When should I book my tickets to Bangkok/Singapore?

August 17, 2011 8:25 PM

When is the best time to book tickets to Singapore or Bangkok?

I need to go to Singapore and/or Bangkok in February. When will the prices be the lowest? Should I keep waiting? Most of the good airlines are hovering around a $1300 round trip from Los Angeles.

posted by emily37 to travel & transportation around Thailand (5 answers total)

I travel to both Bangkok and Singapore a few times a year, and the price you've mentioned is pretty standard for the low end fares. When in Feb are you traveling? When does Chinese New Year fall in 2012? I ask this because fares will go up around CNY.
posted by netsirk at 9:34 PM on August 17, 2011

Chinese New Year in Singapore is going to be a bit early next year, so tickets might not be so expensive if you're flying in, say, mid-February.

$1300 sounds good, and I think the earlier you book, the better?
posted by Alnedra at 9:36 PM on August 17, 2011

http://www.expedia.com/daily/trend_tracker/details.asp?destination=BKK&origin=LAX&pgood=A this shows you the last 2 years of price averages for LAX-BKK you can also call travel agents/consolidators in your local Chinatown. They sometimes have consolidator fares that are below what you can find online.
posted by gradvmedusa at 10:25 PM on August 17, 2011

I've heard that the so-called "best time to book" thing has kind of died a death, because people look outside those peak times to get cheap flights, and etc. (of course, depends on market.)

The way to get cheaper flights is to search for flights on a window of time- look at the prices for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. What about the week before or the week after?

Try routing through different places to see if it is cheaper.

Then look at the actual airline's site to see if you've got the best deal.

I've had good luck with jetabroad.com and hipmunk.com, depending on what/where I was looking for. (these include taxes/fees in their quotes. Jetabroad charges a small fee for booking through them, but they have a good search engine for finding the flights that are cheap)

The cheapest seats/tickets will go first, especially when flying budget no-frills airlines.

Some people say that you get the very best deals just before the flight is due to depart, but this is obviously a risky strategy and I don't have the guts for it! :) I would recommend locking it in now- it is more likely to increase, unless it is a ridiculously unpopular flight that they need to fill- but this is unlikely, I think.

Having researched it and figured it was a good price, I would tend to lock it in for peace of mind.
posted by titanium_geek at 12:56 AM on August 18, 2011

It depends on how long you'll be staying in either Singapore or Bangkok, but I'm seeing fares on Air China via Beijing for $984 all-in on a wide variety of dates. China Airlines via Taipei is slightly more expensive.
posted by armage at 5:34 AM on August 19, 2011