Hi . . .we are amidst the final planning of our exciting trip to Thailand in April 2008 and are at the point of booking the domestic flights (Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai). From what I can see the two best options are Thai Airways or Air Asia.

Air Asia is slightly cheaper but Thai Airways has a slightly higher weight allowance for their checked baggage (we are Scuba Divers and will need every pound we can get)

Does anyone have any preferences or recommendations ?

Thanx in advance, Amanda.

You will only need your scuba gears in Phuket so I would consider sending them there by air freight which is quite cheap. Check out the freight fare on Thai's website or if you don't mind just pay the excess weight charge which is not much either for domestic route. Personally I would bring just my own regs and rent the rest for diving.

Here's another airline you can check out and buy your tickets online - Nok Air(Thai Airway's low cost option).

check out nok air also

Took Nok Air ... definitely recommend.

To book the low cost, you need to book much advance in order to get the cheap airfare, due to they have limited seat promotion price.

One2Go is another one, they have flat rate for airfare.

Thank you for all the input ! However . . . Nok Air only flies out of Don Muang and we wanted to see about leaving our gear at the airport after Phuket and picking it you before we headed home which will be out of Suvarnabhumi (do you think it will be safe to leave our luggage at the left luggage counter?)

Second, we can't book with Nok Air right now - they are only booking into March (maybe we should wait but we are excited and want it all finalized ) . . . so back to the question of Thai Airways vs Air Asia (I haven't looked into one2go yet but will).

Again, thank you !

one, two often has trouble with timing i have read...

air asia and thai air are not in the same class....thai is a full service airline like delta, singapore or B/A....AA is a budget airline with strict baggage limits..

One 2 Go is the airline that had the fatal accident a couple of months ago. Many have criticised their cost cutting ways so I would stay away from that airline for now.

If the price for your Thai and Air Asia flight is within 1,000 baht of each other I would choose Thai.

Perhaps worth mentioning that Air Asia recently suggested that it might start charging for ALL checked baggage. In other words, there would be no (or zero) weight allowance, other than the 5 kg you can carry on.