I’ve seen Tokyo flights pop up on Scotts cheap flights for $600 from LAX.
Zipair seems to have lower than that frequently. But they only go out of LAX.
What city are you planning on flying from?
Travel Tuesday is a new one for me. I guess I’ll keep my eyes open next this November.
These days the legacy airlines all let you change without penalty (meaning you get a credit for the value of a ticket if you cancel). Before the pandemic it was a $200-400 change fee (which would just be deducted from the value of the credit you kept).
The LAX discounts is a good case in point that the origin is just as important as the destination. You will never, ever find a Tokyo flight that cheap out of ATL.
I just booked one leg on Singapore Airlines and it’s got a $400 SGD change fee on a $1K SGD ticket. I could have paid $1300 for no change fee.
Probably SFO.
I was just looking for Paris tickets for April. I agree you’re probably fucked, flight costs are gonna be nuts this summer.
This is an example of the deals you can find.
Hell yeah. Four days ago, Wizz Air announced that direct flights between Prague and Yerevan, Armenia will start on June 12th. There’ll be two per week. Turned out that waiting a bit on my flight was worth it because those are the only direct flights between the two cities! Because of how few flights there are, I bought my ticket to Yerevan super early.
Now, I just have to wait for direct flights between Batumi, Georgia and Prague to open! Right now, there are three direct flights from Georgia to Prague but it’s from Kutaisi (also through Wizz Air) which I have no interest visiting. Plus, the flights from Batumi are considerably cheaper even if they aren’t direct.
Will you visit Tbilisi also? I’ll be gone in late April though. I haven’t been to Yerevan, but most consider Tbilisi the more interesting of the 2. The best thing to do in either country is a place called Kazbegi in the Caucausus Mtns., only about 2.5-3 hr. drive north of Tbilisi.
The Wizz Air flights to Kutaisi are usually super cheap, but yah, Kutaisi isn’t worth a visit. Batumi is pretty unique and somewhat interesting. The “beach” is just rocks and it calls itself the “Las Vegas of the Black Sea”, but the handful of casinos are kinda lame. It does have a pretty cool waterfront area with parks and such and there’s a lot of development going on. Feels like it could be really cool someday, but is not quite there yet. Although it’s still really popular with foreigners.
1 Like
Yeah. I won’t arrive in Georgia until mid-July. Looking at total between the two countries spending a bit over a couple of weeks. From my experience, I kinda get drained after a 2 straight weeks on vacation. So, ending it in Batumi seems logical.
1 Like
Anyone have Singapore experience? @Melkerson i think you’ve said you lived there in your youth? I’ll be there for a week in early March. I haven’t started looking around much online so right now i don’t have any real plans besides wandering the city and eating food. Also will probably hit up the main tourist attractions like the gardens by the bay, national gallery etc.
Any specific neighborhoods or areas i should visit? Worth it to take a day trip to one of the surrounding islands or cross the border into Malaysia? Johor Bahru looks cool and it seems like a quick, easy trip.
I have been, but it was over a decade ago. It is one city, roughly the same area as San Francisco, and it’s easy to get around to where you are going via walking and mass transit.
Foodwise, it’s a confluence of Malay, Chinese, and Indian food, with notable Singaporean dishes being chili crab and curried fish heads. Hawker stalls are the place to go for cheap, accessible food. I remember my hotel being in an Indian neighborhood and eating rogan josh in the hotel restaurant.
Sentosa Island is the obvious touristy place to look at. I don’t remember much about what I did there, but I know I went.
1 Like
I can only offer somewhat touristy recommendations, but the Maxwell food center is great, tons of food stalls, Tian Tian Hainan chicken and rice is the most popular and you’ll have to wait in line a bit, but it’s delicious. And cheap.
Little India is a very interesting neighborhood to take a walk around.
Geylang is a red light district but also has a ton of a good restaurants that are open late. I went with a local to No Signboard Seafood, which is known for their chili crab, and it was huge and awesome, but really expensive! But definitely get chili crab or pepper crab somewhere in the city!
1 Like
As far as I understand it, f you can’t select your seats before check-in, you have basic economy (which should be fare class B). If you can, then you don’t have basic economy and have options for changing your flight (for a fee).
Do you have a screenshot? Above Basic Economy is usually “Main Cabin” in AA’s parlance. Or are you buying through a 3rd party? (In which case I’d say don’t - buy direct through AA).
I just dealt with this for the first time - had no clue basic economy was even a thing when booking.
For basic economy, I’m pretty sure you always have to pay a fee to get an assigned seat prior to check-in. For economy you can get some seats free, but have to pay for better seats.
Thus, I’m fairly certain you must have economy.
" Seat details
You can choose a specific seat at any time for a fee (complimentary for AAdvantage® members based on your status). Otherwise, seats will be automatically assigned for free at check-in. We can’t guarantee that you’ll be seated together."
That is possible - I was flying international (and definitely did have the option to choose basic).
This blog seems to make the same point about seat selection (and also notes as you saw it’s not available on all routes) - it definitely sounds like you went through Economy Seat Selection.
Seat Selection
Seat selection for Basic Economy passengers is based on available space and will be assigned at check-in. Many Basic Economy passengers will likely sit in middle seats or undesirable “leftover” economy seats that others haven’t chosen. You can choose a seat in advance for a fee in many cases
Economy Seat Selection
Seat selection is free to regular economy customers, but some preferred seats or Main Cabin Extra seats may come with an additional fee — in any case, all seats on the aircraft are available for selection/purchase at any time . Elites will be able to choose preferred or Main Cabin Extra seats at any time.
1 Like
I’m not much help as I haven’t been in over 20 yrs. I’m actually going this summer. I’m actually asking around for help planning my time there. Maybe when you’re back I’ll ask you.
Most of my “entertainment” will be just checking out places I used to go to and see how much has changed. I think everyone that I used to know there has left (they were nearly all expats).
Even when I was more current with my Singapore knowledge, I always felt that Singapore is not a super exciting place to visit, but a great place to live. I think things that tourists often come for are food, nightlife, and shopping. I don’t really have much interest in the latter two.
The food is great, you could just eat at hawker centers the whole time and be fine. I think the food recs above are solid. Orchids at the botanical gardens are solid. Even your plan to just walk around and eat food is very solid. The key is to spend as little time around Orchard Rd as possible (but still not zero). The rest of Singapore is not quite as clean and has a lot more personality. Chinatown and Little India are solid. Boat quay was barely a thing when I was there, but that might be worth checking out some evening.
If you like soccer, maybe go to an S-league game (I think it will be running when you’re there, but not sure). When I was growing up, Singapore was in the Malaysian League, so the games were a lot more intense, but I’m sure it would still be fun (skill level is sub MLS, so keep that in mind).
Not a fan of Sentosa. I guess if you’re into outdoors/beach stuff it’s fine. JB is just a typical midsized Malaysian city (I guess it’s proximity to Singapore makes it a bit unique). Maybe worth a day trip to check out, but I doubt you need more than that.
Definitely interested in what you ultimately end up doing. I’ll probably be asking you for recs in a few months.
1 Like