Domaine des Eléphants Blancs - Your Trip

Charter Paris-Bangkok

All things considered, the idea of a charter Paris-Bangkok appears not to be so realistic: in fact, most of you, determined to make the most of the opportunity, seem to have chosen to arrive in Bangkok a bit before 27 December, and/or to go back to France after 30 December. And this is quite fortunate, since, let’s admit it, our investigation was leading us to rather insurmountable obstacles. Indeed, most airlines, assured that their occupancy rate will be high whatever happens, are behaving more and more like banks and imitate their conventionalism, their risk-phobia and their total ignorance of the customer’s wishes. The customer in question is now viewed as little more than an automatic money distributor… In a word, we probably could have chartered a plane – if we had been ready to pay the entirety of the tickets’ price 8-10 months in advance; up to us afterwards to re-sell them or give them away…

Let’s go back to Earth and review the situation. Pushed up by the oil prices and the peak season, the inter-continental flight tickets end-December are expected to be rather expensive this year. However, a brief Internet search shows that it is today possible to find return tickets at around Euro 800-1,000 per adult. You can most probably find better deals if you choose to arrive a bit earlier and/or to go back a bit later.

We advise you to put your favorite travel agency to work to see whether they can find a good deal for you, but you should also in parallel conduct your own search on the Internet, as follows :

Let’s take the example of a Paris-Bangkok flight on 26 December (ETA on 27), return Bangkok-Paris on 30 December (ETA on 31).

	At http://www.google.com, write "flight Paris Bangkok", then push "Enter" ; a feature appears that enables you to fast-check availabilities
	Fill in the "Departing" and "Returning" fields with your departure (12/26) and return (12/30) dates, then click on any of the search engines proposed, CheapTickets, Expedia, Orbitz, or Travelocity.

Still as an example, on 15 April 2007, the best deals offered on each sire were as follows:

Paris-Bangkok + Bangkok-Paris

Airline: Swissair

Stop: Zurich

Price for 1 adult: USD 1,111, or Euro 821

Lyon-Bangkok + Bangkok-Lyon

Airline: Turkish Airline

Stop: Istanbul

Price for 1 adult: USD 1,344, or Euro 993

Paris-Bangkok + Bangkok-Paris

Airline: Swissair

Stop: Zurich

Price for 1 adult: USD 1,299, or Euro 959

Nice-Bangkok + Bangkok-Nice

Airline: Swissair

Stop: Zurich

Price for 1 adult: USD 1,201, or Euro 887

Paris-Bangkok + Bangkok-Paris

Airline: Swissair

Stop: Zurich

Price for 1 adult: USD 1,115, or Euro 823

Paris-Bangkok + Bangkok-Paris

Airline: Swissair

Stop: Zurich

Price for 1 adult: USD 1,113, or Euro 822

Paris-Bangkok + Bangkok-Paris

Airline: Swissair

Stop: Zurich

Price for 1 adult: USD 1,334, or Euro 985

Paris-Bangkok + Bangkok-Paris

Airline: Aeroflot

Stop: Moscow

Price for 1 adult: Euro 715

Warning!

If you purchase your tickets on the Internet, don’t forget:

		You cannot book a ticket without paying for it immediately ; have a good look around at all possibilities before taking your decision
		Check carefully the terms and conditions attached to the ticket you purchase: validity of the ticket, possibility to change the date of departure and/or return (and possibly to change the airline), possibility to cancel the ticket and get refunded, number of kilos of luggage in entitlement, etc.
		Follow attentively the instructions on how to proceed with the payment by credit card online, and make sure that the screen shows a confirmation that the ticket has indeed be paid

Print out the payment confirmation/receipt and the e-ticket (on paper and if possible on Acrobat so that you can keep it); carefully read the instructions on how to use the e-ticket so as to ensure you have all needed information to show at check-in counter (usually, your file number is enough but there are variances depending on travel agencies and/or airlines).