Plane ticket to Colombia or Thailand

[iendo]

As I can recall, tickets to Thailand where always cheaper than tickets to Latin America. Last year, I bought a business class ticket Amsterdam to Medellín for around 1500 Euro. Last week, I bought a similar ticket with Lufthansa for 1536 Euro. They are for the same periods DEC/JAN.

When I look in the other direction, I find that tickets to Thailand could set you back 900 Euro easily, and that is for plain economy. Business class tickets are at least 2500 Euro from Amsterdam. I cannot explain this. There are far more options to fly to Thailand, than there are to Colombia.

Shouldn't competition make tickets cheaper?

[speedoo1]

Fares to Asia are in general much higher now than pre-Covid. Strong demand as travel are recovering but still limited seats available. 

As for Colombia or other countries in S. America, the fares are also quite high. EUR 1536 for a C/J class ticket with LH is a steal! This summer fares to Colombia with LH was EUR 2.000 + for economy. In general AMS is one of the cheapest points of departure in Europe.

[Mavica]

So many choices.  For me, from Tampa, Florida USA to BKK in November, assuming a visit of 2 weeks, airfare is approx. US$1,700 r/t with a travel time of 30 hours.  Ouch!  Tampa > Medellin?  Approx. US$600/8 hours.  Rio?  US$1,200/13 hours.  Santo Domingo:  approx. US$600/6 hours.  Prague?  US$920/16 hours.  

[scott456]

3 hours ago, Mavica said:

So many choices.  For me, from Tampa, Florida USA to BKK in November, assuming a visit of 2 weeks, airfare is approx. US$1,700 r/t with a travel time of 30 hours.  Ouch!  Tampa > Medellin?  Approx. US$600/8 hours.  Rio?  US$1,200/13 hours.  Santo Domingo:  approx. US$600/6 hours.  Prague?  US$920/16 hours.  

I assume these are all economy classes?

[belkinDC]

6 hours ago, Mavica said:

So many choices.  For me, from Tampa, Florida USA to BKK in November, assuming a visit of 2 weeks, airfare is approx. US$1,700 r/t with a travel time of 30 hours.  Ouch!  Tampa > Medellin?  Approx. US$600/8 hours.  Rio?  US$1,200/13 hours.  Santo Domingo:  approx. US$600/6 hours.  Prague?  US$920/16 hours.  

For Medellin from Tampa, you could also drive to Orlando and fly direct on Spirit… did a quick search and they have direct flights MCO-MDE in Nov from $460 roundtrip with all the “bundled” stuff included (checked bag, carryon, priority boarding etc). Potentially cheaper depending how light you pack. I know people rag on Spirit but for a sub-4 hour flight I personally wouldn’t hesitate.

[iendo]

I guess it was too good to be true. In hindsight, I wish I would have booked Air Europa.

They canceled the last two legs of the booking. This means I can only fly a day later. It might because they decided to fly later at night. The new flight would be the 30th BOG - FRA, but at 11:30 PM. This would mean that my connecting flight to AMS changes and there will be a layover of 4 hours.

My first thought was, almost a 5-hour layover in Bogotá and 4 in Amsterdam, crazy. But then I realized that it is worse than that. The first leg of the flight has not changed. Which means that the layover in Bogotá is 29 hours. I asked them to change it, but they kept saying that the flights are overbooked. 🤔

Finally, Customer Service told me that there are no seats in my class on later flights or the next day. Mind you, this is a flight with Avianca. They have 10 flights a day, MED - BOG. It is not that I am asking for an extra day. The least they could do is fix it that I don't have this absurd layover. I have written to Lufthansa to complain, but I think I will just cancel the flight. There are still tickets available for €1500 with Air Europa, but it is not going to be optimal.

If I didn't have extreme problems with the altitude in Bogotá, I might have just done the one day to check out the scene. But I've been to Bogotá once and left after three days because I couldn't stand it.

I don't understand why someone would pay €2000+ for this Lufthansa flight. Their business product on the route seems very outdated. No privacy and if you have a window seat you need to step over your neighbor. Same goes for Air Europa.

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, iendo said:

My first thought was, almost a 5-hour layover in Bogotá and 4 in Amsterdam, crazy. But then I realized that it is worse than that. The first leg of the flight has not changed. Which means that the layover in Bogotá is 29 hours. I asked them to change it, but they kept saying that the flights are overbooked

serious question - is Medellin so good to travel 20+ hours to get there vs likely same time to Rio or São Paulo ?  I can get to Medellin in 3 hours nonstop when I’m in Florida, but never thought it would be that great.  Always open to new destinations, but typically go new places in Brazil for a sure thing.  Brazil is 7-9 hours direct from Miami depending on destination.  I’ve read various trip reports to Medellin and sounds interesting - but for hiring doesn’t seem to be as easy compared to Brazil ?

[iendo]

1 hour ago, Slvkguy said:

serious question - is Medellin so good to travel 20+ hours to get there vs likely same time to Rio or São Paulo ?  I can get to Medellin in 3 hours nonstop when I’m in Florida, but never thought it would be that great.  Always open to new destinations, but typically go new places in Brazil for a sure thing.  Brazil is 7-9 hours direct from Miami depending on destination.  I’ve read various trip reports to Medellin and sounds interesting - but for hiring doesn’t seem to be as easy compared to Brazil ?

20+ hours is a tough ask, but many do it when they fly to Thailand from the US.

From Europe, you can fly to Medellín in 13 or 14 hours. Direct flights are even shorter, but only available from a few destinations... Madrid comes to mind.

I have never been to Brazil, but would love to go. However, I am not interested in really dark or macho boys. I like the light skinned Twinkies and for that, Colombia is perfect. Another thing I like about Medellín is how friendly people are in the hospitality industry.

[Mavica]

13 hours ago, scott456 said:

I assume these are all economy classes?

Yes.

[Mavica]

10 hours ago, belkinDC said:

For Medellin from Tampa, you could also drive to Orlando and fly direct on Spirit… did a quick search and they have direct flights MCO-MDE in Nov from $460 roundtrip with all the “bundled” stuff included (checked bag, carryon, priority boarding etc). Potentially cheaper depending how light you pack. I know people rag on Spirit but for a sub-4 hour flight I personally wouldn’t hesitate.

Thank you for the suggestion. 

From my place to the Orlando airport takes approx 2.5 hours assuming no accidents or other traffic delays.  Add to the drive the need to get to the airport 2+ houes in advance ... and pay for a couple of weeks parking ... it becomes too much of a hassle for me. 

The greater ease of departing from Tampa is the more attractive option, even if it ultimately cost me a couple of hundred $ more, than leaving from Orlando.

Again, thanks.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, iendo said:

have never been to Brazil, but would love to go. However, I am not interested in really dark or macho boys. I like the light skinned Twinkies and for that, Colombia is perfect

interesting observations 

Brazilian garotos come in every type & skin color, but I would agree that the majority of the boys (my experience only) tend to be the more macho type, which is what I like.  I did not know that Colombia (note the correct spelling) is more twink prevalent than other places, so that is good information.  

Flying time definitely figures into my decision making and is likely the main reason I haven’t been to Thailand…. yet.  It’s about 20 - 24 hours minimum from East Coast US and that means business only, plus a minimum 3-4 week stay to make it worthwhile.  It’s definitely on my bucket list regardless of travel time tho. 

 

[speedoo1]

On 9/21/2022 at 1:15 PM, iendo said:

I guess it was too good to be true. In hindsight, I wish I would have booked Air Europa.

They canceled the last two legs of the booking. This means I can only fly a day later. It might because they decided to fly later at night. The new flight would be the 30th BOG - FRA, but at 11:30 PM. This would mean that my connecting flight to AMS changes and there will be a layover of 4 hours.

My first thought was, almost a 5-hour layover in Bogotá and 4 in Amsterdam, crazy. But then I realized that it is worse than that. The first leg of the flight has not changed. Which means that the layover in Bogotá is 29 hours. I asked them to change it, but they kept saying that the flights are overbooked. 🤔

Finally, Customer Service told me that there are no seats in my class on later flights or the next day. Mind you, this is a flight with Avianca. They have 10 flights a day, MED - BOG. It is not that I am asking for an extra day. The least they could do is fix it that I don't have this absurd layover. I have written to Lufthansa to complain, but I think I will just cancel the flight. There are still tickets available for €1500 with Air Europa, but it is not going to be optimal.

If I didn't have extreme problems with the altitude in Bogotá, I might have just done the one day to check out the scene. But I've been to Bogotá once and left after three days because I couldn't stand it.

I don't understand why someone would pay €2000+ for this Lufthansa flight. Their business product on the route seems very outdated. No privacy and if you have a window seat you need to step over your neighbor. Same goes for Air Europa.

 

Call again! Obviously, LH can rebook also the MDE-BOG segment. If is def. not overbooked this far out. The issue might be that you are booked on the LH code share flight No. for MDE-BOG. LH can rebook you to an AV flight No. which should make all AV flights between MDE and BOG available for rebooking.

You can inform the agent that unless also MDE-BOG is rebooked, LH is obliged to reimburse hotel, meals etc during the BOG layover.

[iendo]

18 hours ago, speedoo1 said:

Call again! Obviously, LH can rebook also the MDE-BOG segment. If is def. not overbooked this far out. The issue might be that you are booked on the LH code share flight No. for MDE-BOG. LH can rebook you to an AV flight No. which should make all AV flights between MDE and BOG available for rebooking.

You can inform the agent that unless also MDE-BOG is rebooked, LH is obliged to reimburse hotel, meals etc during the BOG layover.

I just checked my phone and I called them 13 times in two days. Customer Service is a mess! In the end, I decided to take the refund. I triple checked I would get the whole booking back. But of course, SIR... And you get the confirmation in ten minutes. After 30 minutes, still no confirmation. Call again, and asked to wait an hour. Two hours later, still no confirmation, so I call again. This time something had to change, and I asked them to send it to another email address.

You can see the result.

And here is my refund:

Yeah, this really happened. Are they crazy? And of course, customer service is useless. I disputed the creditcard charge and I have sent Lufthanse a letter drafted by the ECC  https://www.eccnederland.nl/

I am going to hit them with everything I've got, but what good is it? All this stress because they are incompotent.

 

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, iendo said:

I am going to hit them with everything I've got, but what good is it? All this stress because they are incompotent.

 

unfortunately, this is an intentional business model adopted by some companies.  they make it extremely difficult & near impossible to get problems resolved in a simple process - bc they know a percentage of customers will just give up & lose money.  They know because they’ve studied the process - they know how far they can push people while complying w the law but getting a small (and valuable) percentage of people to give up.  These strategies are then balanced against their brand image and general stance toward customer service.  Sometimes it’s general incompetence - other times it’s a coordinated effort to make if difficult for profit. 

when making a written customer complaint/refund request - accuse them in writing of creating a process to defraud customers intentionally for profit.  see if that changes the dynamic 

 

[maump]

On 9/20/2022 at 6:25 PM, Mavica said:

So many choices.  For me, from Tampa, Florida USA to BKK in November, assuming a visit of 2 weeks, airfare is approx. US$1,700 r/t with a travel time of 30 hours.  Ouch!  Tampa > Medellin?  Approx. US$600/8 hours.  Rio?  US$1,200/13 hours.  Santo Domingo:  approx. US$600/6 hours.  Prague?  US$920/16 hours.  

Avianca round trip from wash dc is $260....  about what I paid in march of this year (they had a 99 dollar flight no luggage)

[iendo]

My Credit card company just refunded me, with the stipulation that they could charge me again in the future.

Still no answer from Lufthansa. 🤮