Will be going to live in Pattaya  six months ( approx) starting  annually next year ... would like to know which flight ticket should I buy .. I don’t want to buy a ticket that gives an exact dates of coming back due to any family circumstances  .  Just want to buy a flexible date ticket. Premium Economy? Open Ticket ? One way ticket ( buy a return ticket over there ) ? Thanks in advance .  Hoping for a post preferably by an Expat or an experience traveller ( not a gypsy ,lol) 

Yes you'll need in my opinion (and its what I used to do) is actually ring some agents and tell them the low down of what you want. The cheapest you'll find will actually be if you DO specify the inbound date but making it clear you need the option to bring forward the return date for which normally a fee is required.

An open ticket will cost you around £1400 for a year (not joking) in economy direct from airline. Ensure you actually keep the total period 1-2 days under 6 months otherwise you then go into the 6-12 month price ticket.

Shouldnt be more than 600 euro tops from where you are

I would say that you first need to decide which class you want to fly in.

That done, look for tickets that have a fairly reasonable rebooking fee. These fees vary wildly from airline to airline, and from class to class, and from destination to destination, and also according to the validity of the ticket.

But no matter what they are you can always find them written down very clearly in the fare rules. Most (all?) of the big online booking agents provide links for you to read the rules before purchase.

Being a frequent flyer (with status) can sometimes also mean that changing your dates may work out cheaper if you call the airline directly, though some airlines are funny about that if you have bought via an online agent.

I once bought a ticket directly from BA for which the return date I wanted was beyond the 12 months that their system allows them to select (that's to say I bought a ticket in May for departure in late June and a return in early June the next year). As the system could not handle this they picked a random date in April the next year for the return and they added a note to the ticket that I could have one free rebooking. And this was honoured a year later when I called them.

Short answer: read the fare rules carefully and buy a ticket that has a low rebooking fee. Be aware that on top of the rebooking fee you may also have to pay a supplement for the ticket if the price has increased between the time you originally booked and the time you rebook.

Edited April 16, 20188 yr by KittenKong

About 5/6 months before you want to fly out, I’d look on the usual sites - Kayak, Skyscanner etc to see which airlines have decent fares for a 6 month stay. If you look any earlier the flights won’t show as airlines only book about 11 months ahead.

I’d then look on the airline website as it’s easier to see the different class of fares there than on an agent site. Most will have 3 or 4 types of Economy fare. Choose a fare that allows for free flight change, or with low fee. I’d book direct with airline as a little easier to rearrange than through agent.

You could look at Premium or Biz fares if you want, but check again that it’s a free date change.

I just had a look for a 6 month stay from October. Dublin-Bangkok return.

Qatar charge 142 Euro to change on the cheapest Economy fare (380 euro each way). The next fare up (about 560 each way) allows free change but is about 180 euros more expensive each way!

Remember though, as was said above that they may also add a surcharge if the date you change to is a more expensive date to fly.

FinnAir cheaper but not a full-service airline really.

Edited April 16, 20188 yr by davidge