Milk78

I am in Chiang Mai for 10 days and have an Airbnb in Nimman. I like having the extra room and facilities. If I don't want to go out and just have a lazy day in then it is much more comfortable than being in a small hotel room. 
I have 4 nights in BKK at the end of the trip and will be in Siam Heritage in an Executive Room for £165, including taxes. It is not the cheapest I could have got, but the rooms are pretty big, it has a kitchen facility, it is for 4 days, and I have a packed itinerary, and it is close to the bars, so it works well. 

I am in Chiang Mai for 10 days and have an Airbnb in Nimman. I like having the extra room and facilities. If I don't want to go out and just have a lazy day in then it is much more comfortable than being in a small hotel room. 
I have 4 nights in BKK at the end of the trip and will be in Siam Heritage in an Executive Room for £165, including taxes. It is not the cheapest I could have got, but the rooms are pretty big, it has a kitchen facility, it is for 4 days, and I have a packed itinerary, and it is close to the bars, so it works well. 

I am in Chiang Mai for 10 days and have an Airbnb in Nimman. I like having the extra room and facilities. If I don't want to go out and just have a lazy day in then it is much more comfortable than being in a small hotel room. 
I have 4 nights in BKK at the end of the trip and will be in Siam Heritage in an Executive Room for £165, including taxes. It is not the cheapest I could have got, but the rooms are pretty big, it has a kitchen facility, it is for 4 days, and I have a packed itinerary, and it is close to the bars, so it works well. 

Siam Heritage is my go to at the moment in Silom. The rooms are a decent size, and have basic cooking facilites, not that I use them much but it is nice to have the option if you can't be arsed going out. 
I think the reception area changed a few years ago and now you you just walk past the reception to the lifts at the back. The reception is in a kind of separate glassed off bit at the front and you don't have to interact at all. There are restaurants in the enterance so people coming and going all the time. There is even a handy little bench by the key card glass doors by/ for the lift area for a boy to wait on whilst you come down to get him. The bench is out of sight from the reception. There are restaurants in the entrance, so people are coming and going all the time. go-to The rooms are a decent size and have basic cooking facilities, not that I use them much, but it is nice to have the option if you can't be arsed going out.The reception is in a kind of separate, glassed-off bit at the front, and you don't have to interact at all.

 I am there in early October, and it was £35 a night for their middle-grade room option.

Siam Heritage is my go to at the moment in Silom. The rooms are a decent size, and have basic cooking facilites, not that I use them much but it is nice to have the option if you can't be arsed going out. 
I think the reception area changed a few years ago and now you you just walk past the reception to the lifts at the back. The reception is in a kind of separate glassed off bit at the front and you don't have to interact at all. There are restaurants in the enterance so people coming and going all the time. There is even a handy little bench by the key card glass doors by/ for the lift area for a boy to wait on whilst you come down to get him. The bench is out of sight from the reception. There are restaurants in the entrance, so people are coming and going all the time. go-to The rooms are a decent size and have basic cooking facilities, not that I use them much, but it is nice to have the option if you can't be arsed going out.The reception is in a kind of separate, glassed-off bit at the front, and you don't have to interact at all.

 I am there in early October, and it was £35 a night for their middle-grade room option.

Siam Heritage is my go to at the moment in Silom. The rooms are a decent size, and have basic cooking facilites, not that I use them much but it is nice to have the option if you can't be arsed going out. 
I think the reception area changed a few years ago and now you you just walk past the reception to the lifts at the back. The reception is in a kind of separate glassed off bit at the front and you don't have to interact at all. There are restaurants in the enterance so people coming and going all the time. There is even a handy little bench by the key card glass doors by/ for the lift area for a boy to wait on whilst you come down to get him. The bench is out of sight from the reception. There are restaurants in the entrance, so people are coming and going all the time. go-to The rooms are a decent size and have basic cooking facilities, not that I use them much, but it is nice to have the option if you can't be arsed going out.The reception is in a kind of separate, glassed-off bit at the front, and you don't have to interact at all.

 I am there in early October, and it was £35 a night for their middle-grade room option.

I was in Doha airport Tuesday. Quieter than usual but many flights operating semi normally with a few cancellations on the boards. Flights from UK to bkk to avoid the gulf with one change (eg KLM, Turkish) were maybe £1,000 more than middle east airlines for short notice flights.  

I saw Emirates flight  from Dubai landing this morning in my local airport so there are at least some flights

You could look at the Helsinki Bangkok flight with Finnair 

I had several trips between now and the end of June, Bangkok to UK and EU return transiting via Doha. All cancelled by airline in the last few days. 

Finnair has a very nice business class with direct flights to BKK from Helsinki with Avios with much lower fees than BA. Just always set your location to Finland before looking for availability on Finnair. 

Indeed. I live in the UK, so the obvious choice is British Airways.  Thus I have a British Airways premium Amex card, on which you get 1.5 Avios per pound, or 3 per pound if you book A BA flight. There are various  other schemes to add up Avios, at the moment Amex are offering 80,000 points  if you get a new card, convertible to Avios, though the card is expensive.  You can also get Avios from some hotel chains and car hire companies. If you spend £15,000 on the premium card, you get a free companion voucher. If you don't have a companion, you can use voucher to reduce the Avios need by 50%. I used this for Sydney, 300,000, down to 150,000, and also Bangkok. That was business class, economy/premium  economy requires far fewer Avios. Downside is that some destinations are very difficult  to get Avios seats. Upside, Avios can be used with other One World Alliance airlines, American, Malaysian, Finnair, etc. I travel everywhere in Europe using Avios.

I don't normally fly with any one airline in particular but that is part of the reason for starting this thread. Having shopped around for deals on cheapest fares, by the time I add in the (often) extra costs associated with travel to the airport and possible overnight accommodation, the savings can be minimal. 
I am now looking for my best option - probably Etihad or Emirates, maybe EVA. 

Of those 3, EVA might be the best because you can use other Star Alliance airlines points to book with but either almost a year out or less than 2 weeks. Etihad and Emirates are hard to get points on and Emirates charges $800 plus fees on long haul points flights, making them more expensive than other options for award travel 

not that hidden if landed on UNESCO  world Heritage list and was awarded 7.5 stars by Michelin

with that I can agree although it needs to be said -I always made the transfer on time despite that mess

Shanghai has two airports. The one in Pudong is large and relatively new having been opened only around 25 years ago. The much older Hongqiao airport bascially handles domestic flights with just a few international routes. I have flown into and out of Pudong aiport many times and agree it is boring but I have never had to transfer there. One benefit is that it is served by the Maglev train into part of the city. The ride takes only 8 minutes and I have photos of it travelling at 425 kph. Unfortunately the plans to extend the line into the centre of the city remain in limbo but there is an easy transfer to the subway.
China Airlines through Beijing's wonderful 6-year old massive Daxing Airport might be  better bet. Or China Southern Airlines through Guangzhou. Hainan used to get great reviews for its flights from America, but it went through bankruptcy proceedings in 2021 and I have no idea what its service and connections are like now.

This collage showed up from Google photos right as I landed in Mexico.... they just want to rub it in 🥺

"The restaurant of choice for degenerates the distinguished gentleman" - Michelin Guide 2025

AeroLopa usually gives charts for each version of the relevant aircraft. To give you an idea of the way Seatguru can be out of date, they are still showing the seating plan for two versions of the British Aiirways 747, which were scrapped  years ago. So far I have found AeroLopa to be more accurate. 

SInce these are quite complicated charts to go through, seatguru can also give you exact seating layouts for each aircraft in each airline just by clicking on the airline here -
https://www.seatguru.com/browseairlines/browseairlines.php
Click alphabetically to get the airline you are interested in and you get a ist of their different aircraft types and seat layouts (this below is for Finnair and you get the precise layout - subject to @Keithambrose earlier comment about their occasionally not being fully up to date.)

Then click on the aircraft type and you get the seat layout - this image is too long and so I only include the front half of the plane -

The problem comes with major airines which may have 15 or more different aircraft types - including 4 or 5 different types of, say, a 777. Then you just have to check with the airline. But the airlines always have an out. They can change aircraft types for any reason and you as the passenger have virtually no control over reseating, especially if you are at the back of the plane. 

Seat guru is sometimes out of date.  I find that 'Aerolopa.com' is more reliable. 

I find you virtually have to have one stop if you are to find the cheapest ticket in whichever class to Europe. I quite liked Finnair and the price is usually competitive, but only in summer does it get me to my UK  destination with one stop. I agree about Emirates. I was only ever on their once daily A380 between Bangkok and Hong Kong when the biz class fare was only fractionally more than economy on TG or CX. I must have taken that flight at least a couple of dozen times and really loved it. Once they had brought back the service after covid, the biz class price went up 50%, but there was an offer recently at the old price. Now it is mid-way between the two. Still great value if you add in the airline's excellent lounge access, amazing flat bed seats, the best IFE in the sky and ease of check-in and priority arrival. Plus the booze in the stand-up bar at the back is all premium quality.
The one problem with Emirates is biz class in their 777 fleet - 2-3-2 seating and a massive difference with the A380s. Given that Emirates Chairman has been aggressively outspoken with Boeing for the massive delays in getting the 777X into the sky, it seems Emirates now has no choice but to upgrade their old 777s. Like all airlines seem to be doing, as the 777X was viewed as the natural replacement for the A380.
That used to be the explanation for the PAL acronym - PLANE ALWAYS LATE. After PAL went through some restructuring, the PR people tried to get the public to buy into PROMPT AT LAST. It never worked!
Airline acronyms can often be quite fun. When SABENA was flying out of Belgium, its was SUCH A BLOODY EXPERIENCE, NEVER AGAIN. 
One of the best, though, was LUFTHANSA. LET US FUCK THE HOSTESSES AND NOT SAY ANYTHING!🤣

stewards are overdressed ?

Yes high chance of securing off if they pass by alone at 1am. But by that time, I already have my guy for the night!