Discount airfare to asia

The region's financial bust is a boon for U.S. travelers and shoppers.

Hotel rooms are empty, airplanes are half-full, local currencies are deflated and native economies are in various stages of crisis--in short, it has never looked better for U.S. tourists who have always wanted to visit Japan, Thailand and other pricey destinations in the Far East.

Before the financial crisis that began last fall, 65% of international travelers to the region originated from other Asian countries. Since then, the area has been hard hit by a sharp falloff in travelers from these economically strapped nations. In Hong Kong, for example, the number of arrivals from Japan dropped by 58% in the first four months of 1998 compared with the same time period last year; arrivals from South Korea dropped by 65% and those from Thailand by 55%.

Price-cutting to attract business has reduced airfares and other travel-related prices to their lowest levels in at least a decade, says Owen Imaizumi, president of Japan and Orient Tours. And local currencies have been devalued by as much as 50%, as in the case of Thailand's baht.

In fact, one of the most unusual bargain tours is, literally, a bargain tour--a whirlwind shopping spree in Seoul through Asiana Airlines (800-227-4262) and Korean Air (800-438-5000). For $200, travelers spend two nights at a five-star hotel near the shopping arcades in downtown Seoul; with the South Korean won devalued by about 40% versus the U.S. dollar, a Korean-made portable cassette player that cost between $110 and $115 a year ago now retails for $65 to $70. A leather jacket that would have cost $150 in 1997 now sells for between $85 and $90, according to David Kim, spokesperson for the Korea National Tourism Organization.

Korean Air has cut its round-trip fare between Los Angeles and Seoul from $1,223 to $899. Airfare consolidators (companies that buy blocks of seats on scheduled airlines and resell them to the public at a discount) can do even better. Astro Travel (253-863-5141), in Sumner, Wash., was recently selling consolidator fares from Los Angeles to Seoul, Bangkok or Hong Kong for $499. InterWorld Travel (800-468-3796), a Florida consolidator, was offering round-trip fares to Bangkok on American Airlines and Canadian Airlines for $540 from West Coast cities, $640 from Dallas, and $665 from Boston or New York. As an added bonus, you'd earn American AAdvantage miles and get a free stopover in Vancouver.

A room at a deluxe hotel in Seoul--such as the Ritz-Carlton or the Grand Hyatt, which averaged $250 per night before the financial crisis began last October--now costs less than $150, according to Kim. Luxury hotels in Hong Kong and Bangkok have also slashed prices. A room at the Conrad International in Hong Kong has been reduced from $381 to $207, while the Hilton International in Bangkok is offering a single or double room for $85 a night.

The most economical way to travel in Asia is to buy a tour package, which in many cases costs just a fraction more than a discounted round-trip airline ticket. For example, for $749, Pacific Bestour (800-688-3288) is offering round-trip airfare from the West Coast plus four nights at a hotel in Tokyo, traditionally one of the most expensive destinations for U.S. tourists.

All the packages listed below use major airlines, such as Cathay Pacific, Northwest, Thai Airways International and United, and are based on double occupancy in a first-class, centrally located downtown hotel. You can purchase them through a travel agent or directly from the tour operator. (Pacific Bestour adds a $50 handling fee for customers who buy tours directly, but that could still be less than the travel agent's markup.)

BANGKOK. A seven-day trip with Pacific Bestour costs $959 ($50 more if you're flying from the Midwest, East Coast or South) in July and August, a price that tumbles to $659 after August 22. Ticket & Tours (888-422-1141; in New York State, 212-997-2282) offers a seven-day package from East Coast cities for a summer rate of $1,318, or $1,018 in September. For $300 more you can add a four-night tour of central and northern Thailand. From New York, PacifIc Protour (800-776-8882) is selling a $1,159 seven-day package that drops to $959 after August 22 and includes five nights at the five-star Deluxe Landmark Hotel.

HONG KONG AND CHINA. Protour's five-night package to Hong Kong from the East Coast on Cathay Pacific costs $999 in July and August, or $799 after August 15. Interworld Travel's five-night Hong Kong package, which includes round-trip airfare from the Midwest, East Coast or South on Northwest Airlines, starts at $798 through March 15, 1999.

Japan and Orient Tours (619-282-3131) has reduced the cost of its popular five-night Chinese New Year tour of Hong Kong, scheduled for next February, to $968 from the West Coast (add $60 for travel from New York City). Three years ago, the same tour cost about $1,300, says Imaizumi.

From Pacific Bestour, you can get a five-night package to Beijing, including a tour of the Great Wall, for $769, with round-trip airfare on United from the West Coast. Social unrest in Indonesia is keeping many tourists away, but Bali still beckons; Japan and Orient Tours is offering a five-night package to Bali for $1,278 from the West Coast.

RELATED ARTICLE: AN AIRLINE MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN

QUICK TRAVEL QUIZ: You've booked a westbound flight on what you thought was United Airlines. Suddenly, you find yourself boarding a Delta plane. You: a) grabbed the wrong ticket; b) took the wrong tram in the terminal; c) will be heading eastward if you don't make a quick U-turn.

Answer: Probably none of the above. Chances are you're flying Delta because that airline and United have reached an agreement to buy blocks of seats on each other's planes and sell tickets on the same flights. Continental and Northwest, and American and US Airways, have announced similar relationships, all of which are to be phased in by next year.

Such agreements, known as code sharing, let airlines expand their networks and increase their revenues without actually adding new routes or merging with other carriers. For example, as a result of their agreement, Delta plans to serve 17 additional U.S. cities, and United will add 39 locations.

That's clearly a benefit to travelers because it increases the number of destinations you can reach on your preferred carrier and lets you earn and redeem frequent-flier miles on more flights. A Delta passenger booking a flight from, say, Savannah, Ga., could fly to Green Bay, Wis., on a single ticket, earning Mileage Plus credit (on United) or Delta Skymiles for the entire route--even though segments of the flight might be on the other airline's planes. Delta will not code share with United on international routes.

Along with the expanded routes, however, travelers should also "expect increased confusion and inconvenience when making connections that require a change in airlines," says Tom Parsons, editor of Best Fares Discount Travel Magazine (www.bestfares.com). A connecting flight may depart from a different terminal or, on foreign flights, you may discover that although you booked a flight on a major U.S. airline, your seat is actually on a carrier from South America or Ukraine.

Code sharing can also result in hassles for travelers whose bags get lost en route or whose flight is canceled. (Department of Transportation rules require that the last airline that carried a passenger find a lost bag. Similarly, the carrier that canceled or delayed your flight is responsible for rebooking you.)

When booking a flight, ask if the flight is a code share and which airlines are participating. Code sharing carriers often price their tickets differently, even for the same flight, so call both airlines to find the lower fare. America West and Continental have had an agreement for some time, yet "we've found situations where a flight between Houston and Sacramento is $797 on Continental and $217 on America West, even though it's the same airplane," says Terry Tripler, publisher of Airfare-Report, corn, in Minneapolis (www.rulesoftheair.com).

Northwest has had a long and successful association with KLM, but the new alliances may not be so smooth, says Joseph Berman, senior aviation analyst at Avmark, an aviation research firm. Berman predicts that, as partners, Continental and Northwest will get along well because their equipment is similar and there's little overlap in their routes. But American and US Airways may have a bumpier relationship because of differences in their aircraft and frequency of service.