My wife and I are hoping to buy our plane tickets early this year for next summer's holiday. We also have to book for a friend of mine who is going with us.

So far I have been looking daily on airlinenetwork to see if any cheap flights are available. The prices are steep imho - from £680 upwards (flying out after July 18 and coming back mid August)
I have tried some other booking companies and I can see that they advertise Aeroflot at £500. I am considering booking this within the next week so we can hopfully save up to some £600. I have read other threads about aeroflot and looked at their website so I know that the food and entertainment will be crap, but £600 is still a lot to save.

I was wondering if people think that airline network might include any cheaper deals any time soon - possibly due to some airlines not promoting deals for next summer yet??

Essentially, is it always better to buy as soon as you possibly can or will there be a stage in a few months' time when better airlines might have cheaper deals??

have you tried searching sites like travelsupermarket.com

Henson,

If you really want cheap check out Jet Airways or even Sri Lanken or Oman Air on East West.
colin 244

I think the reason they are so expensive is that you are in to the school holiday period when everything out of the UK goes up to catch all of the people with children.
Gary

quote:

Essentially, is it always better to buy as soon as you possibly can or will there be a stage in a few months' time when better airlines might have cheaper deals??

Henson, This was our dilemma last year, when we had to travel over the summer holidays. We had advice to wait nearer the time of travel and told tickets would be cheaper but they never did go down! Travelling during the school holidays is always expensive.


i have found oman air, on ebookers, for £538 travelling on 21 July - 13th August. i reckon for that time of year anything around £550 is good value.


on another note, i'll recommend SriLankan airlines, very good service and nice planes but their not cheap. we travelled with them on a 3 month ticket, which is good value as you can use it anyway you like. This means you can see Sri Lanka as well.

Thanks for all the replies,

I investigated Oman air and called a booking agent. For the dates we want to travel we can have Oman air at £565 which will be some £120-30 less than what we have paid for our trips in previous years. Granted in those years we travelled with Emirates or Qatar and Oman is definitely not up to their standard with old planes, uncomfortable seats and zero entertainment, but £360 saved is a lot of money that we can then use in Thailand.

I decided to switch from Aeroflot to the slightly more expensive Oman air as I understand that Muscat airport is smaller than the Moscow airport Aeroflot will use. My wife will be flying alone on 11 July so we want to avoid any complications with the stopover etc.

quote:

I decided to switch from Aeroflot to the slightly more expensive Oman air

Considering Aeroflots dubious safety record I reckon you've made a wise decision.

Try Bimanair not a great airline but the cheapest.

Henson,
Probably unkind but people used to say to me "Aeroflot, crash-a-lot".
I think you've made a good decision too but cannot comment on Oman. I've always managed to get Thai or Eva in the £550 to £600 range except at peak seasons ie Christmas and school holidays. Nearly had a heart attack when I was being quoted £800+ for Christmas last but couldn't find cheaper so had to go for it. It's the only time of year I can get three weeks off.

quote:

Try Bimanair not a great airline but the cheapest.

Crap

Keith,
I'm a great fan of plain speaking too!

Having been looking around the last few weeks I can say that Etihad are introducing very good deals, another post had Etihad with the Evening Standard at £350inc 15hrs, 1 change in Abu Dhabi, after unfortunately missing out on this I also found similar Etihad deals at sub £400 prices! Ebookers was one that was coming up with regular good prices with them. Qatar have been consistently £490 and having flown with them before that would be a good deal. West East travel have been letting me down recently, but still covered £545 with EVA Air direct.

With Aeroflot and Binman, I only know of people that have travelled with them, never having used them myself, but "EXPERIENCE" is the key word with them both, I would not travel with either.

Jet Airways are another good deal that fly to Bangkok via Mumbai, I had an "EXPERIENCE" with them flying on business to Mumbai (not business class), they were great flying to Mumbai and had modern plane with all the mod con economy perks. However, they cancelled the return flight and I ended up on an Air India old 747 back to the UK via New Delhi, wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy! Still though still an "EXPERIENCE".

I am waiting/hoping for Etihad to continue their £350 offers throughout the next months, just on the factor "we have our own oil and we'll show you what we can do with it" EXPERIENCE.

quote:

Originally posted by -Keith-:
Considering Aeroflots dubious safety record I reckon you've made a wise decision.

I recall that Aeroflot's flight staff once asked us passengers to move to different seats before landing because they wanted to "balance" the plane.

Henson,

Once you have been with them do a "trip report on Oman" meanwhile I will stick with TG/Eva
colin 244

Not sure about the summer, but I've just booked for April (another peak time), other than Oman/Kuwait/Aeroflot I wanted a reasonable airline at a reasonable rate.

I've recently flown KLM from our local airport but their prices are getting out of hand - so went for Emirates at £2083 for all 4 of us (2 adults & 2 kids)....surprisingly the cheapest of all the other airlines (on the dates I wanted) which I got from their own website.

Crystal travel were offering them at £2060 but the c/c charges took them over £2100 !!

(PS - think it was £515 for 1 adt)

quote:

which I got from their own website.

Sometimes the best and last year the TG website beat everyone for a direct for us even West/East selling TG Flights but still shop about for what suits your time factor ie stopover and price range.
colin 244

Read some of the passenger reviews about Oman Air, especially the ones about LGW-MCT-BKK. Sounds bloody awful

Oman Air reviews

Fortunately, I did read exactly these reviews before booking with Oman so we all know that the journey will not exactly be pleasant.

What worries me the most is not the lack of entertainment (I must admit that even the best personal entertainment systems in economy class, eg. Singapore and Emirates just send me to sleep) I mostly worry about the narrow seats that reviewers complain about. As you know Keith, I am fairly tall and enduring crampt seating for 12 hours could be sheer torture - I am sort of expecting it to be like flying long-haul with Ryanair.

As suggested above I will write a review of the experience and whether or not it was worth the savings.

quote:

I am sort of expecting it to be like flying long-haul with Ryanair.

The difference being Ryanair's fleet is one off newest in the world.

****Hot News****

Reuters-24-9-08

Oman Air today announced the aquisition of a new fleet from Biman Airways, Bangladesh. An Oman Air spokesman said the company are delighted with the purchase and where looking forward to providing their customers with the ultimate in luxury and entertainment. Reuters have obtained a previously unreleased photograph of Oman Air Executives taking delivery at their desert base just outside of Muscat.

OmanAir operate A310 ex Gatwick via Oman / Bangkok

Reg CS-TEI first flight 1989
Reg CS-TEX first flight 1990

Both aircraft are operated on behalf of OmanAir by HiFly (Portugal)

Just for info.

I'm sure we all look forward to the report!
colin 244

I dont recall if I have told this story before but I travelled to BKK, with my daughter, 4 years ago and found the flight very steady but was suprised when all the passengers clapped the pilot when we landed in Moscow and again when we landed in BKK. The aircraft was a Boeing but had been stripped out of all entertainment and some seating making it very comfortable but a boring flight. When we landed in Moscow we were herded (reminiscent of cattle going to slaughter)into the arrivals section and had to go through customs showing our passports and being scanned (Shoes off). Funny it had taken my daughter and I nearly four hours by coach from Birmingham Digbeth coach station to Heathrow airport but only three hours from Heathrow to Moscow!
The food on the plane left a great deal to be desired. The all male cabin crew came up the aisle with a menu of pork or chicken. I was asked what I wanted when I said chicken the cabin crew member said we have no chicken you have pork. I explained I didn't eat pork but he said take! I tried explaining that would be wasteful due to the fact it would not be eaten. A senior memeber arrived and said to me what is the trouble, I replied no problem as he didn't have chicken to offer me and I didn't eat pork I would go without. The senior member took the chicken off the passenger opposite and gave it me!! After that I looked at the chicken (my daughter had the same) and it was so dried to the plastic dish I couldn't eat it!
Never again would I travel Aeroflot.

I know some tour operators won't use Aeroflor any more because of their safety record. I have also heard worrying things from people with the industy.

Never used them myself so can;t speak from personal experience