Low Cost Air Carriers - Are They Really Cheaper?

My friends have a tendency to decide last minute that they would like to explore a particular country. Usually it is me that scrambles to book the air tickets and accommodations.


Last night was another one of those nights. This time the destination - Bangkok.


For many of us in Singapore, we usually think of the budget airline carriers to go to Bangkok or maybe Thai Airways. So I did what a normal Singaporean would do - check out timings and prices of the various low cost air carriers - Tiger Airways, Jetstar Asia, Scoot. I also did a search of Singapore Airlines and  Thai Airways.


The cheapest was Scoot based on a Friday departure and a Monday return. The only huge disadvantage for us taking Scoot was the timing of the return flight from Bangkok to Singapore. Next I evaluated Jetstar Asia and Tiger Airways and based on price decided to book Jetstar Asia. As I was going through the booking, I realised the costs kept on increasing because of the 20 kgs baggage as well as the charges for a standard seat. Then I stopped the booking mid-way and decided on another approach to explore the other airline possibility.


I did a search via Wego and found there were indeed other cheaper airline tickets options which I did not explore earlier on. This included a flight via Cathay Pacific. Through Wego, it linked me to this local travel agent booking site - New Shan Travel Service. I realised they had various promotions and finally decided to book air tickets to Bangkok using the HSBC promotion. This way of booking actually saved me per person $25. Although the difference in monetary terms is not much (without a corporate job $25 saved is still something significant), but on Cathay Pacific, I would have gotten a meal served as well as some drinks. 


Maybe one is able to evaluate or see things differently when one has to carefully consider all options given that money is tighter. So on your next travel trip, do give the other airlines a consideration and maybe you will end up with a much cheaper airfare if you consider other alternatives (New Shan Travel Services) which you did not normally try like myself.