As my wife and I are on our "around the world" trip, we decided to check out the famous temples of Angkor Wat! That means we had to fly from Bangkok to Siem Reap. We had an early morning Air Asia flight so I was too sleepy to do that review, however, that means you get a nice Bangkok Air review on the way back to Bangkok!
security/airside
We arrived around 4 hours prior to departure. Although I had checked in online, we had to see a gate agent for a passport check and physical boarding pass. The gate agent moved us from 8A,B to 1A,B which was fine by me. After checking in, we had to pass through passport control and immigration; all of which was smooth and before you know it, we were airside.
Airside was fairly nice and had several good options for food and drink. This was a nice small airport. I know Siem Reap is building a larger airport further outside of town and I understand that. This is a hidden gem though and I hate that it will be gone soon.
boarding/in-flight/arrival
I made a mistake. I have travelled on ATRs before, but I had forgotten that they boarded from the back! Ahhhhh. so being row 1A was less than ideal. It did not matter much as when we arrived at BKK, we had to be loaded onto a bus anyway.
seat
Seats were decent. Little padding but as this plane is used for short jumps its fine.
ife
Only an inflight guide. Better bring your headphones. Adding WIFI would be a nice touch.
food/drink
I was expecting only a drink service but wow a full meal!!! We had chicken with sticky rice! It was fantastic and made the time pass quickly on this short flight. This was an excellent touch by Bangkok Air and one that I was not expecting.
Thanks for sharing this PG flight.
On the bright side, it took you away from the propellers for a quieter flight. I prefer Dash8s to ATRs since they seem to offer better seat pitch.
I didn't know they did meal service on their ATRs, thought it was just a snack service. Was it a cold or hot meal? Very nice catering for a 1h flight in Y and even being served with metal cutlery.
It was a cold meal. I was very surprised as most airlines seem to move away from free anything.
Bangkok Airways is such a great boutique carrier. A full meal on a 45 min flight and lounges for all passengers in many airports. Truly a special carrier! Though I've been to Thailand several times, i've not had the opportunity to fly PG but hopefully will next time!
It's not surprising that they have Business class on such a small portion of their aircraft because their standard Economy service is so much better than most other carriers. Even by Asian standards.
A combination Cambodia-Thailand trip is definitely the way to go--Angkor Wat has been on the bucket list for a long time.
Thanks for sharing!