Fly Strategic! Newish Australian airline flying to Phuket

[Beachlover]

Not totally new news but this might be helpful for those of you who are Aussie...

Strategic Airlines began doing scheduled flights from Brisbane and Melbourne to Phuket a few months ago and might be a good option for getting to Thailand.

TheyтАЩve actually been running for a few years but mainly operating charter flights for defense force, government, mining and corporate sector customers.

TheyтАЩve only recently entered into the retail consumer airline space and say they will rebrand with a more consumer-oriented brand name soon.

http://www.flystrategic.com


[youtube:3ohexmwr]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZsvzZ_p-uI[/youtube:3ohexmwr]

[youtube:3ohexmwr]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXMPwuVoe30[/youtube:3ohexmwr]

Michael James, the key entrepreneur and Managing Director behind Strategic Airlines is just 34 years old!

[youtube:3ohexmwr]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLbpzOd-MbY[/youtube:3ohexmwr]

[thonglor55]

Virgin flew that route and couldn't make it work, but good luck to them. I see Virgin and Singapore Airlines are cosying up so that gets Virgin out of having to fly to Thailand themselves altogether, I expect.

[thonglor55]

Here's a Phuket Web site thread (http://www.phuket-info.com/forums/accommodation-transportation/58722-thumbs-up-strategic-airlines.html) on passengers experiences of flying Strategic to Phuket.

[Beachlover]

Looks like they've hit a fat pot hole. The one aircraft they were using for this has broken down, diverted to KL and left their passengers stranded in Phuket.

http://phuketwan.com/tourism/trapped-ph ... ion-14282/ (http://phuketwan.com/tourism/trapped-phuket-strategic-passengers-plead-government-intervention-14282/)

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/476 ... ms-phuket/ (http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/476209-strategic-airlines-flight-cancellation-slams-phuket/)

Lucky for them, there doesn't seem to be any major coverage in the Australian press yet. If this was Qantas or Jetstar the media would be all over it. To be fair, similar breakdowns/strandings have happened to Jetstar - who also fly to Phuket - a couple of times but they seemed to take care of their passengers better than Strategic.

[danny99]

To be fair, similar breakdowns/strandings have happened to Jetstar - who also fly to Phuket - a couple of times but they seemed to take care of their passengers better than Strategic.

Guess you have not met any of the passengers who were stranded overnight in Bali last year when yet another Jetstar flight had to be aborted [Phuket to Australia, not sure where]....no money left after end of holiday...well looked after, I do not think so!

But then anyone who flies budget airlines for more than a 2 hour flight has to accept that anything can and may go wrong. If they had added up all the extras, booked well ahead and paid for ticket, they could have flown on a full service airline for the same or even less money!

After disaster experiences with Air Asia, Thai Air Asia [no alcohol served at all...how can you even digest airline food without a glass of wine? Even if you do have to pay for both.] and the horrible Jetstar [even worse than Australian Airlines and no one at that time thought that would be possible, ever!] i will never fly with any of them again. Have recently flown Pacific Blue [DPR=SYD=DPS], now Virgin Australia, and was pleasantly surprised...they even waved away my attempts to pay for a couple of follow up drinks...now that is almost as good as the FREE Cognac you get with your coffee on Thai...in ECONOMY!

[thonglor55]

But then anyone who flies budget airlines for more than a 2 hour flight has to accept that anything can and may go wrong. If they had added up all the extras, booked well ahead and paid for ticket, they could have flown on a full service airline for the same or even less money! Or taken out the travel insurance that many such budget airlines routinely offer when making a booking.

...Thai Air Asia [no alcohol served at all...how can you even digest airline food without a glass of wine? ..Have recently flown Pacific Blue [DPR=SYD=DPS], now Virgin Australia, and was pleasantly surprised...they even waved away my attempts to pay for a couple of follow up drinks...now that is almost as good as the FREE Cognac you get with your coffee on Thai...in ECONOMY!


There is a pattern emerging here, dear.

:sign5:

:alc:

[Beachlover]

Ah well... I've had nothing but great service flying Jetstar. Young cabin crew. Nice new leather seats. Upbeat atmosphere.

One of my mates was really pissed off at them when he missed a flight and had to jump through hoops to get on another flight later that day.... but the story did start with him missing the flight, so sometimes I think people have unreasonable expectations or want to blame anyone but themselves.

[Beachlover]

Well, that didn't last very long...

Strategic Airlines rebranded itself as "Air Australia" last year. Then a few days ago, it went bust, leaving thousands of passengers and staff stranded.

The trigger for this was when a fuel supplier in Phuket refused to extend any more credit to the airline so they couldn't get their aircraft off the ground. When this happened, the CEO had to put it in voluntary administration.

It sounds like it's been a complete mess. This is one of many articles...

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-new ... 1tcln.html (http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/passengers-stranded-for-days-as-air-australia-goes-bust-20120217-1tcln.html)

Anyone who knew about the airline would've seen this coming over the last couple of months (and NOT booked with them) but it's a shame all these people lost their air fares.