Flying Low Cost in South East Asia
Low cost travel is currently one of the most trending things in the world of travel. It is a well known paradigm that precious dollars saved while flying can be used to fly more/longer distances and/or enhance your overall travel experience. But, there is hardly an information source on the web that allows you to book that best deal even though they say that they help land the best deals. Through a fellow traveler, I found a site called wegolo that compares low cost flights across the world, but even that doesn’t help me get the lowest flight rates. It is a pretty good site in its own right though. Hence, I had to devise my own method as I traveled across the length and breadth of South East Asia, one of the supreme low cost belts in the world.
I would talk to locals to figure out which airlines are good for which zones and then would subscribe to their newsletters, updates and keep track of offers on their Facebook and twitter pages. The end result is that I only paid above $50 and less than $100 for 3 flights and for the rest of all the flights that I took in my 9 month south east Asia trip, I paid below $50 and for some of them, I even paid as low as $11. And these prices include the cost of my check-in baggage. I spent a little bit more time on the web, but ended up flying 3 flights for the cost of one. According to me, my time was justified.
This post aims at sharing my learnings of which low cost airlines work out the cheapest in which country so that you can keep a track of them, follow their updates before you plan your next trip to one of the ten south east Asian countries.
Broadly across the board, there are 4 airlines that you should follow closely cause they give some insanely low prices. They are Air Asia, Tiger Air, Cebu Pacific Airlines and JetStar.
The other ones per country are listed below:
Thailand
International: Air Asia, Tiger Air, Jetstar, Cebu Pacific
Domestic: Air Asia, Tiger Air, NokAir, Orient Thai Airlines
Cambodia
International: Air Asia, Tiger Air, JetStar
Domestic: NA (only full service flights)
Vietnam
International: Air Asia, Tiger Air, JetStar
Domestic: JetStar, VietJet
Laos
International: Air As
Domestic: Lao Airlines (Full service)
Myanmar (Burma)
International: Air Asia
Domestic: KBZ (Not necessarily budget, but one of the cheapest in Myanmar)
Indonesia
International: Air Asia, Tiger Air
Domestic: Citilink Indonesia, Air Asia, Tiger Mandala, Lion Air, Sriwijaya Air, Batavia airlines (Don’t fly as they crash), Merpati Airlines (Don’t fly as they crash)
Singapore
International: Air Asia, Tiger Air, JetStar, Scoot
Domestic: Not Applicable
Philippines
International: Cebu Pacific Airlines, Air Asia (Zest Airways), Tiger Air
Domestic: Cebu Pacific, Air Asia (Zest Airways), Tiger Air, Air Philippines
Malaysia
International: Air Asia, Tiger Air, Cebu Pacific
Domestic: Air Asia, MAS Wings, Firefly
Brunei International: Cebu Pacific Air, Air Asia, Tiger Air
Domestic: Not Applicable
For wikipedia’s list of low cost airlines by country, click here.
I would talk to locals to figure out which airlines are good for which zones and then would subscribe to their newsletters, updates and keep track of offers on their Facebook and twitter pages. The end result is that I only paid above $50 and less than $100 for 3 flights and for the rest of all the flights that I took in my 9 month south east Asia trip, I paid below $50 and for some of them, I even paid as low as $11. And these prices include the cost of my check-in baggage. I spent a little bit more time on the web, but ended up flying 3 flights for the cost of one. According to me, my time was justified.
This post aims at sharing my learnings of which low cost airlines work out the cheapest in which country so that you can keep a track of them, follow their updates before you plan your next trip to one of the ten south east Asian countries.
Broadly across the board, there are 4 airlines that you should follow closely cause they give some insanely low prices. They are Air Asia, Tiger Air, Cebu Pacific Airlines and JetStar.
The other ones per country are listed below:
Thailand
International: Air Asia, Tiger Air, Jetstar, Cebu Pacific
Domestic: Air Asia, Tiger Air, NokAir, Orient Thai Airlines
Cambodia
International: Air Asia, Tiger Air, JetStar
Domestic: NA (only full service flights)
Vietnam
International: Air Asia, Tiger Air, JetStar
Domestic: JetStar, VietJet
Laos
International: Air As
Domestic: Lao Airlines (Full service)
Myanmar (Burma)
International: Air Asia
Domestic: KBZ (Not necessarily budget, but one of the cheapest in Myanmar)
Indonesia
International: Air Asia, Tiger Air
Domestic: Citilink Indonesia, Air Asia, Tiger Mandala, Lion Air, Sriwijaya Air, Batavia airlines (Don’t fly as they crash), Merpati Airlines (Don’t fly as they crash)
Singapore
International: Air Asia, Tiger Air, JetStar, Scoot
Domestic: Not Applicable
Philippines
International: Cebu Pacific Airlines, Air Asia (Zest Airways), Tiger Air
Domestic: Cebu Pacific, Air Asia (Zest Airways), Tiger Air, Air Philippines
Malaysia
International: Air Asia, Tiger Air, Cebu Pacific
Domestic: Air Asia, MAS Wings, Firefly
Brunei International: Cebu Pacific Air, Air Asia, Tiger Air
Domestic: Not Applicable
For wikipedia’s list of low cost airlines by country, click here.
