7 Day Surprise
February 28th, 2006 | Published in travel | 8 Comments
Starting today (28 Feb.) Tiger Airways is running different daily promotions ââ¬â if the first one is anything to go by, they’re pretty good. For 28 Feb. the deal is: book today, fly to Hat Yai or Phuket for S$9.98 one way. Why should that matter? Phuket is a no-brainer; but in flying to Hat Yai.. you can then go west from there and go to Koh Phi Phi, Koh Lanta, or Koh Lipe, or go east, and land yourself in Koh Phangan or Koh Samui. All of them beautiful islands. Either way, it’s still a shorter journey than flying to Bangkok and coming down south.
In general, Tiger’s S$9.98 deals to Thailand end up being about S$58 with taxes included (one way), S$98 if you book the return trip at S$9.98 too. As someone who took the road up before the tickets got so cheap, I can tell you: pay the extra $20-something for the one way journey to Hat Yai, spare your butt the 16 hours (16 or more, I forget: I didn’t have the stomach to do that, so bussed Singapore-KL, and trained KL-Hat Yai instead; I need a bed and aircon), get to The Beach faster and spend more time in the sun.
Tiger is OK. A little cramped, but OK. I flew with them to Chiang Mai. Both flights were delayed by about 30-45 minutes, check in was more chaotic than I would have liked. For budget airlines I love Jetstar Asia ââ¬â they have assigned seats. No mad rush at boarding. And they fly to India. Tiger is starting flights to Chinese destinations (Haikou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou), which can only mean things are getting interesting for us in the region. One could, for example, reasonably hope to fly to Hanoi, and take a train to China, and fly back home ââ¬â all on the same airline! I like some full service airlines for when I stay put in one place. Which I rarely ever. Booking the return journey from another city (or country) is too prohibitively expensive. But I digress.
This post will be updated as the new promotions unfold.
I wrote this, of course, with certain university students planning their after-final-exam bash in mind. Too bad I’m going to be somewhere else during the travel promotion period. :)
For more information on travel to Thailand, there’s no better place than Travelfish, which is excellent on Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos too; sign up as a member to use the eFish feature to generate PDF guidebooks. For the islands their section is pretty informative ââ¬â but you can’t really go wrong with a Thai island. Except maybe Samui and Phuket. In general, stay off the ‘main’ beaches (like White Sands in Koh Chang, and Haad Rin in Koh Phangan) unless you like 7-Elevens, litter in your beach, and overpriced accommodation.
Why am I telling you this? Because I don’t want to study for my midterms. Sigh.
February 28th, 2006 at 6:00 am (#)
your new layout kicks major ass.
February 28th, 2006 at 6:27 am (#)
It’s incredible the way you’re able to find all these stunning wordpress templates.
February 28th, 2006 at 9:16 am (#)
I don’t like Jetstar. Assigned seats are good, but there’s ZERO leg room for the long-legged variety like me. Auuughh.
February 28th, 2006 at 9:41 am (#)
w: who cares about leg room when you can curl up next to your inflight entertainment? hahahhahha.
anand: i usually only pay attention to the templates of Phu Ly, Theron Parlin, and everything Andreas Viklund ever made. :) A formula that works.
February 28th, 2006 at 9:51 am (#)
still prefer your ala L word theme
what happen to ‘let’s mugg and kickass’?
February 28th, 2006 at 5:53 pm (#)
Well, I can’t curl up next to my inflight entertainment because:
1) My inflight entertainment refuses to fly Jetstar (all the better for me), and
2) There’s no room to maneouvre into a curled-up position because there is simply NO ROOM. My legs unfold onto the back of the seat in front of me and when the idiot in front of me leaned back the split second the seat-belt-sign went off, it took all my effort not to yell in pain.
February 28th, 2006 at 6:27 pm (#)
It’s not THAT bad, really!! Strange, I dunno lah, I barely noticed. I think I’m either totally comatose while flying (and good reason too - i hate flying), on any airline. Oh well. Then again, I think I actually like being in very small places.. I’m just weird, but you know that already.
Hahah my inflight entertainment doesn’t have a say in anything.. cos I plan everything! :) But maybe that’s a good idea. I keep trying to get her to stay in some ultra expensive yuppie places, but she’s… worse than me. When she heard I bought tickets to Chiang Mai she genuinely said: why can’t we take the train? Sigh. She’s sooo cute.
February 28th, 2006 at 7:41 pm (#)
I’m so glad that you ended up with her and I ended up with my her. We’d have died if fate had cruelly swapped our girlfriends, somehow.
P/S: Maybe my legs are just a lot longer than yours. Heh