Nick Oliver

Hey Guys,

New to forum and Had a question. When is the best time to purchase the ticket from US to Thailand. I have seen just by looking that booking a few weeks away can save money but my trip is not until July 17'

Any insight helps!

Thanks

restlessinRNO

Nick Oliver - Welcome to FlyerTalk. If your flight USA - Thailand is next July, there is no rush. You need to think about whether you just want the cheapest flight, or fly a specific carrier and collect frequent flier miles. Economy or business class. Once you book a flight, generally it is non-refundable, without a fee.

dtsm

Google flights apparently claim to know best time to book, try and see what they say. July is LOW season so you should get good rates.

Tchiowa

A month or two ahead of time is plenty on a cost basis. Booking now for next July just isn't necessary. If the airline you use allows you to reserve a seat ahead of time you might want to book 2-3 months early as these flights tend to get full or close to full and if you book too late you'll get a seat but it will be a middle seat next to the toilet.

glennaa11

I agree with the Google flights suggestion. Set up a tracker and have it tell you when the best time is.

There are always various sales on fares going on.

CJKatl

You do not mention your point of origin. With this much time, you will likely be able to find fare sales for your date, but another option is to be very flexible and search various departure and arrival airports. You can then purchase a second ticket to position yourself in your desired departure/arrival airport. I do this frequently and have saved thousands over the past few years. People will point out there is a risk doing this if there are delays or IRROPs, but I've been lucky so far. Part of that is I allow enough time between flights. Also, the one time there was an issue DL may have been more generous because I'm PM.

And note, I'm partial to DL because I want the SMs, but if you don't care which airline, there are deals to be had by being flexible.

For example:

• In honor of Singapore's fiftieth anniversary last year, there were $500 flights from JFK-NRT-SIN. I used a 20k SM redemption to get from ATL-JFK-ATL and flew an Asian discounter SIN-DMK-SIN for under $100 r/t. Including one night in the SIN airport transfer hotel, it cost ~$680 r/t versus $1,400 had I purchased a single r/t ticket ATL-NRT/ICN-BKK.
• A couple months ago, I was looking to purchase a ticket about three weeks out. Flying in/out of ATL would have been around $1,700. I found an inexpensive fare out of JFK, but my cousin suggested I visit on the way, so I looked at LAX fares. Bingo! LAX-PDX-NRT-BKK with a BKK-NRT-SEA-LAX return was $700.80, and ATL-LAX r/t was 25k SMs. Ultimately, I flew to LAX for 12k SMs and flew to ATL on my return for $900 to avoid having to get a hotel in LA on the way back.
• This past March, DTW-ICN-BKK (first flight DL, second KE metal) was very deeply discounted, so I got a SM redemption ticket for ATL-DTW, but then that route went on sale and I was able to purchase that ticket r/t for under $150, so it wasn't worth using the SMs. The two tickets combined were still hundreds of dollars less than flying on one ticket in/out of ATL.
• I just helped a friend find a very inexpensive ticket into HAN on a non-DL airline. It was over $1k less than flying into BKK, and he was able to get a $72 r/t fare in and out of DMK.
• I just did a search for around Thanksgiving. The lowest fare ATL-BKK is $1,516. You can fly r/t ATL-LAX for $287 and r/t LAX-BKK for $974, for a $252 savings. I'd probably ticket in/out of ATL for that difference, but if you're buying two tickets, that's over $500 savings. If I were really going to book something, I'd also be checking fares out of SFO, PDX, SEA, JFK, ORD, DFW, etc.

Tools like Skyscanner and ITA Matrix make it easy to quickly investigate options, and once you get anywhere in SE Asia there are inexpensive tickets on discounters like Air Asia. While Vietnam Airlines is not a discounter, they fly many of the same routes and often match fares. They are also a ST member.

Nick Oliver

Thank you all for your suggestions!

I am leaving from PHX so likely have to connect from LAX or SFO. So the consensus is that 2-3 months is plenty of time to book the flight?

CJKatl

Yes, but I'd start checking now. If you're not aiming for a certain airline/alliance, you may find something in the $500 r/t range pop up, in which case you should snag it.