Air Asia is a budget airline offering service between Bangkok and Phnom Penh, but I recently found out how limited--and costly--that service can be. They advertise very cheap tickets--the one I bought online was $12. Of course, with the departure taxes, security fees, fuel surcharges, etc., the price goes up, to $80+ for a roundtrip ticket from Phnom Penh to Bangkok, in my case. But that's still better than paying $140 or $190 on another carrier. For a quick business trip or holiday jaunt, it's not a bad deal. But I made the mistake of booking Air Asia for the last sector of my return flight from the U.S. Bad move. 1. It turned out that Air Asia does not allow baggage transfers between airlines, probably a cost-cutting move. Normally when I fly from the US on United Airlines to Bangkok, my luggage is automatically transferred to the new carrier, usually Bangkok Airways, for the flight to Phnom Penh. I check my bags in Louisville, Kentucky and I don't see them again until they arrive in Phnom Penh 35-40 hour later. But my ticket on Air Asia required that I claim my luggage in Bangkok, keep it with me overnight, and then check-in again the following morning with Air Asia. (The United flight arrives late at night and the Air Asia flight leaves early in the morning.) 2. The necessity of claiming my luggage in Bangkok meant that I had to go through immigration (passport control) as if I were arriving in Bangkok instead of making a transfer. And because I had to go through immigration, then I had to pay a departure tax (about $20) because technically I was leaving Thailand rather than just transferring from one airline to another for which no departure tax is required. 3. Worst of all, though, were the excess baggage charges. Most airlines have a 20-kilogram weight limit for checked baggage. However, there is a convention that allows passengers coming from the United States to carry more than that, and normally the transfer airline accepts the excess baggage with no charge. I have transferred between United and Bangkok Airways many times with more than 20-kgs of luggage and there has never been a charge. But Air Asia has a 15-kg limit and I was carrying 37.5 kgs of luggage. So even though I was transferring from an international flight from the U.S., they charged me more than $80 for the "excess" weight! I talked to a manager about it, but they wouldn't budge. (I told her I would put up this webpage to make sure others might not get ripped off the same way I did.) Air Asia probably isn't operating a scam but it's close to it. They sure follow their rules in an unfriendly way and I think their policy could validly be called a ripoff. You can be sure I won't be flying Air Asia in the future when I need to transfer between airlines!