suciu

I've been away from my family (in the US) for a year. I'm returning from Bhutan this summer and planned to meet my mother in Bangkok so that we could spend a little time travelling together.

It's looking more and more like the violence in Bangkok is not just going to dissipate, at least not to a level that mom would be comfortable with, and we might not want to be hanging around the city. What is a cost-effective way to get to another destination?

I'm flying Druk Air into Bangkok, so I'll be coming from BKK no matter what, but she's taking a United flight from SFO-NRT-BKK. We were going to fly home on the same BKK-NRT-SFO United flight.

I'm considering going to Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, or your fantastic suggestion instead, but am I best off just buying new tickets from BKK? Has anyone else asked United to reroute them in a situation like this? I'm open to your advice--I want to be able to do this for as little money as possible.

Mr H

Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore are all reasonable suggestions. Malaysia is often overlooked and you can get very cheap fares with Air Asia. Travel around Malaysia is cheap for domestic flights and even cheaper by train. Depending on time available, Luang Prabang is also good for a few days and there are relatively affordable flights with Bangkok Air.

mecabq

If you are interested in an experience similar to Bangkok, then Kuala Lumpur or Singapore would be your best options. Vietnam (for which you would need a visa in advance), Cambodia, or Laos are great destinations, but not quite the same urban glitz.

United currently has a travel waiver for Bangkok. If this is in effect when you are planning to travel, then you might succeed in rescheduling her inbound and both of your outbound flights to SIN, which offers basically the same schedule as BKK.

Other than that, you can easily connect from BKK to any other regional city via a pair of inexpensive round-trip tickets. The airport is not affected (as of now).

Ocn Vw 1K

suciu, welcome to FlyerTalk. Please follow the discussion as the thread is moved to our Travel->Asia Forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

jiejie

I think in your situation, Singapore is the best bet. Immediately, try having United change your mother's flight to SFO-NRT-SIN or SFO-HKG-SIN. It may be too far in advance for a waiver to apply, but I wouldn't wait around, so if they want a change fee but it is minimal (say $150-ish), I'd do it. Then have your return flight changed to match hers. I would then buy a separate one way ticket BKK-SIN, there should be plenty of deals around ex-BKK on either mainline or cheaply on AirAsia.

From your meeting point in Singapore, you can travel into peninsular Malaysia, or get relatively inexpensive flights over to east Malaysia (Sarawak and/or Sabah) and do that. Or to a place like Bali. You can still get to Cambodia or Vietnam if those are priorities. Plenty of options if you want to avoid Thailand.

zigzag

I agree with jiejie and would meet your mother in Singapore and then travel to Indonesia which will have much more sun and dry weather then other parts of SE Asia at that time of year.

Mr H

Beware of Bali - there be bogans!

jiejie

Could you translate to English please?

rjh

I think Mr H is referring to the party animal Australians in Kuta. Solution: avoid Kuta.

jiejie

Aha! I now have a new word for my vocabulary, heh-heh. And I agree, Kuta is really the armpit of Bali and avoiding it is indeed a good solution.

Daawgon

The only problem with Singapore is the prices there (hardly cost-effective). I suggest Hanoi, and since everyone is arriving by air, Vietnam's Visa on Arrival is easily arranged last minute from any travel agent (online) in Hanoi or Saigon. Hanoi is a wonderful town - the more chaos the better.

seanthepilot

When are your tickets booked?? Are they awards or paid tickets?

jiejie

They don't have to stay long in Singapore, only meet there and spend a day or so on the way in and out. I suspect OP + Mom could manage this. The suggestion about Vietnam is problematic--not due to visa requirement which is solveable in advance or by method you present--but has to do with air ticketing changes on United. To make this work for OP's mother, UA would have to find seats on the SFO-HKG-SGN flight and reverse, and that might not be easy to do in the summer at this point. And they'd have to be committed to Vietnam asap. I suggest Singapore because seats to there from NRT or via HKG are likely to be findable when it comes to changing tickets, and because it keeps their options open to go just about anywhere else in SE Asia on short notice and at reasonable cost.

suciu

Based on the advice here, I'm going to at least start in Singapore, now I just have a problem booking the tickets.

My mother bought her tickets, and I can easily change her second leg to end in SIN for just the $150. No problem.

I, however, am in a bit more of a pickle. I used united miles to book a star alliance reward (flew in on singapore, flying out on united). I'm pretty sure there's no way for me to change the second half now, but do I have any good options? Booking a round trip BKK-SIN ticket in time to make my BKK-NRT-SFO flight loses me a day in SIN, and I'd be quite bummed about that.

Am I in the right forum for this part of the question?

Is there any loophole in united policies that would somehow let me change my origin from BKK to SIN on award travel that had already started?

Is there any way to fly SIN-NRT and catch the NRT-SFO flight?

What would happen (in terms of a refund of points?) if I just booked a brand new ticket from SIN-SFO and didn't board the United flight from BKK-NRT-SFO?

Is there a 2P line? If so, could someone PM me the number?


I know that's a lot of questions, but thank you for your help. :-)

jiejie

At this point, your original question has been answered reasonably well, enough to give you some direction on WHERE to go to meet up. I suggest that the best forum for HOW to accomplish/execute the change on your ticket would indeed be the United subforum under "Miles and Points." Post a very clear and concise synopsis of what you'd like to do, and request options from the FT pros there.