[Anonymous]

[stevescoots]

here is my thinking,

I have always booked my UK-Asia flights in the UK. I was thinking if it would be cheaper to book them elswhere. for example using a HK agent to book Ex LHR-HKG round trips. Before i send my HK staff on a potential wild goose chase has anyone had experiance of doing similar? (i am not a HK resident)

[SayerDAFBDM]

Hi,

I am business travel agent for the largest independent UK travel agency and can say that generally you will receive better rates by booking within the country that the flights are orginating from. In this case you will get better rates booking with a UK agent.

If the return flight was orginating from HK then a HK based agent would be best.

[first_class_please]

If you go to same destination often the it could be worth looking to do UK – XXX one way and then start buying round trips XXX – UK – XXX bough from XXX.

[anujsharma]

You can compare air ticket prices and deals before booking air tickets online. It is always a good idea for saving money. Whenever i plan any trip i always use online ticket booking sites to compare prices and makemytrip http://www.makemytrip.com is my favorite site.

[capetonianm]

Because of the way revenue management works it can be cheaper to buy a ticket B-A than A-B. Buying tickets across borders in different currencies can look attractive but there are a number of reasons why it is not usually a good option.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

As an agent the general rule of thumb is that it is cheapest to buy in the country of origin. This however isn’t always the case and has one forum member found recently (though slightly different example) a Stockholm to South Africa fare was twice the price buying in South Africa than it was in Europe). It can be worth checking but you may find it is cheaper to book HKG-LON-HKG from HK than it is to book LON-HKG-LON (hope that make sense). As long as staff don’t leave it will be cheaper this way. A good example of this is those with office in Australia travelling to Europe. Because of the strength of the A$ when converted to GBP a SYD-LON-SYD ticket in Business Class can be £5k to £10k. The other way round and it is £3k to £7k depending on carrier, availability etc. It will depend what currency your business operates in and whether you want to take the risk of someone leaving before potentially completing a ticket – but there is an opportunity to make savings on travel.

As with most situations in travel you havel you’ll have to look at it on a route by route and case by case basis.

Good luck

[donkeyasia]

A good topic. I always use a UK agent, and the benefits if this were realised recently. A roadshow for 6 people on the itinerary
JFK-ICN-BNE-SYD-ADL-PER-SIN-BNE-PER-ICN-JFK all in business class travelling with KE-Virgin Australia & SQ was £10,419 each ($15,850 at the time of paying), with no surcharges for change of flight, date or routing at the same class levels

The US agent of the company paying had its agent do the same itinerary. The cost using DL-Virgin & SQ was $25,672 each, WITH surcharges of $250 per change.

We made 10 changes adding another potential $15k to the bill.

An overall saving of $74,000. not always available but worth its weight in air miles.

[donkeyasia]

i reside in Hong Kong

[donkeyasia]

i reside in Hong Kong

[donkeyasia]

i reside in Hong Kong

[lrenlara]

hello everyone. I’m a tour operator here in philippines. I always suggest my foreign tourists to book flights and packages ahead of time to save lots of money. I suggest you buy one way ticket from your country to your destination and get ticket from destination going back home. That way you get tickets more cheaper due you avoid something international processing fee and big taxes.

[MartynSinclair]

When ever I buy on line, I always check both the country of origin and the destination country’s website.

Last week for my LA-MCO on AA, the .co.uk website and kayak.co.uk was more expnsive the their .com counterparts.

When travelling to Asia, I have tried using travel agents based in Asia, but there never seems to be a sufficient enough saving (for me).

[Author]

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