Best website for cheapest flights to Asia.

[Doormatt]

Cheap flights, booking.com, skyscanner, BA sale. What's your experience? Any inside tips? I think I've heard Martin Lewis (money saving expert) say there is an optimum time to book before you fly. I know flights can be cheaper in low season and very much higher at Xmas. Who performs consistently well? Looking to go Feb/march 2027 for 3-4 weeks. Info not just for me. For the community. Thank you.

[southcoastpunter]

I don’t know the answer to your question- but it gets cheaper if you go on some of the Chinese or Indian airlines and if you have 3 or 4 stops - resulting in a long overall journey time ( ie London to Bangkok) I have seen this type of flight in the £400’s when a direct or one stop via a gulf state is £850+.

Tbh I now only look on skyscanner   

[Prince_s]

Google flights shows results from several websites in 1 place for a single flight. I usually use that as a starting point

[billybob69]

Cheap flights, booking.com, skyscanner, BA sale. What's your experience? Any inside tips? I think I've heard Martin Lewis (money saving expert) say there is an optimum time to book before you fly. I know flights can be cheaper in low season and very much higher at Xmas. Who performs consistently well? Looking to go Feb/march 2027 for 3-4 weeks. Info not just for me. For the community. Thank you.

The sweet spot is usually booking 3 to 6 months in advance. Flying Tues, Weds, Thurs is usually cheaper. I've even seen the same flights increase in price on a Friday and then drop back again on a Monday, so even booking mid-week is cheaper.

I wouldn't like to say what is going to happen to flight prices to SE Asia over the next few months. The quality Middle-Eastern airlines (Emirates, Eithad, Qatar) were offering excellent service together with good prices, but they are quite expensive now. I assume that is due to oil prices. Maybe it is that they now believe that they offer a premium product. The Chinese airlines are most definitely the cheapest now, but are often multi-stop flights. Turkish generally offer a good compromise between comfort and price. You might want to choose a European airline, just in case there are further developments in the Middle-East.

I prefer skyscanner as it allows for search with 'checked luggage' in the price (some European airlines such as KLM and Air France now consider 'checked luggage' as an additional charge, so don't come up in the price on many search engines). That or google flights which allow you to see the costs of the flights for booking directly with the airline.

I usually pencil some dates well in advance and then set up price alerts. Sometimes airlines have sales etc and the alerts will pick up on that including sales on code-sharing airlines. My last trip was effectively Qatar airline flights there and back, but because I booked on BA website and they had a sale, I saved £150.

"Asia" is a huge area and there can be quite a few nuances with regard to flights...….

[Happy gent]

I've read that this is a useful site:

External Link/Members Only

I've only used it to search and get a feel for prices as am thinking about a SE Asia trip next year, long delayed due to health, as has been my general ability to indulge.

[Doormatt]

Thanks all. Some interesting ideas here. I didn't know about price alerts too.

[Sigma]

If you know when you want to travel its worth setting up a price alert so you can see when the flight prices change. I had a price alert set for a SEA trip this October I had to cancel for work reasons, but the prices fluctuated from £800 down to £600 at some points. You can lock in your hotels if you see a good price, then wait to see if flights change.

[Jerboa]

The cheaper flights are via a Chinese carrier, because they are still allowed to fly over Russia, with a stop over in southern China, I have seen some stops of only a couple of hours.

[Cactus]

I prefer Kayak to Skyscanner these days, you can search +/- 3 days on either end, then it brings up a grid of a week for departure & return.

Then filter a bit - for SE Asia I’d change the max flight time to say, 20 hours and maximum stops to 1 each way to narrow it down. Can adjust departure times etc to suit too.

Then play around from there looking at various options. Find a flight you like the look of, then click through and get a list of options to book, one of which will be direct with the airline.

Has worked well in the past and I used it last week when researching a trip to Thailand for May 27.

[Malvolio]

I would echo the idea of departing and returning midweek - that will almost certainly be cheaper than flying at the weekend.

[Steely Dan]

After you have the flight and day you want, do consider going right to the airlines site.  You might be able to book it for the same price.  The advantage is you get AirMiles, and you have a direct relationship with the airline which can help if there are major changes or deep fuck ups like wars or earthquakes.  This has not a lot of benefit until the one day it does.

[hamchang]

Assuming we are talking Economy here, then the difference in all these prices is a couple hundred quid more or less. I usually am very precise with the dates i want to travel there and take the view that if I need to pay a hundred more then its fine. Lowest is probably Norse airlines, but it a couple hundred quid is the difference between you deciding to go or not, then I would advise waiting 6 months and saving up more. You will spend significantly more than you think there especially if you are fresh off the boat first time all wide eyed and some old isaan mattress warrior gets her grips onto you.