Today I was searching for the best possible air itinerary/airfare to Bangkok from San Francisco for travel in early November. Going into the search, I admit I was leaning towards flying again on Eva Airlines in their deluxe economy “evergreen” class as I have been very satisfied with their service on my last three trips to Thailand. When I checked the fare on Eva’s website, I was shocked to find out that it was $1456USD including taxes. Now compare that to how much I paid before on EVA (evergreen class) – Nov. 2005…$1061, Nov. 2006…$1121 and Nov. 2007… $1107 - and you can see what I mean.

I know that airfares across the board are significantly higher this year due to the increase in the cost of oil and airline fuel, but to pay $350 more than I did the past two years is a little bit too much for me. So it was back to the drawing board. I did some research a number of airfare comparison and airline booking websites including Expedia, Kayak.com, Zuji.com and the Yahoo travel site. Looks like the best bang for the dollar is on Cathay Pacific in coach class for $925. Good deal! I’ve flown Cathay Pacific before and they offer excellent and efficient service. The flight schedule is ideal – the flight leaves from SFO at 12:05AM and arrives in Bangkok (after a change of planes in Hong Kong) the following day at 10:50AM; the return flight from Bangkok leaves at 12:00PM. The only drawback is that seating in coach class – like all Asian carriers - is very cramped.

The best alternative was a fare I found for Northwest Airlines on Best Travel Store for $1039. Northwest has very comfortable leather seats and better than average leg room. The problem is the flight schedule on NW is undesirable – the flight arrives at 12:30AM in Bangkok (ugh) and the return flight leaves Bangkok at 6:00AM in the morning. With this flight schedule, you lose a good 1 ½ days. So bottom line, I thing Cathay Pacific is best overall choice - just have to drink something powerful to knock me out.

All airfares quoted in US dollars

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 7:20 am and is filed under Thailand, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.