skywalkerLAX

Not going to happen. Not without a long, costly quarantine period in both Hong Kong and Thailand.

LoungeLizardHugo

Going to happen. No quarantine at any point...there we go, a divergence of opinion.

I just booked my JAL J positioning flights with Alaska points. So my money (EK legs) and points are where my mouth is. My perception of risk (and reality) is based upon traveling all this year, over 100 hotel nights domestic and Intl.

Bottom line is one needs to plan and book based upon their own risk tolerance, and not rely on anonymous forum posters who will not make you whole for the opportunity or financial cost you missed. By the time "the all clear is sounded!" the deals will be long, long, gone.

W213Sal

I think I'm going to book it next week, I just need positioning flights from Europe (lol)

I might try and break this into two or 3 holidays

Europe - Bkk /// bkk / dxb / mct / dxb - europe

Europe - Dxb /// dxb / hkg / Bkk - europe

Anyone see flaws in above?

minz56

I'm glad this fare has been popular! I found it quite accidentally when I was researching fares to Oman and was dreaming that it would be nice to go F, and was amazed at how low this fare is ex BKK . Then a quick trip to ExpertFlyer and I discovered you could route via HKG. Bingo!

Unfortunately I don't want to travel till early 2022 by which time the 3 class A380 will have been replaced by a 2 class version, but I'm pleased others have been able to jump on it. Hopefully all the quarantine restrictions will be gone by late 2021. Drink some DP for me!

IAN-UK

I'm sure things will work out ... but maybe worth remembering that until it has been shown otherwise, the assumption has to be that although the vaccine protects you from developing the disease, it doesn't prevent you from carrying and spreading the virus, infecting others.

Thailand,Hong Kong etc are not concerned one jot about your health, their concern is for their citizens and their national health services. They will not open their borders to any convenient level, even to those vaccinated, until either it's been demonstrated the vaccine prevents the spread of the virus, or until their own populations have been vaccinated.

The time required for either of those conditions to be met is unpredictable. Optimists talk about the summer, but it's going to be a very rocky year.

steveholt

The issue with borders will be less about you catching COVID while you're there and more about you possibly having it and spreading it to people in countries where there haven't been widespread vaccinations. Anyone who says they know what things will be like in May or August or anytime in 2022 is kidding themselves. This seems like relatively low risk, given that the fares appear to have free cancellations in the refund rules, but EK may also cancel this ticket.

andaman C

I booked this for two in October. Hoping the the world is healthier by then. It's a bit pricy by my checkbook, but when I factored in the 36K AS miles, 11K Amex points, free hotel in Dubai for the 14 hour layover, chauffeur service from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, (and in other cities) it did all seem to pencil out.

vivrant

and 12 + bottles of Dom @ >$200/btl between the two of you over the 26 hours of flying... no brainer.

longmanzz1

Does anyone know how this fare will play under the flexible policy under Covid-19. Namely, do we have 2 year from the date of booking to use it? and can we change to any destination within the region, even, simply just travel to DXB and drop the MCT legs.

"We’ve extended the validity of your ticket for 24 months. Use it to fly later, or find out what else you can do if your travel has been affected by COVID-19."
The description does mention a June 30th 2021 date for original travel by date. But does that mean we should just book our tickets to travel by then and then can change to any date in 2 years? And if we book into Sep dates, then we are stuck with just one year validity?

MaxVO

There's no need for panic buying. The availability and quality of deals right now is rather lame compared to the normal times.
I agree that your trip will likely proceed as planned, and you'll enjoy it. But the reason for going is way off.

minz56

At the moment EK COVID waivers require travel on or before 30 June 2021. However if you book an itinerary for May or June then you can effectively park the ticket for two years and, if preferred, switch the destination from MCT to another in the the Gulf, Middle East and Iran. If you book for any time after 30 June 2021 and you want to change the ticket then normal fare rules will apply, which include a fare recalculation if you make changes before departure. Of course, EK could extend the waiver, but that is unknown at this stage.

One other thing, if you want to rebook to 2022 bear in mind that it is possible that EK may not be operating a 3 class A380 DXB/BKK/HKG. There would be no refund for a voluntary downgrade to J.

At the end of day you can cancel the ticket with no penalty (apart from any exchange loses as the ticket is denominated in THB).

Alec84

This is the problem for me. I would probably drink only four glasses of Dom during the entire trip and a nice cocktail in the EK lounge at DXB. So much less value when you're not an alcoholic As stated by many, great deal and thanks for sharing! Playing around with this has been really fun and it doesn't even matter that much whether I will book or not eventually.

skywalkerLAX

Deals come and go all the time. If you don't spend any money on speculative bookings during times like these then you don't suffer any losses. Very simple approach,

Considering EK's conduct with refunds in these times I would be more concerned giving them cash than most other airlines.

alp67

Well, the Keep your ticket options say so. Requesting a refund I was offered to keep my speculatively booked Oct 2021 ticket for 24 months with the same rules e.g. change of destination within the same region - foc.



As mentioned above, all flights are in October 2021.

LoungeLizardHugo

Constructive, helpful, data point, thanks for posting!