I have personally flown with Bangkok Airways about 7 times and every flight I have taken with them has been a pleasure. The routes that I have flown are U-tapao(Pattaya) to Koh Samui, U-tapao to Phuket, Phuket to Bangkok and Siem Reap to Bangkok(The flight from Siem Reap was run by its partner airline 'Siem Reap Airways'). Bangkok Airways owns the Airport on Koh Samui and also is the only commercial airline that flies out of U-Tapao airport in Pattaya's military base. Therefore they have the monopoly on these routes, but this doesnt matter as Bangkok Airways are a high quality airline that offer good deals and prices throughout all their routes.

At present they have international flights from Thailand to Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Myanmar and the Maldives. This gives them a good network of flights within South East asia and makes them a very good alternative to the more expensive airlines such as Thai airways, and a nicer alternative to the no frills airlines such as Air Asia and Nok Air. They also include 20kg of checked baggage into the price which is a good amount for a lower cost airline.

Bangkok Airways describes themselves as 'Asia's Boutique Airline' which I consider a very valid statement. I personally cannot recomment Bangkok Airways highly enough.

My personal experience of the flights themselves has been a pleasure also, after check-in you get to wait in a designated Bangkok Airways Lounge(at certain airports only) which includes some nice treats like complimentary snacks, drinks and newspapers. Then you are taken to the plane by a nice novelty 'bus'(basically a carrage). When boarding the plane you are greeted by the lovely and helpful staff. The seats on board are pretty standard sized and perfectly adequate; no TV screens on the seats in front, but not needed on these shorter flights. You always get a nice snack and drink included with the flight. All of the meals I have had on board have been very tasty and filling, often involving noodles or rice. You always get a nice hot towel during the flight aswell.


Personally I now fly with Air Asia when I need to save the pennies a bit, but if I can afford to pay the little extra I will always try to fly with Bangkok Air. Also with them having the monopoly on certain routes they are often the only option.