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.

[seandana]

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.

 

[Uk765]

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.

When a couple of hundred quid amounts to roughly 8-10 punts or even 2 weeks worth of hotel then it does actually make a fair difference

[southcoastpunter]

When a couple of hundred quid amounts to roughly 8-10 punts … then it does actually make a fair difference

10 punts for £200? That about 840 baht per punt? Where are you getting decent sex for that , even in patts?

But I take your point , a couple hundred quid is significant or at least of interest to many of us!

[Uk765]

10 punts for £200? That about 840 baht per punt? Where are you getting decent sex for that , even in patts?

But I take your point , a couple hundred quid is significant or at least of interest to many of us!

Okay maybe 5-6ish punts at 1.5k. forgive my bad maths 

[randalf]

if you book a flight from the UK to Bangkok then you’ll pay UK taxes based upon the full distance.

If you book a return from say Paris or Amsterdam then you’ll pay EU taxes for the lions share which are quite a bit lower. Depending on how much the flight from the UK costs and potentially a hotel it can make sense.

[Rory B Bellows]

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...….

I second your opinion on the “sweet spot” for booking, also booking around the flight dates will help get a better price. I flew LDN/BKK this summer with Etihad and got a good price for the level of service, checked Skyscanner the other yesterday and same flight for similar price available in Jan 2027, so maybe the price hikes haven’t hit yet or there is still some residual reluctance amongst travellers to route via UAE due to the situation. Have to say Abu Dhabi May/June this year was completely fine and don’t think that will have changed since

[Doormatt]

I have heard the British Airways sale can be very good. £650 return Thailand with one short stopover. I usually pay £1100 direct return...maybe I'll hold out for this !

[billybob69]

I have heard the British Airways sale can be very good. £650 return Thailand with one short stopover. I usually pay £1100 direct return...maybe I'll hold out for this !

From the UK, BA only fly direct to BKK, no other Thai airports. Therefore if the flight is UK to BKK and there is a stopover it is likely to be a codeshare airline (most likely Qatar Airways). Other codeshare airlines that could be part of a BA.com sale is Phuket with Cathay Pacific (via Hong Kong) or Malaysian (via KL).

[myothernameis]

If you book hotels on a regular basis, like the Hilton hotel group.

You could try this, and more or less, hotel bookings, and grocery spending, might pay for your flights

So with Hilton Hotels, you earn points for your stay, and points are something like

Cost of room £100 per night, and 2 nights booked, which equals around 250 points.  With member levels you can earn more points with a multiplier,  x1.5, x2, x3

You can also get a Hilton Debit card, and get points on Grocery spending.  So if you spend around £600 on Groceries, you get around 1000 points

Now you let your points build up, and eventually you would have around 10,000 points.  These 10,000 points, you now can buy airmiles with some airlines, like Virgin Atlantic

I currently have around 60,000 points with the Hilton hotels, from my last two year holidays, which I plan to use them to buy flights next year 2027

[vindici]

If you book hotels on a regular basis, like the Hilton hotel group.

You could try this, and more or less, hotel bookings, and grocery spending, might pay for your flights

So with Hilton Hotels, you earn points for your stay, and points are something like

Cost of room £100 per night, and 2 nights booked, which equals around 250 points.  With member levels you can earn more points with a multiplier,  x1.5, x2, x3

You can also get a Hilton Debit card, and get points on Grocery spending.  So if you spend around £600 on Groceries, you get around 1000 points

Now you let your points build up, and eventually you would have around 10,000 points.  These 10,000 points, you now can buy airmiles with some airlines, like Virgin Atlantic

I currently have around 60,000 points with the Hilton hotels, from my last two year holidays, which I plan to use them to buy flights next year 2027

IF you want to employ the points strategy there is also avios.com

If you book a hotel via Agoda through the Avios.com link, you'll earn avios even on those bookings, there are a fair few online retailers that will give you Avios via the Avios.com site.

[Nomerzypuntr]

Use Klarna App for booking flight tickets, it is cheap and payment is by instalments. Don’t know about hotel bookings