United to Start Direct Los Angeles to Manila Flights

[OnMyWay]

6 hours ago, JJReyes said:

Online commentators claim the best time period is 30 to 90 days before your desired departure date.  Earlier than that period, pricing assumptions are based on educated guesses.  As the departure date approaches, the airline computers provide better information about load.  If reservations are low, they start lowering prices.  Better to sell seats at a discount than for it to be unoccupied.  Another way is to sell all the empty seats at bulk rates to consolidators/bucket shops.   I will check in October.

Yes, I just checked United MNL-SFO in November,  on Google Flights.  107,000 pesos, close to $2000.  Doesn't make sense.  MNL to DEN via SFO is 91,000.  Could not find on the UA website.  I'm sure this will change.

EVA from MNL to SFO via TPE us only 46,759, $853.

Anyhow, once all this new capacity hits the market, prices should come down.  United is starting in October going into the holiday season, so prices might not drop much until January, but hopefully before.

Edited July 24, 2023 by OnMyWay
not

[Mike J]

Booked a RT ticket last week for the wife from Cebu City (Mactan) to Seattle.  She will depart Sep 13th, return Oct 13.  Cost was $1331, booked directly with Korean Air web site.  Cebu > Inchon > Seattle, same in reverse for return.  I was able to find cheaper flights but they had two in transit stops instead of one.  Less stress and fewer chances to miss/be late for a flight is worth the extra money when it comes to the wife's safety and, relatively, stress free travel.   

[GeoffH]

On 7/25/2023 at 8:00 AM, Mike J said:

 I was able to find cheaper flights but they had two in transit stops instead of one.  Less stress and fewer chances to miss/be late for a flight is worth the extra money 

Could not agree more, 1 transfer and a single booking is my limit for international flights (not counting a domestic leg if needed).

Self transfer has caused some people a huge amount of problems and more than one connection is roughly 4 times the chances of having a problem at some point (although if you're on a single booking with the same airline, or at least a code shared flight, then you've got some chance of getting remidiation.

Edited July 26, 2023 by GeoffH

[Joey G]

Heard this from an airline friend.... "Many don't realize this but in the US virtually all COVID extensions on tickets expire on 31 December 2023. People are using up what they they have left and thats causing part of the air travel surge".  Throw in a little recession fear... yeah, ticket demand may drop and ticket prices may drop as well.

Slightly off topic... but air travel related.  I'm kinda surprised at the high demand for European vacation travel with a war going on so close to many of these countries. Makes me wonder what (if anything) an invasion of Taiwan would do to Asian vacation travel. Maybe nothing as well (????). IDK

[JJReyes]

12 hours ago, Mike J said:

I was able to find cheaper flights but they had two in transit stops instead of one.  Less stress and fewer chances to miss/be late for a flight is worth the extra money when it comes to the wife's safety and, relatively, stress free travel.   

You also have to worry if your luggage makes it through multiple transfers.  Carefully look at the information online regarding connecting airlines.  The second flight could be an unknown carrier, low-budget affiliate carrier or some other company.  Then there is the issue of code sharing.  On our last flight, I booked Air Canada only to find out there is no such flight.  You are automatically moved to United Airlines.  

[JamesBond]

On 7/23/2023 at 9:05 PM, JJReyes said:

Online commentators claim the best time period is 30 to 90 days before your desired departure date.

From the US, It’s cheapest to book a flight to Asia 2.5-6.5 months out, troughing at 119 days, according to CheapAir. June is the most expensive month to travel, February the cheapest.

[hk blues]

18 hours ago, Joey G said:

Heard this from an airline friend.... "Many don't realize this but in the US virtually all COVID extensions on tickets expire on 31 December 2023. People are using up what they they have left and thats causing part of the air travel surge".  Throw in a little recession fear... yeah, ticket demand may drop and ticket prices may drop as well.

Slightly off topic... but air travel related.  I'm kinda surprised at the high demand for European vacation travel with a war going on so close to many of these countries. Makes me wonder what (if anything) an invasion of Taiwan would do to Asian vacation travel. Maybe nothing as well (????). IDK

Other than the places directly surrounding the 'war zone' I would be very surprised if there was any risk travelling to countries where travel is allowed. 

More chance getting shot in your own backyard! 

 

[GeoffH]

2 hours ago, hk blues said:

Other than the places directly surrounding the 'war zone' I would be very surprised if there was any risk travelling to countries where travel is allowed. 

More chance getting shot in your own backyard! 

 

I know it was on a much smaller scale but the battle of Marawi on mindanao a few years ago (which led to martial law being imposed upon the island of Mindanao) was really only noticible in Illigan city (50km from the front) and only then because of the numbers of refugees lining the streets begging for money (they litterally were a continuous line on each side of the street for kilometers).

Well that and the helicopters flying overhead whilst we waited to be passed through the road block... and the road block... and all the soldiers manning the road block (took us hours to get through to the head of the line and then quite a while to get passed onwards).

Outside of Illigan city (which we had to pass through twice when travelling from Ozamis to Cagayan De Oro (and vice versa) there were just the martial law check points which weren't really an issue (except for the huge ones at Illigan city - which was where the road turned off to Marawi City).

 

 

[Joey G]

1 hour ago, hk blues said:

Other than the places directly surrounding the 'war zone' I would be very surprised if there was any risk travelling to countries where travel is allowed. 

I wasn't referring to the safety of traveling per se... I'm thinking more in line of how one sips wine and enjoys their vacation while so many innocent people are are being killed in a war so close.  But I get your point... in general I guess... if it's not in their backyard, most people don't care enough to slow down their life. 

2 hours ago, hk blues said:

More chance getting shot in your own backyard! 

 I'm sure the people on Malaysia Flight 17 would think differently.

[hk blues]

1 hour ago, Joey G said:

I wasn't referring to the safety of traveling per se... I'm thinking more in line of how one sips wine and enjoys their vacation while so many innocent people are are being killed in a war so close.  But I get your point... in general I guess... if it's not in their backyard, most people don't care enough to slow down their life. 

 I'm sure the people on Malaysia Flight 17 would think differently.

I think you're giving mankind too much credit for caring than it deserves - as long as the war is out of earshot I very much doubt to most if it matters whether they are vacationing in Paris, France or Paris, Idaho.   

Whilst Malaysia Flight 17 was indeed shot down that was not during the current war but regardless I stick by my opinion that the average American has more chance of being shot going about their daily business home in the USA than becoming a civilian casualty of war in the Ukraine, with around being 120 shot and killed every day in the USA.  I'm really not trying to bring this into a gun crime debate, just trying to put context to the war and the risks of vacationing in Europe.