NEW rules designed to make air travel advertisements transparent have killed off those '$1' flights to Bangkok, but the actual prices of package holidays still remain anyone's guess.

A scan of travel advertisements shows that most travel agents and airlines now include other fees such as fuel surcharges and airport taxes in the cost of a ticket.

Online, budget carriers Tiger and Jetstar Asia are including taxes and surcharges in their one-way fares.

But the word 'from' is also used extensively, as these fares are subject to availability, the date of booking and a host of other terms and conditions.

While consumers checking air fares are now better informed, those wanting packages would do better than to depend on the ads.

A Straits Times check of between 100 and 200 travel ads since Nov 1 has turned up many using other strategies to publicise promisingly low prices for trips to places such as Bangkok and Taiwan.

Some advertise group prices that are much lower than for an individual trip. Others use the word 'from' when listing the price of a ticket, so the traveller is almost assured of having to pay more.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.