Airfares - schooling, I need.

[Old Hippie]

Airline fares…here you go, you are getting screwed compared to someone else. But note, in terms of “real money adjusted for inflation, “ it is now cheaper to fly than ever before. That out of their way, not all the sites mentioned are up to date, approved to sell tickets, honest, etc… Some charge a fee, some will not allow you to pick a fee or option for special meals, etc…best to book directly with the airline, and get more less the same price. I’ll liken it to “booking.com” they are pretty good, usually, but they don’t always have what you want on the days you want it, but booking direct with the hotel, gets you what you want when you want it. Don’t get me started on trying to get a refund when things go bad…

 

[Mekong]

2 hours ago, Old Hippie said:

best to book directly with the airline, and get more less the same price.

For at least the past 20 years I have booked direct with airline. Some airlines allow you to change / cancel flights with no or minimal cost, reserve seat online and as OH mentioned special meals 

[My Penis is hungry]

Singapore Airlines has cheap tickets this week, booked 2 of the kids to go home at Christmas 

[Coss]

Yes it seems that the answer is to keep any eye on things and "faux" book every now and then to get prices.

In NZ we've recently had some China airlines start flying and all the way to Vientiane, for circa $1,000. The only down side is a relatively long stop in PEK (Bejing)

Has anyone, any experience of Beijing airport, for a stopover of 5~6 hours?  There's always eye candy I guess.

[Mekong]

PEK Beijing Capital International Airport is the old International and the upgrade is PKX Beijing Daxing International Airport, so PEK is DMK (Don Muang) and PKX is BKK (Survarnabhumi) 

6 hours, take a power bank or 2 in your hand baggage to keep your devices charged.

[My Penis is hungry]

Coss have U tried Google Flights?

 

I use it regularly, plus you can set it to track fairs.

 

Works well for me

[Coss]

 

I'll go have a looksee, Sky scanner is useful but ultimately a shill.

[dean]

I’ll second buying direct from airlines over from a 3rd party travel agency whose Customer Service department is non existent.   I flew Singapore Airlines last September for 2 months at my house in Chiangmai, working on it.  On October 18, I got a call that my brother suddenly died and I needed to get home for the funeral. I contacted Singapore Airlines and they wouldn’t offer any help, telling me to contact my 3rd party travel agency that sold me the ticket. The only way I could contact them was by email.  After 3 days of waiting for a reply, I gave up and bought a one way ticket on Qatar airline to get home. I’ve been fighting with both Singapore airlines and BugetAir (don’t use them) ever since and after giving them my brother’s birth and death certificates in PDF form and DNA samples from both of us, two days ago, I was told I would receive a refund of $236 sometime in the next 2 months 

In the meantime, not wanting to use Singapore Airlines, I’m flying China Airline one way to Chiangmai for 23 days.  Currently, I’m being treated for stage 3 melanoma with a 13 stage one treatment approximately every 28 days, so I need to get back at the end of December or first part of January. At some point, I checked Philippines Airlines and round trips run $600 if I fly BKK to LAX.  I then use FF points to fly Southwest Airlines to Kansas City. That’s the cheapest that I’ve seen post Covid. I’ve got 2.5 years left until my son graduates from high school. Then, I can move to Chiangmai, be rid of U.S. healthcare, which would be a lot less expensive for me here with Medicare paying almost all of my costs. I just can’t stand dealing with the bureaucracy of our healthcare system. If my Thai wife decides to stay and run her Thai restaurant here, I may come back once or twice a year for short stays and get whatever expensive testing done here rather than in Thailand. I’m pretty sure that coastwise, I can’t get health insurance in Thailand because of preexisting conditions (cancer and Afib) and age, 70.

[Coss]

Sounds like me.

After months and months of observation, I'm now using SkyScanner with alerts to let me know what's available and will book with the appropriate airline direct when I decide on dates.

And vis the wife and living arrangements, sounds like you're doing what MLG and I intend to do.

She likes NZ, I like Laos, so we'll be back and forth cupla times a year, hopefully with the airfares staying at ~1,000 NZD  AKL-BKK.

I can’t get health insurance in Laos because of preexisting conditions (ex-stroke, cancer and Afib, 63) 

So - treatment in NZ, holiday for months in Laos, rinse and repeat, side trips to Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, etc as the airfares allow.

[Mekong]

To counter dean comments, when I was in Vietnam, the wife and I were back and forth between Nam and Thailand 4-5 times a year, all flights booked direct with Vietnam Airlines, We didn’t change flights per ce but just purchased new tickets for different flights and got a refund on unused ticket. 
The refund was always back on my CC within a week and no fees.