Bangkok Airways

Bangkok Airways calls itself Asia's boutique airline, and for once the slogan describes the operation: a compact Thai carrier built around leisure routes, courtesy lounges open to its passengers at several airports and an island airport at Koh Samui that the airline built and operates itself. Samui anchors the network, with Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai and a spread of regional neighbours around it.

The fleet is small and specific. Airbus A319s and A320s fly the jet routes while ATR 72 turboprops cover the short hops, and one A319 fit carries the real signature: Blue Ribbon Class, a proper two-by-two recliner cabin at the front, on an airline whose sectors rarely pass two hours.

The flagship fit is the two-class A319: a few rows of Blue Ribbon recliners in two-by-two, then a three-by-three economy behind the divider. The recliners are wide, deeply pitched chairs rather than blocked-middle economy, which makes this one of the few short-haul cabins in the region where the front seats are physically different from the back.

The rest of the published fleet is single class. A second A319 flies all-economy for the denser routes, the A320 adds capacity in the same three-by-three and the ATR 72-600 works the turboprop network in two-by-two. All of them skip row 13, and the ATR keeps jet-style seat codes, with letter gaps so windows and aisles match the Airbus fleet.

Blue Ribbon Class is the boutique pitch made physical: a small cabin of wide recliners, meal service on the shortest of sectors and check-in and lounge handling to match. On a one-hour flight out of Samui it is arguably more service than the flying time can absorb, which is presumably the point.

Economy is a tidy regional product across the fleet, three-by-three on the jets and two-by-two on the ATR, with the airline's habit of catering for the whole cabin keeping it a notch above the low-cost carriers on the same routes. The jets keep their space at the bulkheads and exits; the ATR keeps its extra legroom at the front row and its quickest exit at the back, where the door is.

On the two-class A319, the recliners barely need advice beyond one note: the front row sits nearest the forward galley and its noise, so the rows behind it sleep better. In economy the bulkhead row directly behind the divider has its legroom clipped by the cabin wall, which stands closer than dividers usually do, and the exit row further back pins its recline; a window or aisle a few rows behind the divider is the strongest buy.

On the single-class A319 the marked legroom row sits behind the exit and keeps its recline, the seat to chase on that fit. The A320 carries no marked exit-row stretch at all, so its first row is the only extra-legroom position and the sensible play is simply to sit forward. On the ATR, the last row is next to the lavatory, and the front row has the legroom plus a tray in the armrest.