Welcome to Thailandblog.nl
With 275.000 visits per month, Thailandblog is the largest Thailand community in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Sign up for our free e-mail newsletter and stay informed!
Newsletter
Language setting
Rate Thai Baht
Sponsor
Latest comments
- Lenaerts: Dear, I went to immigration yesterday to apply for a retirement visa, very friendly people and they helped quickly
- Aad: I buy my coffee at Lotus. Add a teaspoon of that coffee to warm water and enjoy
- Berbod: Beautiful story Lieven and recognizable in many ways. In recent years I have been drinking coffee from the Boloven plateau in the South
- Jos Verbrugge: Dear KeesP, Would it be possible to provide the details of the visa office in Chiang Mai? Thanks in advance
- Rudolf: The distance from Khon Kaen to Udon Thani is 113 km. You don't need an HSL or airplane for that. You can do that with one
- Chris: It is a matter of long-term thinking: - petrol prices will undoubtedly continue to rise in the next 20 to
- Atlas van Puffelen: The isan is like a beautiful young woman, Clouseau, There she goes, sang a similar insight. Fantastic to walk next to it, m
- Chris: Rich elite? And if that train ticket costs the same or less than a plane ticket (because of all the extra environmental taxes).
- Eric Kuypers: Immigration and customs have to go in somewhere and get out again later, so I expect Nongkhai and Thanaleng at the stopping points. There is
- Freddy: Then unfortunately the salespeople who make a train journey so much fun will be over..
- Rob V: That's why I actually only wanted to keep Khon Kaen on my beermat, provided the train does at least 300 km to get a full stop.
- RichardJ: Sorry, Erik. You cannot dismiss a critical attitude towards these types of mega projects with a catch-all such as “setting up...
- Rudolf: The poorest are indeed coming out of the valley very slowly – at least in the village where I live. And the money usually comes from
- Sander: In Thailand too, forces will eventually come into play that will say 'take the train instead of the plane'. So oo
- Rob V: Will Lieven, as a coffee snob and with a nod to his surname, be tempted by a cup of coffee with beans that have been roasted first?
Sponsor
Bangkok again
Menu
Arrivals Bangkok Airport
DOSSIERS
Learning objectives and topics
- Background
- Activities
- Advertorial
- Agenda
- Tax question
- Belgium question
- Sights
- Bizarre
- Buddhism
- Book reviews
- Column
- Corona crisis
- The Culture
- Diary
- Dating
- The week of
- Dossier
- To dive
- Economy
- A day in the life of…..
- Islands
- Food and drink
- Events and festivals
- Balloon Festival
- Bo Sang Umbrella Festival
- Buffalo races
- Chiang Mai Flower Festival
- Chinese New Year
- Full Moon Party
- Christmas
- Lotus Festival – Rub Bua
- Loy Krathong
- Naga Fireball Festival
- New Years Eve celebration
- Phi ta khon
- Phuket Vegetarian Festival
- Rocket festival – Bun Bang Fai
- Songkran – Thai New Year
- Fireworks Festival Pattaya
- Expats and retirees
- state pension
- Car insurance
- Banking
- Tax in the Netherlands
- Thailand tax
- Belgian Embassy
- Belgian tax authorities
- Proof of life
- DigiD
- emigrate
- To rent a house
- Buy a house
- In memoriam
- Income statement
- King's day
- Cost of living
- Dutch embassy
- Dutch government
- Dutch Association
- News
- Passing away
- Passport
- Retirement
- Drivers license
- Distributions
- Elections
- Insurance in general
- Visa
- work
- Hospital
- Health insurance
- Flora and fauna
- Photo of the week
- Gadgets
- Money and finance
- History
- Health
- Charities
- Hotels
- Looking at houses
- Isaan
- Khan Peter
- Koh Mook
- King Bhumibol
- Living in Thailand
- Reader Submission
- Reader call
- Reader tips
- Reader question
- Society
- marketplace
- Medical tourism
- Environment
- Nightlife
- News from the Netherlands and Belgium
- News from Thailand
- Entrepreneurs and companies
- Education
- Research
- Discover Thailand
- Opinions
- Remarkable
- Calls
- Floods 2011
- Floods 2012
- Floods 2013
- Floods 2014
- Winter prices
- Politics
- Poll
- Travel stories
- Travel
- Organizations
- Shopping
- Social media
- Spa & wellness
- Sport
- Cities
- Position of the week
- The beach
- Language
- For sale
- TEV procedure
- Thailand in general
- Thailand with children
- thai tips
- Thai massage
- Tourism
- Going out
- Currency – Thai Baht
- From the editors
- Real estate law; and
- Traffic and transport
- Visa Short Stay
- Long stay visa
- Visa question
- Flight tickets
- Question of the week
- Weather and climate
Sponsor
Disclaimer translations
Thailandblog uses machine translations in multiple languages. Use of translated information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for errors in translations.
Read our full here disclaimer.
Royalty
© Copyright Thailandblog 2024. All rights reserved. Unless stated otherwise, all rights to information (text, image, sound, video, etc.) that you find on this site rest with Thailandblog.nl and its authors (bloggers).
Whole or partial takeover, placement on other sites, reproduction in any other way and/or commercial use of this information is not permitted, unless express written permission has been granted by Thailandblog.
Linking and referring to the pages on this website is permitted.
Home » Reader question » Reader question: Should you book a domestic flight Thailand in advance or not?
Dear readers,
At the end of July I will be backpacking in Thailand for four weeks with my girlfriend. We are planning to take a domestic flight from northern Thailand to southern Thailand. We would like to book this in Thailand so that we can remain flexible in choosing our destinations.
Is this wise or do you strongly recommend booking this before our holiday in the Netherlands?
Thanks in advance!!
Regards,
Robbert
You never have any guarantees, but if you do not have strict travel days and do not try to book a ticket on the day of departure, you can simply book in Thailand.
That is in any case much cheaper than via a travel agency in the Netherlands
A real backpacker takes the bus, by the way.
Costs just as much, but you can spend much longer in it for that money.
Hi, no Not in nl books though.
It's all a bit easier here. I assume by north you mean chiang mai.
Just go to the airport or to one of the thai - nok - air asia branches, and in most cases you can leave a few hours afterwards.
Easy simple fast.
Have fun here
Simply book and pay via the internet, simple and fast and always cheaper than at a travel agency. Please note that the longer you wait, the more expensive the flight will be. This can increase considerably in the last two or three weeks before the flight. As soon as you are pretty sure when you want to go: book.
I don't think that's always true, for example at Thai Airways the prices are always fairly constant. But sometimes they have the saver offer that is just a little cheaper. But it may be that they no longer apply. But then it concerns, for example, BKK - KKC for 1900 baht instead of 2300 baht, etc. is no drama.
Incidentally, the flights I take with Thai airways are never full.
However, if it concerns long weekends with holidays, etc., you have to be sure to be there on time because those weekends are often completely full, such as the weekend with Friday, Saturday and Monday Buddha Day. Or, for example, the Songkran weekend.
By the way, booking is easy. If you have a smartphone, you can simply download the app from Thai Airways, Nok Air and Air Asia and book with it, or online if you are in Thailand. You can also pass an Agent or the airport, but that is not really necessary.
Please note the following. If you book online in advance using a credit card, you often have to show it at check-in. In the beginning they asked me every time but nowadays they don't. But in any case, make sure you have it with you, otherwise they may not allow you on the flight. It is never asked for on international flights such as KLM, but it is with Thai companies.
You can also make reservations by telephone at the Thai.
Then you can pay at a Seven / Eleven minimart.
You will then receive a text message with a reservation code sent to your mobile.
The end of July is not really a busy time, so better book here. A booked flight with a cheap rate cannot usually be changed. Take a look at the rates of the different companies, they can vary quite a bit. What time a flight departs also makes quite a difference in price. Since almost all flights from the north to the south have a stopover in Bangkok, check how long the stopover is.
Dear Robert,
Personal experience, book on site a few days in advance. There are sometimes promotions, and even then the flight is not always fully booked.
Have booked a few times through the travel agent in Belgium out of convenience: on arrival in BKK, connecting domestic flight BKK-CNX (Chiang Mai). Prices for that flight varied between 110 and 160 €. On the spot in BKK, however, that will hardly cost you half… So booking 'on the spot' is worthwhile!
Tip: as BA says earlier: take into account the local holidays towards the weekends. Then flights are quickly fully booked; families like to go on trips or visit relatives.
Be careful! Domestic flights with Thai Airways and Bangkok Air fly from the major international airport of Shuvernabhumi. These airlines are relatively expensive. If you go to Samui, these airlines land on Koh Samui.
NokAir and AirAsia fly their domestic flights from the old airport Don Muang. If you then want to fly to Samui, you will be considerably cheaper, but also a little longer on the road. They do not fly directly to Samui, but you get a bus and boat ticket for a very low price because they fly to Surat Thani (mainland).
Connections of different airlines with different airports can therefore be difficult.
Early booking does have a price advantage with nok air and AirAsia.
You can easily book this via the airline's website.
Paying by credit card is no problem. Nokair wants to ask for these shows.
If you find the prices less important, you can still book up to 4 hours before the flight.
Sign up for the newsletter and you will also receive the promotions
Unfortunately, I do not agree with BA's statement that Thai Airways prices are always fairly constant.
The current one-way price from Khon Kaen to Bangkok, paid by me for a flight at the end of June last year, was 2900 baht.
Fortunately, I was able to use a saver offer with this company via the internet in Holland and I paid 1500 baht for the flight on July 8 from Bangkok to Khon Kaen. I think these are DRAMATIC differences.
Archie, could be, but I never noticed.
I have that flight route about 20 times a year, from BKK or from KKC and I'm always around a price of about 2300 baht one way, and the last time with the saver option 1900 baht. I am not really consistent with booking, sometimes 4 weeks in advance and sometimes 2 days in advance.
It is true that there are sometimes minimal differences in the time, for example 10:45 BKK – KKC is slightly more expensive than the 13:55 flight. You also have a difference between Thai Airways and Thai Smile, which is just another operator.
Only 1 time I saw that seats were really much more expensive and that was for standby places during the Songkran weekend. This was the case with all airlines, including flights from Air Asia and Nok Air.
I have never paid 2900 baht for full flex economy.
Easiest is just book on the spot or at the airport or via the internet, there is always a place for bus services.
You won't have a problem even if you buy a ticket on the day itself – it's just more expensive.
If you constantly monitor the websites - especially those of Air Asia - you can sometimes find extremely cheap flights of eg 10 Euro for the same route; but then you have to be able to book weeks or even months in advance.
jef
Book online. From 3 months to 48 hours before departure. July is High Season in Europe, but Low Season in Thailand.
I would also book it on the spot in Thailand. Just online, and choose the payment option via 7-11. Then you can pay cash for your ticket at any 24-7 within 11 hours with the code you received. Ideal!
Still an addition. I always compare and of course AirAsia usually comes out as the cheapest. But! Has happened to me a few times that my suitcase was too heavy and then it was 1500 baht extra. That is a lot more than the 400 baht that Thai Airways was more expensive, with allowed extra weight for the same price.
The Air Asia program is great. I regularly fly with them to different corners of the country. I usually use their promotional emails that I receive every 2-3 weeks. These are ridiculously cheap prices (around 500 baths) for which you often fly more than 1000 km. Also nice for my friends, who I often treat to a quick visit to “daddy/mom”.
But if you are going to book “short”, then you pay the main price…….. And that may org seem unreasonably high.
But I wish you a good visit here.
Which I don't doubt
The moment you think you are going to fly in Thailand, just go to the airport and book with the airline there. You can still haggle or claim extra baggage at the counter.
Nok Air, Ais Air, Thai Airways, Thai Lion Air and possibly Viet air.
Definitely recommended, especially when it's not busy.
Oh yes, please note that flights are more expensive around the Thai holidays
Just experienced with air asia. Number already booked for the holiday. (end of the holiday return flight to bkk. And 1st flight from bkk, in my case to cambodia. ) left the rest open to determine whether we travel by bus or otherwise. Booked a last minute flight now, for which we pay 60 euros more per ticket than with early booking. In short, the extra price is not too bad…