I don't know about "tiny". They are ATR-72s mostly and sometimes ATR-42s. So 70 pax or 40 pax. Small compared to a Jumbo jet I suppose. I like the ATRs I have flown around Asia. Bangkok Airways has a lot in their fleet as well.

Maybe not that tiny after all.

I rarely read back on threads, so I hadn't noticed till I did, that you have flown all over Mynamar too. You obviously have experienced it all, love how you said they run late, I had a Bangkok connection followed by a Europe connection and the flight was delayed, talk about a pack of cards falling in a heap, yet nobody cared or showed any concern. Only did it once, now I have a day in BKK before the next flight.

Our aim is to align ourselves with an airline, through their FFP, contract rates and lounges, have you proceeded to this point yet and if so which is the best

Not sure I quite understand the question. Do you mean in Myanmar? I have only been there for one trip. All of the flights I took were on Air Bagan. I think they do have some sort of FFP, but I didn't join it. Most of those tiny airports don't have many amenities like lounges at this point. I did access the lounge at RGN on the return to BKK because I had booked in C. It was small with a little food and drink, newspapers, etc. Better than nothing. Most of the planes are 1 class (except for the Air Bagan Fokker 100 which I believe has a small C class cabin) so no upgrades. Flights were booked via a local agent. Not sure what the benefits of their FFP are other than the odd free flight here and there.

Every American and Englishperson we meet is setting up a manufacturing company here, every Indian and Arab is building an export business and the Chinese have already cornered the building sector. I incorrectly assumed you were here, all the airlines are proactive in signing up customers and I was sussing you out what deals different airlines had offered you. Most of the regulars have worked out this is the spot to buy fares, it has been incredible what is available

Looking for update on recommendations for purchasing inter Myanmar flights since the last post was in May 2012. Noticed Air Mandalay has an online booking tool, is it safe to book now for flying in March 2013 without risk of cancellation? I plan on checking in with the Air Mandalay counter upon arrival at RGN to confirm all of the flights. Thanks

I've found Air Mandalay to be the most responsive to emails for my trip in late December (you can't book online... it sends them an email of your reservation request that they confirm or deny by return email). Air Bagan never returned any of my email requests, so I'm trying to go through a local travel agent for one leg (challenging in its own right).

Just wondering if anyone has happened to use Oway (www.oway.com.mm) for domestic Myanmar flights? They have an actual website that looks like it is in the 21st century.

My wife and I have just completed 4 domestic Myanmar flights booked through OWAY. The website may look like it's in the 21st century, but there are some substantial downsides in relying on that first impression.

Pros:
Calls to the California based 800 number are responded to promptly
Payment by credit card is available, thereby making life considerably simpler (for those not use to carrying lots of cash)
Flight tickets are delivered to your hotel upon arrival in Myanmar

Cons:
Flight purchases are not, ultimately, for the flights that you choose on the website. Of our four flights recently completed, only one was the same airline and flight number that we thought we were purchasing.
OWAY is not acting as an agent in the traditional OTA model, where the credit card charge is by the ticketing airline ---- your credit card is charged by OWAY LLC, and the charge is not recognizable as a travel expense (i.e OWAY is not registered as a travel company by Visa, Mastercard etc).
OWAY's support staff are inexperienced and sometimes extremely unhelpful. For example, we were informed definitively by OWAY that two of our flights were not operating because the Bagan airport would be closed for a 3-week period and that we needed to find alternative means of transportation. This turned out to be idiotically poor information (the airport was closed on certain afternoons for renovations).
On 3 occasions OWAY changed our airline and flight times without any advance consultation. Emails to them requesting alternatives went unanswered / unresponded to. [Fortunately the airlines themselves are extremely flexible and our travel plans were modified without OWAY's assistance].

All in all, I think that OWAY's best attribute, it's website, is also it's worst. Anyone who uses the website to carefully choose which airline and which flight time they wish to purchase will probably be extremely annoyed to find that their issued tickets are for different airlines, that nonstop flights are now multi-stop ones, that departure/arrival times are now inconvenient, and that refunds for such changes are neither offered nor forthcoming. YMMV

Just saw your reply to my original question from the start of the month. I ended up using Oway for a flight (RGN-MDL) and a hotel, and my experience generally matches your own.

I'm curious about the Bagan airport -- I was told by both Oway and Air Mandalay separately that no flights were operating to Nyaung U Airport due to renovations from Jan. 10-21. I didn't pursue it further, but in order for me to go to Bagan, I ended up taking a night train and a night bus in Myanmar, which was obviously less comfortable than flights. Just curious if the information I was being given was wrong or not.

You may have been misinformed. We flew NYU-HEH on 11 Jan, KBZ Airways.

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.

We are grateful for the comments. Comments such as these about our services are the best way for us to learn and move forward:

1. The incidence happened when we were understaffed during the busy season. We regretted that. As a result : we have increased our staff level with better capacities now.

2. We have now created a customer happiness team that focuses solely on making sure that our customers are happy - the team is tasked with dispute resolutions and also find ways to keep the satisfaction level high.

3. Regarding flights and hotel auto-booking, we can only do auto-confirmation 95% of the time - and we cannot guarantee auto-confirmation during busy reasons at certain location (Inle, for example). Regarding flights, we will get you same day booking (+ or - 4 hours of the same day). It is unfortunate until sometimes May or June of 2013 where we will complete our systems and have more active participation from vendors. However, we are pleased to let our audience know that we can do this more than 95% of the time. In fact, we have been booking for the past 2 weeks with no amendments whatsoever as our system is getting better. We are working on it - every single day to improve.

4. This may disappoint some customers, but we want to be transparent and forthright about what we can and what we cannot at the moment. One thing we guarantee, we are constantly learning and taking your feedback extremely seriously.

Oway Team

Sorry to revive an old thread but just wanted to see if there are any updates on this subject? I'm planning a trip to Myanmar and looking to book domestic flights soon.

You can go to the individual carrier websites and book your own tickets. I just came back from a trip and used a travel agent to do everything.

Just make sure that if you do your own ticket purchases, you check departure times frequently days before your flight, and avoid booking connecting flights on other carriers unless you give plenty of transfer time. Domestic carriers in Myanmar will change flight times without notice.