When flying in Southeast Asia, you’re likely to come across AirAsia or one of its many subsidiaries – such as Bangkok-based Thai AirAsia. With an impressive fleet of over 250 aircraft, AirAsia offers ultra-cheap flights to more than 150 destinations from its bases in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, India and Cambodia.

As a budget carrier, AirAsia is not part of any global airline alliance – although it does offer a loyalty program called AirAsia Rewards.

AirAsia’s tagline is “Now Everyone Can Fly”. It does this by offering very affordable tickets. But does this come at the expense of comfort and reliability?

As you’ll see from this review, if my recent experience flying on Thai AirAsia’s A320 from Bangkok to Luang Prabang is anything to go by, it doesn’t…

Flight Details

Flight number	FD1030
Route	Bangkok (DMK) to Luang Prabang (LPQ)
Aircraft type	Airbus A320
Class of travel	Economy
Seat number	14B
On-time performance	We arrived on time
Star rating

The route

Flight Cost

I paid around AUD108 for a one-way ticket from Bangkok to Luang Prabang on Thai AirAsia. On top of this, I paid approximately AUD61 to add on a 20kg checked bag, an on-board meal and to select an exit row seat.

This brought the total airfare including all extras and payment fees to around AUD169.

Airport Experience

I had been a bit concerned that I would arrive at Don Mueang International Airport, Bangkok’s older airport which is primarily used by budget airlines, to find snaking check-in queues. My concerns were totally unfounded!

There were no queues at all for the staffed check-in counters. There were also plenty of self-service check-in kiosks available – with roaming staff available to help with those as well. I checked in using the kiosk and then had to go to a counter to drop off my checked bag.

Maybe I just got lucky with the time of day – around 11am – but there were also no queues to clear immigration or security. It took me just a few minutes to get airside.

Although Don Mueang (DMK) isn’t as architecturally beautiful as Bangkok’s main Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK), there were plenty of seats, shops and restaurants in Terminal 1. In fact, I think I almost preferred flying out of DMK due to its lack of crowds and easy navigation. Plus, it was only a 25-minute taxi ride from the city.

Lounge access via Priority Pass

With about an hour to spare, I used my Priority Pass membership to visit the Miracle Lounge located upstairs. (There’s another one downstairs.)

As a low-cost carrier, AirAsia obviously doesn’t offer lounge access. So the lounge won’t have any impact on the rating I give at the end of this Thai AirAsia review. But for those interested, here’s a photo of the lounge:

The Miracle Lounge was a pleasant and quiet space with a reasonable selection of buffet food and drinks, as well as clean toilets. Unfortunately, the lounge Wi-Fi didn’t work (and I couldn’t pick up the free airport Wi-Fi from inside the lounge, either).

Boarding

Thai AirAsia boarded this A320 flight from a bus gate. There were three boarding zones, which the airline staff strictly enforced. I was in Zone 1 – a benefit of purchasing a “hot seat” in the first five rows or the exit rows – and was one of the first onto the bus.

Waiting for us at the end of the bus ride was a 12-year-old Airbus A320 that used to fly for Oneworld’s Airberlin.

The Hard Product

Inside the aircraft, the cabin reminded me of Airberlin’s old Airbus A320 fitout. The leather Recaro slimline seats were pretty much the same as the seats I was once used to when flying Airberlin. Thai AirAsia appears to have just made some minor cosmetic adjustments to the interior.

I’d paid to sit in row 14, the second of the two exit rows. These seats were clearly marked with red headrests, and had ample legroom. I found the seat comfortable, given the short flight time, and could easily stretch my legs out under the seat in front.

Clearly, there is less legroom in the other rows. But the standard legroom didn’t look that bad, to be honest.

Although this was a relatively full flight, only three of the exit row seats were occupied. (In my opinion, this is one of the benefits of paying for “preferred” seats!)

During boarding, a few passengers asked the cabin crew if they could move to an empty exit row seat. They were told they could… if they paid for it. AirAsia had the prices listed on a card in the literature pocket! For the record, nobody elected to pay and the empty seats remained empty.

There’s no in-flight entertainment or Wi-Fi, nor are there charging outlets, on Thai AirAsia’s Airbus A320.

The Soft Product

The first thing I want to say about the service on Thai AirAsia is that every single staff member I interacted with was lovely. They were all polite, helpful and spoke English well.

After taking off on schedule, the cabin crew handed out immigration arrival cards for Laos. They then distributed the pre-booked meals, including my Uncle Chin’s chicken rice. This came with a complimentary bottle of water.

I don’t usually rate Economy Class airline food that highly, but AirAsia’s hot meals are actually pretty good. My chicken rice was very tasty! The nasi lemak that my friend ordered also looked great:

In contrast to Scoot, I think AirAsia has quite a comprehensive range of food and drinks available for sale – and the prices are very reasonable. These are some of the meal options:

Additional food and drinks were also available to purchase on board.

After the meal service, the cabin crew offered products and merchandise from the shopping catalogue for sale. They even made an announcement recommending a pumpkin hat, which included a detailed description of all the features of said hat.

If you’re planning to buy anything on board, just beware that Thai AirAsia only accepts cash payments. The crew can accept some foreign currencies, such as US Dollars, but will give any change in Thai Baht.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.