Thai Lion Air

✅ Trip Verified | Udon thani to Bangkok. Baggage Rip off airline - the airline makes it impossible to buy baggage on line or by phone, and slaps a 300 baht: kg bill at you at check in. I say intentionally because none of the channel works, we tried it for more than 24 hours. Online does not allow purchase, customer care number rings out no one picks up (15 calls), social media contacts do not respond, so is an email not responded. All channels down at the same time can not be accidental. Ultimately we had t purchase a new ticket at 2240 baht with 20 kg baggage allowance while the purchase online would have costed 400 baht. Airline does not offer remedial measures as the mistake is clearly theirs and I was forced to pay instead.

✅ Trip Verified | Like many other Thai Lion customers, my partner and I experienced terrible customer service in Kathmandu. When we attempted to check in to our flight to Bangkok the attempted to charge us an exorbitant $289 baggage fee, effectively doubling the cost of our flight. When my partner and I pushed back on this unnecessary expense and asked for more information, they explained each additional kilogram over the first seven cost $17. However, my partner's bag - the one causing the expense - weighed approximately 17 kilograms, meaning the excess baggage fee should have been $170, per Thai Lion's own policy. The staff could not explain the $289 calculation. When we refused to pay the fee, these customer service agents withheld our passports and threatened to bar us from boarding the flight. Needless to say, my partner and I were furious with this extortion. After more angry back and forth, they explained that since we purchased our flight tickets in November 2018, we were exempt from Thai Lion's baggage policy, which went into effect in January 2019. They did not apologize for misleading and threatening us. In 20+ years of frequent flying, I have never encountered such poor customer service, even on budget airlines. Word to the wise: Don't fly with Thai Lion. If you must, check the date of your ticket purchase. Any tickets purchased prior to the January 2019 policy change are exempt from the draconian baggage policy.

✅ Trip Verified | Chiang Rai to Denpasar via Bangkok. This airline has quite a scam going with it's baggage policy. I travel a lot and am normally pretty good at avoiding some of the traps that budget airlines set up (or at least being aware of them). The day before our flight I went to check in online and take care of baggage and things like that. Everytime I tried to complete check-in, I would get an error screen. I downloaded the app and it would crash everytime I tried to even enter my boarding number. So as most people would, I gave up and decided to take care of it at the airport the next morning. If you don't buy luggage more than 4 hours before the flight they charge every kg as "overage" weight. We were at first quoted about $1,000 for our two bags. I told them that the website was broken and we were unable to buy them ahead of time. I even showed them the app crashing on my phone. They eventually changed the total price to $350 for our two 18kg bags after we pressed them, when they made an "exception" because our 2nd flight was more than 4 hours away. They also have a "no outside food policy" meaning you aren't allowed to bring any food on the plane. Stay far away from them. TLDR: $350 USD for 2 bags totalling 36 kg between the two of them.

Not Verified | Udon Thani to Bangkok. My Complaint is about their Check In Staff at Udon Thani Airport, We never had any Baggage to check in Only had 1 "approved" Cabin Bag & weighing 10 kgs in total, this was for 2 Passengers, so well within their 7kg per pax limit. We checked in & I Was told "You Cannot take that bag into the cabin". I pointed out it was Approved Size Cabin Baggage, but in the eyes of the check in staff there was no way they were going to let us board our flight. They Made us go to a shop & buy 2 plastic bags & transfer our clothes from my Approved Cabin bag into these 2 Plastic Bags. What made me Angry was that there were a lot Of bags in the cabin either the same size & Some Even Bigger than Mine. There was NO Problems with the actual flights apart from a 20 Minute Delay on both sectors, but that happens.

✅ Trip Verified | Mumbai to Yangon via Bangkok. They are seriously out to scam. I had to pay 322 USD for 10 kg of checked in luggage from India to Myanmar. My boyfriend and I tried checking previously what my baggage allowance was but it was not clear on the ticket (Nothing was written about baggage allowance) or on the website. I saw in numerous places that they allowed 20 kg so figured out I’d be fine or else the worst case scenario I’d have to pay 100 usd or so. But $300 is way more than the actual ticket cost. The baggage prices are exorbitant and it seems like the airline intentionally tried to hide the baggage price requirement. There was no information about it whatsoever on the ticket and finding information on the website was extremely difficult/unclear. Never flying them again.

✅ Trip Verified | . Flying Thai Lion from Singapore to Chiang Rai via Bangkok return and we got delayed on 1 leg so a 25% delay rate. Mostly old and worn aircrafts 737s but also out of date service. Wanted to pay by credit card but no not possible on flight. Wanted to buy wine - no not possible. Wanted then to buy beer which was available on 1 leg out of the 4 flights I have probably flown 500 times and never not been able to buy a beer on a flight. Yes I know it is Asia and budget but I regularly fly Jetstar and AirAsia wo any problems. Luckily AirAsia has now opened a direct flight on the route so good but Thai Lion!

✅ Trip Verified | Krabi to Bangkok. Our family flew this airline March 25, 2019. After travelling 2 different countries and numerous flights for 3 weeks with no problem, our encounter at Thai Lion Air was horrible. I am not a person to write reviews but I have realized how important they are for others who might need advice before making a choice. Do yourself a favour and pay a few extra dollars to fly with someone else. This airline will absolutely gauge you at the checkout demanding you pay for baggage you are carrying on at ridiculous prices. Not only was it despicable, but the ticket agent began to yell at us when we started to question this! We have been traveling for 3 weeks with carry on only and have not had one problem yet. Not one! The amount they wanted to charge us for carryon backpacks was double our plane ticket! Completely ridiculous. Also very stressful as their only option was to pay or miss your flight. Horrible practices, horrible customer service. Do not use this airline. Save yourself the stress.

✅ Trip Verified | Absolutely horrible airline. Paid for the online option for checked baggage and when we arrived they said they had no history of any payment. We had 20kgs of luggage and they charged us $700 USD to get on the flight. I have never written a bad review for anywhere and I am absolutely outraged. I will never fly Thai Lion Air again. Horrible airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Phuket to Nagoya via Bangkok. I paid about 145 USD for the flight and tried to pay for excess baggage (about 80 USD for 20kg) on their website several times, but each time, the website denied my payment, despite my card having no problems. When it was time to check in, they asked for 500 USD to check my bag in. I understand most airlines charge more money at the check in counter, but it is extortion to ask for a customer to pay that amount in such short notice with no other options other than to miss the flight. I was not the only customer to have a problem paying on the website and it is ridiculous and a terrible service to have such an outrageous policy. I will never fly Thai Lion Air again.

✅ Trip Verified | Have been a very frequent flier with Thai Lion Air over the last five years (probably around 100 times domestically). But year after year, more and more annoying “rules” (especially the now rather high charges for check-in luggage, higher than for instance on domestic flights in the USA!). On this flight, I tried to check in online. Always system error, only to be told at counter that online check-in internationally is not possible. Why then offer online check-in? By accident, I realized that there is no longer a free luggage allowance (English version of website still shows 20kg when trying to buy extra luggage). On this flight, a potential safety issue? Nobody sat in the emergency exit row in the middle of the plane (plane probably 80% full). Before take-off, a flight attendant addressed us five passengers sitting in the row behind the emergency exit row with “Since you are sitting in the emergency exit row...”. I stopped her right away, bringing to her attention that actually, nobody was sitting in any of the seats in that row. She did not seem concerned. I then suggested that some of us move to those seats, which we did after her “ok”. Admittedly, one flight attendant sat in the jumpseat on the right side of the emergency exit row during take-off and landing. But this experience made me feel rather uneasy, a low concern for security by the airline, possibly? Am now flying AirAsia instead.