Airfare to/from BKK

[SamplerDoc]

Well I am posting this because I know there are tons of guys that are much smarter and more clever in the aifare department than I.
Just hope it belongs in this Travel section and not the BKK one.  If I grabbed the wrong one please move her, thanks.

Here is the issue at hand:
Trying to book some ticket combo that would allow for depart BKK to either of the 3 cities for the outbound on July 15th and then return about July 22nd from one the cities back to BKK.
One goal is to get the lowest airfare.
Another goal is to get miles.

Trying to look at combos like Bkk to Shenzen and back from Macau to BKK or other way around. It seems travel between all the 3 cities would easy enough once there.
Trying to figure out if some combo of airlines or cities would work for the dates and goals and could really use the help of an expert out there.  Thanks a bunch in advance men

[pampamsam]

In my flying experiences between BKK-HKG-BKK I have found that the best priced fares were with Emirates at about 8,000TB rt, once or twice I got an Air India tkt for about 7,000 TB. I once was able to get a HKG-BKK-HKG fare of USD169, or 5400TB but this fare was a last minute deal. booked less than 24 hours prior to departure.

For mileage, Emirates is a member of Star Alliance.

Good luck

[PigDogg]

(pampamsam @ Jul. 07 2008,15:05) For mileage, Emirates is a member of Star Alliance.

How does this differ from being a full Star Alliance member?

[dummy_plug]

Fares from BKK to HKG (or vice versa) seem expensive these days. I did a search for several dates that the cheapest I could find was about $280 USD (with full taxes and fees) with Ethiopian Airlines! Needless to say I passed. I couldn't figure out if there was a budget airline that did a HKG-BKK route, but I did note that Air Asia does a Macau-BKK flight but with their fees and surcharges it is hardly cheap these days. I just did a Thai Airways flight which was $670 USD but used 20k points instead. A great deal!

[MARKUK]

prices are expensive, i recently did Air Asia - Macau-BKK which was cheap, you can also get Air Asia to Shenzen i believe then either Shenzen or Macau are an hour from Hong Kong. Not aware of any super cheap deals to HK. - maybe Hong Kong Airlines?

[dummy_plug]

An hour is conservative. Distance-wise Shenzhen and Macau are not far at all, but the logistics of getting around makes it inefficient for anyone based in HK to actually go to either of those places to take a flight. The hassles, as well as added cost (which can be up to $60 USD with taxi and ferry) don't really make it too worth it unless you are already in those places already.

[LoveYouLongTime]

I use to fly Gulf Air, but they have since pulled out of BKK - HKG. I have never flown them, but I do know that Orient Thai Air has 747 service between Bangkok and Hong Kong....yeah, yeah I know - they are part of the One-Two-Go! But they are one of the cheaper options!

[Looker]

(dummy_plug @ Jul. 16 2008,11:08)  An hour is conservative. Distance-wise Shenzhen and Macau are not far at all, but the logistics of getting around makes it inefficient for anyone based in HK to actually go to either of those places to take a flight. The hassles, as well as added cost (which can be up to $60 USD with taxi and ferry) don't really make it too worth it unless you are already in those places already.

Correct..it's not worthy.

The only (good) reason for people living in HK to go to ShenZhen airport is to catch flights from SZ to mainland China. The choice is far greater and prices much lower, sometimes up to half of what you pay for an HK direct flight to some chinese destinations.

Also, some cities in China do not have direct connection with Hong Kong at all, hence flying to ShenZhen it's worthy.

[MARKUK]

(dummy_plug @ Jul. 16 2008,11:08)  An hour is conservative. Distance-wise Shenzhen and Macau are not far at all, but the logistics of getting around makes it inefficient for anyone based in HK to actually go to either of those places to take a flight. The hassles, as well as added cost (which can be up to $60 USD with taxi and ferry) don't really make it too worth it unless you are already in those places already.

ok maybe i will elaborate - if you live in HK its not that bad to transit through Macau, Shenzen maybe a bit more hastle.

1) Airport Express return ticket HK-Airport 180HKD
2) Time Aiport - 30 Minutes
3) HK - Macau ferry return ticket - around 160 economy
4) Travel time one hour. Add another 20-30 mins to transit depending on time of day. And of course taxi in HK.

So costs an additional little bit which you save on airfare reduction and time wise maybe an extra 45-60 minutes - ive done it and its not that bad if you know exactly what your doing and where to go.

[srb]

I always use a screenscraper to assess flight costs - great way to mess about with dates and see the varying prices, and it seems to pull in price comparisons from everywhere. Also has a search facility where you can compare weekends only on price search. BKK to HK return is less than half the price of BKK to Macau with Air China at the moment. Kinda makes it worth the ferry ride, which is pretty well organised and no wait at Immigration until you get to Macau.

This is a screenscraper site if anyone wants to try it out:

http://www.kayak.co.uk/