I am fortunate to have been traveling in and around Asia for more than 10 years and have been living in Indonesia for not quite 7 years now. Since I love to travel I often find myself in situations where I need to find inexpensive plane tickets. When I first started my search for inexpensive ways to travel I realized it was quite different to deal with domestic versus international flights. In most countries there is little difference in the prices between two “one way” tickets OR one “return” ticket when you purchase domestic flight tickets. Sometimes you may get a slightly discounted price for the return ticket.
When it comes to finding international air tickets it is more difficult to find discounted Asia travel tickets. You might find that it is easier to get cheaper return tickets. So if you plan to travel to a variety of cities (round trip with many transit stop) it can be difficult to find good deals. Below is some tips that should help you find the cheapest flights to Asia available online.
I have separated this article in two parts, international and domestic flights.
Let’s start with international flights. There are many great web sites out there, but you will definitely need to do a bit of research before you find what you really want. I recommend you to begin your search by looking for those companies which fly into the country you are flying to or from.
For example, if you are in Indonesia and want to flight to Australia, you will most likely have to choose between Garuda and Quantas. You could use other airline companies such as Malaysia Airlines or Singapore Airlines. Unfortunately you will lose time during your trip as you will have layovers in their hub cities.
As you will see in the following article about domestic flight, Air Asia is one of my favorite when is about to flight in Indonesia. And this is also true when is to find the Asia Cheapest Flight as they deserve more than fifty cities in the region.
About domestic flight, I experienced two totally different experiences in Indonesia and Australia.
In Indonesia you will have plenty of choices if you are looking to purchase a domestic flight ticket. Indonesia constitutes more than twelve thousand islands. More than three thousands of these Islands are inhabited and I believe that more than a hundred of them have airports. So, you can imagine the number of possibilities and markets available in Indonesia. The main company airlines in Indonesia are Garuda (also provide international flight), Merpati, Mandala, Lion Air, Adam Air, Star Air, Batavia, etc.
Find the cheapest airline ticket is one thing, but don’t forget about safety. I don’t have any statistics about safety right now so I prefer not mention specifically any of them. But if you had read the newspaper these last few months, you probably know what I’m talking about. Some of the above names are probably famous around the world right now, but probably not for the cheapest airfare…. But don’t worries too much as airplane remind one of the safest transportation systems in the world.
Once you have eliminated those companies with the worst safety records from your research, you can start to compare prices between the remaining few. Simply go to Google, type in the name of the company you are interested in and in a matter of seconds you will have their web address. If you want to purchase tickets in advance (let’s say more than three weeks), you will find that most of the companies have similar quotes. The problem in Indonesia is if you want to order domestic tickets more than three weeks in advance…you will find there is no cheap airfare ticket available. You generally need to wait for the “perfect” time to order your ticket (between two and three weeks in advance…. be careful after that it could be too late) and you should be able to get 20% to 70% discount.
Of course there is another way to find inexpensive tickets if you want to order your tickets in advance. You can use Air Asia. Air Asia has cheap airfare and an easy to use website. Air Asia is based in Malaysia and provides travel to many cities and countries around Asia. Air Asia is a really good solution for discounted Asia travel.
In Indonesia, AirAsia serves the main cities of Jakarta, Denpasar (Bali), Medan, Surabaya, etc… Globally, they fly to over fifty cities around Asia. The service is limited (no seat pre-reserved in check-in), but it is safe and their fees really are better than most of the other companies for the price and services available. From what I have seen, they have the cheapest flights in Asia. So, have a look….
In Australia, it seems to works mostly like in the others western countries. The farther you book in advance the higher your chances of finding cheaper airfare. Quantas has some great discounts available on purchasing package tickets. If you need to book a lot of flights it could be advantageous. You might find your best values if you book your tickets with Blue Virgin or Jet Star. Both fly to many different cities in Australia however not necessary the same one. So, it really depends where you want to go. Sometimes, it’s worse if you do a lot of research to get better fee. For example, once I was looking for a cheap airfare between Sydney and Darwin. Blue Virgin offered 450 AUD (via Brisbanne) and Jet Star didn’t have this flight available. But when I checked a bit further into some others cities, I found out that I can get Sydney-Adelaide for 99AUD and Adelaide-Darwin for 167 AUD with Jet Star. Total 266 AUD. I just saved 184 AUD. Sometimes you will find better price with Blue Virgin. It all depends of the availability. So good luck on your research.
By the way, JetStar also provide some of the Asia Cheapest Flight as they deserve many others country such as Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, etc…
Leave a Reply