Cheaper to fly to Phuket than SIN?

5 replies

HavinALook

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

Member since 27 May 2019

Total posts 3

Sorry if this is a novice/tourist question. Just looking at flying the family premium economy in Jan 24 and it appears cheaper to go mixed class SYD to Phuket & return than Premium Economy SYD to SIN return. They are the same flights on the SYD/SIN/SYD legs. Am I doing this wrong on the website? How is it cheaper to tack on a return regional economy flight?

FmD

Member since 25 Jun 2019

Total posts 24

You’re not doing anything wrong. This happens a lot.

Some seats/fares are reserved for certain routes. So you could find instances that fares in a higher class to fly somewhere else on the same flights are cheaper than a simple economy return in the first leg of the trip.

The catch is that you need to fly your SIN-HKT flights, otherwise the airline will cancel your return ticket (This is called a Hidden-City fare btw).

dm12

Member since 08 Feb 2018

Total posts 211

Originally Posted by HavinALook

Sorry if this is a novice/tourist question. Just looking at flying the family premium economy in Jan 24 and it appears cheaper to go mixed class SYD to Phuket & return than Premium Economy SYD to SIN return. They are the same flights on the SYD/SIN/SYD legs. Am I doing this wrong on the website? How is it cheaper to tack on a return regional economy flight?

Because airline pricing is a scam

Firstworldissues

Member since 02 Mar 2019

Total posts 15

More often than not, it's cheaper to fly a little further and backtrack than to straight to your destination. Can save thousands.

Travellz

Member since 26 Mar 2020

Total posts 55

They rely on people not bothering to do the checks that you are doing - so by being savvy like you are (you get to reap savings in $$$$)

Currently airline prices across the board are at an all time high - currently $2000 return to Phuket from SYD/BNE/MEL on SQ for month of June

sunnybrae

Etihad - Etihad Guest

Member since 21 Jul 2019

Total posts 89

@Firstworldissues pointed out a real money-saving technique which, I think, the vast overwhelming majority of irregular travellers don't know about. Even seasoned travellers (often businesspeople) seldom utilize it because of time constraints. But yes, it is sometimes quite cheaper to fly to a second or third tier destination before backtracking to a first tier destination. An example of a first tier destination is Singapore. Second tier would be somewhere like Phuket or Penang. Third tier is somewhere like Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei).


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