Am arriving at 16.30 on Thai Air and want to book the 19.00 Bangkok Airways to Samui flight. Is that too risky even if I book my baggage through to Samui from Sydney?

Roslyn

Assuming you are arriving at "Swampy". Yes, you have plenty of time to go through immigration, collect your bags, check in at the PG desk and have a coffee or two in the PG lounge.

Thai Airways is usually on time into Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport - but with the 2nd runway down anything is possible. Personally I think you are cutting it too fine catching Bangkok Airways PG181 which departs at 1900 hours.

There's PG183 at 1930, PG185 at 2000, PG191 at 2015 and PG199 at 2100 hours.

I would be tempted to take PG191 at 2015 hours. It's a Boeing 717 compared to the ATR72 on earlier flights.

I seriously doubt you can have your baggage checked through to Samui from Sydney. I have always had to get my luggage at Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi and check it in on my next flight.

Peter

PG recommends three (3) hours. While 2.5 hours is achievable I'd go with a later flight as you'll have slightly more of a case to make in case of irrops. You will not be able to check bags through to USM, you will have to clear Immigration at BKK, retrieve checked bags, clear Customs, go up to the 4th floor, and check in with PG. You can always ask about standing by for the earlier flight, if you were to get to the check-in counter more than one hour prior to the earlier departing flight. PG may or may not honor your request to stand-by based on loads.

Just spoke to Thai Air here in Sydney who told me they have an agreement with Bangkok Airways and yes, I can book my bags straight through to Koh Samui. Then spoke to a Bangkok Airways rep who told me that because of this, two and a half hours transit time was fine.

Just spoke to Thai Air here in Sydney who told me they have an agreement with Bangkok Airways and yes, I can book my bags straight through to Koh Samui. Then spoke to a Bangkok Airways rep who told me that because of this, two and a half hours transit time was fine.

I could be wrong, I often am, but believe you can only interline bags from USM (Koh Samui) via PG and TG. So when you leave Koh Samui you can clear Immigration there and check bags through, say USM-BKK-SYD. However I am still fairly certain that going to USM you will not be able to check bags through from SYD-USM; you will have to clear Immigration (enter Thailand) at BKK, fetch your bags, clear Customs, then check in with PG. Anyway, best of luck, 2.5 hours should be fine as long as you do not have any unexpected delays; keep those TG and PG reps. numbers handy in case you have a problem. Note also that TG has two (2) dailies to USM now.