Bangkok Airways

We flew this route to/return and both times the plane was late for arrival to/take off from Luang Prabang. It appeared that such late arrivals are more routine than not. It should be pointed out that the service onboard both flights was excellent as was the food and drink quality.

My daughter had travelled from UK to Thailand to visit her family. Arriving from Dubai into Bangkok, she was told that the connecting flight to Chiang Mai was delayed by one-hour, this then turned to 2-hours and eventually the flight took off almost five hours later than scheduled arriving in Chiang Mai at 3.00. By the time the passengers disembarked it was 3.35. Very little information was given, very little help was offered by the ground crew in Bangkok. The service was atrocious. I had planned the flights to coincide with a late family supper at home, this turned into a farce. Last week myself and my younger daughter travelled from India to BKK to receive the information that our connecting flight to Chiang Mai was delayed for one-hour. This is not good enough. I will not be using Bangkok Airlines again. 2 strikes and they are out!

Check in very quick with no queue. Business Class lounge I am eligible to use is recently renovated and very comfortable, lots of food (including hot food and light snack) and drinks. Onboard with friendly flight attendants, tasty hot snack served with juice and coffee/ tea. The aircraft looks a bit old, but the seat is new slimline version and give a decent seat pitch. Although it is not really comfortable ergonomic-wise, extra space provided is appreciated. Returning on PG-278, lounge in Phuket is too crowded and too warm, same aircraft as the outbound flight, light dinner is served and it is really enjoyable, both in taste and portion. Their staffs are good as always.

Bangkok Airways gets better. Staff are friendly and well trained. Airplanes although some are showing their age are well maintained. Food on every flight I take is fine with a good selection.

BKK-USM-BKK. A bit upset at the beginning as I arrive early and request a flight change denied by ground staff though I overheard that the flight is not full but that is understandable. Their recently renovated Boutique lounge (economy class lounge) at BKK airport is nice plenty of comfortable seats nice snacks and good Wifi connection for my long wait. Both flights were fine on refurbished A319 with shiny new cushion seat covered hot light supper/ tasty snack is served by nice attendant. Minus point is punctuality both flight delayed 20 and 30 minutes respectively.

Flew BKK-REP return a few weeks ago. I've done this journey once a year for three years now and have to say this year almost felt like a whole different airline. Last couple of years the journey has been "acceptable" but you did feel they were happily benefiting from a route with few competitors. This year it's like they've completely refreshed their service offering. Really impressed and for the first time I felt it really lived up to the idea of a "boutique" airline. Experience started at check-in in BKK - great ground crew and changing to an earlier flight was effortlessly carried out with a simple $20 surcharge. A Bangkok Airways branded bus took us out from the gate to the plane which turned out to be once on board one of their new ATR-72s - Immaculate and comfortable. Crew professional friendly the mini-meal was interesting and fun - a scaled down version of a long haul meal served on a tray with three courses - Cold but you can't have everything. Followed by a tea/coffee service. For a 55 minute flight! As it was the flight turned out to be 1 hr 45 mins long due to bad weather in Siem Reap so we circled for ages - Flight deck kept us informed throughout. Flight back again a great experience - asked at check in if they could check me through to my final destination since my connecting flight in BKK was on a code-share partner. The agent promptly and gracefully did even issued me boarding passes for all my return segments! Very grateful for this service. Plane was an older ATR-72 this time but interior well maintained and looked like it had a spring clean. Crew again professional and friendly and given it's a hour flight you couldn't ask for more. An excellent experience.

For me Bangkok Airways is still the best domestic Thai carrier. However they seem to be getting less reliable. Booked a return flight BKK-UTH-BKK. The flight from Bangkok to Udonthani was cancelled only days after booking it (the second time this happened to us in the past year). We called their customer service got our money back and rebooked with Thai Smile. This morning we arrived at the airport in Udonthani at 07.40am to find out that the 09.15am flight to Bangkok had been rescheduled to 8am about which they had neglected to inform us. Thankfully counter staff still allowed us on the flight. Aircraft was well maintained with friendly staff. A hot meal was included seats were OK but a little hard with enough leg room. Plane only 25% full smooth landing. Unfortunately because we were not informed of the change we had to buy new bus tickets at an extra cost. Will I fly with them again? Yes although I have become a little hesitant because of all their last minute changes.

BKK-KBV-BKK with Bangkok Airways was largely a real pleasure. This airline is trying hard to be different in it's passenger service and it shows. Both flights on time spotlessly clean aircraft full 'meal' service (food nothing special) good seat pitch and largely smiling cabin crews. The only thing to let down the whole experience were the staff in the Lounge at Krabi airport. They were really unfriendly and unhelpful. No eye contact at all and responded rudely when asked a quick question about a smartphone boarding pass.

BKK to CNX. Uneventful short flight with excellent legroom better than Easyjet and Ryanair. Inflight meal and drinks (non-alcoholic) served free. Overhead in-flight entertainment available. Competitive prices still cheaper than Thai.

BKK-PNH-BKK. Flights were on time. Crews were absolutely professional and courteous. What amazes me about this airline is that on a short 55 minute flight they still serve a full meal in coach. The seats pitch is excellent. Coach passengers have access to their Boutique lounge in both BKK and PNH. I can't recommend this airline highly enough!