We will be flying to Chiang Rai from BKK in August and the airfare is much, much cheaper On Air Asia than Thai Air. I was wondering if any one has had any experiece with it-good or bad. Thank you.

one major complaint centers around the weight of one's luggage and air asia strict limitations...same for carry-ons...

If you do a search here you'll find many dozens of comments on Air Asia. As Bob says, one issue is the limited baggage allowance, another is that if you miss your flight for any reason your old ticket is worthless and you'll have to buy a new one. It's a budget airline, and as long as you are willing to put up with the inconveniences of a budget airline, they are fine.

Baggage allowance is 15kgs whereas Thai is 20 in economy. Those 5 extra ksgs will cost 400 baht or $12. A lot less than flying on Thai. There have not been that many complaints lately about being on time but I would still not use them when making an international connection the same day, just in case.
Also look at 1/2 Go as they fly there also.

Another negative about Air Asia is the mad rush to get seats once they allow you to board. If you want to negate this Air Asia have just launched a priority boarding pay plan IF you are willing to pay an extra 200 baht. It only make sense if a few people opt to buy this plan but if everbody did this then we will be back to square one. Only if they have assigned seating!

Positive - very cheap air fare especially during their promotion. Latest promotion is 9 Baht for most domestic route in Thailand. Yes you still have to pay tax which is about 5 - 600 baht per sector but it's still very inexpensive.

Check out 1-2-Go, another budget airline that flies the same route. We had a slight delay (45 minutes), but otherwise a fine flight.

One-2-Go offers normal baggage and they have low fares but don't operate the very cheapest like budget airlines, I guess they could be called low cost, they have a flat fare that includes all the add ons.
These take you to the English language pages:
http://www.fly12go.com/en/main.shtml

Nok Plus with Nok Air is good value for comfort, 2x2 seating using the old style Business class seats ( the 737 planes are ex Thai ) and you get 30 kg baggage allowance, they also let you change the date without a fee,
http://www.nokair.com/nokconnext/asp...currlang=en-US

I think it would better to have assigned-seat, it quite not fair for people who check-in early and can seat at the back of aircraft due to there are many people waiting at the gate, some people came late but they stand on the qued and get the better seat position.

I have flown Air Asia several times and all my flights were on time and I never had an overweight bag. Frankly, I feel safer on an a full aircraft that has a lower weight baggage allowance!