Book Avios-earning £1,040 Finnair business flights to Bangkok – or £835 ex-Stockholm

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• AndyC says:

  9 Oct9 October 04:09

  Decent business class deals from Finnair notwithstanding, perhaps I might suggest that comments in the various blogs by expats resident in Thailand be read before committing to travelling. Many bars, restaurants and other entertainment venues around the country remain closed, either temporarily or permanently.

  • Paul says:

    9 Oct9 October 08:03

    Surely you mean migrants! The English don’t call those living here temporarily expats, they’re called immigrant or migrants. Indeed this country was the only EU nation that called FOM immigration, and uncontrolled immigration at that!
    Need to decide on the correct term. Economic Migrants or expats?

    • Catalan says:

      9 Oct9 October 09:41

      Expat = white migrant
      Immigrant = non-white migrant

      Isn’t that the formula the media use?

      • Nick says:

        9 Oct9 October 10:01

        Not colour, but nationality. Poles and Germans (for example) are white but still called migrants, ‘expat’ is reserved for Brits and Americans.

        Your concept is sound though. And it’s similar with other words. ‘Cronyism’ applies to British politicians, everywhere else it’s ‘corruption’.

        • BJ says:

          9 Oct9 October 11:29

          We are talking Thailand here and to the natives we’re farangs, a term with derogatory origins, and which may still be the perception dependent on context and users.

    • Mike says:

      9 Oct9 October 13:17

      The definition of “Expat” is someone who moved to a country with the intention to eventually go home. Immigrants to the UK from the third world generally have no intention to return home hence we call them immigrants. UK citizens going working in the middle East, for example, would generally intend to return home hence Expat. To conflate the two because SJWs are ignorant and disingenuous isn’t helpful. Deliberately misusing the language, ignoring definitions, to attempt to make a smug point is a typical tactic.

    • the_real_a says:

      9 Oct9 October 14:30

      Ex Pat – someone who`s financial contribution to the country outweighs their direct apportioned financial consumption of public services and externalities such as rent/housing inflation and lagging health liabilities.

      Economic Migrant – someone who’s financial contribution to the country is less than their direct apportioned consumption of financial consumption of services and externalities.

      • the_real_a says:

        9 Oct9 October 14:31

        *Economic Migrant – someone who’s financial contribution to the country is less than their direct apportioned financial consumption of services and externalities.

        • Catalan says:

          9 Oct9 October 15:41

          So the Polish immigrants who contributed more to the British economy than they consumed should be re-designated as ‘Polish Expats’. Cool!

      • Gavin says:

        9 Oct9 October 17:12

        Expats – a person who is sent by their employer to a posting in a foreign country, and will eventually rotate back to either their home country or a third country

        Immigrant – the person who’s probably driving your Uber, has come to the UK to better their economic situation. Will most likely not return to their country of birth.

• riku says:

  9 Oct9 October 04:41

  no checked baggage unless you have BA STATUS: I know head for points lives in a world of Londonders with children taking holidays in Dubai but there are other airlines in One World and Finnair recognize other membership programmes too.

  • Doug M says:

    9 Oct9 October 10:02

    Yes, it’s disgraceful marginalisation of those with Fiji and S7 status. Why on earth would a UK based site with a large BA focused audience not recognise that.

    • John says:

      9 Oct9 October 10:49

      I don’t think you get extra bags on AY (or any OW airline) with FJ status

• Lewis says:

  9 Oct9 October 06:09

  I live in Thailand. Anyone wanting to come here should know… it is probably not the Thailand you remember. Whilst things do seem to be improving, bars remain closed and lots of covid restrictions everywhere – masks included. I would suggest next year is probably more likely for things to be back to normal.

  • meta says:

    9 Oct9 October 08:11

    That’s great! Some peace and quiet. Hope they open up next month then without testing and COE.

• Graeme says:

  9 Oct9 October 07:47

  I live in Bangkok as well. Yes the country may open up to vaccinated tourists but not confirmed yet. Until then it’s 15 days ASQ in Bangkok or one of the Phuket/Samui Sandbox 7 day programs, and all visitors require COE from Thai Embassy, which in true Thai style requires a lot of paperwork.

  The rules on restaurants and bars and clubs may change, either way. Many of the tourist facing businesses have closed forever.

  However, life here is getting slowly back to normal. Yes you will have to wear a mask everywhere, even when walking along an empty street and certainly on public transport.

  • ChrisW says:

    9 Oct9 October 07:50

    You mean you have to wear a mask outdoors at a times even when walking down the street? That would be unbearable in the Thai heat and humidity.

    • BJ says:

      9 Oct9 October 08:14

      In East Asia wearing masks outdoors has more or less become part of life from time to time, many people doing so willingly (even enthusiastically) in response to mere rumours of bird flu, and smoke or other pollution. Heard quite a few Thai’s complain bitterly that Western tourists put them and themselves at risk by not doing so and that was pre-covid. One thing I recall here in Edinburgh was that back in February-March 2020 quite a large proportion of Asian people were already wearing masks walking around the streets at a time when cases were just beginning to trickle into the UK. No idea how many of those were locals and how many were tourists though.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        9 Oct9 October 09:09

        So they all like doing something which is a complete waste of time (masks outdoors) and complain others won’t do it?

        • Numpty says:

          9 Oct9 October 10:50

          Comes from years of dealing with various viruses, paying for their healthcare and a shared sense of social responsibility rather than individualism.

          And despite that waste of time precaution they’ve been far more successful than the UK at dealing with Covid.

        • BJ says:

          9 Oct9 October 11:57

          Reputable research shows that masks reduce transmission; reductions are small but can be significant when scaled up through population levels. That is not in dispute but is a different question to that which you pose which is more precisely I guess is the small benefit of wearing masks outside worth the downsides of doing so ? In my opinion the answer is no. My point was more a question of attitudes and behaviour differences possibly between societies and nations, but there as here I’m dure every opinion is reflected. No doubt there are many Thais, Chinese or whatever who are sick fed up with masks too when if use is more common and/or mandated in their communities.

        • BJ says:

          9 Oct9 October 12:15

          @Numpty, generally agree. That the UK has a broadly similar population to Thailand but an order of magnitude greater deaths from covid says it all.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          9 Oct9 October 16:04

          The magnitude of covid deaths globally will
          Be measured in a few year time when they look at age adjusted all cause deaths.

          Not the daily headlines pumped out

      • Polly says:

        9 Oct9 October 12:33

        As BJ says, we were seeing locals all over Asia wearing masks for years. In the streets. It’s not surprising the locals are upset at people not wearing masks even outside.
        In France recently everyone wore masks outside in the local markets, in the middle of the country. We were v impressed with such high compliance. Masks work.

    • meta says:

      9 Oct9 October 08:18

      @Graeme ASQ has been reduced to 7 days for vaccinated as of 1 October.

      @ChrisW then don’t travel and leave the space for someone who doesn’t have a problem.

      • Nick says:

        9 Oct9 October 10:06

        It was the same in Spain over the summer just gone – or at least in the Spanish parts away from the ‘Brits abroad’ tourist resorts. Mask wearing in the street was compulsory, and everyone did it despite the heat and without complaint. When the rules were relaxed most locals carried on even outside, and those who didn’t still carried one on their wrist ready for when they went somewhere busy.

        Unlike the UK, nowhere else has a wide set of self-declared ‘exemptions’ either, so you should expect to have to wear them in large parts of the world for at least another year.

        • Yorkieflyer says:

          9 Oct9 October 10:26

          Flying out to Spain start of this month a frankly chavvy couple and misbehaving sprogs were all unmasked at LBA with their ‘ I’m exempt ribbons’. They suddenly could wear masks when challenged by Spanish cabin crew and were curiously compliant in the immigration queue at Alicante

    • Jeff Greene says:

      9 Oct9 October 10:23

      You’re not wrong but if people don’t like it they should go elsewhere. There’s a lot of other places to go on holiday

    • Graeme says:

      9 Oct9 October 15:05

      Yes. Mask at all times. Just don’t walk very far, that’s what Grab is there for. You need a mask in the car as well though.

• BJ says:

  9 Oct9 October 07:57

  Further potential snags:

  1. Latest news from Thailand is that wider less restrictive reopening will be January not next month.
  2. At these prices overbooking and downgrades may be a real concern.
  3. IME Finnair played extreme hardball on EU261, even pre-covid.

  Might be worth a look to see what less restrictive fares are on offer. Even £500 more would still be a good deal. Around 2015-18 my target everyday cash fare from EDI-BKKrtn in J was £1500-1600 but this had increased to £1700-1800 by 2018-19.

  • meta says:

    9 Oct9 October 08:19

    Less restrictive tickets tickets can be had for £200-300 more.

    • BJ says:

      9 Oct9 October 08:26

      Thanks Meta, I’ll have a look next month. I need to wait until then to at least give BA the chance to move my cancelled Xmas flights and decide then how to proceed.

      • meta says:

        9 Oct9 October 08:40

        Another snag I just read is that Finnair covid policy only extends to 31 Dec, so even with less restrictive ticket it’s a bit of a no-go at the moment.

        • BJ says:

          9 Oct9 October 08:59

          Why the £35 flexibility of BAEC redemptions is so significant. As long as that remains I’ll never complain about the fees. The problem with people complaining about those is they are comparing a BAEC redemption to a cheap restricted fare when in reality it is comparable to something so much better.

        • Doug M says:

          9 Oct9 October 10:05

          This. Always very lopsided comparisons.

• Paul says:

  9 Oct9 October 08:05

  Great price for a quality airline. However I would give Thailand a wide berth until they decide how to handle tourists. At the moment Tourists face heavy restrictions and are not free to move around the country the same way locals do. I hope they sort themselves out soon as yet another high season with no tourist will kill of the few businesses that have managed to cling on. As others have said do the research on Thailand before booking this fare. Lots of good info on Twitter by people like Richard Barrow

• Paul says:

  9 Oct9 October 08:07

  Qatar offering £1100 to BKK ex ARN
  560 tier points and better covid protection policy. Remember insurance (Amex platinum at least) will not provide cover if you booked while the travel advice was not to travel

  • Phillip says:

    9 Oct9 October 08:14

    As well as from AMS and BRU.

  • Ben says:

    9 Oct9 October 09:48

    I think Sweden still has an exclusion for non-EU non-residents entering? So ex-ARN is maybe a gamble?

    I booked one-way BKK-HEL-EDI for just over £500pp, a week into January. Felt like the price and convenience outweighed the risk.

    • John says:

      9 Oct9 October 10:54

      Fully vaccinated British citizens living in the UK can enter Sweden from Monday 11th

      • Ben says:

        9 Oct9 October 15:10

        This is good to know. I priced by ARN-BKK early December and it was £350 one-way in J. I’m still undecided whether to bite, as there’s a lot that can change.

• Aston100 says:

  9 Oct9 October 09:06

  Presumably not during any UK school holidays, right?

  • riku says:

    9 Oct9 October 09:13

    what are “UK” school holidays? I thought Scotland for sure has different school holiday dates to England and Finnair is a Finnish company and don’t price their flights based on school holidays in countries they fly TO. They do have different prices in July / start of August since that’s school holiday time in Finland though. This pricing logic is what i’ve seen so far in the 20 years i’ve lived in Finland.

    • John says:

      9 Oct9 October 11:01

      Well it would make sense for them to price tickets originating in the UK according to demand from the UK. Their long-haul flights are not solely targeted at Finland residents, who seemed to me to be a minority of the passengers on board, which is unsurprising as Finland has a small population and plenty of people from Europe and Asia choose HEL as a transit hub

      • Riku says:

        9 Oct9 October 12:24

        When you look at the fare rules (visible in something like expertflyer) they have not blacked out england/scotland school holiday times. I don’t think AY want to put in the effort to adjust their ex-UK fares based on school holidays in the UK, ex-France fares based on school holidays in France, ex-Ireland based on school holidays in Ireland etc.
        BA do exactly the same as AY. BA fares HEL-LHR-rest of the world are not linked to Finnish school holidays. Even IB redemptions from the UK are based on spanish school holidays, not London school holidays.

        • John says:

          9 Oct9 October 15:29

          Interesting. Maybe they adjust the number of seats available at these prices? Or maybe they don’t and this may be useful to me when my son starts school

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