AirAsia Returns to Servicing Khon Kaen in October 2013

[SantiSuk]

If experience on the Ubon-BKK route is anything to go by competition does not bring Thai Airways price down much (we had AA increase flight regularity a few years back and TA's response was to put daughter airline Nok Air on the route to compete with AA - which it did quite successfully.

I suspect TA will keep most of its premium pricing - too many Thai businesses/organisations have special deals that we aliens cannot get to or just specify Thai Airways for their managers. Plus older Thais like to fly the flag, plus even some falang prefer top pay for the extra service.

It's good to get more choice even at different pricing points. 7 ish flights a day to 2 BKK strips with 3 airlines has been a major boon to Ubon's growth over he last 5 years.

[b19bry]

AirAsia booked out for almost the whole of October already !

Bit difficult to be booked out already as it does not start until Oct 28th

Yeah, I guess that'd explain it too !!

My mistake I thought they were starting beginning of the month.

I see Thai now have 5 x flights a day but no sign of reduced prices yet ?

AirAsia promotion pricing runs to almost same level as the VIP bus fare !

[Totster]

AirAsia booked out for almost the whole of October already !

Bit difficult to be booked out already as it does not start until Oct 28th

Yeah, I guess that'd explain it too !!

My mistake I thought they were starting beginning of the month.

I see Thai now have 5 x flights a day but no sign of reduced prices yet ?

AirAsia promotion pricing runs to almost same level as the VIP bus fare !

If you look at the promotions page KKC-BKK is 1300bt at present

totster

[kimamey]

it is destined to fail again.

PAX using budget airlines are price-conscious, and considering that you can reach KKC for a few hundert Baht in a comfortable and safe Bus (NCA, which is for sure the kingdoms best and most reliable transport business) in almost the same time, this has no future.

Air Asia is making huge strategic mistakes by holding on to the "one type of aircraft only" policy.

other ASEAN low-cost-carriers (NOK, Cebu Pacific, Lion/Wings) are VERY successful with their " one Jet, one Turboprop" policy.

they can offer schedules that are much more conevenient for their PAX, and a higher frequency.

DMK - KKC would be a perfect example where you could employ a turboprop rather than a Jet, that will in many cases have a low load-factor.

72 seats in an ATR 72 could easily be filled, and more than one frequency per day offered.

But maybe Datuk Tony Fernandez is too busy playing with his "adult toys" (QPR Team and his F1 team), so he can not assign time to overhaul his strategic concept

Knowing the accident rate and seeing the way buses drive in Thailand I will always prefer air travel, maybe that company you're referring to has a better track record, but you'll only have a wait another week or 2 to see the next bus crash making headlines.

And what bus travels from bkk to kk in or around 45 mins?

I can not see that I said any Bus makes the journey in 45 minutes.but the journey from leaving your home to reaching your destination takes almost as long as a Bus ride. leaving for DMK airport means you have to assign a LOT of time due to expected traffic jams during rush hrs (last time three weeks ago at 7 in the morning it took me 1.5 hrs from Bangna to DMK in a Cab). then you have to be at the airport 90 minutes before departure to check in. So then 3 hrs already passed, before you actually take off. Lucky r u if ur flight is not delayed, due to "late arrival of the aircraft" (cause they almost always fail to beat their assigned turnaround period of just 25 Mins). okay touch down in KKC then we are at 4 hrs. you disembark, wait for your luggage, another 30 Minutes. take Cab or shuttle to your downtown destination, another 30 Minutes. so you spent 5 hrs overall. the Bus usually doesn't take longer than six hrs, and departs and arrives usually at Central downtown locations. But it cost 400-500 Baht, whereas the flight will most probably be around 1.800 - 2 K.

one hour saved, but quadruple the price. That is not something the average Somchai will do.

They have tried and failed in the past, after all. AirAsia failed, Orient Thai failed. Thai Airways can do, because they serve a different clientele - mostly government officials and the odd Farang married to an Isaan Babe.

And while I am not so eager to sit on longhaul-Buses either and as well prefer a flight if possible, I have to point out that indeed NCA has a fantastic safety record, second to none in the Kingdom.

NCA are definitely a good company from what I've seen although there's no guarantee they won't be hit by some other idiot. I would like to see some competition between Bangkok and Khon Kaen as Thai are very good but at a price. I seem to remember using Air Asia on this route before but that was when they used swampy. I've never used DM but I hear it's fine. If you're just flying internally then no problem but if you're flying into the kingdom then there's the transfer between airports to consider. I've never done it so I can't comment.

[FarangryBirds]

seems like madness to increase the amount of flights between KKC and Bangkok, Thai Airways is already laying on 5 under filled flights a day in an A300-600, now Air Asia add another 4 into the mix.

TIT but at least it will create competition on pricing.

[sirineou]

That's Good news, more options and competition is always good for the consumer.

I wish they were flying in to Swampy as I always fly there or out of there when I arrive in Thailand and I don't want to be changing airports, but the competition might make my Thai air ticket a little less expensive,

I went to Air Asia airline's website and did a round trip search for tickets from KKC to BKK and from BKK back to KKC in December and the price was a little over 1400 bht, Not bad.

On the funny side, conversation I had with my wife earlier today:

me-Honey we should drive to Chiang Mai one of these days

wife-No, the road is very dangerous, every year a car fall from the mountain

me-but honey, there must be thousands of cars that drive that road every year, what are the chances that we will have an accident

wife-but every year car fall from the mountain and people die

me-so you mean if we drive to Chiang Mai we will die?

Wife-No, because we will not drive to Chiang Mai

Me-Ok honey.

Does this type of conversation sound familiar to any of you married to a Thai ?

So with Air Asia flying to Chiang my, maybe now I will finally see Chiang Mai and not die.

[JLCrab]

No problem. Tell your wife:

OK. We'll just wait for a car to fall off the mountain and then we should be safe driving to/from Chiang Mai for another year.

[sirineou]

No problem. Tell your wife:

OK. We'll just wait for a car to fall off the mountain and then we should be safe driving to/from Chiang Mai for another year.

55555 good Idea

She would probably reply:

"I hope there food stalls near by because we will probably get very hungry sitting in our car at the bottom of the mountains waiting for a car to fall before we can cross"

Not a very bright girl my wife, she has to be, after all she did marry me

[JLCrab]

No dear -- No food stalls nearby because only one car per year falls off the mountain.

[sirineou]

No dear -- No food stalls nearby because only one car per year falls off the mountain.

Or perhaps

Sorry dear , they have all being killed by the falling cars

Ps: I am glad the wife does not read these forums , otherwise I could be in serious trouble, maybe extra stinky fish in my som tom

[JLCrab]

This all sounds like watching George Burns & Gracie Allen as I did as a very young kid in the late 1950's:

George: This letter feels kind of heavy. I’d better put another stamp on it.

Gracie: What for? It’ll only make it heavier.

Real Estate Agent: I presume the bedrooms are upstairs.

Gracie: Yes, except when you’re upstairs. Then they’re on the same floor.

[Fookhaht]

seems like madness to increase the amount of flights between KKC and Bangkok, Thai Airways is already laying on 5 under filled flights a day in an A300-600, now Air Asia add another 4 into the mix.

 

TIT but at least it will create competition on pricing. 

I flew AA from Khon Kaen to Bangkok last week. The AA flight appeared packed out while the TG flight lounge for a flight leaving shortly before appeared half empty.

Competition indeed!

I can only say "som nam naa" to an airline that has been gouging the customers on this route for the last few years.

Sent from my tin can via string.

[JLCrab]

So if TG charges twice as much or more per passenger as AA for half as many passengers as AA why should they care?

[KhunBENQ]

So if TG charges twice as much or more per passenger as AA for half as many passengers as AA why should they care?

Because they have higher fixed cost for personel, planes and all the goodies?

So they can not fly economically with the same earnings?

[Totster]

I'll pay the extra and fly Thai to Swampy - unless I am specifically going into Bangkok.

totster

[JLCrab]

So if TG charges twice as much or more per passenger as AA for half as many passengers as AA why should they care?

Because they have higher fixed cost for personel, planes and all the goodies?

So they can not fly economically with the same earnings?

Maybe TG is like this and knows the full-fare corporate business isn't going elsewhere:

http://www.quotehd.com/imagequotes/authors8/lily-tomlin-quote-were-the-phone-company-we-dont-care-we-dont-have-to.jpg

[SantiSuk]

So if TG charges twice as much or more per passenger as AA for half as many passengers as AA why should they care?

Because they have higher fixed cost for personel, planes and all the goodies?

So they can not fly economically with the same earnings?

Maybe TG is like this and knows the full-fare corporate business isn't going elsewhere:

http://www.quotehd.com/imagequotes/authors8/lily-tomlin-quote-were-the-phone-company-we-dont-care-we-dont-have-to.jpg

As I intimated earlier, Thai will just bring its affiliate discounter Nok onto the route and undercut Air Asia, so it is ultimately forced to retrench (a la Ubon).

Nok is better than AA anyway, so that should not be seen as a bad thing.

[b19bry]

So much negativity on this thread against AA

I flew this last weekend, good service and much cheaper than TG, will certainly use them again.

Both the AA flights I took seemed pretty full definitely a good sign.

The only downside was a 20min queue for the taxi ride to Mo Chit BTS from DM compared to an easy Skytrain out of Swampy.

[SantiSuk]

I have previously been a great fan of Air Asia stoutly defending them against the 'I paid a cheap price and I didn't get a premium service' brigade on Thaivisa. However I had cause to send the following complaint to them yesterday, which explains my volte face:

" Having been a previously regular customer of Air Asia I will no longer use your airline whenever there is an alternative (at any price).

Last week I travelled with my family on Nok Air from Ubon to Bangkok and then from Bangkok to Krabi with Air Asia.

I made the mistake of booking my 4 year old daughter’s flights using her Thai nickname instead of her legal first name. Nok Air rightly punished my stupidity by charging a 535 baht change of name administrative fee. Air Asia has a policy that does not allow name changes and so I had to book an entirely new ticket at some 4,500 baht or otherwise I would have wasted the entire holiday flight bookings for the whole family.

Why do you have such a financially punitive policy? It seems like piracy in the skies and enrages loyal customers."

These guys are rip-off merchants at heart!

[JLCrab]

So much negativity on this thread against AA

I flew this last weekend, good service and much cheaper than TG, will certainly use them again.

Both the AA flights I took seemed pretty full definitely a good sign.

The only downside was a 20min queue for the taxi ride to Mo Chit BTS from DM compared to an easy Skytrain out of Swampy.

Seems to me there is more negativity against the big mean they'll-get-what's-coming-to-them TG with their 5 flights per day from KK to BKK than toward feisty upstart AA.

Personally, I only fly KKC to BKK when I'm connecting to USA -- if I'm going to stay in Bangkok getting there on an 8:30 AM flight doesn't do me much good as you can't check into a hotel until 1-2 PM anyway. So I'll probably just stick with NCA

Edited November 7, 2013 by JLCrab