I played around a bit with the booking engine, and looks like they charge between 190 and 200 THB more for booking a non-direct flight. But that price is identical as if you book the two flights separately as two bookings or as one booking. So I'm fairly certain that booking a flight like that would earn points as two segments. At only 200 THB extra, might as well just book the direct flight (if it's suitable) as the two separate segments and be guaranteed it'll earn as two.
Originally Posted by
dsquared37
For domestic flights you can generally find prices better than the DA costs.
Well, I'm not seeing that. For most domestic flights it looks to be the case, but for CNX-HKT, the Web Promotion fare is 3780 THB for the direct flight or 4080 THB if the flight isn't direct. Compared to USD 113 for the DA comes to 3486 THB according to Yahoo Currency Converter. So the DA is a few hundred baht cheaper than the direct flight, and even more if the DA can be used for a different non-direct flight.
Anyways, those prices are for Web Promotion (Q). For Web Saver (H), it looks to be at least 270 THB more expensive for the direct flight, and more yet for the non-direct. So if you want an equivalent point earning class, the cost for the DA is even better.
For Web Promotion (Q), I noticed it's only available for flights out to about 2 months into the future. Beyond that, it's not available. Is this normal, or is that fare only available certain times of the year? Anyways, I doubt it makes much sense in my case to be booking online, at least for the HKT-CNX-HKT trips, because seems the DA will be way cheaper for full points earning. For some simple CNX-BKK trips though, I'll have to consider their web booking. Or if L is sold out, then I guess I'll have no choice. But in general I'll be able to buy my tickets several months in advance, so unless it's during peak season, I imagine L will always be available.
Oh, I just checked availability around Christmas time for one of my trips I have planned then. BKK-HKT section only has Y availability on a Saturday. I guess they know from experience that flights get sold out then, so they don't release any of the lower booking classes. I doubt they're already completely sold out on all other booking classes already for all flights that day. 8565 THB if I want to book it on PG's website. A bit steep, but if it only happens once a year I guess it's ok, or go with another carrier in those cases.
Anyways, I'll check into everything a bit more and after that give PG a call and try to get more information on the DA to see if it'll work for me and if I can pay for a single CNX-HKT segment on a non-direct flight or not.