LOS to UK

I usually travel Eastward, so am unfamiliar with what is available. Can anyone tell me what might be the least expensive business or first class choices between Bangkok and London? I'd be grateful.

When I am booking well in advance and flexible on day of travel I get a good deal from Swiss to LCY (my pref - they also do Heathrow). I check the offering from their own site against Expedia and sometimes it's cheaper, sometimes not.

I believe Austrian, Finnish, KLM will also have discounted biz seats well in advance.

I have inside information from a very high level that Qatar aim to be the Singapore Airlines of the Middle East. Whether their objectives are realistic, remains to be seen.

I will have nothing to do with certain bookers with whom I had to spend two painful months extracting a refund on a dishonoured hotel booking. They may be the cheapest and operating sincerely but if I wish to spend hours speaking to myriad people in Bangalore, I'll go to Bangalore.

BTW there is a quota on the number of Geniuses allowed into the UK at any one time so make sure your travel doesn't coincide with a visit by Cedric 555.

Thanks for the compliment, but I am nowhere near Cedric's level.

And thank you for the advice. I hadn't thought of checking some of those airlines. The best quote I've gotten so far is from Gulf Air, at around 70,000 baht r/t for business class. They currently have a buy-one-get-one-free offer for business and first class (when purchasing tickets via MasterCard), but it unfortunately expires in July.

555

If he gets into a traffic jam in Kensington, there won't be another genius let into the country for months or till I take off for Silom.

EVA are flying the latest Boeing 777 BKK-LHR www.evaair.com (http://www.evaair.com)

I could use some more London advice, please, from the Londoners on this board.

Since I will be staying a week -- and because there will be four of us -- I've decided to book a flat instead of a traditional hotel. Much freer, and much, much cheaper.

But after poring through hundreds of listings, I've only found one or two properties that are air conditioned.

Doesn't London get awfully warm in mid-August? Is a/c really that rare? Is the heat just something the locals put up with for a couple months a year? All the hotels are certainly air conditioned.

... Doesn't London get awfully warm in mid-August? Is a/c really that rare? Is the heat just something the locals put up with for a couple months a year? All the hotels are certainly air conditioned.

You will be extremely lucky to find London in the throws of a heatwave at anytime of year. The average temperature for London is normallly in the low 20 degrees C in August with July actually being the slightly warmer month (slightly). However, should you find yourself there when the summer does arrive you can be in for an very warm mid to low 30 degrees C during the day. Very few people have air con in their homes as it is just not worth it, for those few days when the weather is to much we tend to just throw open the windows and have a fan blasting at our nether regions (unfortunately, since the end of the Empire, there has been a distinct lack of punkah wallahs to take care of this). The temp' does normally drop considerably in the evening/night.

As you guess, I am British and can talk forever re: the weather :cheers:

Doesn't London get awfully warm in mid-August? Is a/c really that rare?

Yes, a/c is rare in flats except for the newer top-end offerings that may have central a/c, but not so in large modern hotels and offices, though it is never noticeable the way it is in big Asian cities. I once worked in an office in Jakarta that was kept so chilled I had to buy a jacket.

London sometimes sets up it's own convection system which brings close humidity and spectacular thunderstorms.

The reason the British are fond of talking about the weather is that it changes faster and more frequently than a boystown katooey artist. Today, May 1st, there is a forecast of snow in the Scottish Highlands and I've seen snow in Edinburgh in June. When I want snow, there is a never enough and I don't think there has been any in London this winter though it has been bitterly cold till recently as it is said that the gulf stream is weakening and our winds have been coming from Russia, Scandinavia and the Arctic much more than the Atlantic and Spain.

August can be glorious or filled with downpours. It will probably be good this year, as I will be in Asia. 555