Originally Posted by
jbalmuth
The airport was only closed during some afternoons. We had no problem flying to Bagan the morning of Jan 18 and from there just before noon on Jan 21. The flight in was on Air Bagan and the flight out on the 21st was Air KBZ. I suspect that your cancelled Air Mandalay flight was an afternoon one, and that you were given the reason for the flight cancellation, not a helpful suggestion of how to work around the issue. That appears to be a common (and serious) current OWAY failing, ime.
Ah well. Live and learn. In any case, I suppose I ended up saving about $300 or so by doing the night train/night buses so I suppose it wasn't so bad. I had saved off booking domestic trips anyway until only a week before I left to the area because I had a R3 RGN fare that I wanted to wait on booking my domestic itinerary in case it was cancelled. I wouldn't be surprised if the flights were booked out if only the morning ones were operating.