Cat Man Do

200 may be very very rare, but 4-500 is definitely possible on ‘normal’ tickets. Air Canada had a sale a few months back which involved 4-500 fares from the west coast to various cities in Asia. PDX-BKK, for example, was $430.

EmailKid

AC is pretty horrid if you end up in one of the Rouge planes @:-)

I flew relatively short YYC-LAS and the pitch was ridiculous. Pretty sure that PDX would be a leisure route for AC, thus some flavor of very tight seating. Of course if price is more important than comfort ...

rc408

I picked up a R/T LAX-HKT (Phuket) through CAN for $380 out the door last week (It's $475 today). I've always used miles for business class to Thailand so this will be a whole new world for me in coach. Lowest I or my friend who traveled there for over 20 years has ever seen (disregarding glitch fares of course).

Cat Man Do

I had remembered reading that in one of the forums, so I made sure I was not on a Rouge flight.

fishball

China Eastern maybe

ryandelmundo

I bought a ticket last year ORD-Jakarta/Bangkok-LAX for $495 (Well to be completely honest I paid for it with 33k UR points). This was on JAL. I also bought a RT to Bangkok last year for $530 on China Eastern (also with UR points). This is an example of where UR points are awesome. A SE Asia ticket costs 80k on United, plus tax, and you receive no miles. I got the ticket, and a few miles (not many because of the really low discount class) back to boot.

So while I think $200 RT sounds like an award ticket with taxes, $400 is probably within the realm of possibility.

I haven't had much trouble lately finding these cheap fares. Typically I search using Momondo and Google Flights. If you don't see the China Eastern flights you aren't looking hard enough. They only fly out of the big cities as well. Other airlines sometimes try their hardest to match the price of China Eastern, so it might be possible to pay a bit extra and not fly China Eastern. This is recommended!

I am guessing you don't care (nor do I!) but China Eastern is not the most pleasant way to fly. Chinese airlines don't allow you to use your cell phone on the flight, so you have to be like the guy who posted that he puts a blanket over his head and uses it under the blanket! They run out of booze seemingly immediately after dinner (3 hours into your 13 hour flight!), but at least its free food and drink I suppose. Transiting in Chinese airports isn't much fun. On the other hand, China Eastern planes I've been on (international long haul only) have been pretty much brand new.

There are two really good sites to keep an eye on cheap fares, and others deals that come along. Be aware when they have a "mistake fare" that airlines pretty much always cancel those flights now.

Secret Flying | Cheap Flight Deals
https://www.theflightdeal.com/

Happy hunting, let us know what you find!

EmailKid

Ya,

check both of these a couple of times a day at least. Not that I'm obsessed with finding a low fare

ibambino

My brother booked mistake fares to Europe for $3xx last year. It's definitely possible.

EmailKid

Um, fares to Europe are MUCH cheaper and there have been nonmistake fares of UNDER $400, possibly because Norwegian has offered fares as low as $99 one way (don't recall, possibly plus taxes).

Fares to Asia have traditionally been higher, probably because it's farther and planes burn a LOT more fuel to get there.

EmailKid

..... as I was saying:

Non-stop from New York, USA to Paris, France for only $139 one-way (& vice versa for €116)

AIRLINES:
Level

Source: SecretFlying

mihec

I think your best bet is to look for mistake fares. There's a couple of websites, probably for your area as well, that look for these bargains and let people know. You can subscribe to their alerts and then have to be ready to purchase immediately. Also it might take quite a lot of time for you to find the right fare but patience is a virtue.