Quick Guide To Booking Your First Trip to Bangkok

Bangkok is one of the most popular cities to visit in Southeast Asia. The cultural experience, cuisine as well as shopping opportunities are simply phenomenal that most folks don’t know where to begin. If it is your first time to visit the Thai capital, there are certain things you need to be mindful of when deciding how and when to fly there.

Here’s a short checklist to help you get started in terms of arranging your flights:

Airport Location (Departure & Arrival)

When flying to Bangkok, you need to be mindful that the Thai capital actually has two airports. Suvarnabhumi Airport is the larger one with scheduled flights to several destinations all around the world. Don Muang mainly caters to budget airlines and flights to nearby destinations. Both are equi-distant to the city center and costs about the same in taxi fare. Several airlines fly between Singapore and Bangkok. Here is a quick guide on which terminal they depart from in Changi Airport and which of the two airports they arrive in Bangkok.

Bangkok Airways – Changi Terminal 1 / Suvarnabhumi Airport
Cathay Pacific – Changi Terminal 4 / Suvarnabhumi Airport
Jetstar Asia Airways – Changi Terminal 1 / Suvarnabumi Airport
Scoot – Changi Terminal 2 / Don Muang OR Suvarnabhumi Airport
Singapore Airlines – Changi Terminal 2 / Suvarnabhumi Airport
Thai AirAsia – Changi Terminal 4 / Don Muang Airport
Thai Lionair – Changi Terminal 3/ Don Muang Airport

If you are in possession of a Singapore passport, you may enter via the automated clearance gates when passing through immigration. Possessing an APEC Card also helps as it gives you shorter queues in immigration.

Flight Deals

Scout for some promotions for flights from Singapore to Bangkok. Flight aggregators typically work best in sourcing out the flights with the best prices at your preferred timings. Do you have Miles? Even better! Make use of the points you have to get yourself a free flight (minus the taxes!). In my experience, the most comfortable airline to fly to Bangkok from Singapore is SQ. Even with this premium airline, you can still snatch a reasonably-priced ticket so it’s wise to check for cheap Singapore Airlines promotions from time to time.

 Choose Your Flight Schedule Wisely

This goes for both one-way or return tickets. If you don’t think you can wake up and make it to the airport for a 5:00 am flight just so you would arrive at the destination early, then, forget about it. Don’t gamble your bucks for that. Take note also on the traffic condition at your chosen time so that you can estimate when you need to leave the house or if you even need to stick with the departure time you’ve chosen.

With Bangkok, I have observed frequent jams during rush hour in the morning and evenings. If your flight is during these times, you will really need to plan ahead as Bangkok’s traffic jams are among the worst in the world. Weekend mornings and most of Sunday are relatively traffic jam-free as well as after 9PM or early in the morning before 6:30AM.

Alternatively, if you are catching a domestic flight after your getaway to Bangkok, you may wish to stay near the airport. Both Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi offer some decent lodging options near the airport.

Airline Policy

There are important points you might need to be aware of. Different airlines have different policies and you obtain all of this information easily from the airline terms and conditions when purchasing your ticket. Some points to think about are:

• What kind of liquids as well as the container sizes you can bring in your carry on
• Carry-on luggage allowance. Some airlines are stricter about it than others.
• Are you sure you can bring scissors in despite it being the smallest one
• Whether you can send your children on board at a certain age to travel alone or they have to be accompanied by a family member
• To what extent can the airline crew on board assist you if you are disabled and need special assistance

Check If Flight Ticket is Modifiable or Cancellable

You don’t want to go lodge a complaint without reading all the terms and conditions applied. We want to be smart travellers. Sometimes, a lot of miscommunication happens when the customer fails to understand or even bother to read the terms and conditions provided when they purchase the ticket. We don’t want the shame to be on our end when we bother the customer service with something that we should’ve taken note before the pay up, right? Take the time to read it through, it will help you in making your decision as well.

Once you got all that set up, you can plan out your itinerary when you reach Bangkok. You can check out more from my suggested itinerary for Bangkok.