Booking Oddball Low-Cost Airline Flights

Booking my travel from Chiang Mai to Bali was messy. In the end I figured out a strategy to work around Air Asia’s restrictive Web site so I thought I’d share.

First, the problem. When you select an origin, say CNX, Air Asia’s site automatically populates the acceptable destinations. When I select Chiang Mai’s CNX airport, I get this:

No Bali (DPS). Bummer. You can’t get there from here.

But I know that Air Asia’s hub is Kuala Lampur (KUL). So how about building my own itinerary? It’s totally do able:

And done.

The advantage of this is the sane layover. 5 hours or so is a nice buffer if things go wrong, but not an impromptu meditation retreat inside an airport. Tiger air’s site will book the fare from CNX to DPS, but the travel time is greater than 24 hours.

The obvious disadvantage is that you’re not getting a fare to your ultimate destination. So the carrier has no obligation to do anything for you when the flights are delayed or cancelled. In my case the second leg is $50 so it’s not a crazy risk. And since I’ll be at the hub, I’m confident I can get anywhere I need to. So it’s a downside I can accept.

Now, the risk of traveling on Air Asia itself on the other hand, maybe that’s questionable…