17 AIRLINES WE LOVE FLYING IN ASIA

Many people worry if flying in Asia is safe, and to be honest even with the amount of flights we take, I can still be a bit  nervous in the sky.

But my nerves don’t stop us of course,  and since we are always on the lookout for the cheapest flights in Asia we fly anyone and everyone as long as the price is right.

And do you know what? We’ve not had a bad flight. Yes we’ve had a few delays and a cancellation..but nothing that was a huge drama.

We’ve taken more than 50 flights each and we’ve felt fab on all of them.

So, here are our fave airlines in Asia.

We’ve flown all of them. They’ve all been great.

Once you’ve read who we love I hope you feel more comfortable about flying in Asia.

You can read all about our tips for finding super cheap flights on Skyscanner here and some new updated tricks here.

Hope to see you here in Asia soon!

THAI AIRWAYS:

We love Thai. They’re super safe, super friendly and look after children so kindly. We’ve flown Thai both domestically and internationally and you can read our review here. Fly them to Bangkok for the best street food in Asia! 

 

THAI SMILE:

Thai Smile is Thai Airways’ regional airline and we have flown them a lot between Bangkok and Chiang Mai – the flights are around $20 each if you can grab them enough in advance or on sale. You get a meal and a drink and we felt safe and relaxed one every flight. Current flights include $35 AUD form Bangkok to Phuket. So good! Fly to Chiang Mai and stay at the amazing Shangri-La Chiang Mai or at least get a day pass and use the pool!

CEBU PACIFIC:

We’ve flown Cebu Pacific around the Philippines and from Manila to Taipei, and from Manila to Siem Reap. It’s a budget airline that is super fun, cares for its customers, plays pop music on boarding and disembarking, and runs quizzes where you can win prizes. So much fun, so safe, so easy to fly. You can read our review here and we have so many posts about the Philippines – we LOVE it. Scroll them all here, you really should visit.

AIR ASIA:

We’ve flown Air Asia a lot and we LOVE them. Comfy black vinyl seats and standard efficiency, every flight is the same from the recorded welcome and safety instructions to the type of aircraft, music and seats. I’ve always found them super friendly and I LOVE that the Captains on Air Asia talk to their customers. No surprises here.

MALAYSIA AIRLINES:

We have always had good flights on Malaysian Airlines. We’ve flown them a lot in and out of Malaysian Borneo. They have shiny new aircraft, really caring staff and we’ve found them to be on time and the meals are pretty good too.

FIREFLY MALAYSIA:

This airline has the cheapest flights we’ve found. We scored $10 AUD domestic flights around Malaysia and they’re friendly, on time and so easy to fly. I really loved flying with Firefly, we love Malaysia and it was nice to zoom around on their domestic carrier. We wrote a review here. 

MASWings – MALAYSIAN BORNEO:

We love MASWings, we have flown them all around Malaysian Borneo and I always feel super safe even though they have a lots of props which usually makes me nervous. But on MASWings I love zooming around the storm clouds and coming into land at Mulu National Park. We do love this little goer and you can read our review here and all our Borneo articles here.

SPRING AIRLINES:

We flew Spring Airlines from Shanghai, China to Hong Kong. The flight was great and the staff were really really nice. They had a tough time cause we were stuck on the tarmac for two hours waiting for the smog over Beijing to clear. They were so kind and brought everyone water and did they best to keep us up to date. My suggestion for flying out of Beijing is to book a fight that leaves later in the day so hopefully the smog has cleared for the day and you wont face delays. IF your win Shanghai make sure to visit Shanghai Disneyland and in Beijing, camp on the Great Wall of China.

HK EXPRESS:

Super efficient, punctual and fast, this airline is all about cheap prices and running on time. We flew from Hong Kong to to Danang in January 2017 with Hong Kong Express and it was all good.

MALINDO AIR:

We flew from Kuala Lumpur to Bali, Indonesia with Malindo Air. For a budget airline it was super awesome – we had entertainment systems plus a meal for a super cheap price AND a checked bag was included in the ticket. Check out The Ghost Hotel in Bali and find some secret Bali adventures. 

VIETNAM AIRLINES:

This airline is fabulous. They’re on time, efficient- they give everyone a bottle of water and a snack and they gave us special chocolates on Tet, the lunar new year celebration. We’ve flown them domestically in Vietnam and to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. One of the other things I love about this airline is when I wanted to change a flight I just assumed it would be impossible as it is for all airlines – and then I tried calling their office…OMG I spoke to a REAL PERSON and they changed the flight on the phone for me – NO CHARGE!!! They get so so many points for that! Here’s where to stay in Hoi An, Vietnam.

HONG KONG AIRLINES:

First of all, go my gosh I have never seen such big plane toilets. This A330 was the most impressive airplane I have ever seen…plus there was hardly anyone on it, we had rows to ourselves and did I mention the SIZE OF THE TOILETS???? I will have to give them their own blog post shortly. We’ve flown with Hong Kong Airlines a few times now and it gets top marks from us.

CATHAY PACIFIC:

We liked Cathay Pacific, I flew them a bit many years ago and I’ve always liked them. We’ve flown with them from Sydney to Hong Kong return before we left on this trip and they were a great airline although they seem to have implemented a sneaky trick where they keep the seatbelt sign on for the first 90 minutes on long flights so passengers cant get up and roam around the cabin. But of course again its a super safe airline and we enjoyed it.

VIETJET:

I flew VietJet from Danang to Ho Chi Minh and it was really great. They use Airbus planes which I love, were on time and gave us a snack and a water on the flight. We had western pilots too. Loved it! VietJet is often the cheapest of the bunch for flying around Vietnam and I have no problem snapping up those cheap flights.

CHINA EASTERN & CHINA SOUTHERN:

We flew both these airlines domestically in China and from KL into China. They were perfectly fine and on time. It’s so good to know cause it just adds another airline we are happy to fly to our very long list! Read all our China posts here, cannot wait to get back.

ANA:

All Nippon Airlines is a super reliable, safe and efficient Japanese airline. We flew them from Okinawa into Ishigaki and everything was easy and smooth. No problems here. In Ishigaki we stayed at Club Med Kabira, and we LOVED it so much.

KOREAN:

We love Korean Airlines because they upgraded us to Business Class WHOOP on a flight to the Maldives from Colombo, Sri Lanka. So so good!

So there you have it, one day I might get around to writing airline reviews on all the flights and airlines but until then I just hope this helps anyone worrying about flying these airlines – as our experiences from a safety and peace-of-mind point of view have been nothing but great.

Now, we are always flying economy but if you want to know what it’s like to fly First Class on Emirates then check out this post from The Champagne Mile. 

Happy flying!!!

 

Evie & Emmie xo