Here's my dilemma. Going from Phuket to Bangkok to Hong Kong on Air Asia. Flight arrives BKK at 14:10 and the HK flight leaves at 16:30. From what I'm told, I need to reclaim baggage and check into the HK flight all within about 1.5hrs (because check-in closes 45 min prior to the flight) Do I have enough time? Is Air Asia usually ontime? Do i need to pass thru immigration even though i'm only "in-transit"? Anyone with real life experience in transit at BKK? Please advise...thanks

From my experiences Air Asia is normally pretty much on time in Thailand. There might be the occasional 10 - 30 minutes delay so in theory you should have enough time. The problem with low cost airline is the risk of doing connecting flights on them!

You might be interested in this - I've read somewhere that you can now "buy" preassigned seats on Air Asia.

The biggest risk with Air Asia is actually canceled flights. It's rare but it does happen. They've been pretty good about being on-time lately, since the legal penalties for being late came into effect.

Since there's no such thing as a through ticket on Air Asia, you will be flying a domestic-only flight from Phuket to Bangkok, where you will need to reclaim your luggage, go upstairs, check in for your international flight, then go through immigration. In theory there's enough time to accomplish this, but you will probably end up running to catch your plane.

Remember that if you miss your Air Asia flight for any reason (even if it is their fault) your ticket becomes worthless and you have to buy a new ticket - no doubt at a higher price. If it were me (and it isn't) I'd take an earlier flight out of Phuket to assure that I could make my Hong Kong flight.

You go through passport control after checking in for your Hong Kong flight. Your Phuket to Bangkok flight is domestic, so no immigration.

I've transitted though BKK a number of times. It's a pretty efficient airport, but it's huge - lots of walking.

should not be a problem, but with all tight connections you run a risk....i always like to return the nite before to assure no misses...

Thanks everyone for the replies. There is an earlier flight getting into BKK at 10:15am which i was avoiding (b/c of the 6 hr layover) but from what people are saying yes it is a risk if I try the original connection. Plus the 16:30 flight to HK is the only one of the day. So I'll probably take the earlier HKT-BKK flight. I assume 6 hrs is enough time for me to take a taxi into city center to have lunch and come back? Anyone have lunch recommendations for local food?

We have a similar flight coming up, Air Asia from Chiang Mai to Bangkok then another Air Asia flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong.

As Michael has described, we expect to have to collect luggage, book in and then clear immigration.

We have opted to take an earlier flight, although it means seven hours between flights. We are not sure if we will be able to book in immediately or if we will have to wait landside for about five hours. If we do have to wait we will probably leave the airport, if we can book in immediately we have the use of a lounge airside.

When are you going? I just read that Air Asia will start direct Phuket - Hong Kong flights in June. Seems they're planning to develop Phuket as a second Thai hub.

Damn! we are due to go in late May. Thanks anyways