Avoid paying a premium in peak travel season
One of the many ways to get cheap flights to BKK, Thailand that are mentioned on this website is to be a contrarian traveler, that is, do the opposite of what the masses are doing. In other words, fly in the opposite direction as the majority of the holiday makers are. The wisdom in this tip being that while everybody else is flying back home out of Thailand, the outward bound flights would be full, while the inward bound flights would be relatively uncongested, therefore the airlines would be willing to sell the seats for less.
But what if you really wanted to travel at a time that was a peak departure time in your country? Do you have to just bite the bullet and pay the jacked-up fares that the airlines demand because they know that people will pay it?
In Japan, from where I have done a lot of traveling, there are three major holiday periods throughout the year; Golden Week in May, Obon in August and the New Year holiday. Airfares double for departures from Japan during these times. The same thing happens all around the world, though perhaps not to the extent that they do it in Japan. All countries have peak departure times that supply and demand allows the airlines to charge a lot more for.
The good news is that with a bit of forward planning and thought, you can get around these outrageous price hikes.
As you may or may not know, each airline in each country determines their fares from the point of departure. What this means is that the return date does not have as big an influence on the fare as the departure date.
How can you take advantage of this?
If you are planning on making more than one trip in a year to Thailand (or any destination for that matter), you may like to try this technique.
Buy a return ticket to Bangkok with a return date far in the future, a one year open ticket is good for this. Bangkok is well known as currently the cheapest place in the world to buy airline tickets. In Bangkok, buy a new return ticket to your original point of departure with the return portion back to Bangkok on your desired peak date. This way you will be using the return portion of your second ticket to head to Thailand during the expensive peak season, but you will only be paying the normal fare in Bangkok. The airline selling the ticket in Bangkok doesn’t care that the return date is in a peak period coming the other way and they won’t be looking to make a profit on the extra demand. When you return to your original point of departure, use the return portion of your original open ticket. Just make sure that you book and confirm your flights dates well in advance.
This may sound a little complicated so let’s take a look at an example:
Let’s say it’s April and I am planning on taking a holiday in Thailand over the Christmas/New Year break. Unless I can leave in the first half of December, I’m going to have to pay a premium. As it turns out, I’ll be in Bangkok in May for a week for business or whatever. Instead of buying a 7 day return ticket, I buy a one year open with a return date of January 10. Its 9 months away so I don’t have any trouble getting a seat. I use this ticket to get to Bangkok.
Once I am in Bangkok, I put my ticket in my suitcase and buy a new ticket leaving Bangkok to my original departure point, departing in a week with a return date of December 27th.
Since the outbound section of my new ticket is in May, departing Bangkok- a decidedly non-peak period- and this being Bangkok, I get a great price. Come December, I use the return portion of my second ticket which I bought in Bangkok to go to Thailand and return at the end of my holiday with the return portion of my originally purchased ticket.
One year open tickets are a little more expensive than your regular 7- 30 day open tickets, however you should look into this option and you may find substantial savings doing it this way than paying the inflated peak time airfares that the airlines charge.
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