Your survival guide to living in Pattaya Beach

Getting to Thailand

Getting to Thailand may be a big hurdle for some of you, because of the cost. I have flown to Thailand from California about ten times now. The first time I booked on-line and I was very proud of the great deal I got, on my airfare. I searched for weeks to get the best deal. It seemed to me, at the time, that the on line booking engines would be cheaper than going to the airlines themselves. So I found my deal and buy my ticket. As I am standing in line at check in comparing airfares with other travelers, to my surprise I paid much more than I should have. A lady in the line in front of me got her air ticket for one hundred fifty dollars less than I got mine. She got her ticket from a regular travel agent. I assumed that by my inputting all of my own flight information, and doing most of the work myself, I would get a better deal, boy was I wrong. Isn't that what computers and the internet are for, to help reduce cost. The next time I booked, I booked with an agent and I got a better deal too.

In the last few years I have found the better deals have been with the airline booking web sites them selves. I have been pricing my flights lately on the China Airline web site. I think their web site is best because they have a price table. Using their table you can see at a glance a weeks worth of departing and a weeks worth of return flights and their prices. You can also jump by a week in all directions to compare other days at a glance. I can check lots of flights in a short time and I don't have to keep reentering flight details over and over. On this trip February 28, 2011 from Los Angeles to Bangkok, I paid $909 total round trip. There is another thing I like about China Airlines booking engine and that is the price they display is the price you pay. I hate games some of the others play with low low prices then later they surprise you with all the taxes and surcharges.  I want to know the total up front before I jump through all their hoops.

I would still check with the booking engines because there have been times when they did have the best fares, it just helps to shop around and isn't that what the Internet is all about...

 

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