Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia Discount Flights & Visa

Asia Cheapest Flights, Bangkok Turmoil

2008-11-30T10:33:00.000-08:00

Asia Cheapest Flights, Bangkok Turmoil

Bangkok flight cancelations are still happening, when talking to some airlines they have not cancelled for tomorrow there flights to Bangkok yet! Meanwhile thousands are still stuck in hotels across Asia trying to get into or out of Bangkok. I called an airline that has a many flights to Bangkok to see what happens if you have a flight going into Bangkok that gets canceled.

You can get a refund or a credit to book another flight on another day. I specifically asked if they will charge a fee to change the flight, and they said they would not.

The people that are at the airports in Bangkok Thailand all ready, the airline that I talked too is covering the hotel rooms, but now they are not going to cover the hotels anymore. One of the reasons why that is there are no rooms. I asked if someone went over land or flew out of the country from one of the other international airports in Thailand like Phuket, Koh Sumui or Chaing Mai that if the city that they got to offer flights on their airline could they get a flight onward at no cost? They said that they would do their best to get you to the connecting city that you needed to get to get you home at no additional charge, so for instance if your connecting flight was out of Tokyo to the USA and you flew from Koh Sumui to Singapore they would fly you from Singapore to Tokyo so that you could make your connection from there. So basically they are saying get to another airport that they service and they will get you home at no extra cost.

Again I am not going to guarantee this but the person that I spoke too said that this was true for all of the airlines that were in their frequent flyer program which is one of the big two.

If it was me I would call the airline that I had tickets with and work with the reservationist and ask can I get a flight out of Singapore or KL in 3 days or more, make a reservation, then get over to the train station right away and book a 2nd class or first class sleeper. I would look to get a sleeper train to Butterworth in Malaysia and then either take a overnight train to KL or Singapore, or get on VIP bus in Butterworth and take that to KL or Singapore. Singapore or KL will get you to where you can make connections to everywhere on most of the major airlines. This option will run you around $40 for the 2nd class train and around $30 for the bus to KL or Singapore be sure to get a bus with less than 40 seats for max comfort they have the VIP with 3 seats to a row this is what you are aiming for.

The other option would be to get to Phnom Penh overland this is a roughly a 14 hour trip then you can catch a cheap flight to Singapore, KL or you can continue overland to Saigon which has more carriers. Overland to Cambodia will cost around $30 USD

With Malaysia Cambodia and Singapore for citizens of most western countries get a visa on demand for at least 30 days on arrival. In Cambodia it will cost you $25, in Malaysia and Singapore it is free. Vietnam you need to have a visa before you get there, you can get them in either Sihanoukville, which is the fastest or Phnom Penh. I forget the cost for the Vietnam Visa but it is probably around $30

Another option is that you can get a flight into a surrounding airport and catch a flight to the connection city on your scheduled reservation that they would allow you to board in that connection city on a space available basis. So if you got to Hong Kong Taipei Tokyo Inchon they will let you catch the reservation that you all ready have minus the Bangkok leg normally they will not allow you to do this but again the airlines are trying their best to accommodate the travelers.

I am not saying what airlines as I do not want to be responsible if the rules change which it seems that as the length of this situation increases that there will be changes but for right now the airlines are doing the best to not inconvenience any more than they are. The flyers stuck in Bangkok or the connector cities into Bangkok for the folks that got caught when the airports closed.

If you have a specific question send it to me via my email chuck@cheapcharlieshotels.com and I will answer as quickly as I can.

The best of luck to you!
Chuck

Cambodia Cheap Travel to Phnom Penh Airport

Bangkok airport closed - Phnom Penh Hotels Cheap

2008-11-28T09:15:00.000-08:00

Gordon flight from Inchon to Bangkok was rerouted to Phnom Penh Airport and he needs a Cheap Hotel in Phnom Penh

Hi
I am arriving tonight at airport from Soeul at approx 1045 pm I have been re routed because of airport closure in Bangkok. I would like to book a hostel bed or cheap single room for tonight and possible longer.If you are full can you give me some other names which may be available Also what is a less expensive way of getting to you approx how much should I pay Can I change money at your place and get a Cambodian visa?
Thanks please get back to me asap if you can
Gordon

Hi Gordon lots of questions first Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia Flights is a site that reviewss hotels and flights we do not own any hotels and certainly aren't owners of Airlines as well.

1) the taxi into Phnom Penh should be less than $8 they like to take the piss as the Brits would say and charge more than they are suppose to.

If you are very light on luggage take a moto or a tuk tuk walk towards the exit and keep saying cheaper I paid $2 for a moto into the city 10 days a go and $5 back to the airort with a tuk tuk.

I met a now good friend in the phnom penh airport after a cheap flight from Bangkok 3 years ago he could see that I knew what I was doing and he said can we share a cab I said sure so we halved our taxi ride ask people on the plane with you.

2) we are coming into the season in Phnom Penh & Siem Reap but there is still allot of availability for hotels & budget accommodations in Phnom Penh. the Taxi drivers will take you to the hotel that gives them the best kick back so knowing what hotel that you want to stay at will keep you from getting a overpriced hotel.

for the cheapest Phnom Penh the Singapore hotel old and run down $12 a night air con hot water. right on Monivong right in the center of town. I just spent 10 days there I like the fact that you can walk to the main markets, very close to the bus stations and right above the KFC ?

Bright lotus 2 on the river front $16 a night great view from some of the rooms comfortable hot water air con tv nice people who run the place. close to the FCC a must see restaurant.

Flamingoes in the city price has been moving somewhere around $25 very comfortable free internet in lobby hot water air con

Bilabong hotel very nice pool in garden setting this one you should call as they fill up all the time around $35 maybe a little more now, very nice rooms.

Phnom Penh Hotel Sunaway upscale

Intercontinental Raffles I would pick the Raffles myself but many think the Intercon is better I just love the feel of any of the Raffles hotels if you want a real treat check it out on the internet first for better rates.

Cambodia Visa

Visa is on demand and cost $25 USD if you want to stay longer than 30 days ask for a business visa if you stay more than 6 months you can come and go for no charge as many times as you want.

everybody accepts dollars! do not change any money at the airport if you don't have too! the best Forex rate for Cambodia foreign exchange is at the markets. The banks hit you with a commission that is not real high but why pay it if you don't .

The bus from Phnom Penh to Thailand is not that bad oif a trip now if you go through Trat to Bangkok a very interesting ride. Cheap $35 total to Bangkok.

Phnom Penh cheap travel

Phnom Penh Hotels Wifi Tub budget hotels accomodations in Cambodia

2008-11-28T08:52:00.000-08:00

Candi from Canada Asks a question on Phnom Penh Hotels as she will be coming to stay for a while in Cambodia She would like Wifi and Bath tub in her Phnom Penh Hotel room

Hello from WINTERpeg, Canada
> First of all, what a great site you have, a huge help to
> all travellers.
> I am wondering if you can help me. I am coming to Phenom Penh for the month
> of Jan/09 to volunteer at an orphanage.
> I am looking for accomodations with hotwater with 'bathtub"
> (my back) wi-fi, and a comfortable bed.
> This is my 1st time to Asia and I can honestly say that for
> a seasoned traveller, I have never had this much trouble finding 'nice'
> accom. Friends have been telling me that 25-30/ngt is waaay too exp. for
> P.P.
> Do you know of a place with what I am looking for for $15/ngt? I spotted
> " L'Imprevu " but it is so far away from
> everything. I thought on the river would be good if possible.
> Whatever you can do to lend help my way, would be so greatly appreciated.
> Looking forward to hearing from you,
> Warm Regards,
>
> Candie CC

The requirements are going to put you into the nicer Phnom Penh hotels with a higher rate.

$20 rooms will get you a tub in some Cambodia Hotels The WIFI is the hard part as most, make that none of the Phnom Penh hotels budget accommodations offer free wifi that I am aware of. You can find hotspot wifi at some hotels like the Phnom Penh Hotel.

An option for you to consider would be in a serviced apartment some start around 600 a month and you can ad the wifi. The advantage is that you will get allot more amenities. Palm Gardens up near Phnom Penh Hotel near US Embassy and Wat Phnom would be a good place to start.

Another option to consider would be to negotiate with the budget hotels for a monthly rate this will be an off season this year so there will be room for negotiation. You might have a bit of a hard time though because you will be in the strongest demand period but I still feel that you should be able to get a deal.

What area is the orphanage? There are several areas of Phnom Penh you will ofcourse want to be as close as possible to your work or you will want to be close to where you are going to play for both of these I can strongly recommend the Cambodia Pocket Guide Phnom Penh Travel Guides & Siem Reap Travel Guides.

All of the big hotels Raffles Phnom Penh Sunaway all have serviced apartments again talk to them and you will get a better rate and talk to a ast manager or higher as the desk people will not do anything for you as it means more work for them and they get paid to stand there not to help you beyond what they have been trained to do of course that is a generalization but you will find it all too true.

Let me know how you do. I posted this on the Cheap Charlies Blog for all to see as your questions were very good. If you are reading the blog please feel free to ask your questions and we will get to them usually in less than 24 hours.

Have a great day!
Chuck

More Phnom Penh hotel pictures

Phnom Penh accommodations Cambodia

Phnom Penh Hotels Wifi & Bath Tub

2008-11-26T09:49:00.000-08:00

Hi Candi, Thanks for your questions on Phnom Penh Hotels. We hope that you have a great time in Cambodia and thanks for volentering to help the orphanage.

Hello from WINTERpeg, Canada
> First of all, what a great site you have, a huge help to
> all travellers.
> I am wondering if you can help me. I am coming to Phenom Penh for the month
> of Jan/09 to volunteer at an orphanage.
> I am looking for accomodations with hotwater with 'bathtub"
> (my back) wi-fi, and a comfortable bed.
> This is my 1st time to Asia and I can honestly say that for
> a seasoned traveller, I have never had this much trouble finding 'nice'
> accom. Friends have been telling me that 25-30/ngt is waaay too exp. for
> P.P.
> Do you know of a place with what I am looking for for $15/ngt? I spotted
> " L'Imprevu " but it is so far away from
> everything. I thought on the river would be good if possible.
> Whatever you can do to lend help my way, would be so greatly appreciated.
> Looking forward to hearing from you,
> Warm Regards,
>
> Candie CC

The requirements are going to put you into the nicer hotels with a higher rate.

$20 rooms will get you a tub in some hotels. The WIFI is the hard part as most, make that none of the hotels offer free wifi that I am aware of. You can find hotspot wifi at some hotels like the Phnom Penh Hotel.

An option for you to consider would be in a serviced apartment some start around 600 a month and you can ad the wifi. The advantage is that you will get allot more amenities. Palm Gardens up near Phnom Penh Hotel near US Embassy and Wat Phnom would be a good place to start.

Another option to consider would be to negotiate with the budget hotels for a monthly rate this will be an off season this year so there will be room for negotiation. You might have a bit of a hard time though because you will be in the strongest demand period but I still feel that you should be able to get a deal.

What area is the orphanage? There are several areas of Phnom Penh you will ofcourse want to be as close as possible to your work or you will want to be close to where you are going to play for both of these I can strongly recommend the Cambodia Pocket Guide Phnom Penh Travel Guides & Siem Reap Travel Guides.

All of the big hotels Raffles Phnom Penh Sunaway all have serviced apartments again talk to them and you will get a better rate and talk to a ast manager or higher as the desk people will not do anything for you as it means more work for them and they get paid to stand there not to help you beyond what they have been trained to do of course that is a generalization but you will find it all too true.

Let me know how you do.

Have a great day!
Chuck

http://www.cheapcharlieshotels.com/htm/Cheap%20Charlies%20Hotels%20Phnom%20Penh%20Cambodia.htm

Phnom Penh Hotels Question WIFI & Tub?

2008-11-26T09:28:00.000-08:00

Hi Candi, Thank you for your question on Phnom Penh Hotels. I hope that you have fun while doing your service work in Cambodia.

Hello from WINTERpeg, Canada
> First of all, what a great site you have, a huge help to
> all travellers.
> I am wondering if you can help me. I am coming to Phenom Penh for the month
> of Jan/09 to volunteer at an orphanage.
> I am looking for accomodations with hotwater with 'bathtub"
> (my back) wi-fi, and a comfortable bed.
> This is my 1st time to Asia and I can honestly say that for
> a seasoned traveller, I have never had this much trouble finding 'nice'
> accom. Friends have been telling me that 25-30/ngt is waaay too exp. for
> P.P.
> Do you know of a place with what I am looking for for $15/ngt? I spotted
> " L'Imprevu " but it is so far away from
> everything. I thought on the river would be good if possible.
> Whatever you can do to lend help my way, would be so greatly appreciated.
> Looking forward to hearing from you,
> Warm Regards,
>
> Candie CC

The requirements are going to put you into the nicer hotels with a higher rate.

$20 rooms will get you a tub in some hotels. The WIFI is the hard part as most, make that none of the hotels offer free wifi that I am aware of. You can find hotspot wifi at some hotels like the Phnom Penh Hotel.

An option for you to consider would be in a serviced apartment some start around 600 a month and you can ad the wifi. The advantage is that you will get allot more amenities. Palm Gardens up near Phnom Penh Hotel near US Embassy and Wat Phnom would be a good place to start.

Another option to consider would be to negotiate with the budget hotels for a monthly rate this will be an off season this year so there will be room for negotiation. You might have a bit of a hard time though because you will be in the strongest demand period but I still feel that you should be able to get a deal.

What area is the orphanage? There are several areas of Phnom Penh you will ofcourse want to be as close as possible to your work or you will want to be close to where you are going to play for both of these I can strongly recommend the Cambodia Pocket Guide Phnom Penh Travel Guides & Siem Reap Travel Guides.

All of the big hotels Raffles Phnom Penh Sunaway all have serviced apartments again talk to them and you will get a better rate and talk to a ast manager or higher as the desk people will not do anything for you as it means more work for them and they get paid to stand there not to help you beyond what they have been trained to do of course that is a generalization but you will find it all too true.

Let me know how you do.

Have a great day!
Chuck

http://www.cheapcharlieshotels.com/htm/Cheap%20Charlies%20Hotels%20Phnom%20Penh%20Cambodia.htm

Phnom Penh Hotels Question WIFI & Tub?

2008-11-26T08:45:00.000-08:00

Hi Candi! Thanks for the Phnom Penh Hotels question!

candie
> Hello from WINTERpeg, Canada
> First of all, what a great site you have, a huge help to
> all travellers.
> I am wondering if you can help me. I am coming to Phenom Penh for the month
> of Jan/09 to volunteer at an orphanage.
> I am looking for accomodations with hotwater with 'bathtub"
> (my back) wi-fi, and a comfortable bed.
> This is my 1st time to Asia and I can honestly say that for
> a seasoned traveller, I have never had this much trouble finding 'nice'
> accom. Friends have been telling me that 25-30/ngt is waaay too exp. for
> P.P.
> Do you know of a place with what I am looking for for $15/ngt? I spotted
> " L'Imprevu " but it is so far away from
> everything. I thought on the river would be good if possible.
> Whatever you can do to lend help my way, would be so greatly appreciated.
> Looking forward to hearing from you,
> Warm Regards,
>
> Candie CC

The requirements are going to put you into the nicer hotels with a higher rate.

$20 rooms will get you a tub in some Phnom Penh hotels. The WIFI is the hard part as most, make that none of the hotels offer free wifi that I am aware of. You can find hotspot wifi at some hotels like the Phnom Penh Hotel.

An option for you to consider would be in a serviced apartment some start around 600 a month and you can ad the wifi. The advantage is that you will get allot more amenities. Palm Gardens up near Phnom Penh Hotel near US Embassy and Wat Phnom would be a good place to start.

Another option to consider would be to negotiate with the budget hotels for a monthly rate this will be an off season this year so there will be room for negotiation. You might have a bit of a hard time though because you will be in the strongest demand period but I still feel that you should be able to get a deal.

What area is the orphanage? There are several areas of Phnom Penh you will ofcourse want to be as close as possible to your work or you will want to be close to where you are going to play for both of these I can strongly recommend the Cambodia Pocket Guide Phnom Penh Travel Guides & Siem Reap Travel Guides.

All of the big hotels Raffles Phnom Penh Sunaway all have serviced apartments again talk to them and you will get a better rate and talk to a ast manager or higher as the desk people will not do anything for you as it means more work for them and they get paid to stand there not to help you beyond what they have been trained to do of course that is a generalization but you will find it all too true.

Let me know how you do. I am putting this on the Cheap Charlies blog thanks for the question!

Have a great day!
Chuck

Phnom Penh Hotels Question WIFI & Tub?

2008-11-26T08:30:00.000-08:00

Hi Candi! Thanks for the question on Phnom Penh Hotels!

candie
> Hello from WINTERpeg, Canada
> First of all, what a great site you have, a huge help to
> all travellers.
> I am wondering if you can help me. I am coming to Phenom Penh for the month
> of Jan/09 to volunteer at an orphanage.
> I am looking for accomodations with hotwater with 'bathtub"
> (my back) wi-fi, and a comfortable bed.
> This is my 1st time to Asia and I can honestly say that for
> a seasoned traveller, I have never had this much trouble finding 'nice'
> accom. Friends have been telling me that 25-30/ngt is waaay too exp. for
> P.P.
> Do you know of a place with what I am looking for for $15/ngt? I spotted
> " L'Imprevu " but it is so far away from
> everything. I thought on the river would be good if possible.
> Whatever you can do to lend help my way, would be so greatly appreciated.
> Looking forward to hearing from you,
> Warm Regards,
>
> Candie CC

The requirements are going to put you into the nicer hotels with a higher rate.

$20 rooms will get you a tub in some Phnom Penh hotels. The WIFI is the hard part as most, make that none of the hotels offer free wifi that I am aware of. You can find hotspot wifi at some hotels like the Phnom Penh Hotel.

An option for you to consider would be in a serviced apartment some start around 600 a month and you can ad the wifi. The advantage is that you will get allot more amenities. Palm Gardens up near Phnom Penh Hotel near US Embassy and Wat Phnom would be a good place to start.

Another option to consider would be to negotiate with the budget hotels for a monthly rate this will be an off season this year so there will be room for negotiation. You might have a bit of a hard time though because you will be in the strongest demand period but I still feel that you should be able to get a deal.

What area is the orphanage? There are several areas of Phnom Penh you will ofcourse want to be as close as possible to your work or you will want to be close to where you are going to play for both of these I can strongly recommend the Cambodia Pocket Guide Phnom Penh Travel Guides & Siem Reap Travel Guides.

All of the big hotels Raffles Phnom Penh Sunaway all have serviced apartments again talk to them and you will get a better rate and talk to a ast manager or higher as the desk people will not do anything for you as it means more work for them and they get paid to stand there not to help you beyond what they have been trained to do of course that is a generalization but you will find it all too true.

Let me know how you do. I am putting this on the Cheap Charlies blog thanks for the question!

Have a great day!
Chuck

Asia Cheapest flights on Asiana Air Bangkok to LA

2008-11-24T05:42:00.000-08:00

Asia Cheapest flights on Asiana Air must have decided before I booked this cheap flight that they were going to do my head in as I have been frustrated in every aspect of this trip from Bangkok to Inchon outside Seoul to LA USA.

My anguish started when I tried to book the flight on the Asiana air web site from Bali where I had been staying for 5 months. The Asiana air website will not let you book multi-stop flights from their US pages, which is the default for English speakers and only option to book online with them in English. So this meant that I needed to book the ticket online somewhere else. I got the cheapest rate that I could find from Sidestep which puts you back to the airline website yea!. Once I had the rate I went to Orbitz and booked the flights.

I could have booked a cheaper flight Bangkok to LA on China Air but the last time that I flew with Asiana they put me up in a hotel, because the layover was more than 8 hours. I did not do anything the last time they just had a room for me, so I assumed as it turns out wrongly that if the flight was longer than 8 hours that they automatically give you a room. I was really looking forward to this as the room was outside of the airport in Inchon so you get to see a little bit of Korea.

So no hotel room from Asiana so I ended up getting a airport transit hotel cheap at $38 dollars for 6 hours considering that it was inside the airport. The room had a queen size bed small refrigerator with nothing in it but water that you had to pay for and the water from the tap you are not suppose to drink. They also had a hot water kettle and a TV that had mostly Korean stuff with CNN. The bathroom was nothing special but had the basics that you need for a quick shower.

They give you a refreshment coupon that has enough money on it to buy a cup of coffee that is it so no little snack meal and it seemed to me that they gave you the coupon just to get you in the restaurant so that they could get more money from you for quite average food from what I could see I had a club sandwich with French fries. The bacon was a great concept for people that have 9 hours to kill as it could also be used as a chew toy for you dog.

Seoul Korea Airport Cheap Hotel

Bangkok Airport at night

Bangkok Korea LA Cheap flight Bangkok Taxi trip

2008-11-19T07:52:00.000-08:00

Interesting trip to the airport to catch a cheap flight to LA via Seoul Korea The Bangkok taxi that I got was not happy that I did not want to pay the charter rate to the airport of 600 baht but use the meter, which is what all Asia travelers who know insist on when they are in Bangkok.

I did not think it necessary to tell the driver that I have been to Bangkok over 40 times before and have a pretty good sense of where I am going. When he got to Rama 9 and turned north rather than south I asked him if he was taking me to the right airport. he said that he was taking me to the freeway, which when he got on took me right past my Bangkok cheap hotel that I have been staying at for years now, and it only took us 45 minutes to get back there.

What should have been a 45 minute ride was over 1 hour and I let him know that it was wrong. When we finally got to the airport I told him my money was in my luggage and then alerted the police that were there that I had a problem with the driver. I then went to pay the taxi off and gave him 300 baht. The meter said 319 and he paid 85 baht in tolls that I was not going to pay he knew that I knew where I was going and that he had taken me for a tourist ride; He did not say a word when I gave him the money.

The thing that I am sure that spooked him into submission was that I took out my camera and shot his taxi license that is on the dash in every Bangkok Thailand taxi. This is something that I have talked about before many times when traveling in Asia the cheapest ways possible you are going to run into people that are going to “try it on” and see if they can screw you the best defense that I have found is that if you think that you have run into one of these characters take out your camera and take there picture, this will make them think twice about really trying to screw you.

Cheap Charlies Cheapest Travel Now

2008-11-12T07:46:00.000-08:00

Cheap Charlies has been very interested in the dynamics of the price of oil as Asia cheap travelers we are directly impacted, so at nearly $150 a barrel in July we were very concerned, now in November with the price per barrel heading towards $50 we are still concerned, but less so, especially if we have jobs to look forward to when we return from afar. Many employers now if you ask them for voluntary time off to go budget traveling in Asia or anywhere will grant it to you as a way to keep there experienced workers from being let go as they don’t have any expense to trim the payroll and they get to keep their trained staff for when they will need to increase staffing again after the downturn and you can look forward to having a job it is beneficial for everyone including your coworkers who might have been let go in front of you!

For the budget travelers that are looking to go traveling in the near future the good news is that if you have money to travel now is a great time to do it, as the tourism sector is the first that is impacted in a slowdown, and this one looks to be a dozy. If you are American you are doing better now as the dollar increases in value for the time being. For the British, Australians & Canadians the rise of the dollar seems to have been at their expense as those currancies are getting pummeled right now, but even with the value decreasing they still will enjoy some great deals.

With the exception of flights everything is going to get cheaper if you negotiate and there will be lots of availability, so having reservations will not be so critical. A guesthouse that is empty is going to think twice before letting you walk down the street to the next equally empty accommodation.

We also anticipate that cheap flights to Asia and Europe will start to appear as the airlines can only cut back so far or risk losing there important routes. Competition will increase to keep customers loyal, so expect to see more upgrades to frequent flyer programs and special deals in the short term.

So pack you bags and help everyone and go traveling now!

Aisa Cheapest Airline Air Asia Customer Service?

2008-10-29T00:34:00.000-07:00

Air Asia Asia Cheapest Airline a letter from the president or CEO whatever? Anyway he admits that do to very fast growth and additional flights to Australia from Asia that the call center is getting a lot of calls. This call center has always been a problem and has been a pain for me since they finally got the website for Air Asia working well enough that you can more times than not actually make a reservation from beginning to end without getting stopped at the last step once you have entered your credit card. The call center would tell you to check back later to see if the reservation went through and if you processed it twice the system would kick it out the 2nd time as it looked like fraud then you would call the call canter and after wasting all that time to get the darn thing reservation in and confirmed they would try to charge you more to book through the call center MADNESS!

So that they are going to make changes is great news as I would love for Air Asia to tbe the Asia Cheapest airline that I love period and be abler to take the love to hate off the end as moving around Asia is easy and cheaper everyday it seems thanks to Air Asia, Tiger Air and others like China Southern and Cebu Pacific. A little more to pay is better than frustration every time you try to book.

Hey Tony how about a way to lower the overweight charges? thanks Chuck

Dear AirAsia Guests,

I notice that lately we have received numerous complaints on our Call Centre response time. This is due to the huge success of AirAsia X, especially with the Perth and Melbourne route announcements. These new, exciting long-haul routes have resulted in longer talk-time between callers and our agents and subsequently caused our lines to be congested.

We did not anticipate this sudden surge in calls volume. However our Call Centre team headed by
Sri Velayuthan has now identified and worked with our IT department to upgrade the Call Centre facility.

By Nov 6, our Call Centre will have enough agents and sufficient IT infrastructure to deal with the influx.
By this, we aim to improve our Call Centre performance to 90% i.e. a drop call rate of 10% only.
By January, we'll be moving to a high-tech Call Centre to cater to more calls.

We sincerely apologise for the frustrations caused by our Call Centre congestion but this is only due to our overwhelming business expansion. We have always been mindful in increasing cost as it will certainly lead to increasing fares. As the People's Airline, this is the last thing we want to happen.

We acknowledge that technology will cost us more but at the same time we are committed to giving you excellent service.

On another note, I have been working very hard with the team at AirAsia to look at reducing our fuel surcharge and you should look forward to the good news in the next couple of months.

In the meantime, if you have any problems or enquiries, do not hesitate to email Sri Velayuthan (srivelayuthan@airasia.com) or Hani Mohamad (haninurlena@airasia.com). Having a combined experience of
15 years in customer service between them, they will be happy to assist you.

Best regards,
Tony Fernandes

Cheapst Flights

2008-10-03T00:25:00.000-07:00

Cheapest flights have been a sideline of Cheap Charlies but we are now going to make it a significant portion of what we do and the reason for this is simple the biggest expense when you travel is the flights and transportation. We should have recognized from the beginning that this is the one place that if you can find a cheap deal that it can affect many days of your holiday.

Cheap Charlies was formed for people that want to travel on a budget that are frustrated by looking on the internet and finding the same hotels at basically the same rates on very large travel sites. What I have found is that the exact same thing is true for the cheapest flights. On cheap hotels finding the little hotel that is not listed by the big sites is where the cheaper accommodations are. The same is true for cheap flights they all list the same flights from the same data base’s of the large international air carriers and the differences in the prices is the profit margins that the travel sites collect.

This Cheap Charley has found that the cheaper flights are many times not listed where you can find them. Regional airlines like Air Asia who I love to hate and hate to love is a good example getting off an international carrier in a Asia hub city and then transferring for the last leg can often times save you big money. Here in Asia using cheap airlines you can get to Australia from China in a couple of cheap jumps using the cheaper airlines and save big money using Bangkok Singapore KL and Beijing & Shanghai you can many times if you are on vacation craft some interesting itineraries that you can’t get with the big travel sites.

Watch this travel blog as we detail out the really cheap flights to go with the cheap hotels accommodations budget travelers love to find here on Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia Cheapest Flights.

Bali Cheap Guesthouses Villas Ubud

2008-09-26T01:04:00.001-07:00

We went on a road trip up to tulemban to do some cheap scuba diving and on the way back we went the long way around so that we could go and check out Ubud which is in the central south of Bali right up near the mountains so you get some cooling effect, also with the colling effect you get some rain, but that was nice as I haven't seen any rain since I left Cambodia in May. We stayed at a really cheap Bali Guesthouse villas called Gusti's which is just a block off the main road in Ubud central area. We negetiated and got a rate of 50,000 rupia which is just a little bit over $5 usd a night for fan and hot water. my villa room had a bath tub which is a very nice accomodation feature if you haven't had a bath in a while. I was a little sore after diving in Tulemban so it was very much apreciated.

Thailand Cheap Hotels

2008-09-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

Thailand Cheap Hotels is really relative these days with the price of the Baht Thailand Cheapest hotels are no longer the great deals that they were in years gone by. The cheapest Thai hotels and guesthouses in Bangkok and Phuket are getting pretty long in the tooth and the new stuff they are not putting any real value in. Kind of the lonely planet syndrome for the whole contry. I am guessing that with the recent troubles people are going to start looking else where.

One of the obvius winners will be Cambodia with the Dollar still way down Cambodia is more attractive as it is based on the US Dollar. The hotels cheap guesthouses are in many cases very new espically in Cambodia Sihanoukville resorts which are building full speed ahead.

Bangkok Cheap Flights Bangkok Dangerous

2008-09-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was looking for really Cheap Bangkok flights to LA and as I was looking I saw that there was rioting in Bangkok. Some people find Bangkok Dangerous I don't never have as I have been there a bunch of times and i know that if it was that I would be contacted by the many people I know that live there and they would send out a warning.

I also was surprised to see that there is a new Nick cage movie called Bangkok Dangerous which whenever I hear Nick cage I allways think of the time in waikiki that I went to dinner with a few other guys with Christan Slater when he was filming Wind Talkers with Nick Cage and Christan said I gotta go i need to meet up with Nick and we are all scratching our heads going who is this nick guy that he is talking about.

Anyway i ran into someone not famous last night that just flew in from San francisco and they paid around $1100 on china Air which is the best price for a cheap flight that I can find so far ! More later!

Cheapest flights best Deals Bangkok to LA

2008-09-04T23:40:00.001-07:00

I am looking for a cheap flight Bangkok to LA for the past two weeks and I was just reading one of the many things that I read to stay up to date on how to find the really cheapest flights into Asia from Bangkok and I ran into this intereesting piece of advise that I thought that I should share with you.

the best time to shop for flights is between Monday at 3:00pm EDT - and Wednesday

Airlines report airfare sales Monday morning Over the next 3 days Monday at 8:00pm and Tuesday at 10:00am and 12:30pm, they report their airfare deals and then the other airlines typically start matching the sale prices

anther thing that it stated is that airlines post airfare hikes on thursdays which means that looking on the weekends is probbly going to cost you more.

I still see Side Step as being the best place to look for long haul international flights for the really cheapest flights to Asia.

Really Cheap SEO Cheap Charley $49 deal

2008-09-03T23:47:00.000-07:00

Cheap Charlies Hotels Asia is a offshoot from another business that I founded in Sihanoukville Cambodia. When I was writing the business plan for the original company I knew that I was not going to have any real budget for advertising certainly not for a large international advertising campaign, so I tryed to figure out what was the best guerrilla marketing strategies that I could use to bring customers to me.

What I figured out was that anyone that was coming to Cambodia would need a hotel and if they were in Cambodia then they were certainly a potential customer for snorkling or scuba diving which is what the business was.

when looking for cheap hotels you will get listed allot of hotels that are either large international hotel chains or hotel booking engines that list mostly higher end hotels so the small cheap hotels get lost on page 7 or below so Cheap Charlies was born to help the little guys get some exposure guys like Jim Arther at Thai House Inn a Bangkok cheap guesthouses or Max's Guesthouse in Phuket and my good friend Bob at the Tiki hut and Mark at Thidea Guesthouse in Sihanoukville. All of these guys run good business and if you are indead looking for a cheap guesthouses accomodations then this is what you are really looking for not a Raffles for a discount price or a days inn for $100 a night.

So a new business is born

Cheap Charley really cheap $49 SEO

I get asked all the time what is the secrete to getting found on the search engines and it really is a art but the good news is that you can with a little work move your site up in the listings and have a chance to compete with the bigger sites with a little bit of knowledge and some work. Google in particular wants the user to have the best possible experience and they define that roughly as the Google search delivers what the searcher was looking for. So if some one is looking for a cheap hotel then Google wants them to find it the first time they search without having to go way down in the listing to find it.

You have to help the search engines help you!

The way that you help them is to make your site search engine friendly and to give the information the way they need it to correctly classify you so If that is something that you would like to do give me $49 and I will give you a fighting chance to have your website deliver its potential.

Cut 2 kilos and save $40 USD on flights on luggage overweight charges.

2008-09-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

Cut 2 kilos and save $40 USD on luggage overweight charges.

Most airlines have a set limit and if you are slightly over the limit the airlines counter people will many time let you on with the overage without charging you However on the regional cheapest flights in Asia in Particular if you are over they make you put everything on the scale and so reducing so that you don’t get asked put on all of your luggage is really important if you don’t want your really cheap flight with no frills costing you as much as the larger airlines that give you extras like more luggage allowances. The secret is to be as close to the magic number as possible normally it is around 4 kilos or more so if you are at 24 kilo and the limit is 20 kilos many times they will let it through, 25 and you end up paying for everything and these days that can be a lot of money.

Tommorow ways to reduce your air travel luggage so that you don't pay the airlines for being overweight as well as statagies to reduce so that you don't get scalled at the airport in Asia

Asia Cheap flight Hawaii Bangkok Thailand!

#1 Secret to really Cheap Asia Flights

2008-08-31T23:31:00.000-07:00

#1 Secret to really Cheap Asia Flights

The #1 reason to get really cheap flights Asia flights is to book your air travel reservations 2 months or maybe even a little sooner. The small regional airlines like Air Asia, Tiger Air, Virgin Air, Cebu Pacific and Jet Star Asia, all are running special early booking deals that will have you paying only the fuel and surcharge taxes and a small nominal promotional fare. You will save many times over 40 to 60% of what they will ask for and get at the last minute flight reservations. Some of these flights you can book 6 months in advance which is a good way to lock in your savings.

Having said that there are also real deals available with early booking of flights on the main stream Asia carriers as well, the advantages of the big national and international air lines make them worth looking at as they will be shorter flights many times as you will board on jet ways, rather than walkups to the planes after a bus ride and you can book the flights with the option to change the flight dates so that you can change your air travel to a more convenient time. You can also get frequent flyer miles which are worth between .01 and .015 per mile which does add up to upgrades and free flights. The international airlines also offer more luggage allowance so if you are traveling with lots of luggage the amount of the overage against the fare cost averages out.

Bali travel budgetaccomodations cheaper food

2008-08-27T22:40:00.000-07:00

For budget travel Bali the cheap accomodations, cheaper food and thebest sea sun and surf in Asia if you are in Kuta or Nusa Doa heck even in Sanur.

I am sitting at the Gloria Jeans coffee shop in Bali near the Kuta Beach and the space is air conditioned and for the price of a cup of coffee I get a real comfortable chair and air con to work on my computer. A really good deal for a Cheap Charley like me.

Last night I went for a ice cream cone how can you resist when the cheapest ice cream is $27 opppps that is $0.27 which is absolutely crazy that you can get a ice cream cone for basically a quarter here in Bali and the rest of Indonesia as well if you can fiund a McDonalds. KFC Kentucky Fried Chicken is also really cheap for ice cream.

Bali is as close to heaven as you are lucky to find as far as I am concerned.

Bali Villa Cheap holiday Vacation Accomodation Rentals

2008-08-26T23:28:00.000-07:00

Bali Villa Cheap holiday Vacation Accomodation Rentals

Cheap Bali Villa accommodations are very plentiful and beautiful. What a great way to spend a holiday vacation in Asia! I was in a villa on the beach in Bali in Padam Bai that was easy a 4 star accommodation that had 3 bedrooms that was going for less than what you would pay for a 4 star hotel for a night. You can find similar deals on Bali beach villa’s in Sanur, Nusa Dua and Kuta beach in Bali

4 star at 3 star prices on the Beach in Bali!

I was amazed that this Bali beach accommodation was staffed with 4 people to take care of the cooking cleaning shopping and any thing else with in reason. The rooms were all very nicely appointed and the common areas were spectacular with open air living and dinning room a dinning table set up by the pool and access to a private beach. Now I can only remember one time when I was in Phuket that I had a whole pool with servants to my self as part of a beach hotel accomodtion during high season.

Bali Beach Villa Rates

The rate for this fantastic beach residence was less that $200 a night all inclusive. The only thing that could be faulted was that there was no internet connection. In Bali and Indonesia in general the internet connections are quite shite as the British would say.

As the next few weeks go on I will be putting more information on Bali Villa and how you can book them for the time being though try going to this website Bali Villa’s and tell Guy that Cheap Charley sent you

Bangkok Budget Accomodations Bangkok Really Cheap Flights

2008-08-26T00:40:00.000-07:00

Bangkok Budget accomodations and Bangkok Cheap Flights been thinking about them alot lately as I will be flying in to Bangkok from Bali via KL. I almost always stay in the Suhkumvitt area of Bangkok I just really like how convienent the Thaihouse inn Bangkok Guesthouse is to the airport about a $8 USD taxi ride that takes 25 min late at night which is when i allways seem to get into Bangkok. for some cites getting in this late is a hassle but you can get food change money and get late night supplys 24-7 in Bangkok in this area. DNS to KUL to BKK total cost around $80 USD to KUL from DNS and a shocker only $50 USD from KL to BKK

for the Cheap flight from Bali to Bangkok I thought for sure that I would be able to get something cheaper than Air Asia but after lots of research they were the cheapest airfares and the flights were not in the middle of the night like it would have been on Lion air to Singapore and then wait 15 hours for a connecting cheaper flight from Singapore to Bangkok SGN to BKK was cheap DNS to SGN was over $120 USD

So something that I haven't done in awhile Holloween in Bangkok!

Bali cheap flights

Bali Scuba Diving Cheap guesthouses budget accomodations hotels

2008-08-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

Cheap Charley has been to Tulamben a lot is the past two weeks. I really like this place as a place to hang out. The scuba diving is very cheap for Bali and the Bali budget accommodations are plentiful for the number of people that are staying there over night. There are no cheap hotels per say as most are small cheap guesthouses if you have your own car or motorbike you can use this as a base for the north end of the island to go to Mt Agun or to go to the west side of the island towards PJ and Guliganjan. Amed is only 6 kilometers away with lots of Indonesia budget beach resorts available in a very quiet setting

Sorya scuba resort is also here in Tulamben run by a very nice Swiss man this is more towards the luxury accomodation range but is still a good value for the money I like the fact that you can walk right into the water and be on one of the best muck diving sites in Indonesia. While we were there we found two different colored ghost pipe fish whip coral gobies and crabs.

Value Vince will be coming in around a month, my really cheap mentor, by that I mean that he teaches me how to get the best value for my travel dollar. we also trade stock tips I have been having him look at CFW a American oil company that recovers oil from old wells using technology and DSTI which is developing a plastic that will covert sunlight to electricity which if it takes off this stock is going to go through the roof they begin production in 2009 and because oil fell this is a real good time to get in on this one.

Bali Adventures & Budget guesthouse living

2008-08-11T05:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had an amazing adventure diving off the coast of Bali for the first time I got to see a mola mola for the first time up close. On the first dive when we were diving resolve mola mola off in the distance and it was too deep and out too far so all I basically got to see was just the shadow of the so then we went back through and to the rest of the dive always other this is the Nusa Lembangan is always full of lots of butterfly fish we must've seen three or four flame angelfish which are fairly rare don't see them everywhere then we did a second dive when we got down to about 20 m dive leader of the second group started banging rapidly on his tank to let us know that there was something in the deep and we look down and see that there was a mola mola in about 35 m of water being cleaned by a bunch of other fish so we approached it very slowly and we were rewarded with the excellent view from probably about three or 4 m away of this huge fish which was being cleaned by a schooling banner fish guts schooling banner but flatfish which in itself is a pretty pretty fish in its a pretty good-sized butterflies well but yet it's just absolutely dwarfed by the immense size of the sunfish which is the other name for a mola mola.

I still can't get over how much I'm enjoying my time here in Bali scuba diving has really been under rated compared to what other people told me I was anticipating that all the best of the Indonesian diving would be up in Sulawesi or owning Komodo I had absolutely no idea that the diving would be this good here in in Bali on a pretty regular basis now I'm spotting a butterfly fish that I'm that I've seen inside the books but never had the chance to tell look at closely particular Chevron butterflies and a panda butterflies and seeing fairly regularly that a lot of the some of the other butterfly fish that I'm familiar with I'm seeing them on a regular basis of falling in love again with the Saddleback butterfly as well as a raccoon butterflies. The visibility here in Bali is almost always in a 20 m plus range so looking at the butterflies as Walsall different angelfish is really a treat can still be a little distance away from the fish without scaring them more spooky and still be a with see all the different colorations and all the different markings on always very very beautiful fish I know that I have a lot of work ahead of me if I want to become an expert on all the fish in Indonesia there are just so many of them here in Bali to see.

I also can't get over the fact on how cheap Bali is my guesthouses accomodations rent is around hundred and 70 US dollars a month I spend on average about two or three dollars a meal for food and that's an average which means that anytime to eat for less than that sometimes I'll splurge and go a little bit more than that I pay about $40 a month for my moped the only other real expense that I have is my visa which runs around $70 a month which is fairly expensive but for the quality of life and with the budget saving of the rest of my stay here in Bali it's really okay. If you're looking for a place to come for a couple of months and you are on a budget Bali is the best place to be right now.

China visas flights for Olympics harder to get.

2008-07-19T00:34:00.000-07:00

I was reading yesterday that The Chinese are limiting the number of visas for the period of the Olmpics the story was talking about security and what i was getting was that they wanted to make sure that there were no problems with demonstrations durring the games.

I wanted to reiterate what I had written earlier here on this blog or on a page on the cheap charlies Asia site that a cheap flight to China was available out of Bangkok on Air Asia. Then you could take the China trains or hop onto the internal China cheap flights they have 6 or 7 companies that offer low cost airfares like China Southern, Xian Air.

Above cheap Beijing guesthouses below cheap China airlines China Southern booking at Beijing railway station for cheap flights in China.