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danniedoodles
Joined: 27 Dec 2012
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 Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 12:34 pm Post subject: flights? |
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any advice on how to find the best deals for flights to sk from the us? or which travel search engines or airlines are the best? any advice is appreciated!  |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 3:25 pm Post subject: Re: flights? |
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| danniedoodles wrote: |
| any advice on how to find the best deals for flights to sk from the us? or which travel search engines or airlines are the best? any advice is appreciated! |
Don't sweat it.
Find flights that are CONVENIENT and as direct as possible.
It is a long trip and it's not like it comes out of your pocket.
(in the great, grande scheme of things a couple hundred dollars difference in an air ticket really isn't much when amortized over the whole year and combined with the whole support package (wages, housing, tickets, benefits) of bringing in an expat teacher).
($400/40,000 = 1%)
If you are flying out of the east, look at Korean Air and a flight on their non-stop 380s (NY or Atlanta).
West coast... lots of choices.
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byrddogs
Joined: 19 Jun 2009
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 3:48 pm Post subject: |
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| ^ good advice. As far as travel search sites go, I use kayak. |
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danniedoodles
Joined: 27 Dec 2012
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 5:12 pm Post subject: |
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| so since its epik - and they reimburse a certain amount no matter how much your ticket is - i guess i'm trying to decide if the long travel time is worth an extra couple hundred bucks in my pocket or not.... and they are some LONG layovers for the cheaper tickets. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 5:31 pm Post subject: |
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| danniedoodles wrote: |
| ... i guess i'm trying to decide if the long travel time is worth an extra couple hundred bucks in my pocket or not.... and they are some LONG layovers for the cheaper tickets. |
Short answer is no.
Longer answer is hell no.
You will spend the extra couple hundred just in extra food, beverage, idle time expenses (airports aren't cheap) .... and you will arrive dead tired as well as jet-lagged...
Only a youngster or a fool would think that long layovers and cheap seats are worth the false saving of a couple hundred.
(and on some of those cheaper American carriers, after you pay for your baggage and the extras on the flight, you are still money behind a full service Asian Carrier (and the FAs are much older and uglier too)).
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SMOE NSET
Joined: 25 Feb 2010
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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Correct me if I am wrong but don't they reimburse you up to a certain amount but not if it is under?
Meaning if your ticket is $1,500 and they are only allowed to reimburse you $1,200 (don't know the actual amount) you are out of pocket $300. However, if your ticket is $1,000 they will not give you the $200 extra. They will just give you enough to cover the price of your ticket.
I am with ttompatz. Spend a little bit more for direct flights and preferably on either Korean Air or Asiana. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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| SMOE NSET wrote: |
Correct me if I am wrong but don't they reimburse you up to a certain amount but not if it is under?
Meaning if your ticket is $1,500 and they are only allowed to reimburse you $1,200 (don't know the actual amount) you are out of pocket $300. However, if your ticket is $1,000 they will not give you the $200 extra. They will just give you enough to cover the price of your ticket.
I am with ttompatz. Spend a little bit more for direct flights and preferably on either Korean Air or Asiana. |
They got tired of dealing with all the variations in routing and options.
Current contracts allow an inbound allowance (not reimbursement) of 1.3m krw.
On completion the NSET get an outbound allowance of 1.3m krw to get home again.
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singerdude
Joined: 18 Jul 2009
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 10:31 pm Post subject: |
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I think it also depends on the length of the layover. The last time I traveled, it was on Air China. I found a 22 hour layover leaving the next day. So my wife and I booked a hotel in Beijing. Didn't see that much, but I thought it was worth it in case I don't get the chance again. Also saved $300 on each ticket. After the cost of the hotels and visas, I still saved $200 and got to see a little bit of Beijing. The long layover was also on the return flight so we stayed at a different hotel in a different part of the city. We even got lucky and were upgraded to a junior suite on the return trip.
I agree the long layovers are not worth it, unless you can find the 20+ hour layovers in a city you would like to visit. |
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hogwonguy1979
Joined: 22 Dec 2003
Location: the racoon den
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 10:56 pm Post subject: |
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FROM here to the US, I've been finding cheaper flights on the Asian/Korean websites of US airlines. I got a r/t to Austin on United at Christmas for 1.5 mil with only a 2 hour layover in SFO each way though the service sucked and it was only a 1 bag/50lb limit second bag was $70 each way
next time I may shell out the extra cash for the Asiana or Singapore flight to SFO (they all leave around the same time) or Thai/Asaiana/ KAL to LAX find a cheap flight from there home |
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12ax7
Joined: 07 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 11:58 pm Post subject: |
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| hogwonguy1979 wrote: |
FROM here to the US, I've been finding cheaper flights on the Asian/Korean websites of US airlines. I got a r/t to Austin on United at Christmas for 1.5 mil with only a 2 hour layover in SFO each way though the service sucked and it was only a 1 bag/50lb limit second bag was $70 each way
next time I may shell out the extra cash for the Asiana or Singapore flight to SFO (they all leave around the same time) or Thai/Asaiana/ KAL to LAX find a cheap flight from there home |
Yes, airline websites are offering excellent deals nowadays. For our next trip we looked for tickets through Interpark and Hanatour (the two largest travel agencies in Korea. According to our past experience they offered the best deals), checked the usual North American websites (Priceline was the cheaper one), and we ended up finding the best deal at Air Canada's own website (no other airline goes to our destination). |
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