I've recently had to have a DONE4 issued ex-BKK in a bit of a hurry. Searching through the forum, I found a few threads recommending travel agents:

• BKK Travel Agent to ticket Aone4
• DONE4 ex-BKK - some experiences
• RTW DONE4 ex Thailand.

The four I emailed were:

• Charlie Connection Travel, [email protected]
• Green Travel 2000, [email protected]
• Chawla Travel, [email protected] or [email protected]
• A.W.Business Co.,Ltd. (Business Inn Hotel ), [email protected]

The last one bounced, and I could not find an alternative address.

By Saturday morning European time, I recieved a first response from Charlie, with some basic answers and telling me that ticketing was closed for the weekend, so he'd get back to me on Monday. I emailed back to say that that was fine.

Shortly thereafter, I got a reply from Chawla, who not only answered all of my questions, but in fact had gone ahead and made reservations on all the flights I had listed! This was not something I had asked for, but I could check everything on www.checkmytrip.com with the Amadeus PNR. Pretty impressive.

Mike at Green Travel also emailed me a few hours later saying he'd get back to me on Monday.

Come Monday evening European time I hadn't heard from either Mike or Charlie, so on Tuesday I went ahead and had the DONE4 ticketed by Chawla.

My overall experience with Chawla has been positive. With one exception (see below) I've always had quick responses by email, and when I called them they spoke more than adequate English. A paper ticket was issued, nad I was ready to ex-BKK a few days later. The only remaining matter was picking up the ticket itself. As I would be transiting BKK only and not staying there, I emailed them to say when I'd be arriving and on which flight. This is the one email where I got no reply to quickly. So I sent another one, and still not reply. At this point I didn't have much email access, so I called them to confirm the time and place of pickup.

This is where things went wrong. We had arranged to meet at the arrivals hall as I was coming from my SQ flight at 19:30 on Monday evening. No Chawla to be seen. So I called them again, and it was obvious that they had gotten the time wrong. On the phone I'd said I'd be arriving at 19:30, whereas they had understood 9:30. The thing that annoyed me (misunderstandings can happen of course) is that I had emailed twice the details of my flight with arrival time to them. They had it in writing and this could have gone badly wrong had I been pressed for time.

However, as my flight out of BKK was not due to depart until 1am-ish, there was plenty of time to fix it. I had decided to go into town to have dinner at the Celadon restaurant at the Sukhothai, so I had the ticket delivered there. No problem in the end.

So apart from the misunderstanding at the end, the experience was OK. And I know now how to avoid a recurrence. I certainly would not hesitate to use them again.

As a postscript, a day after my first flight and over a week since the promised Monday, I did get an email from Mike at Green Travel asking if I still needed the DONE4. He was very apologetic, but he was too late. I never heard from Charlie again.

Thanks for the excellent and extremely useful report, WBT. Good to know of a BKK agent who can reposnd quickly and well to a complex ticketing request.

In general, I don't think I'd ever expect a Trav Agent to deliver a ticket to me at the airport during a change of flights, though I'm glad it all worked out for you.

In many parts of Asia it is rather common to do that.

Great summary on some very familiar Thai TAs.

Arrangements gone south at the airport, an OWE to start at midnight, ticket not yet in hand and you go to dinner, -and- arrange for ticket to be sent to the restaurant, ... now, that's one cool customer, I'm impressed.

Thanks for the report. ^

Sorry if I had previously provided incorrect info, but the email for AW Busines is [email protected]. I am in the process of issuing a *A ticket (not RTW) with her ex-BKK.

Thanks for the report - very useful info.

I don't understand why people use a travel agent for XONEX products? aren't the fares the same as the airline who issue directly (standard publish fares)?

I bought a DONE4 ex BKK in Dec 05 and CX issued the ticket for me

No stress, pick up at airport on the day of departure.
No screw ups etc... and sopt on with the tax and the fare rules.

nhI have used TA in BKK for DONE4s starting there since there is a major benefit

I have arranged a few for people and they have no desire to stop for a day in Bangkok unnecessarily

By booking through the agent I use, I can have the tickets sent by DHL to Australia.

By booking, say, BA10 on 1 ticket for SYD-BKK and then starting the DONE4 using the same BA10 BKK-LHR , no time is spent in Bangkok other than the flight connection time. This is only feasible by having the tickets in hand in Australia at time of check in

Also have had the agent give a few % discount on the fare too

To me, saving 1 day is definately worth using an agent for

Dave

Anybody want to cite ex-Thailand, ex-USA, ex-Canada fares for comparison?

The fares change regularly, the most current info is in the stickies at the top of this forum. Close enough most of the time (though there are rumours of some big changes after April 15, haven't checked out those fares yet).

The fares may be different from country to country, but in relation to Airline to Travel Agent, they are the same which is what was being referred to

Dave

Excuse the newbie post (longtime lurker - thanks for all the information gathered from all), I am planning a DONE4 ex BKK at the end of the month.
I am based in SYD and already have a BA WT+ award to BKK and wish to purchase a DONE4 for a BKK TA (setup first via AA RTW desk) with a CC and courier back to SYD (haven't got the moxie of the OP to just mosey into BKK for dinner and pick up a ticket hours before a long haul connecting flight).

I wish to do some intra Thailand before the DONE4 starts and have been recommended Circle of Asia as a TA for the intra trips. I remember posts talking about Circle of Asia (via a hotmail address) as also a TA for DONEx trips. I was wondering if it is possible to PM their latest contact details for DONEx? (I have emailed through their website but no reply yet).

FYI routing is
BKK-LHR-CAI-LHR-MUC-LHR-LAX-ORD-LAS-DFW-SFO-JFK-SYD-AKL-SYD-CNS-SYD-HKG-CTS-HKG-BKK

Another question - how has people's experience been with the AA RTW desk regarding taking a BA flight LHR-LAX instead of AA flight - I will do JFK-SYD in AA7366 (QF108) and (also want to credit DONE4 to QF not AA).

Thanks.

Tez.

Tez. Circle Asia is certainly not worth it for intra Thailand flights. Just buy the tix in Thailand -- they will be very inexpensive.

No problem at all. You just can't get AA FF miles or redeem award tickets on this route using AA FF miles for the route which I suspect means nothing to you anyway.

Why set it up via the AA RTW desk if you're going to issue it with a TA anyway? It might be easier just to let the TA handle all of the reservation.