thai air, nok air or air asia?

Hi

Visiting Thailand in July and want to fly from Bangkok to Phuket, there doesnt seem to be much in cost between the three airlines. Does anyone have any first hand experience / recommendations?

Thanks

Andy

thai air, nok air or air asia?

As a seasoned Thailand traveler, have lived there and I have a house there.......don%26#39;t fly Air Asia. They are always late if their flights are not canceled. Nok air is owned by Thai airways as their low cost carrier. I have flown Nok air a few times and their 737 aircraft are fine. Thai air is very nice but the cost difference between them and Nok air doesn%26#39;t justify flying on them within Thailand. Nok air is the good choice as a balance between reliability and cost.

Martian

thai air, nok air or air asia?

We are using Nok Air next month to fly from Bangkok to Phuket. The price couldn%26#39;t be beat! I will post a full review when we get back at the end of April. :)

I fly very frequently in the region, I%26#39;ve often used Air Asia and I have no complaints. There is a persistent rumour that it%26#39;s always late, however I think this is highly exaggerated. Maybe it applied to Air Asia several years ago and is no longer valid. Personally, I%26#39;ve only been on one late Air Asia flight in the last 2 years, a flight to Bangkok from Kuala Lumpur which was delayed. It was the last flight of the night and that often happens with point to point carriers, as small delays during the day pile up to skew the later flights. One advantage is, they fly from Suvarnabhumi, so if you%26#39;re arriving on an international flight you don%26#39;t have to change airports.

Nok Air is partly owned by Thai and has taken over a number of its domestic routes. Lately, it%26#39;s been showing some customer service gaps but I have to say I%26#39;ve always enjoyed flying with them. Unlike Air Asia they have reserved seating. The planes are all painted like cartoon birds (';Nok'; means ';bird';), and they have the most attractive flight attendants for whatever that%26#39;s worth. However, lately they%26#39;ve been doing annoying things like cancelling a flight I had booked and not informing me at all (I found out on a web forum). They also have a really stupid policy regarding foreign credit cards. Last time I tried to book with them I finally gave up after a tooth and claw battle with their call centre, and booked my flight to Krabi on Air Asia.

Check Thai Air online before you book anything. They often have competitive no-frills prices.

The budget airlines are all fine safety-wise except for 1-2-Go, which had a bad crash recently coming into Phuket in bad weather. That carrier, and its parent company Orient Thai, have had a nasty safety reputation for years. I would not recommend them. I don%26#39;t believe Thai Air has a significantly better safety standard than Air Asia or Nok Air, though.

All 3 are good in my opinion. If they are the same price, go with Thai Airways (although I would imagine that the other 2 are cheaper). I have never had a problem on Air Asia. For an extra $10 you can also get priority seating on Air asia which lets you board first and get your choice of seats. It is a short flight, so I think all options are fine, just pick based on price and schedule.

Thai Airways is reliable and the most expensive.

Nok Air isn%26#39;t bad for the price. Although we had to change the plane due to technical problem after everyone boarded the plane. Never mind, they found the problem and they decided to do something about it.

Air Asia%26#39;s planes are OK but yep my experience with them is they were late big time. For the budget reason, somehow there was an annoucement saying that there was some problem at the runway and they couldn%26#39;t get in to take passengers; however, other budget non TG airlines e.g. One2Go and Bangkok Airways had no problem.

I flew a range of small airlines while in SE Asia last month --%26gt; Air Asia, Bangkok Airlines, Nok Air, 1-2-Go Airlines, etc. Eight flights total with only one significant delay: Bangkok Airlines, a two-hour delay.

So different from the U.S.! Several flights departed late because passengers had not yet boarded. I was shocked (not angry, just utterly surprised). Flights delayed 5-10 minutes because %26#39;Joe Shmoe%26#39; was running late. Wow.

For short flights, airlines sell snacks and drinks. Everything ran really smoothly and seats were comfortable! NOT much overhead comparment space, as an fyi. Occasionally airport vans drove passengers to the plane.

I flew each of the airlines you%26#39;re considering and would recommend all of them! I%26#39;d select the one with the best depart/arrival times. Have a great trip!

Thanks everyone for your replies.Will let you know what we decide on.

Andy

We took Thai airways. If you are using them for your international flight, it makes sense to use them for your domestic connection in case the international flight is delayed.

Another consideration is checked luggage allowance. With Thai you get 20kg but with AirAsia and Nok you get a measly 15kg buy you can upgrade to Nok Plus for probably less than the excess charge you would pay with Nok or AirAsia and get 30kg. The main issue though is that Nok flies from the old airport, whereas the other two fly from the new. If you are transferring from and to a hotel in Bangkok that%26#39;s no proble but if you are transferring from and to an international flight you will need to allow 4 to 5 hours to transfer between the two airports and check-in on time.