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Just booked a week at a resort at Railay. Keen to hear from anyone who has been to the Krabi region and has any tips of things to do.
http://activities.qantas.com.au/en/11631/krabi/d348-ttd/from/01-08-2018/to/04-08-2018
My answer was always going to include some form of points 🙂
I think the tours offered through Viator / Qantas are good and never really had any problem with bookings. They seem to provide quality, low/no hassle.
I’m sure you’ll have a quick look at Tripadvisor.
I’m not going to earn any points on this trip – Giving Scoot a go. Hopefully the Dreamliner with WiFi will make it a little easier.
You could actually earn Krisflyer miles with Scoot but that might cost a bit extra. Day flight up should be sweet. I’m impressed they have 4 different zones in economy & Scootbiz can be great value for money. Eat well on the ground, take your water bottle or equivalent on board. Charge devices. Easy.
Of course you can earn points on activities/tours. Hence the link to the Qantas website which partners with Viator who are I think a reputable company. I have booked with Viator separate to Qantas prior to realising they partnered. But anyway it’s a reasonable run down of activity options in pretty much any region around the world. Have found the experience smooth booking online. And you’ll earn points for doing the same thing! I don’t know if it’s cheaper booking directly but I like knowing that things tend to work out when I book through Qantas whether it’s a food tour in Singapore, London Eye, or Whale Sharks in WA. It’s always been easy and I feel like I have a reliable contact point rather than some dodgy email from some company I have no idea about. When things go smoothly, that’s a happy holiday. The tour companies will probably be on TA as well to check reviews.
Unfortunately flight there are back are overnights – that’s all that they had. Only booked in economy, but have put lowball upgrade bids in to ScootBiz (fingers crossed!).
Will have a look at some of the activities in the link you sent. Had a quick skim and looked like a few interesting things. I do intend to spend a good chunk of the holiday doing not much (I really need to force myself into some actual downtime), so will have to think carefully about what activities we do. Prices look very reasonable!
That’s thoroughly weird. Scoot’s usually a daily flight into the Oz ports ~ 8hrs or so, then ~2hr turn around and back up the road to Singapore so one day flight and one evening flight. You must have caught a schedule change or something to have red eyes both directions.
I reckon I’d go Scoot in Silence then for a red eye (baby free zone) to catch some shut eye, or the super seats for leg room. Stretch seats look like bulkheads and I like having access to bags under the seats in front. Pity you can’t monitor the flight with Expert Flyer as Scoot don’t appear to be on there. Other option would be moving to row of 3 down the back and taking a window and aisle seat.
Wow – I just saw they have a maxyourspace option to purchase up to 2 additional seats in economy! Hello poor man’s business class! For some of the prices I’ve seen with Scoot for economy that’s amazing. And you can’t even lie flat in Scootbiz. It’s like PE. Now they just need to introduce skycouch and I’m on it! First come first serve but they can approve online 6-12hr prior to departure.
Found this thread on bid for Scootbiz from ausbt https://www.ausbt.com.au/community/view/59/6018/scoot-business-class-upgrades
$150 mentioned in the thread to upgrade sounds awesome. Even if your bid is successful, I’d still eat well on the ground and aim to snooze in the air after you’ve played around with the seat, wifi and a bit of entertainment. View the food as a ‘snack’ rather than your main dinner or breakfast. Much better eats on the ground.
We flew SIN-SYD with Scootbiz then VA SYD-AKL row 3 all for $375 pp. Used points with both legs. Super good connection although I had a back up plan if Scoot were going to be late but never needed it. Grabbed bags in Syd then checked in with VA and back through to the lounge.
I did see a formula for general bid to upgrades by a blogger: Basically say for you Scootbiz price minus your paid fare for economy. Bid 20-40% of that fare difference. But the price goes up closer to the date so bidding late might be preferable. Scoot doesn’t really have loyal frequent flyers though like the full service carriers so it’s not like  you’re competing with loyal frequent flyer upgrades which is good. I suspect most people just book their seats and go and don’t ever look at airline options. I think you’ll be in with a grin. Hopefully you still get to sit with the +1 as well.
You can either scroll through the whole list for Qantas or pick certain activities from the left sided menu. The prices have always looked ‘about right’. At the top next to the Viator logo it says Earn points, Price promise, 24/7 support, and great range worldwide.
As a side note Air NZ hooked up with bookme. Â https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/activity-deals/queenstown/home
It’s sort of like ‘bid to upgrade’ for airlines but for activities operators and last minute bookings at fixed prices. Good for NZ, Australia and Fiji by the looks of it. I haven’t looked into whether people earn points but I suspect not as they’re providing major discounts for activities.
For food, my partner really loved the Man vs Food show. But that host is now doing I think Secret Eats and this year has ventured out of the US. He’s been to Singapore but not Thailand by the looks of the Wikipedia list but if I’m in the same city he’s been in I’d like to go to some places on the list. You can certainly use Tripadvisor for eats or just walk and trial and error but at times I like the idea of finding somewhere good that’s cool that is also like a ‘whole in the wall’ type feel or just something different/unique. Like a bar at the end of a carpark or stairs leading to a restaurant at the back of a cafe type shop. Property is expensive in Singapore so they’re getting creative! We’re transiting Singapore later but I don’t think we’ll feel like eating plus will get to the hotel a bit past dinner time. But it’s something to keep in mind. Or if you’re in the US he’s reviewed places there.
Mind you you can’t plan every bit of every trip. Gets a bit – predictable but it’s good to have a few ideas to lock in. Although if it’s plans that can be affected by weather then I’m a bit finicky with those and may hold off until as late as possible until I know the weather.
I’ve eyeballed Krabi but never booked anything. Hope we get to hear a bit about it.
I was thinking Viator probably had a competitor and sure enough there are a few other sites. Get your guide is one. Basically another activities / tours aggregator site. Apparently Viator is the most polished. I’m not sure if Qantas has all of Viators offerings or just ones they’re happy to provide but you can always check against the actual Viator website. Get your guide apparently offers a higher number of bookable activities / tours so I’ve provided a link to their site for Krabi. I’ve only just found them so have no experience booking through them.
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