JohnnyP

Has anyone had experience with either AirAsia or Tiger? They appear to both be fairly reliable, but I would love more specific insight. Our itinerary currently has us flying:

Tuesday:
SIN-BKK - Tiger
(1.5 hour layover... connecting to...)
BKK-CNX - AirAsia

Saturday:
CNX-BKK - AirAsia

Tuesday:
BKK-SIN - Tiger

I'm most concerned about the Tiger-to-AirAsia connection in BKK. We have a 1.5 hour layover, though, so we should be okay, right?

Also - how do you book Tiger tickets? They request a Singapore address on their site, and do not give an option for a U.S. address?

blueDC

Why not take Air Asia all the way? They fly SIN-BKK 3x daily. Also, Nok Air (also low-fare) has better schedules for BKK-CNX (5x daily). Check it out

1.5 hours to go from int'l (SIN-BKK) to domestic (BKK-CNX) is just enough. It took us about an hour to clear immigration, collect baggage, clear customs and walk the looong walk from the int'l terminal to the domestic terminal at BKK (make sure you get a cart).

I have flown AirAsia and they're cheap and cheerful

JohnnyP

For two reasons: Tiger was cheaper, and I was under the impression that AirAsia flew out of Johur Bahru (bus'd up from Changi), not directly from Changi Airport.

Luckily, we won't be checking bags and we're young, so we can run. And yet, I am still somewhat concerned given what you've said. jpatokal mentioned in another thread, though, that walk-up tickets BKK-CNX are only THB1100 on Orient Thai. I think we'll be okay.

blueDC

AirAsia flies to Bangkok from Singapore Changi AND Johor Bahru. The base fare is THB1300 each way ($35?) from Changi.


In that case, 1.5 hours is truckloads. Immigration takes the longest followed by changing terminals. After customs, you'll exit into the arrivals hall of the int'l terminal. I believe the walkway between the two terminals is located in the departures level which means you'll have to go up one level from the arrivals level.

I think you'll be OK too

jpatokal

I agree that 1.5 hours is plenty to transfer. The problem is that if your incoming flight is late, you may not have 1.5 hours...!

Also, instead of the long walk, you can catch the free shuttle buses which ply between the two terminals. Just walk out the terminal and you should see them between the taxi stand and the airport city bus stand. Don't do this if pressed for time though, because the scheduling is a little erratic -- BKK being BKK, there are occasionally traffic jams in the airport itself.

opushomes

5 segments in the last 20 days. Please see the Asia forum for my comments re: this really good airline.

I had the same concern about inter-line connections, so I booked overnights in BKK. This costs you a hotel and 500 baht departure tax. Air Asia's on-time performance was 96% last week and all but one of my flights departed on time and arrived on time. The other one required the changing of a tire at the gate in BKK and departed 45 minutes late. Fortunately Air Asia does not often use the bus gates which add time to your connection. Air Asia international arrives and departs from Terminal 1, domestic from the domestic terminal. Use the bridge on the second floor to connect between intl. & domestic; you sweat a whole lot less. Also the cart in the connector bridge makes the run shorter and faster.

The prices were certainly right and travel was as good as any U.S. domestic carrier flying 737-300 aircraft.

And, yes Air Asia flies non-stop SIN-BKK. www.airasia.com has all the information. Remember, once booked, the ticket is basically not cancellable. It is changable up to 48 hours before departure, but may make exceptions to the rules.

JohnnyP

Off we go!! ^

jpatokal

FWIW, Air Asia seems to have take a turn for the worse lately (at least the Thai operation). A few friends have flown into BKK from SIN in the past couple of weeks, and all their flights as well as every other FD flight on Don Muang's monitors (Penang, Kota Kinabalu, etc) has been 30 minutes to 6 hours (!) late -- although in this last case they were at least courteous enough to send an SMS warning in the morning that the 2230 flight would now be departing at 0430 instead.

tide

I was doing some reading on Air Asia's website, specifically their Contract of Carriage. No where could I find an equivalent to Rule 240 where a carrier has to protect you on another flight/carrier if your original flight is delayed more than 2 hours. Is Rule 240 only a US regulation? What about other Asian mainline carriers intra-asia?

opushomes

Do not expect AirAsia to rule 240 you if you are delayed. On the flip side, if you, per their terms and conditions, miss a flight (and that includes a misconnect, since there are no connecting flights bookable on the web-site) there obligation is completed. They do not have to fly you on the next available flight.

OTOH: I found them to be very competent and willing to go the extra mile. They even changed the name on a ticket without fee for an individual who I met on my Macau flight. Try that with a Western carrier.

jpatokal

Air Asia is an LCC and explicitly recommends against connecting flights (with the odd exception for direct-but-not-nonstop services where the same plane continues the journey, eg. BKK-JHB-KBI). So if you miss your connection, you're SOL.

haveric

how far out can one make reservations on air asia? I

'm considering a 9/05 trip to SE Asia. Right now, I'm considering a UA Award IAD-SIN, BKK-IAD (R/T BKK not avail). Thus, we'd do SIN-BKK-CMX-Bali?/Hong Kong?-BKK. This would be an approx ~10 day trip. I'd really like to do HKG/Macau as well, but I'm not sure how to fit that in...

NoStressHere

How far out can you book?

Looks like 4-5 months based on checking their web site this week. Southwest Airlines does it that way as well. Probably a good idea as it allows them to tweak schedule more often without impacting as many customers.