Another busy 'high season' coming up.

[Tropicalevo]

I was at Bangkok Airways office trying to book flights for my trip at the end of December.

Very few flights available.

Outbound on the 25th - only business class on the first flight out. (There was limited availability on a later flight but I would have missed my connection in Bangkok.)

Inbound on the 29th - forget it. I will have to overnight in Bangkok and catch the last available flight at 19:45 on the 30th.

Oh well. I suppose I can find something to do in Bangkok for one night

 

As an aside, the reason that I was at the office instead of booking online is because my resident's card had expired (no warning from BA).

Next fail - you can only renew the card on-line. You can no longer talk to a human being face to face at the office.

I now have to scan 14 pages of DBD documents and company papers to upload. 😒

 

[Andycoops]

If you want to book with a niche airline no doubt your experience is real.

There are plenty of other flights available on the many consolidaters sites last time I looked.

 

As for it being busy that's a subjective statement.

[khunPer]

On 10/10/2024 at 4:00 AM, Tropicalevo said:

As an aside, the reason that I was at the office instead of booking online is because my resident's card had expired (no warning from BA).

Next fail - you can only renew the card on-line. You can no longer talk to a human being face to face at the office.

I now have to scan 14 pages of DBD documents and company papers to upload. 😒

You can use your yellow house book, if you have one, that's enough proof for being resident and eligible for Resident Card.

[Tmoney]

On 10/10/2024 at 3:29 PM, Andycoops said:

If you want to book with a niche airline no doubt your experience is real.

There are plenty of other flights available on the many consolidaters sites last time I looked.

 

As for it being busy that's a subjective statement.

There is only one airline that flies BKK to Samui and that is Bangkok Airways, not only niche, but ''Boutique" 🤪.

The one way flights with a Samui residents card cost 2,700 baht, a price you will not see offered on their website if you don't have a card.

I challenge you to find a similar price on any 'consolidaters' website.

(Tut tut TE, bet you don't forget next time) 😅

Edited October 12 by Tmoney

[Tropicalevo]

11 hours ago, Tmoney said:

(Tut tut TE, bet you don't forget next time) 😅

100% true.

I am still 'under consideration' but it is already in the diary.

[Tropicalevo]

On 10/10/2024 at 3:29 PM, Andycoops said:

If you want to book with a niche airline no doubt your experience is real.

There are plenty of other flights available on the many consolidaters sites last time I looked.

 

As for it being busy that's a subjective statement.

 

A quick update on Samui's busy season.

Just tried to book a trip to see friends who are in Langkawi for a couple of months.

Langkawi is a bitch of a place to get to from Samui. Mostly three flights, or two with overnight stops.

As it will be two or three airlines, I tried a consolidator as suggested above.

Forget it. Total waste of time.

Spent ages sorting out the best trip and then negotiating the clunky web site, only to be told 'sorry, we could not book those flights'. Change dates - same message. Change dates again, same message. Gave up and did it myself.

Yet again, Bangkok Airways is not available on the final leg Phuket to Samui so another overnight stop.

 

Had to book with Batik Air Malaysia. Are they any good? Anyone out there flown with them?

[LALes]

Agree.  This will be another whopper of a high season.

Already starting to roll in every day in Jomtien.  Baht busses

full of Russians in Jomtien and Indians in Pattaya.

[ChaiyaTH]

21 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

 

A quick update on Samui's busy season.

Just tried to book a trip to see friends who are in Langkawi for a couple of months.

Langkawi is a bitch of a place to get to from Samui. Mostly three flights, or two with overnight stops.

As it will be two or three airlines, I tried a consolidator as suggested above.

Forget it. Total waste of time.

Spent ages sorting out the best trip and then negotiating the clunky web site, only to be told 'sorry, we could not book those flights'. Change dates - same message. Change dates again, same message. Gave up and did it myself.

Yet again, Bangkok Airways is not available on the final leg Phuket to Samui so another overnight stop.

 

Had to book with Batik Air Malaysia. Are they any good? Anyone out there flown with them?

Why on earth do you complicate such simple things? Langkawi is like around the corner from where you are already but you decide to 'fly from Samui first' before going to actual Langkawi, yeah no <deleted> sherlock, obviously that would result in at least 2 flights.

 

In terms of flights in general, it is cheaper than it has been in years. Even last minutes direct from Franfkurt with Thai airways only cost 500 euro each. Samui itself with Bangkok Airways is always 'almost sold out' no matter the season.

 

With a few brains one would simply get the car to Phuket and then take a flight to Langkawi but hey, have fun doing 3 flights with 2 nights in between to only go to Langkawi ><

 

Last but not least, high season? Let's see about that. All I see is cluster fks in specific areas of Thailand, while overall is in decline. Even some islands have hardly any place to stay, almost all restaurants are empty too. Guess it's called pride before the fall.

Edited October 17 by ChaiyaTH

[Tropicalevo]

1 hour ago, ChaiyaTH said:

Why on earth do you complicate such simple things? Langkawi is like around the corner from where you are already but you decide to 'fly from Samui first' before going to actual Langkawi, yeah no <deleted> sherlock, obviously that would result in at least 2 flights.

 

In terms of flights in general, it is cheaper than it has been in years. Even last minutes direct from Franfkurt with Thai airways only cost 500 euro each. Samui itself with Bangkok Airways is always 'almost sold out' no matter the season.

 

With a few brains one would simply get the car to Phuket and then take a flight to Langkawi but hey, have fun doing 3 flights with 2 nights in between to only go to Langkawi ><

 

Last but not least, high season? Let's see about that. All I see is cluster fks in specific areas of Thailand, while overall is in decline. Even some islands have hardly any place to stay, almost all restaurants are empty too. Guess it's called pride before the fall.

1 I live on Koh Samui. I am not going there first.

 

2 Having lived on Samui for 24 years, I know that Bangkok Airways is not "always 'almost sold out' no matter the season." I do multiple trips every year with Bangkok Airways and this is the first time I have had problems.

 

3 Car to Phuket is a minimum of 6 hours. On every website that I looked at, none showed an airline flying direct from Phuket to Langkawi. Please enlighten me if you found one - on the 03/11. Even Flightradar24 does not show a direct flight.

 

Last but not least, this thread is on the Samui forum. I am discussing Samui, not Nakhon Sri Nowhere.

 

Apart from all of that, thank you for your almost informative post.

Edited October 17 by Tropicalevo

[phetphet]

On 10/10/2024 at 4:00 AM, Tropicalevo said:

I was at Bangkok Airways office trying to book flights for my trip at the end of December.

Very few flights available.

Outbound on the 25th - only business class on the first flight out. (There was limited availability on a later flight but I would have missed my connection in Bangkok.)

Inbound on the 29th - forget it. I will have to overnight in Bangkok and catch the last available flight at 19:45 on the 30th.

Oh well. I suppose I can find something to do in Bangkok for one night

 

As an aside, the reason that I was at the office instead of booking online is because my resident's card had expired (no warning from BA).

Next fail - you can only renew the card on-line. You can no longer talk to a human being face to face at the office.

I now have to scan 14 pages of DBD documents and company papers to upload. 😒

 

 

[phetphet]

Probably a bit late now, but you don’t have to scan all the pages. Ingon sent my DBD copies to me online and the file was too big for BA to accept. There is a size limit.

I went to Ingon’s office to pick up a hard copy, explained my problem to one of the girls. She checked, and told me only the first four pages (I think) were necessary. So she then emailed me a smaller file, which I then sent to BA, and it was accepted.

 

Several days later, I was notified all was OK and new virtual card was available to download to my phone.

[gearbox]

On 10/16/2024 at 5:53 AM, Tropicalevo said:

 

A quick update on Samui's busy season.

Just tried to book a trip to see friends who are in Langkawi for a couple of months.

Langkawi is a bitch of a place to get to from Samui. Mostly three flights, or two with overnight stops.

As it will be two or three airlines, I tried a consolidator as suggested above.

Forget it. Total waste of time.

Spent ages sorting out the best trip and then negotiating the clunky web site, only to be told 'sorry, we could not book those flights'. Change dates - same message. Change dates again, same message. Gave up and did it myself.

Yet again, Bangkok Airways is not available on the final leg Phuket to Samui so another overnight stop.

 

Had to book with Batik Air Malaysia. Are they any good? Anyone out there flown with them?

The most convenient way to fly to Langkawi is via Singapore, but it will cost you...on the way there you can get a single airline ticket with Scoot, retuning back to Samui you need to fly with different airline to Singapore to avoid overnight layover.

 

Batik Air should be OK, they used to be known as Malindo. Sort of between full service and budget airline.

 

[Tropicalevo]

5 hours ago, gearbox said:

The most convenient way to fly to Langkawi is via Singapore, but it will cost you...on the way there you can get a single airline ticket with Scoot, retuning back to Samui you need to fly with different airline to Singapore to avoid overnight layover.

 

Batik Air should be OK, they used to be known as Malindo. Sort of between full service and budget airline.

 

Thanks for the info.

When I checked the flights prior to  booking, all of the Scoot flights to Singapore involved an overnight stop before flying on to Langkawi, which is why I dismissed them.

Batik changed my flight times to Langkkawi and I only just made the connection in KL.

 

They have now advised me that there are new flight times KL back to Phuket.

I arrive in KL from Langkawi at 16:25 and my revised flight to Phuket leaves at 17:00.

(A real 'cluster<deleted>k)

It is impossible to make that flight and I have to go through immigration in KL first.

I am waiting to hear back from Batik Airlines.

 

Batik Airlines flights here were very good service but a warning to anyone thinking of using them.

They change flight times - often.

 

[gearbox]

48 minutes ago, Tropicalevo said:

Thanks for the info.

When I checked the flights prior to  booking, all of the Scoot flights to Singapore involved an overnight stop before flying on to Langkawi, which is why I dismissed them.

Batik changed my flight times to Langkkawi and I only just made the connection in KL.

 

They have now advised me that there are new flight times KL back to Phuket.

I arrive in KL from Langkawi at 16:25 and my revised flight to Phuket leaves at 17:00.

(A real 'cluster<deleted>k)

It is impossible to make that flight and I have to go through immigration in KL first.

I am waiting to hear back from Batik Airlines.

 

Batik Airlines flights here were very good service but a warning to anyone thinking of using them.

They change flight times - often.

 

Honestly if I had to go there I would just drive to Kuala Perlis, leave the car in paid parking and get the passenger ferry which is every 45 min until 7pm. It is around 400km from Donsak to Kuala Perlis, just a bit more than driving to Phuket. You won't depend on anyone for timing.

[Tropicalevo]

Sounds like a neat idea.

Unfortunately, I do not have a car.

[gearbox]

On 10/10/2024 at 3:29 PM, Andycoops said:

If you want to book with a niche airline no doubt your experience is real.

There are plenty of other flights available on the many consolidaters sites last time I looked.

 

As for it being busy that's a subjective statement.

The forward non-subjective tourism data statistics for Samui is pretty much never available, so it is mostly personal anecdotal evidence. However unavailability of flights is not a bad indicator.

 

I flew back to Samui from Europe last Friday with the first flight at 6am. November is the lowest season, and I was expecting pretty empty flight, to my surprise the flight was full, and mostly with tourists.

[Tropicalevo]

Just a quick update, the number of flights into Samui each day is slowly increasing - 41 today.

I notice that Tibet Airlines are flying here again.

Not sure when they started coming.

Probably 3 times a week if they return to the same service as before.

 

Just a reminder if anyone is thinking of a holiday here. Pre-book the rental car.

The reputable companies often run out of cars during busy season.

Edited 14 hours ago by Tropicalevo

[khunPer]

4 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

Just a quick update, the number of flights into Samui each day is slowly increasing - 41 today.

Yes, there seems to be numerous family-tourism on the island at the moment, many foreigners on the beach where I live. In older time, during the monsoon-period from November til just before Xmas the island almost closed, but that have changed. The lower priced pre-high season, where many Europeans headed to Phuket for a week or two, seems also to target Samui now, the tourists not aware of the difference in monsoon at Phuket and the west coat compared with the east coast facing Gulf of Thailand.