Nok Air

✅ Trip Verified | Bangkok to Krabi. Nok is a true budget airline: a little gritty, rough around the edges, and you're never really comfortable in terms of believing that you'll get where you're going on time. I checked in online and bypassed the ticket counter, but past experiences have been less than easy. If you don't prepay your bags online, you have to check in via one line, go to a bag drop and another line, then go to a payment counter to pay the baggage fee. It's a pretty terrible system. But this time--none of that. Straight to the gate. Don't expect much in terms of announcements, watch for the crowd and go queue up when it's time. Their flights seem to require a bus out to the plane, and that's your typical budget airline experience--they try to get all 150 of you into one to avoid making two trips. The aircraft on my trip was old, and a god bit worn out. Nok chose to paint their planes in a really colorful scheme (I call it "Sky Chicken Fabulous") with a bird head on the nose of the plane. Unfortunately the colors haven't held up well, so the appearance of the plane is shabby and faded even from the outside. The crew is quick and a small bottle of water is included, a nice touch. The English skills of the crew are marginal for an airline that carries a lot of tourists, but if you'e heard the safety presentation before elsewhere, there's not much that the crew has to talk to you about. They advertise WiFi on board, but no Nok flight I've ever flown delivered on that promise. My flight left late and arrived late, but no announcements or apologies were made, it appeared to be just part of a normal Nok day. Air Asia is still the cream of the crop in Thai budget carriers, with VietJet delivering mostly good results as well. Nok joins the second tier with Lion Air. Nok does offer a frequent flyer program which sets them apart, but it requires you to write them and send a copy of your boarding pass to get credit, which is honestly just too much hassle to get a free $25 flight. I'd fly Nok again, but there's nothing that would steer me toward them, either.

✅ Trip Verified | I have travelled with Nok Air many times and probably will in the future. It is not by choice but by necessity because Nok Air has a monopoly on flights to Phrae. There are no other airlines going to Phrae. I don't want to be unfair with my comments but I think the reviews are valuable for people so they know what they can expect. I have booked tickets for 2 people. I made an error with my return day of flight so I had to change the departure date from 21st March to 20th March. It was impossible to get this done on line from Sydney. I had to get friends in Phrae to change the date at the Phrae Airport, they couldn't change it on line either, they could not get any assistance over the phone and my friends are Thai, they were advised to go to the airport, over the phone they were told the charges to make the changes were going to cost 975 Thb per person, at the airport not only was the change of one day difficult but also costly. Nok Air charges 2,778 Thb for this change to be effected not the 975 Thb previously quoted. I think this charge is extortionate. It was my fault for booking the wrong date but Nok Air do not assist or help in any way to make the change easy. It is very difficult to communicate to the staff over the phone when you finally get through to them. The staff have difficulty understanding English and simply lay down their rules without any commpassion or appreciation of the difficulty they place people in. I fly to Thailand regularly and find the international airlines very good and the staff incredibly helpful but the internal flights particularly with Nok Air is not always smooth and the staff even though they are expediting their job...it is only the bare minimum with little if any charm... and the endearing smile people are accustomed to seeing with the friendly Thai people is mostly non existent.

✅ Trip Verified | This company is absolutely worthless. They cancelled our flight to a later one the same day, but only let us know 1 day on beforehand. Their website is not working properly. You don't get access to check-in, nor for booking luggage : the latest meant we had to pay 1800 baht for 2 persons for 15 kg luggage one way, that is ). The personnel is far from interested and is just keen to make more profit. The premium water you receive on board is 250 ml, lukewarm and it has a bad taste.

✅ Trip Verified | Bangkok to Ubon Ratchathani. As I started my journey from Ayutthaya, I took a commuter train from their station to Don Mueang Train Station, which is directly located next to Don Mueang's International Airport. Though with more than three hours to spare, we were already allowed to drop off our bags on one of their counters. Our flight was operated by an aircraft that was barely just over a year old and was in a very good shape. The legroom offered for a so-called LCC carrier was very generous and you did not need to fight for any space in the overhead bins. The flight departed on time and complimentary water was provided to you shortly after take off before the Buy on Board service would start. The flight took only 40 minutes and the landing performed by the pilots was excellent. Deboarding of the plane took only a minute or two and our luggage was already on belt before arriving to it's designated belt. The walk from jetbridge to drop off doesn't even take more than two minutes. Good job!

✅ Trip Verified | We purchased 4 tickets from Bangkok to Phuket months in advance for all four of us. Our flight was cancelled the night before departure. Nok Air emailed us that night to tell us of the cancellation and wrote the following: “Please be advised that flight DD7504 on NOV 19 2018 is cancelled due to technical reason. You are entitled for one of the following options, 1.Transfer to other available Flight at Donmuang Airport without any additional charges or change traveling destination DD7500 19NOV2018 DMK – HKT Dep. 06:10-07:35 DD7512 19NOV2018 DMK – HKT Dep. 11:00-12:20 DD7506 19NOV2018 DMK – HKT Dep. 13:35-14:55 DD7514 19NOV2018 DMK – HKT Dep. 15:15-16:35….” We immediately called Nok Air to transfer our flights (the same ones listed “without any additional charges”) but the number continuously went to voicemail. We tried several different numbers and emailed but had no luck. It was very late and we saw online that flights were getting booked up fast, so we did the only thing we could do and just purchased the four tickets ourselves and because it was just hours before the flight the four tickets came out to approximately $500. We had originally paid $171.40 for the four tickets. On the way to the airport, we wrote them a nice email to provide them with our new flight information and receipt so that they could refund and reach back out to us as soon as they could. No response. We made it to Phuket and had a week left of our trip and didn’t think twice about it since we thought that it was a pretty simple issue to resolve. We made it back home to the States and were confused that we had still hadn’t heard back from them. This is where the real headache began.. My fiancé called, waited, explained, called, waited, explained, and called some more, waiting some more, and explained some more, emailed over a dozen times and spoke with a dozen people within a three week span. Sometimes he wouldn’t even get a hold of anyone. Other times we would literally put the phone on speaker phone for an hour to finally speak to someone for 5 minutes who didn’t want to deal with the issue then transfer us to someone else to repeat the whole story again to just be transferred to someone else, then promised something or told to call back at a different hour or some other craziness! Not one Nok Air employee listened to us, they just read from some sort of manual and tried to get rid of us each and every time. Needless to say on the fourth week we were exhausted. They accomplished tiring us out. We spend $171.40 on 4 tickets on a flight that they cancelled to then have to pay $500 to transfer flights that they clearly stated we wouldn’t be charged for! Oh- and here’s the kicker – since we were calling an international number and spending hours on the phone on hold, we were hit with a $300 phone bill at the end of all of this. Just thinking about this again leaves me with the feeling of disgust.

✅ Trip Verified | Bangkok to Yangon. The check in was very easy and quick, the plane was clean, all the staff were really friendly and helpful, the flight was on time. I would definitely fly again with Nok Air.

✅ Trip Verified | Krabi to Bangkok. It seems like this airline is really into scamming people. They are not customer service friendly and leave you no options in the end. My vacation took a turn for the worst when my partner fell extremely ill with pneumonia and was hospitalized for 3 days. I called the airline as soon as this happened to try and get our flight re-booked. I was told that they can’t do that and I wouldn’t be able to get my money back either, so after some more convincing on my part they finally said they would do it but I would have to pay an extra 1000 baht (ok fine whatever). So the next flight that we had booked we were still not able to leave the hospital so I called the airline back and explained I couldn’t rebook because I had no way of knowing when we would be able to leave the hospital they said they wanted proof (which ok, that’s fair), and then they might consider rebooking the flight. I asked for a credit so I could book again when we were released, and nothing.

✅ Trip Verified | Bangkok to Phuket. I paid for tickets for me and my family 4 months in advance. We get to check in and were told our flight was cancelled and that they sent me an e-mail three days prior. I asked to be put on another flight there were no seats for the whole day. They offered me a refund but i wasnt willing to just walk away. They offered me and my family to fly stand by but knowing that everything was booked i declined and asked them to put us on another airline which they refused. The desk people although polite were not helpful and did nothing to get us a seat. After finding a manager on my own I insisted that what Nok Air did was wrong and I wasnt going to leave the airport, she then got us seats on the next flight.

✅ Trip Verified | Yangon to Bangkok. Perfect, on time, clean, and kind. First time on Nok air and could not be happier. Extra bag checked but prepaid, so I avoided unnecessary problems at the counter. Totally recommended low cost.

✅ Trip Verified | Nok Air has online Checkin 24 hours before to print out your boarding pass and can go directly to security and gate if one isn't checking a bag. Also you can change your flight for an extra charge online. Everytime I ever needed to call Nok Air they answered promptly. If one has a bag to check like I did there is a special line at Don Muang Airport for those who checked in online. My flight was full during the busy New Year and many people brought on roller bags with other carry ons even though only one small 7 kilo carry on is permitted at the cheapest fare and one must pay a higher fare to check roller bags. The cabin attendant didn't object to these passengers bring on so much but amazingly worked hard to get all the bags into the overhead bins in time for take off. I noticed that nearly everyone did not put small things under the seat in front of them but instead taking up needed space of the overhead bins. The plane departed on time and arrived on time and my checked bag was soon on the carousel. Nok Air hasn't disappointed yet.