How Reliable Is Nok Air?

[oldsalt]

I have just received a text notification from Nok Air at 9.15pm re cancellation of my 3.30pm flight tomorrow from Nan to Bangkok. I am now on a 5.20pm flight which means I miss a connecting flight in BKK. None of their phone lines are being answered, so I don't know if I can get onto their 9.30am flight. I am also two hours out of Nan anyway, so would need to leave for the airport at 6.30am.

Has anyone had any such experience with Nok Air? Do they often cancel flights? I am going to be a regular commuter from Bangkok to Nan and return and would like to know. I will, of course, ask them the same question once they are answering their phones.

[fstarbkk]

I have flown Nok Air at least 20 times, mostly to Udon and a couple of times to phuket. They have always been on time, except one time they hat a 20 minute delay from Udon to Bangkok. They've always been very professional and helpful. So, based on my experience with Nok Air, what you experienced would be an aberration.

They're by far my favorite budget carrier in SE Asia. Air Asia on the other hand.... oh don't even get me started!

[yermanee]

According their website the flight of 17:20 is fully booked.

Seats available on 09:35 flight and 20:40 flight.

No mention of a 15:30 flight.

Maybe they have changed their flight schedule recently ?????

In that case they should be able to give you a seat on the 09:35 flight if you show up.

Yermanee

Edited November 26, 2012 by yermanee

[tangcoral]

Nok air is probably my favorite airline in terms of being on time.

Airasia is hit or miss..there are times where I havent experienced delays for awhile but never lasts.

However Orient air from Chaing mai to BKK has been delayed more than not. Never again.

[songhklasid]

I have found them o k in the past, even changing flights over the phone, & refunds when disaster strikes, ( don muang airport flooding), they are my prefered LCC in thailand.

regards songhklasid

[ragandboneman]

Nok Air had two flights a day from Nakhon Phanom to Don Muang, they often cancel the morning flight with little or no warning. They recently cancelled my up-coming flight with no notice given, if I hadn't been checking who knows when or if they would have informed me.

My mate had his flight cancelled with no notice, they then proceeded to bus the customers to Udon Thani, 3 and half hours away then fly from there.

I find Air Asia to be more reliable and provide a better service on the Nakhon Phanom route, won't touch Nok Air again especially if I have a connecting flight from Swampy.

Just my two satangs.

[kurnell]

I have never had a problem with them though my colleague did have to circle Udon for an hour before they could land as the landing gear would not go down.

[oldsalt]

Many thanks for the input. What annoyed me most was the short notice of the cancellation and the fact that they gave a mobile number to call - and then no-one answers it. I now still have to go to Nan mid morning as those arrangements were already in place and then hang around (take a hotel room) until the 5.30 flight. There are alternative ways of getting to Bangkok, but notifying me of a cancellation late the day before almost ensures I am locked into their 5.30 flight. One reply here mentioned there is no 3.30pm flight from Nan even listed on their website, so they must have cancelled it recently. I booked about three weeks ago. They've had plenty of time to alert me!!

[richardshane]

Got a call at 9:30 last night about flight cancellation from Sakon Nakon to Bangkok... My 3 year old son and I are travelling onward to Vancouver which would have already made it a long day for him as our flight was scheduled to leave Sakon Nakhon at 8:05. Now we were informed since they were having mechanical troubles, which I don't believe, we have to be at the airport at 4 am to take a "van" to Udon which they say is a 3hr journey then catch our flight from there then taking our flight which is a little over an hour... I'm not happy at all I checked the flight about 2 hours before they called and it was obviously undersold as the tickets were about 500 baht cheaper and I did the online seat selection and there were only about 20 seats taken, if that. The lady on the phone said 85 seats were sold for the flight....whatever !! Now I am being forced to ride (or miss our flight to YVR) in a van with my son who never rides without being in his car seat but now I have to and with someone else in control of our safety especially these van drivers with horrible driving practices....If we had been informed earlier we could have made other arrangements....Its almost 3 am now and I haven't been able to sleep just thinking about this situation. I booked this flight as I thought it would be quick and easy as we have a long journey to Vancouver now the beggining has turned into a nightmare. I will never fly Nok air again !!

[KunMatt]

I've only flown with Nok Air once so far, from Don Muang to Ubon a couple of months ago. It was an 11am flight which was delayed by 3 hours for no given reason. They gave me a 50 baht Burger King Burger for compensation.

Looking up at the flight board for the rest of the day most of the Nok Air flights were delayed and a couple were cancelled. I travel a lot and have never seen anything like it from an airline.

I will never rely on them and use them for work if I need to make a connection in Bangkok in the future.

[Ricardo]

Twice in the past month, their late-evening BKK-CNX flight has run 45-60 minutes late, when I've been meeting it.

Understandable for an LCC's flights to 'slip' a little, as the day goes on, if they're trying to run a tight efficient schedule, and squeeze the maximum out of their fleet.

But still annoying to the people who use them.

[lomatopo]

It seems to be challenging to get a feel for DD's performance? About the only thing I could find was on the AoT/DMK website, and Arrivals only for the current day.

Personally I would always leave a very comfortable cushion when planning a domestic to international connection like XXX-DMK - BKK-YYY, factoring in many issues especially from the smaller, regional airports. Sometimes I even add an extra day just to be safe - I usually connect to a once a day int'l flight at BKK. If you frequent one of these smaller, regional/provincial airports it might be advisable to establish one or more local contacts working at the airport whom you can contact to get a feel for recent on-time performance. I might also have a back-up pans for using other, nearby airports, even ones which might have flights right into Suvarnabhumi (Bangkok Airways, Lamphang for example).

There seems to be an implication that DD is cancelling low load flights. This would be very disappointing, if true - but I doubt it is.

http://www.airportth...ht_planner___EN

[siam2007]

It seems to be challenging to get a feel for DD's performance? About the only thing I could find was on the AoT/DMK website, and Arrivals only for the current day.

Personally I would always leave a very comfortable cushion when planning a domestic to international connection like XXX-DMK - BKK-YYY, factoring in many issues especially from the smaller, regional airports. Sometimes I even add an extra day just to be safe - I usually connect to a once a day int'l flight at BKK. If you frequent one of these smaller, regional/provincial airports it might be advisable to establish one or more local contacts working at the airport whom you can contact to get a feel for recent on-time performance. I might also have a back-up pans for using other, nearby airports, even ones which might have flights right into Suvarnabhumi (Bangkok Airways, Lamphang for example).

There seems to be an implication that DD is cancelling low load flights. This would be very disappointing, if true - but I doubt it is.

http://www.airportth...ht_planner___EN

In general I assume that their JET-flights to busy destinations are much more reliable than their Turboprop-opeartions to and from secondary or even tertiary airports, where sometimes only a couple of PAX are on board.Cancellations are annoying for sure, but even big airlines act that way.I had a flight on MAS from KL to Shanghai few years ago, which was cancelled just 2 days before, and I had to change my schedule and several meetings, as I had to use a flight the night before and lost time I would have needed to finish my KL-business. Big Airlines are no guarantee for a seamless operation....

[Deserted]

Anyone flown to Phuket with them? ANy probs on that route that they've seen?

[cdnvic]

Never had a problem with Nok's on-time performance. Though I did raise an eyebrow when the pilot banked a 737 like an F-16 once.