Cheap(er) Europe flights/ routes to LOS?

[Milk78]

I have seen some well priced business class flights from Paris to BKK flying with Air France. Has anyone done this route? Is business in Air France any good? 

Does anybody know some other cheap routes flying from Europe to BKK? I am based in the UK. 

[PeterRS]

I recall a thread some years ago which informed readers that flying via Dublin was considerably cheaper than through London. This was because the passenger taxes at Dublin were far cheaper than LHR which has some of the highest passenger taxes anywhere. Just a thought.

[Londoner]

Austrian Airlines was recommended to me before EVA was back in the sky. Change of plane in Vienna of course....plenty of choice if memory serves.  Personally, I wouldn't mind a day or so in Vienna. I'm paying £2500 for an EVA trip in March and £3400 in July.

[Milk78]

2 hours ago, Londoner said:

Austrian Airlines was recommended to me before EVA was back in the sky. Change of plane in Vienna of course....plenty of choice if memory serves.  Personally, I wouldn't mind a day or so in Vienna. I'm paying £2500 for an EVA trip in March and £3400 in July.

That's interesting to hear. I have some very decent fares with Austrian and wondered what they were like as an airline. I have flown Swiss a couple of times from  London with a transfer in Zurich. I found that I do like that route, the transfer is really easy. I will look at Austrian again. 

[Milk78]

5 hours ago, PeterRS said:

I recall a thread some years ago which informed readers that flying via Dublin was considerably cheaper than through London. This was because the passenger taxes at Dublin were far cheaper than LHR which has some of the highest passenger taxes anywhere. Just a thought.

Just had a quick look - yes, does look as if there are some good options there. I will investigate further....

[gerefan]

Can’t find flights Dublin to BKK at a good price. Which airline are you looking at? 

[billyhouston]

14 hours ago, Milk78 said:

I have seen some well priced business class flights from Paris to BKK flying with Air France. Has anyone done this route? Is business in Air France any good? 

 

I fly this route and the problem is the aircraft they use, some of which have a very poor business class product. My return flight has just been changed from an A350 to a 777-200ER and now to a 777-300ER with the 'Caribbean' layout (as far as I can work out). On that aircraft business is 2 - 3 - 2. Check  seatguru.com

[JimmyJoe]

29 minutes ago, billyhouston said:

I fly this route and the problem is the aircraft they use, some of which have a very poor business class product. My return flight has just been changed from an A350 to a 777-200ER and now to a 777-300ER with the 'Caribbean' layout (as far as I can work out). On that aircraft business is 2 - 3 - 2. Check  seatguru.com

I agree. This is also the route I fly. The AF hard product to Bangkok is often dreadful. Whereas most of their aircraft now flying the transatlantic route, to the US, are excellent. That's a recent, vast improvement.

The AF, business class, soft product (service) I always find outstanding, either direction, Paris Bangkok or Paris US. Especially compared to the business "service" to be found on the US carriers, in my experience.

[Milk78]

36 minutes ago, billyhouston said:

I fly this route and the problem is the aircraft they use, some of which have a very poor business class product. My return flight has just been changed from an A350 to a 777-200ER and now to a 777-300ER with the 'Caribbean' layout (as far as I can work out). On that aircraft business is 2 - 3 - 2. Check  seatguru.com

I thought that might be the case. I can't actually find the flight i was looking at now to check! 

It seems Turkish Airlines might have a bit of a sale on as they are offering very good options out of Paris in Business. 

[tm_nyc]

I have flown JFK-VIE on Austrian Airlines in Premium Economy & I thought it was fine.  When I bought the ticket last Summer, the biz class fares were crazy (as we all know) so PE turned out to be a much better value.  Also, VIE is a relatively small airport so it did not have all the problems that Schiphol & Heathrow were having at that time.

[ChristianPFC]

Over the years, I have flown estimated 12 different airlines, with change of airplane in their hub, between Berlin and Bangkok. Whichever was cheaper and had good departure time and stopover time.

"Does anybody know some other cheap routes flying from Europe to BKK? I am based in the UK."

Those would come up on the usual flight search websites.

[Milk78]

42 minutes ago, ChristianPFC said:

Those would come up on the usual flight search websites.

They do, but they can be tricky to find, short of searching through airports across the continent. Choice of flights is also reduced post covid. For example, business class flights between Helsinki/ Stockholm and BKK were, pre Covid, really good options, considerably cheaper than UK options. They seem to have disappeared - still better than UK but not by nearly as much in terms of saving. 

Paris on the other hand does seem to be considerably cheaper that it has been in the past when I have looked. 

I have checked out a few locations but it may be that others have stumbled across hidden gems? I live in hope anyway....... 

[vinapu]

9 hours ago, ChristianPFC said:

Over the years, I have flown estimated 12 different airlines, with change of airplane in their hub, between Berlin and Bangkok. Whichever was cheaper and had good departure time and stopover time.

"Does anybody know some other cheap routes flying from Europe to BKK? I am based in the UK."

Those would come up on the usual flight search websites.

For years I use Kayak.com to find my flights as seems to work well for me . When flying to Bangkok , other than price I'm looking at total flying time  which kayaks post handily and max 1 connection.

Departure and arrival time is irrelevant for me as I can't have both , convenient departure time  means crappy arrival time in BKK and other way around ( in both directions )

[Keithambrose]

12 hours ago, Milk78 said:

They do, but they can be tricky to find, short of searching through airports across the continent. Choice of flights is also reduced post covid. For example, business class flights between Helsinki/ Stockholm and BKK were, pre Covid, really good options, considerably cheaper than UK options. They seem to have disappeared - still better than UK but not by nearly as much in terms of saving. 

Paris on the other hand does seem to be considerably cheaper that it has been in the past when I have looked. 

I have checked out a few locations but it may be that others have stumbled across hidden gems? I live in hope anyway....... 

I have also noticed that Finnair flights are not such good value. Further, the Helsinki BKK flight gets in now at 5am or so! Also these business fares used to be refundable for a reasonable penalty, now the cheaper business fares are non refundable.

[alvnv]

3 hours ago, vinapu said:

For years I use Kayak.com to find my flights as seems to work well for me

Kayak also had an option of selecting +-3 days for both outbound and return dates, which effectively captures 7 days of flights each way and uncovers those airlines and routes that may only be available on certain days of week

[VancBCMan]

On 1/3/2023 at 7:37 AM, alvnv said:

Kayak also had an option of selecting +-3 days for both outbound and return dates

I found this site very useful:  https://oldmatrix.itasoftware.com/

While you cannot book the flights on that site, it gives you number of options for flights (I guess similar to Kayak).
You can then go to your favourite booking site (or travel agent) to book the flight.

You can select + or -2 days, a direct flight or max stops in between and the Currency in which you want the pricing.

When presenting the results, apart from the price, it also shows you total duration of trip, duration of layover and also a warning if the layover is too long or too short. You can also sort by shortest trip duration.

[floridarob]

15 minutes ago, VancBCMan said:

I found this site very useful:  https://oldmatrix.itasoftware.com/

Google bought them some years ago....Goggle flights uses their data to how the flights on https://www.google.com/travel/flights

After selecting the flights, there are links, in most cases, to the airline or another site to buy the ticket at that fare. Works most of the time, depending on the airline.

[Mavica]

Google purchased itamatix and created Google Flights ... which I use to trip plan.  Unfortunately, I live in the Tampa Bay area and flights to Asia / South America are usually expensive. $1,500 r/t to Rio ...$1,700+ to BKK the first two weeks of February.