Wondering about regional airfare..
Hi, I'm planning a Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines trip for this summer. I've been looking into regional airfare (in and out of the Philippines, and back to Bangkok after the trip for the return flight home). Searching the various websites for fares and my lonely planet SE Asia book, are giving me a huge range of fares. I don't know what to realistically expect.
For example airasia.com and cebupacific have quoted prices such as:
Singapore to Bangkok $31 US 1 way
Bangkok to Phuket $25 US 1 way
Cebu to Manila $19 US 1 way
Cebu to Puerto Princesa (PHIL) $24 US round trip
These seem ridiculously cheap, but they are the sort of prices found in my lonely planet book..
When I search these same flights on Thai Airways or Philippine Airlines.. I get prices such as:
Bangkok to Phuket $120 US 1 way
Bangkok to Singapore $300 US 1 way
Cebu to Manila $80 US 1 way
Clearly there is a huge discrepency here, and it will greatly affect my travel plans. So which ones are realistic? Thanks for the help.
Reply to this forgot to mention... the regional flights that I'd probably take are: Thailand to Phuket, Singapore to Cebu, Cebu to Palawan island (in PHIL) return trip, Cebu to Manila (because Cebu doesn't seem to link to Bangkok), Manila to Bangkok... seems like a lot of flights... and if the flights are as expensive as they are showing on thai airways and philippine airlines, i think i'd have to cut the philippines out of my plans.. which i really don't want to do. thanks.
Reply to this If you are intending to go with someone like airasia then the prices they quoted are realistic. I don't know where you live but in England it is the difference between flying with British Airways or flying with a budget airline like easyjet. Airasia is a budget airline so therefore their prices will be cheaper but is reflected in the level of service you get i.e. no snacks, entertainment etc (this is just going on easyjet)
I assume thai airways is like British Airways and you would get a better level of service and comfort which is reflected in the price!
Reply to this OK, thanks for the info... it just seems like a HUGE price difference. For the length of these flights (some are 45 mins to a couple of hours), I definitely wouldn't mind low/no service. Not a big deal, as long as the plane has no holes in it or anything like that lol. If that is the case then that's fine with me. I just don't want to get there and then find out that airasia and cebupacific are going to slap on like 200% in taxes and hidden costs inflating their prices
Reply to this I just read on another website's forum that the really cheap fares on sites like cebupacific and airasia can only be obtained if you book online and well in advance. any truth to this? because this also would cause problems, as i would not want to have a bunch of dates pre-determined.. i'd like to be able to be flexible on this trip.
Reply to this Airlines commonly offer discounts for bookings online, and if you want to get the really low prices this is the first place to start looking (The reason of course is that it is less costly for the airline and they can get rid off some more staff...). There is also a huge difference in price between the traditional airlines and the low cost budget airlines, although the regulars are fighting back at the low cost operations. One of the big problems for airlines is the cabin factor, i.e. the fill rate on each flight. Overbookings are often the norm, as it is estimated a certain percentage of the passengers will for various reasons not show up at the gate. Offering really low prices for prebooked nonrefundable nonchangeable tickets makes it simpler for the airlines to plan ahead, manage their fleet and maintain profitability, but it also means it is getting really hard to find good deals on changeable tickets these days... Here in Sweden the prebooked/internet-only/nonrefundable fad has spread to trains and long distance buses as well.
One thing you should double check when dealing with low cost airlines is where the flight will actually take you. One reason the cost cutters can offer cheap tickets is because they rarely fly to the capital airports, but to regional airports (often heavily subsidised by the provincial government), or special budget terminals, sometimes far out of town. This is extremely important to check if you have connecting flights. The airport code on the booking will typically give it away.
Reply to this We have flown air asia a few times now, and also flown Tiger (another low cost airline based in Singapore). Both were fine and really cheap. With Air Asia we flew from Kuala Lumpur to Sabah, from Sabah to Sarawak and then back to KL. The service was fine, for such short flights you dont need in flight entertainment or snacks really. We booked these in advance and got really cheap fares, I think in total for two of us the three flights were less than a hundred quid. We then flew from KL to Bangkok with Air Asia and booked it two days before we flew. It was still only 20 quid each. That was including taxes etc.
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