Air Asia vs. Thai Air

Anyone have any insight on these airlines. We are booking a flight from Bangkok to Phuket and Air Asia has a cheaper flight, but it seems like we might get hit with some excess baggage charges. Plus, it looks like Thai Air is part of United%26#39;s Star Alliance. Thanks in advance.

Air Asia vs. Thai Air

Air Asia is a Low Cost Carrier - cheap and not always cheerful or on-time flights, 15kg checked luggage/pay for excess allowance. Thai Airways is the national carrier and rated as one of the best in the world - 20kg luggage allowance, more reliable, more flights and part of Star Alliance along with several other carriers, including United.

You pays your money ................

Air Asia vs. Thai Air

While it%26#39;s true that AirAsia has delay issues... do remember that they also have more aircrafts, more flights and fly more routes than any of the other low cost carriers.... Proportionally there would have to be more complains and unhappy customers... simply because they do much more business... Happy and satisfied customers very seldom make their feeling heard!

Making a comparison between Thai and Airasia is similar to asking if a 3 start resort is as good as a 5 star.....

You pay less than half for the Airasia ticket compared to Thai.... sometimes less than a quarter.

The extra charge for luggage is another issue which is often wildly exaggerated on this forum.... I have no objection to paying for extra luggage... But as it happens I never have.... thus far....

But it does limit and keep the people with 14 crates of haberdashery honest...:-)

I’m one of the ones who have been very satisfied with AirAsia...

One ought to remember that when we buy cheaper tickets we get less service..

Some numbers for you to contemplate;

Thai airways; 90 aircrafts.. this probably includes the 5 used by Nok air.

Bangkok airways; 16 aircrafts.

Nok air; 5 aircrafts.. inherited from their parent Co. “Thai airways”...

Airasia; ... more than 30 aircrafts with more than 80 (new Air busses) still on order.

1-2-go; ... and it%26#39;s parent ';Orent Thai';... has something like 13 aircrafts.. but most of those are used for charter flights..

PB airways; .. 3 aircrafts.

While these numbers may not be totally accurate or comprehensive... it does paint a picture....

Here is a thread discussing the pros and cons of the 2 airlines. I personally prefer Air Asia on these shorter flights. Air Asia operates on the same business foundation as Southwest Airlines.

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g297927-i9287-k894…

mosegrisen Is Thai Air the parent company Of Air Asia ?

I thought they were connected. Not sure

Per Wikipedia:

';The airline (Air Asia) was established in 1993 and started operations on 18 November 1996. It was originally founded by a government-own conglomerate DRB-Hicom. On December 2, 2001 the heavily indebted airline was purchased by former Time Warner executive Tony Fernandes%26#39;s company Tune Air Sdn Bhd for the token sum of one ringgit. Fernandes proceeded to engineer a remarkable turnaround, turning a profit in 2002 and launching new routes from its hub in Kuala Lumpur International Airport at breakneck speed, undercutting former monopoly operator Malaysia Airlines with promotional fares as low as RM1 (US $0.27).';

One of the Associate Companies is Thai AirAsia not to be confused with Thai Airways. Nok Air leases its aircraft from Thai Airways but Thai Airways%26#39; low cost arm (intended to compete with the likes of Air Asia and Nok Air) is called Euarng Luang (Royal Orchid).

Confusing isn%26#39;t it?

Thai AirAsia was formed by a joint venture with Shin Corporation - Thaksin%26#39;s company.

Ah, that%26#39;s why AirAsia and RyanAir are a lot alike - the owners%26#39; ';style';!

Thai airways were originally part owned by SAS (Scandinavian airlines system).... and for many years after the SAS share was bought out, they still had a lot of Scandinavian flight crew (mainly pilots and also administrative staff). I assume they all have retired by now.

There is no connection between Thai airways and AirAsia. The “main” company is a Malaysian one... but Thai AirAsia is ';administratively'; independent.. However, operations are so closely linked that this probably doesn’t make any difference to the customers... Recently they took over the operations management from Malaysian airlines of flights in East Malaysians (Sabah and Sarawak).

And while we are on the subject of ';Ryan air';... the original founders of Ryan air own a half share in Tiger airways.... Singapore airlines directly and indirectly own the rest.

As for AirAsia ';livery'; or ';colours';... not sure where it originated... but ';Virgin Blue'; in Australia is identical.