Cheapest Way to Fly?

[TheyCallMeBruce]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

In a sort of related note, I'm planning a trip over to Thailand in April and looking at my flight options the cheapest by far are the American airlines (United and Delta). They're at just over $1000 for a round trip ticket to Bangkok, while Air Canada and Cathay Pacific (whom I used last time) are several hundred dollars more. I've heard many bad stores about flying with American lines, is it worth saving the money to go with them or more of a headache than it's worth?

You can always fly back from a different city. I'm heading to Kuala Lumpur, but to fly there is going to cost me $1300 round trip. I changed my arrival destination to Singapore city, and fly home from KL and it dropped to $1000. I'm using Kayak btw.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Check out FedEx's new PeoplePak Service. It's pretty cheap and offers next day service.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

dp

[gargamel]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

In a sort of related note, I'm planning a trip over to Thailand in April and looking at my flight options the cheapest by far are the American airlines (United and Delta). They're at just over $1000 for a round trip ticket to Bangkok, while Air Canada and Cathay Pacific (whom I used last time) are several hundred dollars more. I've heard many bad stores about flying with American lines, is it worth saving the money to go with them or more of a headache than it's worth?

The American airlines are awful for domestic flights, but their international flights aren't bad. Often, those flights will be operated by another airline, so you won't even have to be on their planes at all. Just don't go super cheap and fly through Africa, because it's much more hassle than it's worth, as I found out 2 weeks ago. Everything went smoothly until I arrived in Bangkok and had to show my proof of yellow fever vaccine since I was arriving from Ethiopia, even though I was only there for a layover. I ended up lying and saying I'd never left the airport in Addis Ababa, and that was thankfully enough to get me into Thailand, but it might not be if you get stuck with a more strict medical inspector.

Unrelated to airline prices, but you might want to consider waiting until after their elections the first week of February to go to Bangkok. The next month (particularly the city-wide shutdown on January 13 and the election on February 2) could get ugly.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by gargamel

The American airlines are awful for domestic flights

It's hit and miss for the planes without IFE... a WestJet 738 is a Delta 738 is a United 738 is an American 738, they're the same airplane.

You might even get a United 738 that has a mid-cabin bathroom while all of WestJet's do not.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by gargamel

The American airlines are awful for domestic flights, but their international flights aren't bad. Often, those flights will be operated by another airline, so you won't even have to be on their planes at all. Just don't go super cheap and fly through Africa, because it's much more hassle than it's worth, as I found out 2 weeks ago. Everything went smoothly until I arrived in Bangkok and had to show my proof of yellow fever vaccine since I was arriving from Ethiopia, even though I was only there for a layover. I ended up lying and saying I'd never left the airport in Addis Ababa, and that was thankfully enough to get me into Thailand, but it might not be if you get stuck with a more strict medical inspector.

Unrelated to airline prices, but you might want to consider waiting until after their elections the first week of February to go to Bangkok. The next month (particularly the city-wide shutdown on January 13 and the election on February 2) could get ugly.

Thanks for the info, the flight I'm leaning towards is Delta, which uses Alaska Airlines for Calgary - Seattle, Delta from Seattle - Tokyo, and some Asia airline from Tokyo - Bangkok. And as mentioned I won't be going until April so no worries about election issues (landing just in time for Thai New Year)

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Thanks for the info, the flight I'm leaning towards is Delta, which uses Alaska Airlines for Calgary - Seattle, Delta from Seattle - Tokyo,

Just a heads up, I've done that leg a few times, and every time it's a very small plane, with limited carry-on room, so if you have a large carry-on, it will get checked. I bring along a small backpack/camera bag/re-useable shopping bag for valuables/essentials that I need to keep onboard.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Just a heads up, I've done that leg a few times, and every time it's a very small plane, with limited carry-on room, so if you have a large carry-on, it will get checked. I bring along a small backpack/camera bag/re-useable shopping bag for valuables/essentials that I need to keep onboard.

Thanks, my only carry-on will be my small backpack so I should be ok

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Thanks for the info, the flight I'm leaning towards is Delta, which uses Alaska Airlines for Calgary - Seattle, Delta from Seattle - Tokyo, and some Asia airline from Tokyo - Bangkok. And as mentioned I won't be going until April so no worries about election issues (landing just in time for Thai New Year)

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Just a heads up, I've done that leg a few times, and every time it's a very small plane, with limited carry-on room, so if you have a large carry-on, it will get checked. I bring along a small backpack/camera bag/re-useable shopping bag for valuables/essentials that I need to keep onboard.

That flight is operated by Horizon on behalf of Alaska, with a Q400 turboprop. It actually has bigger overhead bins than the early model Dash 8's. You should be just fine with your bag, worst case they skycheck it for you on the jetway.

Funny that a Delta ticket is using Alaska/Horizon for the YYC-SEA portion, pretty soon Delta will be actively competing against Alaska as they build up SEA as a true Delta hub to Asia. They should be announcing SEA-YYC with their own metal (CRJ-900) shortly.

[Hemi-Cuda]

One issue I have with my preferred flight is that there's only a 1 hour layover in Seattle after landing from Calgary. Is that enough time to get through the airport and grab my bags/re-check them in if the airline doesn't do it for you?

[Zarley]

I've found that Cathay Pacific has pretty solid deals on flights to SE Asia. I did Calgary-Vancouver-Hong Kong-Bombay-Bangkok-HK-VAN-CGY for around $1500 last year. The service is far superior to the American carriers as well, and you have the option of staying in Hong Kong for as long as you want. Going through a travel agent in Chinatown was able to get us a better price than what we found online as well.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

One issue I have with my preferred flight is that there's only a 1 hour layover in Seattle after landing from Calgary. Is that enough time to get through the airport and grab my bags/re-check them in if the airline doesn't do it for you?

If you are booking YYC-Bangkok all at once your bags should be checked through all the way. You clear US customs in Calgary so there should be no need to go through security again in SEA.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Zarley

I've found that Cathay Pacific has pretty solid deals on flights to SE Asia. I did Calgary-Vancouver-Hong Kong-Bombay-Bangkok-HK-VAN-CGY for around $1500 last year. The service is far superior to the American carriers as well, and you have the option of staying in Hong Kong for as long as you want. Going through a travel agent in Chinatown was able to get us a better price than what we found online as well.

I used them last time I went in 2012 but this time around I actually went with Air Canada. They were a good $300 cheaper (just over $1200 round trip), I don't have any layovers longer than 2 hours, and on the return trip I eliminate the Vancouver stop (Bangkok - Tokyo - Calgary) which is a huge plus. I've also heard lots of good things from people who've used AC for inter-continental flights

The Delta flight was out once I realized that for the lowest price they were quoting ($1050) it had a 7 hour layover in Seattle both ways. To get the 1 hour layover I would have had to pay $400 extra

[Bigtime]

Awesome that you are using the NRT-YYC flight on the way back, we need to keep supporting international non-stops like this to keep the service.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Awesome that you are using the NRT-YYC flight on the way back, we need to keep supporting international non-stops like this to keep the service.

Getting to walk off that 11 hour flight and head straight home will be so nice compared to waiting around in Vancouver for a few hours for yet another flight. I'm also hoping that with it being a new route and flying on a Thursday might mean a full row to myself

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Wormius

BUMP!

I remember a conversation earlier about intentionally missing a connecting flight, because it was cheaper to get off at the stop-over than actually booking a flight directly there. I was looking at this for flights from YYC to SFO is about $100+ per ticket over YYC-SFO-LAS.

I already know that you can only take carry on if you try to go this route, and the rest of your itinerary for that flight will be cancelled, but my question is, can you search for the cheapest ticket based on the stop-over point? I haven't done a lot of research, but how can I find the cheapest ticket that would land me / family members in SFO? Or is it just an iterative approach of seeing which flights will stop at a particular airport?

I've seen a few travel startups lately that are focusing on the 'hidden city ticketing' aspect of flight search. Probably the best so far is this one: http://www.flyshortcut.com/

From playing around with it so far, I haven't seen too much in the way of savings, but YMMV.