Traveling around Asia and the US

April 10, 2005 6:17 PM

Inspired by this post, I've been looking for a Web site that has information on discount fares around Asia and the US. Similar to this fantastic one for the US.

I'll be departing From Australia and would like to hit Bangkok, Osaka, and then on to LAX. I don't want to buy my tickets in Australia to avoid the GST.

posted by Dag Maggot to Travel & Transportation (2 answers total)

Best answer: Just to clarify, there is no GST on tickets which take you into/out of Australia (or the domestic portions on the same ticket), nor on tickets which are for international to international destination.

The taxes which they refer to when quoting prices are departure taxes and passenger movement taxes which are set by the airports/government and are unavoidable (note that the taxes for Thailand are NOT included and you will have to pay them at the airport in Bangkok - but it is only 500B for international flights).

I hope someone has a recommendation similar to the US one you linked to as I haven't seen such a site for the region.

For the flights you are suggesting (Australia-Bangkok-Osaka-LA-Australia?), try going to a travel agent (yes, a real live one!) or telephoning your favourite airline and ask them about Circle Pacific fares. This site is American-based, but explains how these work and who runs these sort of fares (they are similar to a round the world ticket - you keep travelling around the Asia-Pacific region in one direction). It also describes some Asia-Pacific airpasses. I don't know if these will necessarily be cheaper for your specific itinerary than piecing it together out, but it is worth investigating. I don't commonly see these advertised on Australian websites, you will need to ask and because of the complexity of the fare, you will need to use either a travel agent or the airline to arrange it.

Other than that, I can really only suggest standard fare finding tactics like signing up for newsletters from the airlines and travel agents, checking the budget airlines (there are many operating in Asia now), using fare watches (Zuji has them and also allows you to see the fares available on different days). You might also be able to fuss about to take advantage of a cheap fare to Bangkok or LA (these are often discounted) and then take advantage of sales/good prices from one of those hubs. You already have a source for cheap flights out of the US, here is a list of Bangkok travel agents with websites (prices usually in baht, of course).
posted by AnnaRat at 11:56 PM on April 10, 2005

Sorry, I managed to write all that and forgot one other good source for checking prices (worldwide), though it doesn't allow you to book (but it will tell you all the details like fare codes you need to give a travel agent so they can bring up the same fare on their computer). ITA Software Trip Planner is quite useful and I like the way it displays the information.
posted by AnnaRat at 2:28 AM on April 11, 2005