BANGKOK AIRWAYS    Customer Reviews and Passenger Trip Reports

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  15 November 2009 by John Musson   (UK)

Recently travelled for the first time with Bangkok Airways, Bangkok to Phuket return. I was very pleased with both flights, everything was good, check in, cabin crew and flight deck gave two perfect flights. The lounge at Bangkok Airport was a very pleasant surprise, even more so as it is available to all passengers. At Phuket, free orange juice, water and little snacks were available for Bangkok Airways passengers, a very nice and welcome touch. Baggage checked in at Phuket and not seen or, handled by me again until arrival at London Heathrow. The flight is short about 1hr 15mins, I didn't feel the need to eat on such a short flight but the drinks were welcome. A little lack of directions on arrival at Bangkok Airport prevents a 10/10 but overall a most pleasant flying experience, would definitely use Bangkok Airways again.

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  10 November 2009 by W Telliez   (France)

Be careful what they advertise in their flight magazine: Fah Thai. In their November/December 2009 on page 78 a 20% discount for Siam Ocean World BKK is stated upon producing your boarding pass. My friend and I did so and the staff at Ocean World denied us the discount saying that it was an old promotion no longer valid! Bangkok Airways replied to me that this was not their mistake, easy "exit" answer, at the end the passenger was cheated.

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  8 October 2009 by Steven Cao   (China)

Krabi-Koh Samui on ATR72, efficient check in, free flow of soft drinks and cold coffee for Bangkok Airways passengers at Krabi airport. Service is very good on flight, Koh Samui airport is beautiful!

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  15 September 2009 by James Halley   (Thailand)

BKK-CNX on a newish A319. Comfortable seats and some entertainment which helps pass 30 minutes. Food has gotten worse. Cold chicken burger sandwich which most people around me didn't eat and they got trashed. 80 baht for a beer is a bit steep otherwise juice and coffee/tea is free. A real criticism - on my way to Singapore flying TG/SQ I checked whether I could transit BKK using SQ/PG. No problem I was told at the Bangkok Airways transfer desk as they had a co-operation agreement. However when it came to the transit back to CNX, the complete opposite was true, and they refused to issue a boarding pass and that I should join the lines entering BKK and check in again for the onward flight. When I asked about my bag which had been checked through they said that wouldnt be a problem. I saw all the bags come off the SQ flight 'just in case' and then proceeded onward to get my boarding pass 'land- side'. When I arrived in Chiang Mai was told that my bag was not listed as a transfer bag and that the girl in SQ in Singapore was wrong to label it through to CNX. She told me to go to the domestic baggage hall and to my surprise up it came, still with the original SQ label. Staff are slipping or the training is wrong and spoiling my impression of PG which I have flown domestically and internationally. And I have terrible indigestion from that sandwich, making me wish I had joined those around me and trashed it. Frankly the smoked chicken sandwiches in the lounge were much better quality.

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  8 September 2009 by Toby Price   (UK)

UTP-USM-BKK. The flight from Pattaya to Samui was an ATR72 and a little rough. The service was fine. Samui to Bangkok modern A319 and great. On time and great service. Bangkok Airways are still a bit on the expensive side but what can you do!

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  25 August 2009 by W Timmermans   (Indonesia)

Bangkok-Male-Bangkok, Business Class on Airbus A319. Good seats and spacious cabin set up for a relatively small plane. Excellent food and good service. What really topped it up however was the service upon arrival in Bangkok. Brought from the plane by bus to an entrance straight in front of the immigration fast track. Business Class luggage came first and a Bangkok Airways staff was in contact with the luggage handlers in the back. I guess the whole process of disembarking, clearing immigration and getting the luggage didn't take more than 5 minutes.

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  25 August 2009 by N Francis   (UK)

CNX-USM-BKK Check-in at Chiang Mai was very quick and easy, with very smiley agents. Never found the lounge but not the end of the world! Service really good and quick, sandwich tea and juices. Koh Samui airport is lovely, and took roughly 15 minutes from landing till we were out the front with our bags. Return to BKK was the same. One point to note was that neither myself, nor my travel companion nor the passenger directly in front had life jackets under our seats - not particularly encouraging as we taxied out past the wreckage of the Bangkok Air plane from a week ago! Informed the flight attendant who was extremely apologetic and brought us replacements immediately before takeoff. Overall, good value tickets and convenient times and very attentive service.

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  9 August 2009 by M Sands   (UK)

BKK-USM-HKT. Flights booked for reasonable price. Check in online is effortless and numerous baggage drop desks available in Bangkok Airport. Both flights boarded ontime, departed early and arrived ahead of schedule. Koh Samui facilities are tropical and very clean, in keeping with the landscape. Flight Attendants were extremely well presented, polite and friendly on first sector, but went a little downhill for second leg. Onboard service is basic on short sectors consisting of water/orange juice and a sandwich. Bangkok Airways hold the monopoly for flights in and out of Koh Samui, but are a reliable and efficient carrier.

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  27 July 2009 by H Leong   (Hong Kong)

Hong Kong-Koh Samui round trip. A320 new and in very good condition. Their planes are painted in bright and distinct liveries, while the interior color scheme was refreshing. This being a cheap and short flight, there was obviously no personal seatback screens, but the fold down overhead monitors did play a family movie, and the range of music channels was extensive. Light meal was not fantastic but it definitely exceeded my expectations. Staff were well dressed and friendly, and flights were on time. All in all an excellent regional airline well worthy of their slogan 'Asia's boutique airline.'

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  20 July 2009 by F Grevebstuk   (Netherlands)

BKK-CMX. A very pleasant experience, there is a lounge for economy class passengers as well. In just one hour flight, we got a meal with juice, coffee twice and a nice pastry. Great cabin crew punctual service and luggage was on the belt before we arrived to pick it up.

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  27 June 2009 by T Price   (UK)

USM-BKK. Being a regular flyer with Bangkok Airways I've noticed they have gone down a notch lately. Once you have seen the 'Beautiful Airport' you get over that and find out that Bangkok Airways is overpriced for what you get. This is mainly due to Bangkok Airways owning the airport so being able to set their own prices. The food has gone downhill. A cold chicken burger and orange squash is a little on the poor side and if you want a beer you have to pay. Its also gone from 40bt to 80bt in a month, quite a jump in price. Flight attendants are very pleasant but Bangkok Airways are over for budget Asian airline.

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  25 June 2009 by Andrew Fleming   (Ghana)

Return from Bangkok to Phuket using A319/A320. Check in effortless, was with my elderly father who uses a stick and the staff wanted to arrange him a buggy warning us the walk to the gate was a considerable distance. He is too proud so we declined and passed through the fairly busy domestic terminal to the area this airline seems to monopolise. A good thing about this was that the lounge is located here. This was an economy only route but as others note all passengers can use the lounge and obtain free hot and cold drinks and simple snacks (selections understandably limited) as well as Internet access (rationed to 15 minutes). Boarding was more or less on time though by bus and the kindly check in staff had arranged for us to have a seat at the front of the cabin. The aircraft was clean and staff smart in their turquoise uniforms. Once airborne a simple but adequate meal was served on this flight of just under 90 minutes. A tip if taking the same route - do try for a right hand seat for some stunning views during the descent. Bags took a while to come through but a Thai Airways jet had arrived just before us - most of their fleet are much larger aircraft so the small airport was quite busy. On the return check in was chaotic but my father was again given a seat near the front. A similar meal was served and again, the airline more or less kept to time. With the price of the flight at around £100 this impressive little airline offers good value - slightly better than its larger competitor. It was also publicised that through check in to other airlines is possible in Phuket, possibly because there is also an immigration presence.

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  5 May 2009 : by J Harper   (UK)

BKK-USM-BKK. The lounge at Bangkok airport is comfortable and provides all the services required when you are in transit for a couple of hours. Our outward flight was fine and must give full marks to the FA who stopped the safety briefing to (very politely) ask the passenger holding up a newspaper to pay attention and stop blocking the view of those behind him. As I do not eat fish, I passed on the tuna roll but it is always impressive that the FAs manage to serve a snack, drinks etc in such a short time. Koh Samui airport has to be the sweetest airport in the world. Unfortunately, at check-in on the return journey we were informed that Bangkok Airways could not check through our luggage (it had been checked through on the outward journey), so we would have to collect our cases at Bangkok airport, check in for the international flight and then go through immigration and security. No explanation or offer of assistance was provided - given the short time we had between flights some assistance would have been very welcome. The flight to Bangkok was delayed and, once again, the snack was a tuna roll. I do not know how much control Bangkok Airways has over transferring luggage but we waited approx 25 minutes for ours to appear and had to run to the international check-in area.

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  24 April 2009 : by S Williams   (UK)

Bangkok-Siem Reap-Phuket via Bangkok. Great airline, very prompt, efficient, lovely crew onboard, good snacks, quite expensive versus Air Asia but they offer good routes not served by Air Asia. Siem Reap to Phuket was a bit of a pain as it is sold as direct with a touchdown in Bangkok but you have to physically disembark, coach to the terminal, clear customs, get back on the coach and reboard the plane - not a major problem and meant on arrival in Phuket we had already cleared customs. Overall very impressed and would recommend them.

BANGKOK AIRWAYS review :  15 April 2009 : by M Trachsel   (Switzerland)

BKK-HKT with B717. Flight was delayed for 2h due to foggy weather conditions. I didn`t mind because every passenger gets Lounge access. I know no other airline which offers this for its economy passengers. The information regarding the delay were sufficient. The short flight was uneventful with the usual snack and drinks being served.