Got my tickets for the 20 July.

I’ve heard about the girls… that’s if they are girls!!

Internal flights BKK-HKT are quite affordable. It’s about 90 minutes each way and Thai will sit you in an A300-600 for £79 return on most seats. That’s better than Ryanair nearly!

Chiang Mai will cost about the same – a bit shorter, but still A300 operated. Some flights might be 737/A330. Chiang Mai is the “culture” bit with temples and so on, though you are likely to find anywhere in Thailand different and interesting if you’re anything like me. Just be wary of the “girls”! I’m not kidding, Pattaya will make your eyes pop out !

From distant memory, Pattaya isn’t too far from Bangkok, maybe a few hours drive. Hotels always seem cheap. A friend of a friend stayed in a 5 star place for £9 a night last month, though you may want to treat that with a big pinch of salt!

Originally posted by mongu
Hope you enjoy Thai. I flew on them ages ago, it was an A300 from Bangkok to Phuket in the late 80’s. I vividly remember it because Phkuet was full of military types with tanks everywhere – I was a little disconcerted to say the least.

Are you heading down to Phuket? Great place, although other places like Pattaya and Chiang Mai are also worth a visit. Bangkok itself is very interesting, but you’ll need a break after spending time there!

I’ve heard some mixed reviews about them recently, but most seem to think that the fact that there are no PTVs in economy lets the airline down, buth otherwise, they are meant to be good.

We’re only flying into Bangkok and then hop aboard the bus as we are staying in Pattaya (as you mentioned). My parents went in February/March and four days after coming back, booked to go again. They flew Qatar to Bangkok via Doha and said the service was spectacular. However, there was a real lack of flights available at the time of booking with British Airways virtually fully booked, Qatar fully booked, Qantas fully booked (!!) and Thai on the verge of being booked up.

I doubt we’ll get to see Phuket, unfortunately. But I’m not sure just yet, we are there for 3 weeks after all. I understand it’s a fair few miles by road though? I don’t know if I could sit in a car that long, especially in temperatures of at least 35C which they have had recently.

I’ve heard it is a fantastically cheap (good value) country for just about everything. I cannot wait to get into the town centres and buy loads of DVDs, watches, wallets etc at about 5% of the UK prices!

Most importantly, Internet cafes. I cannot go on holiday for 3 weeks and not check the forum now and again. 😀 Call me sad!

Both flights sound good. Hope you both enjoy them.

Hope you enjoy Thai. I flew on them ages ago, it was an A300 from Bangkok to Phuket in the late 80’s. I vividly remember it because Phkuet was full of military types with tanks everywhere – I was a little disconcerted to say the least.

Are you heading down to Phuket? Great place, although other places like Pattaya and Chiang Mai are also worth a visit. Bangkok itself is very interesting, but you’ll need a break after spending time there!

I love taxiing around at airports, so much to see. When flying long haul, you get airborne and are bored stupid for hours upon end.

By the way, my tickets should be here in the next few days too.

Outward

LHR >> BKK

Flight Number: TG917
Dept: 21:25hrs
Arrive: 15:00hrs
Aircraft: 747-4D7
Flight Time: 11h 35m

Inbound

BKK >> LHR

Flight number: TG910
Dept: 01:10hrs
Arrive:07:15hrs
Aircraft: 747-4D7
Flight Time: 13h 05min

Originally posted by T5
How come 45 minutes is being set aside for the flight when it is supposed to take just 10 minutes?

Airline times are quoted in block times,in other words,the time the plane leaves the blocks to the time it is on the blocks at it’s destination.

The scheduled taxi time at LHR is 16mins so take that off the block time for a start.

There are 2 important timings for flights, block time and sector (flight) time.
Sector lenth or flight time is the time the journey will take from take off to landing. Block time is the time allowed on the schedule for Pushback, start up, taxi out, flight time, taxi in, parking and shutdown. When you are given your departure time it is referring to the block time not flight time.

For example, last night I went from LGW to IBZ. Block time 2.20, flight time 1.55. Departure was scheduled for ten past midnight. We pushed 5 minutes early (good baggage loaders), got to the hold in 10 minutes (no other traffic in the middle of the night), flew down in 1.50 (little other traffic so plenty of ATC short cuts) and taxied in in 5 minutes. Scheduled arrival time was 0230, actual arrival time (on stand) 0210, so 20 minutes early.

GD1 yeah thats what I was thinking. But maybe they will do a flyaround sorta thing before landing??? Now that would be good! :p

Mark cheers for clearing that up. 🙂 Many thanks.

Even flights between ONT and LAX, which only take 10-12 minutes, have a flight time listing of around 35 minutes. I would think it is to compensate for ground time, taxiing, etc.

How come 45 minutes is being set aside for the flight when it is supposed to take just 10 minutes?

All UK domestic flights check in at T1. You’ll then be bussed out to T4. They do it regularly when they run bigger stuff on the shuttle services.
You might get an airside tour!