ voucher). if I knew better, I'd have gone thru an agent.
I've heard something about taking courier flights but haven't tried this.
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fiend
May 11, 2004, 6:38 PM
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Courier flights are not what they once were. Also you're limited to just carry-on and are stuck with certain dates of travel. You generally also have to register with an association first to get the courier rates.... this'll cost you up front.... kind of like getting a job on a cruise ship where you have to pay $150 to get a list of phone numbers and addresses which you can apply to. Some are scams and some are valid.
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caughtinside
May 11, 2004, 6:55 PM
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I got a ticket in august 2 years ago for 550. That's summer over there, pretty hot, but still climbable. I got it on travelocity.com, but several other sites had fares that were pretty comparable. 550rt is pretty cheep for a 15 hour flight.
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jbirdie
May 12, 2004, 1:44 AM
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Registered: Apr 19, 2004
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wow! this is soo helpful, thankyou! air courrier does make me nervous w/ their lack of upfront info. any other suggestions would be great
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seeking8a
May 12, 2004, 2:46 AM
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We went to Rai Lei a few years ago, but we got tickets on a regular old website for $630 each in the high season (right around new years). I believe it was travelocity.com. They were on China air (really nice) and only had one stopover for 30 min. in Taiwan. Be aware though that you need to spend another $100 on a ticket out of Bangkok when you get there. The alternative would be to take a train, but the flight is one hour and the train ride is overnight (in my opinion it's worth the extra $ to fly). We had to book the flight to Krabi at the Bangkok airport Thai Air desk, as there was no way to do it on the web before leaving the US. Good luck!
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nthusiastj
May 12, 2004, 3:40 AM
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I got the cheapest ticket from Thaifly.com. they are in Thailand and speak english.
My flight was out of LA and was like $500
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