4 Flights in Asia for under $200 USD

Feb 16, 2016

In December last year, my lovely girlfriend Denise discovered an offer by Air Asia aptly named "The ASEAN Pass".

This is how it works:

You buy an ASEAN pass (for around 500 MYR) which gives you 10 credits
Book as many flights as you want within a 30 day period of travel
Pay for taxes and baggage

That's it!

Here's an example of the flights you can get:

Kuala Lumpur to Chiang Mai	3 credits
Manilla to Kuala Lumpur	3 credits
Bali to Bangkok	3 credits
Singapore to Bali	3 credits
Bali to Kuala Lumpur	3 credits
Bangkok to Chiang Mai	1 credit
Bangkok <->Ho Chi Minh	1 credit
Bangkok to Penang	1 credit
Penang to Kuala Lumpur	1 credit

For us, I think it was definitely cheaper than buying four separate flights.

Let me break it down.

Booking date	Origin	Destination	Credit used	Total paid	In AUD	In USD
1/27/2016	Bangkok	Chiang Mai	1	137.10 THB	$5.37	$3.85
1/27/2016	Bali	Bangkok	3	215000.00 IDR	$22.51	$16.14
1/7/2016	Singapore	Bali	3	34.00 SGD	$33.91	$24.32
12/21/2015	Bali	Kuala Lumpur	3	200000.00 IDR	$20.95	$15.02
		Total	10		$82.74	$59.33

Including the $185 AUD for the pass itself, the total we spent for the four flights was only:

$268 AUD!!

(or just under $200 USD)

It wasn't all good, however. The booking system for the ASEAN pass is quite probably THE WORST WEBSITE IN THE WORLD!

The booking website only allows you to book one flight per pass at a time. This can get quite frustrating as you repeat the process for each individual person in your group.
The currency is constantly changing and you have to pay for taxes and baggage in two separate payment systems
The website constantly forgets your previously entered data and errors are common.

Conclusion

Booking flights through Air Asia's ASEAN pass was an absolute pain in the arse but it is cheap. If you're planning on moving around Asia quite a bit in a short period of time, I would likely recommend this pass. Just make sure you're patient when you start to book flights.

Until next time,

Chris