Bankok Air - Reliable?
 

Has anyone booked with Bankok Airways on-line? If so, how was the experience, any hangups, or problems? Any feedback is appreiciated!

Bangkok Air is an excellent airline. It has newer planes, well-trained pilots, good maintence of its planes, good service, good on-time record. I've purchased tickets on-line without a problem. Their prices are on the high side, mostly because they have a monoply on many routes.

kathie says it all....they are one of my better asian experiences....they are very efficient and provide a good service albeit an expensive one....they seem to have the monopoly on bkk-sien reap and bkk-koh samui...

their lounges, seperate from the other airlines in bkk are comfortable and offer free internet connects and simple snacks...they are for all passengers...

Thank you both for your help. According to my research, flying from BKK to CNX, they seemed to be $100 round trip, whereas most US carrier (CheapTickets, Orbitz, Travelocity) were charging 3x that amount. Any other suggestions on flights from BKK to Chiang Mai? Thanks!

For Bangkok to Chiangmai many Bangkok Airway flights stop at Sukhothai. This may be an advantage as you stop over without an extra charge.

Cheap airlines operating between Bangkok and Chiangmai include Air Asia, http://www.airasia.com/general.php?p...0dca344c16b43f , One Two Go http://www.onetwo-go.com/main.html and Nok Air http://www.attitudetravel.com/lowcostairlines/asia/.

One factor to consider when using these low cost airlines is that their baggage allowances are lower than international allowances. We have used Air Asia on a number of occasions and found them to be very reliable.

i always just use thai air to CM...its not much more than $100 r.t. and very frequent....

the difrence between $100 (thai airlines) and $25 for the budgets is kind of big for some of us. I'll take the "bengi" and go too HK for about same price.

Hmm I didn't reolize everyone was entile too bangkok air's lounge I thought they were taking pitty on me since the ticket agent realized I was leagaly blind and got me some special help...

I'll have too admit they treated me the best out of any airline i'd ever been on but damn the flight too Sian reap sure is a rip off..

Again, Thank you all for your help. Am I to understand that if we end up having a 6-7 hour layover (12:10am till morning) in BKK we could use Bangkok Airlines lounge?

I doubt that their lounge is open all night. Most airport lounges are not. And while their little lounge is nice for a wait for a flight, it's not any places you'd like to spend the night. You can get a hotel room near the airport for cheap. The Amari in the airport is outrageously expensive for a third rate airport hotel.

There are some new low-cost airlines flying some of these routes:

http://www.nokair.com/menu_en.html
http://www.pbair.com/index.asp

As already mentioned Thai Air Asia and Nok Air are both reliable budget carriers on the BKK-CM route. Also One-Two-Go flies the route as another budgte carrier but it seems you can only get tickets locally. Thai though has the most flights with about 12 a day, nearly all(if not all) are wqide bodied A300/330 and 777's. Bangkok Airways has only the 1 daily slight by turbo-prop that stops at Sukhothai on the way, so if your aim is just to get to Chiang Mai go for Thai which should be max $130-135 return or go for the budget carriers, if you are arriving long haul and going straight up to CM then go for Thai for frequency, in case your inbound is late or something. Also note that whether Thai or the budget carriers returns are simply 2 x one ways so you could go for Thai to get up to CM and then use a budget flight for the return, do note that Thai Air Asia 15kg baggage allowance is strict, it's B 50 ( $1.25) per kg excess charge.

If you are in the US call Thai Airways number, they charge you the Thai Baht rate in USD and mail the tickets to you. If you go for returns ask for the 3 month return not the 1 year return as it's slightly cheaper.

Bangkok Airways also has several flights per week direct but they are odd days/times.

i do not find that any internet source has prices for inter-asia to approach what you can get directly from the asian airline or more especially from any asian travel agent....

i use sea tours in [email protected]

travelocity, etc wanted $650 for my bkk-bali flight in june and i paid about $350 from sea tours on thai airways...

there is a cheeper flight too siam reap via penam phen (sp) using President airline. cambodias national carear..


reaserch many consolidators. just checking the bangkok post and web sites today. I see that you can get a tick too bali from 10.500 too 15.000 econemy.. SHOP AROUND