Flying Between Bangkok and Singapore

[HD video below] There are a whole host of airlines flying the popular Bangkok - Singapore route. You have the low cost airlines such as AirAsia, Tiger Airways and Jetstar up to the more established "regular" airlines such as Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines and even Cathay Pacific.

As the flight is just over 2 hours, it really does not make too much difference which airline you take. The choice really boils down to flight timings, restrictions and of course cost.

You may think that some of the regular airlines such as Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines would offer much better inflight service, and they do when compared to low cost airlines, especially with regards to food and drinks as it is of course included, and quite frequently of excellent quality.

But, even these airlines sometimes disappoint when it comes to the inflight entertainment. Singapore Airlines for example, often uses some of its older planes on the route and some of these do not have an inflight entertainment system that allows you to stop and start your prorgrammes of choice. Cathay Pacific, for reasons we still have not fully understood, do not play the latest movies on their system, although at least you can stop and start the programmes they do show.

The other major advantage with some of the regular airlines compared to the low cost carriers, is often a reduced number of important restrictions. These may be baggage allowances, changes to inbound and outbound flight restrictions and a lack of potential other charges.

Of course, if you play the low cost game cleverly and book when a promotion is on, often well in advance of the travel date and do manage to get a ridiculously low fare, then a lot of the above are moot points as you will be saving so much.

If though, you only decided last week to travel next week then you will more often than not discover that the "low cost" airlines are actually more expensive and have more restrictions than the regular carriers.

So who do TravelNewsAsia.com team members fly with when we are travelling between Singapore and Bangkok? More often than not we choose Cathay Pacific, they frequently have the best fare on the route and you may even be spoiled with one of their new Boeing 777-300 NGs which is normally only used on their ultra-long haul routes. Since they started flying between India and Singapore the legs can be very busy, but that just means that if you play your cards right, you may be lucky enough to get upgraded! One recent downside of flying Cathay is that on their lowest fares they now charge for you to change the return date from Singapore, something you could have avoided in the past simply by making the booking by phone rather than online.

Another favourite choice, Singapore Airlines, undoubtedly one of the best airlines in the world, also frequently does promotions on this route, although they often have restrictions such as two passengers must travel together etc. Of course, one major benefit of flying SIA is that they have numerous flights per day which gives you more room to plan meetings, or make changes to flights etc.

It is also important to point out that we are in no way against the low cost carriers, far from it - they are comfortable, safe and fun airlines, it is just that if you are making bookings within a week or two of travel they tend to be more expensive than the "regular" airlines as has already been outlined above.

So, next time you plan to fly between Bangkok and Singapore have a look around and see which combination of restrictions, flight timings and cost best meets your requirements. Happy travels!

Business Class on One of Cathay Pacific's New Boeing 777-300 ERs

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