Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Trevor]

Thai Air is surprisingly pricey, now. I am thinking of taking a little jaunt next week. Where is a bargain fare for Trevor?

[Drew345]

Try the Jin Air website. http://www.jinair.com/ (must use explorer)

But I think everything is full until at least through Mid Feb.

[Trevor]

Thanks, good site. I can find a flight but I would have a tough time making the 9:20 AM out of Incheon. Is there a cheap hotel near the airport?

[Lunar Groove Gardener]

http://www.ghincheon.com/e_index.htm

[bassexpander]

Add what... 150,000 for taxes and baggage?

[Konglishman]

If you book far enough in advance, you can get a good deal with Singapore Airlines for a flight to Singapore. Then, afterwards, you can catch a cheap flight from Singapore to Thailand through Air Asia or one of the other low fare airlines.

[StavvioD]

If you can read Korean, or know someone who can then check this site out. I took a return trip to Bangkok via Taiwan for 288,000 all included last November. There was an even cheaper ticket but it mean laying over in Vietnam for 18 hours...

http://onlinetour.co.kr/

[tall_dave]

Current rates were near $529 US a few weeks ago. That includes taxes, etc. They drop considerably in March to somewhere around $440 U.S. to Thailand. I'm actually considering going there for Songkran this April. (to Pattaya)

[orosee]

I was actually on the first Jin Air flight to Bangkok just before Christmas. Perhaps even made it to TV as there were cameras and crews, JA management bowing to the passengers, a little free snack buffet and junk gifts. In Bangkok, we could have had a free toy animal but that was a bit too cheesy to queue up for. Got some discount vouchers for photo development in Korea too.

That said, the price was good (just a bit over 400,000 Won everything included, and the web site price was down to a bit over 200,000 Won for some later flights). That's less than half of what Asiana was asking for the same time, and still less than the discount rate of Asiana in October/November (which was 495,000 Won iirc).

Plane is a 737 3/3 so be prepared for cramped conditions if you're tall or wide. It looks ridiculously tiny from the gate. Flight time is about 1 hour longer than for the big planes, but return time is about the same (5 1/2 hours). Must be the strong wind blowing.

For whatever reason the seat rows don't seem to be spaced equally. I was sitting further back on the return trip and found it to be comfortable (I'm 6'3'') but flying to Bangkok I was in the 4th or 5th row and basically in constand pain.

Flight attendants are attractive enough and wear polo shirts, jeans and baseball caps. Happy to say that the jeans are relative low riding so there's some eye candy to keep you occupied, as there is no inflight entertainment at all. Food is so-so, better on the return leg. To BKK it was cold rice with something else cold, salad and fruit/cake, but okay if you're hungry enough. Soft drinks are free but you have to pay for beer and spirits.

Arrival time in BKK is convenient as you have most of the day still ahead of you and you're landing outside of rush hours.

Return is more problematic because of the inconvenient bus schedules in Incheon. In our case departure was delayed by an hour - that's maybe not a regular feature - and we arrived just so that we missed the last of the limo buses to Gangnam (22:00) and had to take a regular red bus to Jongno, switch to taxi and make our way home. That's more of an Incheon problem for me though.

If I could choose between Jin Air and Asiana at a price difference of less than 100,000 Won I'd take Asiana, but at a larger gap I'll be back on Jin Air. At the current prices for alcohol and services in Bangkok every Baht counts.

[Murakano]

[rowdie3]

Thai Airways is the best. Direct flights. Great service/food/entertainment, etc. etc. Jin Air sounds pretty rough. That's a long time to be squished on a 3/3. www.thaiair.com I've never been dissapointed. Used them six times now.

[tall_dave]

[l-i-v-i-n]

I booked pusan - Taipai via Bangkok for 400,000 won taxes included for chinese new year.

Im just not getting on the plane to Taipai so that means i am flying direct for about 250-300k less than if i booked to pusan - bangkok (same flight from pusan - bangkok)

[tokkibunni8]

[reactionary]