Bangkok Airways Experience

Old Mar 27, 2013, 9:02 pm
  #16  
 
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Originally Posted by dsquared37
The Blue Ribbon Lounge is the business class/Premier lounge. All other pax can use the lower level lounge. A small menu (getting smaller all the time), alcohol, shower access etc. It's a more mellow and comfortable environment.

If you look here the means of accumulating points is delineated. Your options are PG, AB and EY.

Edit: Upon further review you can earn pts with AB and EY however these do not count toward Premier status. To earn status you must fly PG.
Thank you for your answers dsquared37. Can you share your thoughts of PG (inflight entertainment, food, airport lounges etc.) and their FFP (earn/burn quality, time for posting miles etc.). Thanks.
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Old Mar 28, 2013, 2:54 am
  #17  
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Originally Posted by J_rob129
Thank you for your answers dsquared37. Can you share your thoughts of PG (inflight entertainment, food, airport lounges etc.) and their FFP (earn/burn quality, time for posting miles etc.). Thanks.
Inflight entertainment: Most, if not all, of their a/c have a flip down screen on which they play some goofy show called Just for laughs and occasionally a Pink Panther cartoon. My flights are never over 1 hr however so i can't tell you about longer duration segments. A very big YAY for noise cancelling headphones and music. FA's are (usually) quick to bring a beer [I view this as onboard entertainment to a degree].

Food: Edible. The quality has slipped a great deal over the last 2+ years but it's still general OK for the evening flights. Mid-day you'll often get a stack of 3 x 1/4 sandos. They are not so grand. One flight ex-LPQ was a very nice Laos style lunch including sticky rice. It's been awhile since I've taken a morning flight so can't comment with any ceertainty. In C, which isn't flown to many destinations, the food is a step up.

FAs: Generally quite good and friendly.

Airport Lounges: I've been in the Blue Ribbon lounge in PNH, BKK and CNX. A separate room where an attendant will bring you a(n ever decreasing) menu. Amenities in BKK are the best of those listed but the others are a very nice step up for the general pax lounge. Usually there will be a fried noodle or soup dish. I haven't been to USM since becoming Premier so I don't know the lounge situation there... it's now also Priority Pass lounge.

In the BKK lounges there are bathrooms inside, a shower, beer, whiskey (int only?), couches, snacks (including decent Thai sweets). Outlets are minimal.

FFP: Posting is good and happens 5 days after the flight. Consistently. Occasionally, rarely more likely, a flight does not post and a call resolves it on the spot. Often a promotion like b-day month flights will fail to accurately generate the bonus points. One phone call is sufficient to remedy that situation.

Earn/Burn: Poor. Even as a Premier there are no bonus points except during a promotion. On the burn side of things I never use them except during their sporadic 2-3 month long 50% off award promotions (these have been offered in one form or another each year recently). Using points for awards only covers the ticket cost however, you are still dinged for taxes and YQ. Award space varies by route (eg rarely open in/out USM, wide open in/out REP) and bookings must be made online no less than 5 days before a flight.

Phone Reps: Generally nice but poorly knowledgable. If I need a specific fare class or a PNR split I'll begin my call requesting a supervisor. There are some great reps and some absolute dolts that are simply clueless. Their penchant for putting you on hold for everything, such as while looking up your account, drives me crazy but it's company policy apparently.

Baggage: Generally quickly on the belt. The exception would be an Int-dom flight where you pick up bags in the dom airport and exit customs there. This can be a painful wait of 30min+.

Random things: For international flights, at least the ones I've used, the change fees are $15 or equivalent currency. For domestic flights they are 800 Baht. The int change fees have saved me a bundle at times. Even if your tix have been purchased in USD the call center will still charge you in Baht... Annoying, since the conditions specify USD, but overlookable.

Benefits of Premier: Generally, but not always, a quicker check in line. In each station I've been to there is only 1 Premier line so one pax can back it up with a problematic itin. For all international flights in/out of BKK you get a CIP Fast Tack coupon. This started about 18 months ago and is wonderful. If in Y you will be assigned a seat in the first 3 rows of the cabin. I almost always am in the bulkhead which gives more legroom. Occasionally I'll get an opup to C which initially resulted in a better seat with Y food. My last flight, early this month, I was given C food and drink. You will get a 40kg luggage allowance per pax and Premier, and C, bags do mostly come out first on the carousel.

Caveat Emptor: They have limited A319s with C cabins. On some routes where they've been selling C seats they have recently used a/c which do not have proper C seats but rather eco seats where the middle seat is blocked, ala intra-European style, and still sell these at the same C price. There is little indication when purchasing that this is the case.
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Old Mar 28, 2013, 2:05 pm
  #18  
 
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Appreciate the info dsquared37. Do you know if they offer paid upgrades into business class from Economy. I was thinking of flying to MLE from BKK as it the most direct and shortest flight from Thailand to the Maldives. Thanks in advance.
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Old Mar 28, 2013, 5:44 pm
  #19  
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Originally Posted by eknock007
Appreciate the info dsquared37. Do you know if they offer paid upgrades into business class from Economy. I was thinking of flying to MLE from BKK as it the most direct and shortest flight from Thailand to the Maldives. Thanks in advance.
There's no allowance I've ever encountered (nor any information) about an upgrade or the possibility of one using miles or money. The only upgrades I've had are opups.

Understand that there are so few routes that even have a C cabin that there might well be no policy for this. PG only have 4 A319s with a legit C cabin.
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Old Mar 28, 2013, 10:39 pm
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thanks

Thank you for the very informative review, I will definitely give PG a try in the future when I am in Hong Kong. I did dummy booking on-line and it seems like it is less expensive if I book a multi-stop trip compare to a roundtrip (ex. HKG-HKT RT is more expensive then HKG-USM-HKT-HKG).
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Old Mar 29, 2013, 12:48 am
  #21  
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Originally Posted by J_rob129
Thank you for the very informative review, I will definitely give PG a try in the future when I am in Hong Kong. I did dummy booking on-line and it seems like it is less expensive if I book a multi-stop trip compare to a roundtrip (ex. HKG-HKT RT is more expensive then HKG-USM-HKT-HKG).
When booking an international trip through BKK to a domestic airport it is always cheaper to buy them as two separate itineraries. Try looking at the trip as two separate itins.

Also, if you are in need of a series of o/w flights you should look into the Discovery Airpass. Normally a o/w international segment is pushed up to a K fare regardless of lower fares available. The DA will price out into L (no L = no DA).
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Old Mar 29, 2013, 9:43 am
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Thank you for the suggestion, dsquared37. The Airpass looks good for me, do they earn miles for my segments if I use them?
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Old Mar 29, 2013, 6:35 pm
  #23  
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Originally Posted by J_rob129
Thank you for the suggestion, dsquared37. The Airpass looks good for me, do they earn miles for my segments if I use them?
Yes, the DA earns points toward status. Look at the earnings page on FlyerBonus and you'll see that the lowest fare often sold, Q, earns a certain amount of points while the next fare up, H, earns Q+5. When you purchase a DA it books into L, which is higher than H, so you'll earn the higher point level in the Eco breakdown.
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Old Oct 21, 2013, 4:23 pm
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Not sure if this is the correct thread. Is there a way to search for Award availability online for Bangkok Airways flights?
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Old Oct 22, 2013, 3:09 am
  #25  
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Originally Posted by allensun
Not sure if this is the correct thread. Is there a way to search for Award availability online for Bangkok Airways flights?
I commonly do using KVS but it's a bit of a science. You can always use the FlyerBonus online booking sight but you need sufficient points in your account to search for seats.

For C seat availability I've found D>4 will offer up space. For Y I can't seem to figure out how they come about. Awards seem to correlate with V=>1 when searching for 1 seat but then I'm finding 2 seats for flights with V=1.

You must book, online, at least 5 days in advance.

Last edited by dsquared37; Oct 22, 2013 at 3:33 am Reason: Edit: confused now.
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Old Oct 22, 2013, 3:41 am
  #26  
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I'll leave you to work this out. I searched for 4 seats as a Y award figuring there should be a differentiation on this days flights BKK-USM.

The results I got from PG's FB search are that seats are available on the bolded flights.

There were other flights before and after those listed here which also showed availability but for some reason KVS is only showing a subset of the day's flights.

[KVS Availability Tool 7.3.0/Diamond - Availability/FS/US]
Code:
BKK  Bangkok Metro / Suvarnabhumi Intl TH = BKK DMK [VTBS]
USM  Samui Koh Samui TH [VTSM]
WED  27 Nov 2013

Carrier    Flight  From  Depart    To    Arrive    A/C  St  Availability
---------  ------  ----  --------  ----  --------  ---  --  -----------------------------------
PG         123     BKK   08:15     USM   09:20     319      Y7 M7 K7 N7 T7 L7 H7 Q7 V6
PG         127     BKK   09:00     USM   10:30     AT7      Y7 M0 K0 N0 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
PG         805     BKK   09:45     USM   10:50     319      C7 Y7 M7 K0 N0 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
PG         125     BKK   10:15     USM   11:45     AT7      Y7 M7 K7 N7 T7 L2 H2 Q2 V1
PG         133     BKK   11:30     USM   12:35     319      C7 Y7 M7 K7 N7 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
PG         135     BKK   12:05     USM   13:10     319      Y7 M7 K2 N2 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
PG         216     BKK   12:30     USM   14:00     AT7      Y7 M0 K0 N0 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
PG         145     BKK   14:00     USM   15:05     319      Y7 M7 K4 N4 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
PG         961     BKK   14:45     USM   15:50     319      C7 Y7 M7 K7 N7 T7 L1 H1 Q1 V1 G1 B1
PG         873     BKK   15:35     USM   16:40     319      C7 Y7 M7 K7 N7 T2 L2 H2 Q2 V1
PG         951     BKK   16:10     USM   17:15     319      C7 D7 Y7 M7 K1 N1 T1 L1 H1 Q1 V0
PG         169     BKK   17:00     USM   18:05     319      Y7 M7 K0 N0 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
I'm going to hazard a guess that neither C nor Y awards come out of published buckets as I can't fathom that they'd come from a bucket as high as T.
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Old Oct 22, 2013, 3:51 am
  #27  
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On the other hand the bolded below show 4 seats available and each is T>4. I find this odd since the Discovery Airpass pulls from L and I'd have thought awards would pull from a lower bucket.

[KVS Availability Tool 7.3.0/Diamond - Availability/FS/US]
Code:
BKK  Bangkok Metro / Suvarnabhumi Intl TH = BKK DMK [VTBS]
USM  Samui Koh Samui TH [VTSM]
THU  28 Nov 2013

Carrier    Flight  From  Depart    To    Arrive    A/C  St  Availability
---------  ------  ----  --------  ----  --------  ---  --  -----------------------------------
PG         123     BKK   08:15     USM   09:20     319      Y7 M7 K7 N7 T7 L7 H7 Q7 V7
PG         127     BKK   09:00     USM   10:30     AT7      Y7 M2 K2 N2 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
PG         805     BKK   09:45     USM   10:50     319      C7 Y7 M5 K0 N0 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
PG         125     BKK   10:15     USM   11:45     AT7      Y7 M7 K0 N0 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
PG         133     BKK   11:30     USM   12:35     319      C7 Y7 M0 K0 N0 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
PG         135     BKK   12:05     USM   13:10     319      Y7 M7 K7 N7 T1 L1 H1 Q1 V1
PG         216     BKK   12:30     USM   14:00     AT7      Y7 M0 K0 N0 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
PG         145     BKK   14:00     USM   15:05     319      Y7 M7 K7 N7 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
PG         961     BKK   14:45     USM   15:50     319      C7 Y7 M7 K7 N7 T1 L1 H1 Q1 V0 G0 B0
PG         873     BKK   15:35     USM   16:40     319      C7 Y7 M7 K7 N7 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
PG         951     BKK   16:10     USM   17:15     319      C7 D7 Y7 M7 K7 N7 T7 L3 H3 Q3 V3
PG         169     BKK   17:00     USM   18:05     319      Y7 M7 K7 N7 T0 L0 H0 Q0 V0
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Old Oct 22, 2013, 1:49 pm
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Thanks dsquared37! That was very helpful information.
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Old Dec 1, 2013, 1:26 pm
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Bangkok Airways experience?

I am traveling on Bangkok Airways from Bangkok to the Maldives (MLE). Going in April in business class. Has anyone had any experience with this airline? It's an approximately 4 hour flight in a A-320.
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Old Dec 1, 2013, 2:45 pm
  #30  
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Havent flown them in business, because it always seemed like a huge waste of money since most of their routes are short.

Also, isnt their J cabin on the A320 just a regular coach seat with the middle seat blocked?

Y was always excellent, there is a even lounge for Y pax in BKK. Great airline.
Blows away anything in North America.
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