For reasons I will not go into in detail ( 40% pay cut for one ) I have parted company with my employers/associates. My period of unemployment has lasted two weeks I now have firm offers for a new job but I told them i do not want to start straight away.

Its Thailand next week for me. But the prices I have tried all the usual suspects and they are coming in at £750 -£1500

Friends have flown recently. The planes are not full!!!

Is there still such a thing as standby flights whereby I turn up at TN3 and just wait for a cheap seat?

Any Ideas?


Richard

PS West East just quoted me the cheapest they can do as £975

Richard,

Does seem an expensive time, is it School Holiday prices starting early?

I checked Southall who seem to be getting better than WestEast these days and found EVA direct, 15th to 29th July at £760 and 16th to 30th or 17th to 31st July at £780.

Sorry to hear about your job, but hope the new one works out better for you.

Good luck if you do turn up at the terminal, when I enquired about upgrade price with jet Airways at the terminal it worked out to more than if I had bought business class ticket in the first place!

When would you wish to return?

quote:

Originally posted by Tobias:
When would you wish to return?

Given that unemployment should be regarded as an opportunity subject to my new employers agreement I would like to come back at the end of August. All will be finalized in that respect Tomorrow or Monday.

Richard

I've checked with our travel people and those prices look right, the problem being you are wanting to return during the peak school holiday period.

quote:

during the peak school holiday period.

I fell foul of this last year when trying to change a ticket date for the wife to come back on a mate's vacant seat as he went early due to work but despite him/me/wife in TG Office at Thai Airport she went on standby and the back of the list with the very unhelpful advice "telephone us every day" which cost a fortune on hold and you guessed it she did not get the seat and came back one month later

When I got on the Plane there were 4 seats vacant near me and I was going to kick off in UK but the "Toads" turned up last minute and Flight was full of Farang Families

Motto "out of season Thai" is bad news for Flights for us UK and all the Airlines know it

How about booking one of the deals for a package holiday in the papers etc and just not turn up at the Hotel (saw one last Sunday to Cha Amm £599.00 for 10 nights)

Anyway richardb keep trying daily for a cancellations and good luck
colin 244

I just had look on lastminute.............going on wednesdays £700 seems about right, even going around the houses HKK ..macau and air asia is about the same

Yesterday I had a chat with a girl at WestEast.

"Low" season farres start after the 19th August. I'm holding out until then as it's £300 cheaper on Thai with full airmiles (around £700+).


Nick

quote:

Originally posted by colin244:

How about booking one of the deals for a package holiday in the papers etc and just not turn up at the Hotel (saw one last Sunday to Cha Amm £599.00 for 10 nights)

colin 244

If you saw it advertised by Travelbag it was for a holiday in September.

Nick

richard

I have just booked on emirates for this saturday £684 . Could have left on sunday with Jet for £660.
I booked through a lady named Janet at affordable holidays. Her number is 08718554343.
Hope this helps

Eva Air - One Way £ 312 going next Thursday *=(Ebookers)

I'm going to have to rant about this too, I was planning to go to NZ and Thailand in the next month and quite frankly the prices are just stupid. For the life of me I cannot understand why.

NZ/Aus are in the middle of winter, no-one flies there for holidays this time of year. Thailand and the far-east is also in the low/monsoon season so again very few people fly there too.

But something that would have cost me £550 2 weeks ago will now cost £1200 until they start going down again in mid-August.

I've been looking through www.kayak.co.uk

quote:

Originally posted by James and Neng:
Eva Air - One Way £ 312 going next Thursday *=(Ebookers)

One way! I wish

quote:

Originally posted by SteveR:
I'm going to have to rant about this too, I was planning to go to NZ and Thailand in the next month and quite frankly the prices are just stupid. For the life of me I cannot understand why.

NZ/Aus are in the middle of winter, no-one flies there for holidays this time of year. Thailand and the far-east is also in the low/monsoon season so again very few people fly there too.

But something that would have cost me £550 2 weeks ago will now cost £1200 until they start going down again in mid-August.

I've been looking through www.kayak.co.uk

Surely a lot of this must be down to the price of fuel? I think the days of cheap long haul flights might be over? Bad for us, good for the environment.

Ian

quote:

Originally posted by IanB:
Bad for us, good for the environment.
Ian

Right now I would personally club a bunny rabbit for a cheap ticket.

Richard

ps I just phoned Thai as Sea's return ticket is for Monday. They can change it to any day next week no problem so the flights are definitely not full.

quote:

Surely a lot of this must be down to the price of fuel? I think the days of cheap long haul flights might be over? Bad for us, good for the environment.

YES and the fact that we pay more taxes in the Uk than in Europe

Anyway I have been quote £700 for a one way around about that time - so it will be Sept that we leave these shore I think !!
But it would seem that a one is dearer tham a W Class special two way ticket ( go figure) so I may be purchasing a return and throwing half of it away.

Any one sees at good package with up to 2 weeks accvom - then let me know as well.



- Skippy

It's not much to do with fuel, the flights go back down again after mid-August. Very cheap long haul maybe over but I never paid these anyway, for as long as I remember I've been paying £500+ on BA return to Thailand.

I've actually been after one-way tickets to NZ, which I could have has for £500-£600 on Eva, Malaysian or Thai a fortnight ago, now it's minimum £1100 until mid-August when it drops down to £500 again. It's a lot of money when you have to pay for 3 people.

"Ducks off"

My best job offer just came through pay rise and everything. But they love me so mak mak they want me to start asap.

Mbai pen Rai. We will see what I can negotiate Monday. I will keep you all informed what deals I find in the interim.

Richard

Steve - have you thought about just getting to Bangkok then - getting another ticket from Bangkok to New Zealand.

Otherwise you best option might be via Hong Kong ( I am afraid to say)

- Steve

Yes, thought about that, it's probably the way we'll end up going. Still costly though, but the thing is we've reached the point here in the UK where we are just impatient to go, just hanging around now and I'm not sure we could do that for another 6 weeks until the cheap fares come back. No job, everything in boxes etc.

Nearly there ourselves.. in the process of working notice at work (MRS Skippy finishes end of the month) How long do you thing i need to pack up the flat for example - how long to finish work until jump on the palne should we allow??

Not looking forward to the carboot sale at all

any tips - let me know - SteveR feel free to PM if you want to chat about anything!!


- Skippy

quote:

Originally posted by storm1fishing:
richard

I have just booked on emirates for this saturday £684 . Could have left on sunday with Jet for £660.
I booked through a lady named Janet at affordable holidays. Her number is 08718554343.
Hope this helps

Thanks for that . I seem to be just a week out. Last week cheep but for this week prices are still through the roof.

Richard

stever and skippy

i've found a cheap one-way to bkk on the egyptair website. if u go to http://www.egyptair.com and select germany as ur country, then there is a fare of €468 if u depart from frankfurt on tuesday 29/07/2008. u'll have to buy separatey a bmi british midland flight from london to frankfurt and there is a change of planes in cairo.

bmi and egyptair are both, like THAI, in star alliance so, when u check-in at heathrow, ask bmi to check ur luggage through to bkk.

richardb, this is not so good for u, since the return flight is much more expensive than the outbound flight!

ian.

quote:

Originally posted by ian canton:
stever and skippy

i've found a cheap one-way to bkk on the egyptair website. if u go to http://www.egyptair.com and select germany as ur country, then there is a fare of €468 if u depart from frankfurt on tuesday 29/07/2008. u'll have to buy separatey a bmi british midland flight from london to frankfurt and there is a change of planes in cairo.


bmi and egyptair are both, like THAI, in star alliance so, when u check-in at heathrow, ask bmi to check ur luggage through to bkk.

richardb, this is not so good for u, since the return flight is much more expensive than the outbound flight!

ian.

I had to send my passport to my new company to prove I have permission to work so I am still here.