bevotex

Thanks for your reply! That's good to know. Yes I posted incorrectly. The flight is on a A-319, which has 2 classes.

AddictedTraveller

Never flown them myself, but everyone that I know that has has said they are very good. They have some fantastic livery too!

dsquared37

The A320 is a pure Y config. The 319 has various configs from all Y to a pseudo C (Y w/ middle seat blocked) and I believe there still might be a few with real C seats.

The C offerings were quite nice in the past but I haven't flown in the cabin since the changeover to the pseudo C cabin. No idea if there were cutbacks to the food/drink alongside the seating downgrade.

bibbju

I've flown with them quite a lot in both Y and J (on the HK-Samui route) and they've always been excellent. Food is usually good - they do a great Thai beef salad as a starter (in Y). Y seats tend to be the more petite Asian style so if you're very tall or a little "chunky", it may not be as comfortable as you'll find on US based airlines but the service is excellent. J is fine. A little basic perhaps. I only book J with them to ensure I'm one of the first off the plane (as there is invariably only one or two desks open in Immigration for the entire flight's passengers). They're one of my favourite airlines to fly with.

hco

They are good. Only flew domestic Thailand with them.

Nice touch with Y Lounge for everyone. Although the lounges in some not-BKK airports don't have seats for all Y passengers.

nanyang

only flown int'l Y on Bangkok Airways, but they are a good airline based on my experience.

mayodave

Try searching on google with images and you will find loads of reports.

Lobster

I've only flown them in Y but as a Premier I get basically the same ground service.

Check in normally not too painful but they only have one desk for Business/Premier and they seem to have a habit of pushing problem customers from the Y check in there to keep the Y queue going. So you show up with only one person in the queue in front of you but it takes them an age to sort them out. I think they must have received complaints about this and although they do seem to still clogg up their business class check in they are better at prioritising an althernative check in desk (or as I had in RGN a couple of weeks ago a second person checked me in at the same desk).

They give out priority passes for immigration in BKK which can save a lot of time

The Business lounge is OK but nothing spectaculary. I have never seen the one in BKK busy it has a reasonable range of snacks and drinks.

Service on board tends to be good and even on short flights in Y they serve a hot meal.

I almost stopped flying with them about 18 months ago as they went through about a 6 month patch where every flight I took with them was delayed by at least 2 hours and they had a habit of changing the flight times constantly (once they changed the flight time three times on the day of departure and the flight still left 2 hours late). But they seem to have sorted themselves out and for the last 18 months or so their punctuality has been good.

dsquared37

We're of the same experiences. There is the desk just to the left of Premier/Blue Ribbon but it's often used only for monks and paperwork. Rather annoying to get stuck behind a single pax for 10 min. They seem to be passing Y pax to the immediate right desk which is Online CI/Baggage drop.

In and out of BKK. We have a stack at this point which will be great for friends family when necessary.

Between 2-4PM it can fill up where all the tables have at least 1 pax at them. The biggest problem I have with the lounge is the lack of outlets.

^

I remember this stretch well. Thankfully we weren't really affected by it heavily (30 min delays at most) but their opps were definitely stretched thin and the delays mounted as the morning turned to afternoon to evening. Things have been much better since.

olouie

Took a quick hop from BKK to REP on Bangkok Airways recently and came away very impressed. For a short 40 minute flight the crew managed to provide a meal service, including beverages within the first 10-15 minutes. Everyone was very professional, planes were new and good legroom. There were only 20 passengers so no idea how they make money. You even get lounge access for economy tickets (which were around $100 USD one way). Next time I am in Thailand I will be sure to put them on my flying list.

Full review with pics here: http://dinktravel.com/2014/03/25/ban...-to-siem-reap/

What have other people experienced with them? Is it always this good?

Sam Bee

Try flying to Koh Samui and you'll realise how they make their money

Basically owning Samui (and Trat I think) airports mean they have a practical monopoly on a very popular destination (Thai were recently given access to 2 flights a day after threatening to build another airport!).

If you compare their prices for a 45min - 1 hour flight Koh Samui to Bangkok to any other similar distance flight in Thailand (or most of Asia) you'll realise you are paying a lot of money! And, during busy periods their flights roll out 100% full.

However, I would use them on their more competitive routes (BKK-CNX/KBV/HKT/CEI) where costs are lower due to competition as I like their style, service and attitude to customer service. As far as I'm concerned they deserve my loyalty because they have always treated me as a passenger exceptionally well!

Nice little report as well, hope you enjoyed Cambodia!

olouie

Ah that makes sense. Yeah I saw some cheaper fares but wanted to try Bangkok. It was a good experience. I missed Samui so will put that on the list for sure next time.

exwannabe

They are my preferred "puddle jumper" airline in that neck of the world. On the more competitive routes they will usually undercut Thai, and are usually easy to deal with.

Not really a fan of Air Asia.

olouie

Air Asia's pricing wasn't too competitive when I was looking around. For DPS-SIN they were around Singapore's pricing. I ended up booking on Gaurda Indonesia for 60% of the Singapore price and it turned out to be a code share flown by Singapore, pretty funny and lucky.

SS255

I flew PG (Bangkok Airways) from BKK-REP-BKK last month, and had the exact same experience as you wrote in your review. One of the nice aspects of this airline is that they allow people who do web check-in to drop off their bags at the first class counter. This enabled me to avoid a very long queue at BKK, and I was able to head straight through security and to the lounge.

It sounds like you may not have flown them from REP-BKK. The lounge in REP is brand new, but it is very small, and the food selection is not as good as in the lounge at BKK. It also fills up pretty quickly, since it is directly opposite the PG gate, whereas at BKK you have to go out of your way to find it, and most people who are not used to accessing lounges probably aren't looking for it.

I would not hesitate to fly them again next time I am in that part of the world.