For those who live in the Southeast US how do you get to BKK?

[billywan]

I generally fly from Atlanta to Minneapolis St-Paul to Narita to Bkk and vice versa. Any way you go from the Southeast, is still a looong flght for me. Bummer about NW is having to leave Bkk at 06:00 and have to be at airport 3 hours before takeoff.

[Skatduder]

Amadeus.net

 

Do a flight search. Sort by "elapsed time" and you'll get an unbiased display as to which way's fastest. You'll get pages of flights via the Pacific, mainly via JFK or ORD. Also Korean Air from ATL with a connection in Seoul.

 

NWA & Delta have put me on Korean Air for my free frequent tickets. I like them. The only problem I have is they always put me in the back of the bus.. I have 52C the very last seat. I have called many times and asked at the gate. Will not change me. Also on the way home there is a 9hr lay-over in Korea going to Seattle. I get a room for 4 hours in the airport. But over all I like them and no middle age, fat, US stews. Nice asian touch to finish a vacation.

 

[was_usvirgin]

I think they've become a very good airline, not only because a couple of guys from DL and US were brought in to take control of flight operations 5-6 years ago, but also overall.

 

Last time I checked, they didn't even offer advance seat selection to economy class passengers, unless you had a certain FF status - I always thought that was strange. And I'm not a big fan of bibimbop, which they ALWAYS serve in the back.

 

Last time I flew out of LAX, I was given a middle seat, but the check-in agent advised me to come back at flight closing time and I got a forward aisle seat.

 

I agree that the eastbound connections do truly suck. They prioritize the Korea-US flights, and you can hardly blame them for that.

[unit731]

Atlanta to LAX. Any airline.

 

LAX to BKK with Thai Airways - non-stop.

[was_usvirgin]

I don't know about the fares, but you could also connect with a Thai nonstop out of JFK. That flight surprisingly has a slightly shorter flight time than the LAX-BKK one. Of course, after queuing up on JFK's taxi ways for an hour or two, maybe not.

[RayRay]

Last fall I got a business class round trip ticket for $2,750 on Korea Air. It went BKK to Seoul to Atlanta. For price I doubt you'll get much better than that.

[thegreatone]

just booked a ff flight going lax to bkk and they were very helpful with seat selection, probably because the flight isn't until next year. I have 12 hour layover, how did you get room at airport..details. we are traveling with a baby

[was_usvirgin]

I think they have changed their policy to allow for advance seat selection in economy class.

 

Assuming your layover is at Incheon and, since you are flying on ff awards, I'd suggest you call Korean Air Skypass dept. (1-800-438-5000) and ask if STPC (their term for providing a complimentary room in cases of poor online connections) is provided at Incheon in your case. If they do, I'm guessing it would be in the transit hotel within the terminal, otherwise they own a hotel franchise just off the airport.

 

I know they provide it for regular paid tickets, in many cases, I just don't know if they do it for ff award tickets.

 

 

[Lamock Chokaprret]

First time I came to LOS from Miami I went to NY and then caught the Cathay Pacific flight to HK via Vancouver. A short hop then from HK to BKK and it got me in before noon. Plenty of time to face the day ahead of me.

 

I think your choice is going to depend on a balance of cost vs. time. My journey took about 36 hours elapsed with layovers. Return also somewhat an issue because I had to overnight in NY (even crap hotels are expensive there near JFK).

[Dali]

In general I've found trans-Atlantic routes to be more expensive than trans-Pacific. And if you're using FF miles, trans-Atlantic typically requires more miles (sometimes a lot more).

 

Time-wise, from the east coast it might be a little faster to go trans-Atlantic to BKK, but probably faster to go trans-Pacific from BKK.

 

The fastest way to get to BKK is to take one of Thai Airways direct flights from JFK (NY) or LAX. Both are 17 hour non-stops. The JFK flight departs at noon, which means you can fly to JFK in the morning from Atlanta (or the night before and get a room for the night). The LAX flight departs close to midnight, which means a very long flight after a very long day if you are coming from the east coast (remember that midnight LA is 3am eastern time). Thai Air is offering some very attractive prices right now for their premium economy class seats on these flights (more room than economy but not as much or all the services of business).

 

The JFK to BKK flight on Thai is more like trans-North Pole. You head north over Canada and the Arctic, then down over Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to BKK, keeping an eye out for both Santa and Bin Laden.

 

The best deals to BKK are flights from LAX, where there is a lot of competition among the Asian airlines (which most of us prefer vs western airlines).

 

Do a search from LAX to BKK on Orbitz or Travelocity, another from JFK to BKK, and another from Atlanta to BKK. You will probably find that your best option is to book a flight to LA or JFK, possibly stay the night, than have a separate ticket booked from LA to BKK.