Other Asian, Australian and South Pacific Frequent Flyer Programs - Air Asia Ecomony Promo Fares? SIN-DPS in June 2010

I have questions about Air Asia promo fares in general and also wondering if anybody here have experience booking Air Asia for SIN-DPS.

I have a trip in June 2010 SIN-DPS and the dates are not flexible. Air Asia has promo fares now for those dates, however, the promo applies only to the flight with inconvenient time. (early morning) The promo fare is much lower than the regular econ which is around 244SGD ai.

My questions are:

-Does this route (SIN-DPS) in late June get full usually? (less chance of last minute discount?)

-At the moment, the promo fares are only for the inconvenient time flights. Is this the norm for Air Asia?

-Is 244SGD RT decent price for SIN-DPS in June if anyone has an idea? Or is booking now for flight in June (more than 8 months ahead) too early??

Obviously I have never flown Air Asia or any discount airlines before and would appreciate any comments.
Thank you.

Promo fares come and go and if you're not flexible, well, you get what you paid for. LCCs usually have cheaper fares for early booking. If you book later, fares will go up. No such thing as last minute booking - that's when they hit you for higher fares. But thats not to say that a sudden seat sale will not happen between now and then.

June is school holidays. Yes they (flights) will be full. Why do you think the cheap promo fares are at early morning flights cos the later flights in the day can be filled up easily.

If you want better fares, may I then suggest Qatar and KLM which might have better fares. KLM begin service SIN-DPS in Dec but both QR and KL schedules are not daily.

Or try on other LCCs like JETSTAR: http://www.jetstar.com/sg/en/cheap-flights/standard.aspx

Re: pricing. Debate is here (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other-asian-australian-south-pacific-frequent-flyer-programs/987037-airasia-fares-likely-drop-closer-departure.html) - who knows how fares will change between now and June. If you are dead set on those dates and times, and don't mind forfeiting your flights if your plans change then go for it!

Re: inconvenient flight times. Promo fares on all discount airlines are for inconvenient flight times. If they were conveniently timed, then tickets would be sold for a higher price. If not enough passengers book for the conveniently timed flights, then the prices for those could fall

In addition, this far out, there is a high likelihood that published flight times will change between now and June - both for Air Asia as they continue to add flights, as well as for Jetstar which keeps re-jigging its DPS schedule. You should check what their re-accommodation policy is, because you might not like it

Really, it is much, much too early to be booking paid short haul flight tickets for next June - I would re-look at times and prices early next year

BTW, QR is currently planned to be daily, but if it's anything like their current schedule to KUL, then it's going to arrive SIN in the middle of the night - likewise KL's new flight

Thanks so much for your comments. Really helpful. I did read that thread about the debate on the "last min promo fare" which I thought was very interesting, but I realize I don't have the guts to wait and won't have the time to look around for the best deal anyway.

Our booking for NRT-SIN (stopover)-DPS-SIN-NRT has been finalized recently. We decided not to buy tickets but instead book award Y tickets on SQ (using DL skymiles) for all of the flights. This isn't exactly a good deal considering the high SQ surcharge/tax, but the flight time is all very convenient.

Thanks again!