Lao Airlines – The Airline of Asia’s LEAST Visited Country! (Crazy Expensive)

Lao Airlines – The Airline of Asia’s LEAST Visited Country! (Crazy Expensive)

Any issues? I know issues. Okay, good. And they think it’s worth $800 US. It not only looks good, but it tastes fantastic as well. Biggest nonsense I’ve ever heard. Whatever pizza from last night’s staff party, and I’m going to find out which one is the worst, so you don’t have to suffer. Today we are flying the national airline of Lao from Seoul to Bangkok with a stop in its sleepy capital Bin. Of all the great airlines in Saudi Asia, Lao Airlines is probably the least known one and I was very eager to give them a try and see how they compare to the rest as the area is home to some of the greatest airlines in the world. So please join me on another aviation adventure. If you’re new to the channel, my name is Josh Cahill, a multi-awward-winning aviation YouTuber with over 500 million views, and I love to hold airlines accountable for the promises they make. My favorite hobby, featuring unique airlines from all over the world. I organized Afghanistan’s first all female flight, and I’m also proudly banned from Qatar Airways. [Music] Today’s trip starts in South Korea’s capital, Soul, taking Lao Airlines longest flight in their network. And a beautiful good morning from Inan. flying a new airline and a new country as well, which doesn’t happen that often on this channel. It’s going to be country 128 for me. So, let’s check in for the Lao Airlines business class experience all the way to their beautiful capital that I don’t know how to pronounce properly. Now, Airlines operates five weekly flights between Venshin and Seoul. Price for oneway business class ticket. How are you? How are you? I’m good. Are you going to Walsh? Yes. Yes. Am I allowed? Can I? Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Hi, how are you? Good morning. Is this the window? Today’s boarding number is 42 for Easter time is 10:00. Time is 10:20. All right. Um, you can use the runner lounge on your gate 28 at 4. Yeah. All right. Fantastic. Thank you. Have a good day. Bye-bye. So, that was a very smooth and quick check-in experience. I’ve noticed there’s a little advertisement right at the check-in desk which says you can upgrade for $250. So, I should have just booked a regular economy class ticket and then upgrade at the gate. would have saved me a lot of money because they told me I’m the only passenger that is booked in a business class. But we’re going to judge the product by the price tag that the airline put on there. They think it’s worth $800. So, this is how we evaluate the product today. Next stop, the One World Lounge. So, as a business class passenger on Lao Airlines, you get access to the One World Lounge. So, let’s check it out. Thank you. The One World Lounge at Inan is fantastic. Super clean, great variety of food and beverages, including a super delicious noodle soup, which was probably my favorite. It also had a separate area to just chill and enjoy the view over the tarmac. Nothing more fun than watching planes while waiting for your flight. [Music] And this is our plane today. One of four Airbus A320s Lao Airlines is operating. So, let’s get on board. Hi. Hello. How are you? Good. Thank you. Beautiful. Thank you. Bye-bye. So, here we are boarding the Airbus A320 of Lao Airlines. Very excited for this one. Let’s see how they compare to all the other airlines in Saudi Asia. And I’ve tried all of them. Hi, how are you? 4. 4. Yes. Right here. I can move over there if that’s okay. Oh. Oh, yeah. Okay. All right. Okay. Cool. Thank you. Any issues? I know she is. Okay. Good. Okay. She totally I’m happy to change if the guy wants to sit here. Is it full though? Not full. No. Okay. Yeah. So, guys, here you are. Welcome on board Airlines Airbus A320. Um, lovely crew. Nice. Welcome. um 16 seats in a 22 configuration. Um it does look a little dated. That’s mostly due to the fact that this plane has been in service for 15 years. I was originally meant to fly for Afraia Airlines in Libya, an airline that we reviewed uh 2 years ago on a flight from Istanbul to Tripoli. Hey, thank you. After I settled in my seat, the crew came around and handed out hot towels and pre-eparture beverages. Thank you. And I think La Airlines is the only airline in the world on a narrow body plane on a regional flight that is handing out slippers. But one little piece of advice, even though we got the slippers and you’re all excited about it and we want to put them on, don’t ever remove your shoes until you reached cruising altitude because in case there is a emergency uh evacuation due to aborted takeoff or whatever, you definitely want to wear your shoes because once you have to get off that plane, there might be debris, there might be hazards. So listen to me. Don’t take your shoes off until you reached your flight levels. [Music] We then pushed back on time and the ground staff waved goodbye to us. Also, a lot of you have asked about the gear I use to record my videos, so I’ve put together a comprehensive list on my website. You can find the link in the description box below. Happy shopping. [Music] today. Say again. Any drink? I got an apple juice. Yes, apple juice. Uh, no ice. No, I’m going to have a coffee later. You do. You do coffee, right? Yeah. Yeah, that’s good. So, a good 20 minutes into the flight, a hot meal, there was chicken or chicken pasta or beef and rice and solely from the optical impression. It looks fantastic. Like a 10 out of 10 kind of meal. Like real salmon here at the start. The the dessert looks fantastic. at the beef and the rice and the mushrooms and stuff. It looks like a high quality meal which is nice to see. So all the flights departing from Lao, uh the catering is actually provided by the Crown Plaza Hotel. So instead of having a big catering facility, the hotel does the business class catering perhaps also the economy class catering um for the airline which is quite interesting to see. Also something I like is uh the table wear. Got the Lao Airlines logo on there. This is definitely going to be a svenir I’m going to take home. Of course I going to ask them. I’m not going to steal it. Can I have an after the meal? Is that okay? Or Oh no. Thank you. Yeah. Hold on. Can I take two? Is that okay? Yeah. Thank you. I’m not going to lie. Um, one of my favorites is Korean barbecue. And this beef right here really matches the good quality beef that you usually get when you go to a Korean barbecue place in Soul. It’s really a fantastic uh dish. That’s really a high quality meal that not only looks good, but it tastes fantastic as well. So, meal 10 out of 10. We talked about this. Uh two things I didn’t like about the service is as soon as you receive your meal um they also offer you coffee or tea. So generally it’s something what you do um after the service is done and uh the second thing is they serve your food and then they disappear in the galley. So during the meal service, I would have loved to see them pop into the cabin, chop up drinks, follow up, perhaps somebody wants something. So there is definitely room for improvement. However, the crew is really lovely. They do a good job, but yeah, those are the little details. But yeah, that is pretty much the $800 product. Um the meal, the seat, the lounge access. Um there’s no inflight entertainment. um not even a streaming box or streaming service or anything of the like. So yeah, I think when you offer these kind of prices, I think that’s something the airlines should look into and try to provide because by the end of the day, this is a product if I compare it to the flight length, um what it’s like and to other airlines, this is a $400 business class max and that’s what you should be charging. and not anything beyond this unless there’s crazy demand which I doubt. Uh yeah, that’s just my genuine feedback. So definitely potential. Um but yeah, there’s a lot more that can be done to to refine this product. After the meal service, I had a quick look at the L and I feel they made the most of it. A little basket with proper towels and lotion made up for the lack of amenity kits that you would actually expect when paying $800 for a ticket like that. After a little nap, the crew prepared a little snack service which was pretty all right. [Music] Um, a water. Very nice and a coffee. And this is it. This is the sandwich with a fruit salad, tomato, an olive, and it’s pretty cute for what it is. We then started our descent into Lao with a population of just 7 million people, one of Asia’s smallest. Interesting fact, Lao is the most bombed country in history. During the Vietnam War, over 2 million tons of ordinance were dropped on the country. Sad fact. So, here we are. Welcome to Wal and its capital. And uh considering that the airport is rather close to the city center, it looks like we landed somewhere in the countryside. Cute little airport. Not much happening here. So curious to see what to expect once we step outside this terminal. So I take you guys with me to the arrival experience because we have to get a visa arrival, take you to the hotel, and tomorrow we continue on Lao Airlines, but this time in economy class to Bangkok. So the video is not over yet. So stay stay with me. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye. [Music] So, that was pretty straightforward. Uh, you pay 1 million whatever the local currency is. Um, fill out a form and then you go to the counter and then you get your visa. So, I just got my back. Next mission to get a taxi to my hotel. Um, how much is a taxi to the Amari? Oh, yeah, sir. $71 154. What you pay? It’s $7 to the hotel. Yeah. Yeah, sure. I pay local. Sure. Thank you. It’s my driver. Okay. See you guys. Hey, thank you. Bye-bye. Very hot. Hey, [Music] with just 350,000 people, Bentin is indeed a very small and sleepy capital if you compare it to all the mega cities in the region. But I think I really enjoyed that. It is also just a five minutes drive from the airport to the city center. How are you? So, and here we are at the Amari Hotel in Lao’s beautiful capital. And this is the view that we have. A beautiful river view. Um, yeah. And it’s not really those mega cities that you know in Asia. It looks like a really lovely little like sleepy jungle town. It looks very very beautiful. Also, shout out to Toby who is the front office manager here and he’s a subscriber and he upgraded me to a river view. So much appreciated. That is very nice of you. And uh yeah, going to freshen up a little bit and then we’re going to go explore the town a little bit and see what it has in store for us. But look at this. It’s so cool. I love it. I really like it. I like these kind of places. You know, Asia has westernized so much that I really get to appreciate those little places that are still in their own journey. So, and here we are to the right hand side, the very famous Mong River. Um, I think it’s the third longest in Asia and like the 10 is among the top 10 longest in the world. Obviously a lot of uh famous battles have been fought at this river and it goes then all the way through I think it originates from China and then comes here to Lao eventually Thailand because that’s a border over there on the other side that’s Thailand and here is Lao and what can I say about the city a lot of like development is happening here it’s very still I don’t want to say backwards but it’s like when you compare it to Thailand um or the other um capitals in Southeast Asia, there’s a lot work to be done still here. It’s very uh underdeveloped, but it looks beautiful. People are very nice. There’s a lot of projects, see a lot of Chinese cars and yeah, Chinese influence here is very very big. Look, here’s a little fair if you want to go on a ferris wheel. Have a good time in the evening. It’s a little roller coaster there as well. That’s uh what you can do here. But yeah, we’re going to walk along the river here a little bit and going to pop into uh uh the city center as well. So, we get a bit of an impression. People always say there’s nothing more scarier than crossing the street somewhere in Asia. So, I’m going to show you what the secret is. Just don’t stop. Just keep on walking. Just keep on walking because once you start to stop, they get confused. You get confused. And this is usually when they hit you. [Music] And yeah, considering that this is the capital and I’m right in the center, it’s that it’s empty. Not much traffic. Very relaxed, very chilled here. Yeah, nice to see. Solo for me is country 128 like UN countries, you know. So, you don’t consider uh Taiwan and Scotland and these kind of places as uh separate countries. And look, there’s also a Hard Rock Cafe. Globalization spreading everywhere. And Hilton, Double Tree by Hilton right there. Uh so yeah, there’s two more countries that I have to go in Asia uh in order to have visited all of them and that is Yemen. And quite interesting at the end of October, I’ll be flying Yemenia. I’ll be flying to Yemen, mainland Yemen, not Sucatra. Um, of course, I’m going to bring you guys along and Syria. So, in October, I go to Syria as well, which means that I will have completed all of Asia. Um, which is quite of a milestone. But do I want to visit every country in the world? Definitely not. Like, I don’t care about numbers. I don’t care about views, likes, etc. It’s not like that I depend on these kind of things anyway. It’s like I’m at a point where like YouTube isn’t even my main source of income anymore. I’ve built other stuff, other businesses, uh do a lot of consulting, which is the majority of the income. So, I’ve always wonder when people say, “Oh, you care about the views.” I couldn’t care less about views, to be honest. It doesn’t make it makes no difference to me. Like comments, do I read comments? People ask me that quite often as well. Only the ones on YouTube to be honest. I never Google myself. I keep to try anything negative kind of away from me because there’s always those keyboard warriors, you know, of this loud minority who’s like, “Oh, Josh, I hate you.” Last year, for example, like I had one of the most successful uh years. I had over a 100 million views and then I think like you know if you talk nonsense and you don’t know what you talk about you wouldn’t reach that many people. People wouldn’t subscribe. People wouldn’t watch your videos. And I won so many awards for for my work. And I’m in touch with so many airline CEOs who like generally want to know what I think about their ideas. Uh so many industry professionals that say, “Hey Josh, you do an amazing job. be helping us a lot with the feedback and because of you, I don’t need to travel on my competitor airlines anymore because I see what they are up to. So, yeah, just to give you a little bit of a behind the scenes what’s going on inside my head. Yeah. So, no, I don’t read any news articles. I don’t read any forums. I have like literally no idea what people say cuz you got to keep yourself away from from nonsense like this because when you then read uh very strong opinions of five individuals you think oh my god this is how probably the majority thinks of me but in fact it is a very very tiny very loud minority that are that is unhappy with their life. They haven’t achieved anything with their own lives. So they’re very frustrated and they get angry and they get sad. But yeah, that’s always nice when I have especially this kind of conversation with my fellow uh YouTubers. Um and yeah, people can be cruel. I people can go beyond to u go and hurt someone, you know. I find that I find that quite fascinating what people like try to do and say and come up with the biggest nonsense I’ve ever heard. Yeah, quite quite an interesting world YouTube. Yeah, by the end of the day, I’m very lucky that I’ve built all this for myself. You know, I started with nothing with zero dollars. I used to live on the streets for yeah, a good two weeks back in Australia. I would live off those $1 Asian noodles uh that you would get at the supermarket. I worked in shitty jobs. I worked at McDonald’s. I worked in bars. I worked in sales. I’ve done so much crap. But always in the back of my head there was me having this dream to be able to travel the world and to get paid for it. And then eventually, you know, I got there. Really hard work. And I’m not as lucky as some other guys in my industry who have very wealthy parents or who were born with a golden spoon. No, I had to work very hard to get where I am today. And this is where I’m sometimes perhaps so critical in my videos because I know how hard it is to earn a living for yourself. And there’s nothing more beautiful when you work really hard for something and then you spend it and let’s send oh I want to spend it on a business class experience or I want to spend it on this kind of flight and then you get treated badly the the service is poor they don’t give a and that’s the moment when I then try to be critical you know and think like you know could have been somebody else who worked really hard for that very flight and it wasn’t great you know I know we all humans you Everyone can have a bad day, but when I see sometimes what those airline CEOs get paid, you know, especially in the US and what you get in return, you know, I’m by no means a socialist. You know, I love capitalism. I’m benefited from it. You know, it’s great when people work hard and they get back, but yeah, sometimes it’s really really out of out of proportion, you know. And I think this is where it’s great that there are people like No, Dan, Dennis, Simply Aviation to hold those people accountable for these kind of things. And uh that’s very important. Everything in life needs an opposition. And I’m glad that I’m part of that opposition that tries to hold the airlines accountable for the promises they make. as I as I get hold accountable for promises that I don’t fulfill. Right. And that is it. So yeah, I love how you went a bit off topic here in Lao, but I feel like sometimes it’s nice to share my thoughts and what I think. So you might get a better chance to understand me and the things I do. And I also think I’m lost. So I need to walk back. And it’s also very very hot here. But uh I like it a good sweat. And yeah, I also like just a side note, I’d say 70% of my flights are still in economy and I still love it. Just so you know, I’m not spoiled. This is so cool. This guy has a hammock in his tuk. Amazing. That’s the spirit. [Music] So, it’s 3:00 p.m. Heading to the airport. Saying goodbye to this beautiful view of the Meong River here at the Amari Hotel. I also had to summon for room service and I don’t think it was good. I can feel it in my tummy. [Music] Thank you. Fancy. It was in time to make my way back to the airport for part two of our Lao Airlines experience. If you enjoy my videos and you want to keep yourself updated right to your WhatsApp, you can now follow my official channel on there. The link is in the description box. That’s for you, huh? Thank you very much. All right. That’s nice. Thank you very much. Here. Take care. Thank you. Bye-bye. Wat Thai International Airport is the country’s largest with a relatively small network of flights mostly in and around the region. [Music] So, and here we are at the airport. Not very busy. I’ve counted five flights today. Mostly bound for China and Bangkok. I don’t think they have any intercontinental flights or such. Um yeah, very uh aged and old uh airport. Uh but now let’s check in for our economy class experience on Lao Airlines. They group. Yeah. Yeah. From what I noticed. Bangkok. Sorry. Uh yeah, just Bangkok. No, nothing. I picked the window seat right in the back. Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. Fantastic. Thank you. Lounge. Yes. As well. Yeah. The flight full. Okay. Thank you very much. So, when you book your ticket with Lao Airlines in economy class, they give you an option for $18 to add lounge access as well. So, this is going to be our next stop. Lounge. More airlines should do that. I remember Tunis Air does that. But what the airlines do, it’s only limited to usually two passengers per flight. Otherwise, the lounge would get too crowded, I guess. [Music] So, I just arrived in the lounge. Looks very sad here. And I picked three items from this lovely buffet. the ham and cheese sandwich, uh the whatever pizza from last night’s staff party, and this very sad looking burger. And I’m going to find out which one is the worst so you don’t have to suffer. All right, that pizza looks really bad. Tastes like Definitely high hopes in a burger. Oh my god, that pizza tastes like laundry detergent. Jesus has been around this lounge for a long time. That burger tastes like fish. A chicken burger that tastes like fish. Great. Fantastic. So, the least harm probably is This is so bad. Oh, the burger was the worst by far. The pizza was also pretty bad. But that ham and cheese sandwich actually tastes like a ham and cheese sandwich. Or if you don’t want to get food poisoning, that’s probably one to pick. And here we are. Welcome on board again. And this time the cabin is very different to our first flight. Only eight seats in business class and all captain blue. Also, the economy class appears a little different and has 150 seats instead of just 126. 29F all the way to the end. So guys, and here we are. Welcome on board Lao Airlines economy class. And unlike the first plane that we took yesterday with this very aggressive green uh seat colors, this one is kept in a nicer blue shade. Uh not as aggressive on the eye as the previous plane. Also, the leg room situation here is pretty okay. Um given that a flight is only an hour, this is actually not too bad. Um obviously the seats are a little worn. Um especially the padding you can feel it. Um but then this plane is also like 10 plus years old but overall it will do for the next hour. So cruise all right. Um alo short turnar around for them. Weather looks good. Um I think it’s the first flight of the day as well and it’s 6:00 p.m. All right. So yeah, very much looking forward to see what we get on this 1 hour flight, if anything at all. We then pushed back and on our way to the runway, I spotted the airlines come 909 of which Lao Airlines operates too. Also spotted the Chinese copy of the Russian Antonoff plane which is known as can 60. [Music] [Music] Once we reach cruising altitude, the crew would hand out lunch boxes, which consists of a sandwich and a yogurt. I think after ruining my stomach earlier at the lounge, I passed on the snack box and decided to sleep for a little bit and in no time, we landed back in Bangkok. Overall, it was a good flight for just $80, which I think is a fair price. [Music] So, and here we are. Somebody car from Thailand. It took me literally 38 seconds to clear immigration. Um, it’s a bliss these days. Back in the days, you could stand there for hours and now you just get through like this, like a hot knife through butter. It’s really nice. Um, what do we make of Lao Airlines? Definitely better than Cambodia uh airlines or Airways, which I which I’ve flown recently, but nowhere near the top three uh Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airlines, Singapore Airlines in the Saudi Asia region. um was do a pretty decent product. You know, crew was lovely. Um food was fantastic on the first flight. Uh they could definitely do with some new planes and a new cabin. Um and as well that business class flight was extremely extremely overpriced. Uh should have paid half of it. But this is it guys. I hope you enjoyed my little um adventure to Lars. I had a lot of fun. It was really great. Lovely people, great experience. Uh, can highly recommend you to go and travel there. Check out my Patreon for extra perks. Hit that subscribe button and let me know in the comment section below what you think of Lao Airlines. This is it. I am going to the hotel now because tomorrow I’ll be flying Aeraflot to IstAnul with a stop in Moscow. It’s going to be a very interesting video as well. So, if you don’t want to miss out on that one, but you already subscribed, put that notification bell on and you will not miss out on the great videos that are coming. All righty, guys. This is it. Wherever you off to, have a safe trip. [Music]

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This is a comprehensive Flight Review of Lao Airlines.

Class: Business & Economy
Route: Seoul (ICN) to Bangkok (BKK) via Vientiane (VTE)
Plane: Airbus A320-200

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