Thai Airways flight delay drama: Couple tell their side of the story

[NanLaew]

7 hours ago, observer90210 said:

This case was widely reported in many international medias on their websites. A disgrace for Thailand and a big disgrace for Thai Airways. Carry on the great work fellas. And wait till your Chinese pals get hold of this story !! ????

You are the third poster to say that this incident is a notable news item in the media of other countries.

 

Similarly, you are the third poster who hasn't posted anything to sustain that claim.

[NanLaew]

3 hours ago, Jonmarleesco said:

TG had better sort out their policy, and their staff. Because the next time this happens, the crew just might p_ss off entirely the wrong passengers. 

No. Fare paying passengers need to know exactly what they are paying for and the industry-wide reality that your preferred seat choice is never, ever guaranteed regardless of deadhead crew being accommodated or otherwise.

[fanjita]

1 minute ago, NanLaew said:

No. Fare paying passengers need to know exactly what they are paying for and the industry-wide reality that your preferred seat choice is never, ever guaranteed regardless of deadhead crew being accommodated or otherwise.

Indeed.  Your business class seat might actually become an offer of a lovely economy seat or bumped from the flight entirely.  You just never know.  

 

Generally, you'll get a few bob back so not much to complain about in my experience.  

[observer90210]

30 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

You are the third poster to say that this incident is a notable news item in the media of other countries.

 

Similarly, you are the third poster who hasn't posted anything to sustain that claim.

And you are the first poster challenging it as usual instead of doing your research on google ????

 

Bye bye and welcome to my ignore list.

[Stargeezr]

I changed seats once on request and it was a win win, as I had an ailse seat

and managed to change to a window seat. On arriving at destination I was able

to get great pictures of the city and airport. I think sometimes people complain

to get their 2 seconds of fame on some media. That is the world we live in.

 Geezer

[spidermike007]

There are so many reasons why I never consider Thai Airways for international flights. Now I have one more. I would have been furious. 

 

I have always found then to be smug, vastly overrated and poor baggage handlers. A thoroughly unimpressive airline on so many levels. Hope this really goes viral. 

[scorecard]

3 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

There are so many reasons why I never consider Thai Airways for international flights. Now I have one more. I would have been furious. 

 

I have always found then to be smug, vastly overrated and poor baggage handlers. A thoroughly unimpressive airline on so many levels. Hope this really goes viral. 

 

Regardless of who has priority I would have though TG, including all it's senior staff, including pilots should be well aware that they are in deep financial trouble and all concerned very focused on quickly regaining profitable business and one major key to that is the overall brand / image of the airline, and of course fares and SAFETY.

 

Given the details that have been shared re the current incident it seems they could have made all concerned much happier than the result we now observe.

 

Somehow they seem to keep shooting themselves in the foot.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2018 by scorecard

[Scouse123]

Hi,

 

 

 

A friend of mine who I had mentioned this to ( he has connections in the airline industry, and I said this was causing a fuss over in the Far East),  sought advice from a senior member of staff in the airline industry who made inquiries. What she came back with was interesting and this is a quote, and it makes a  lot of sense, however, they say the pilot acted a little improperly:-

 

This flight is normally operated by Boeing 777. But due to a technical issue the aircraft was grounded, and the company decided to use a Boeing 747 instead.

The flight crew of the 777 are not certified to fly the 747, so it was decided to let them travel back to Bangkok as passive crew (deadhead).

When reseating the passengers from the 777 to the 747 many passengers were upgraded from business to first class. The ground agent forgot the deadheading crew, and the mistake was discovered after all first class seats were given away.

The ground agent asked for volunteers to move back to business class, but none of the passengers wanted to give up their upgraded status.

That said, it was a poor decision of the captain to insist on first class seats for the deadheading crew. Even a business class seat is much better than the cockpit when it comes to comfort. The deadheading crew was scheduled to have a rest period after arriving in Bangkok as well.

 

So this means as you can see, there is a fault on many fronts including selfish passengers, selfish deadhead crew, who were still going to get further rest in Bangkok, and a Captain who exercised poor judgment in this instance.

 

So really, it depends on whose side of the argument you take in deciding who was wrong.

[Burma Bill]

4 minutes ago, Scouse123 said:

Hi,

 

 

 

A friend of mine who I had mentioned this to ( he has connections in the airline industry, and I said this was causing a fuss over in the Far East),  sought advice from a senior member of staff in the airline industry who made inquiries. What she came back with was interesting and this is a quote, and it makes a  lot of sense, however, they say the pilot acted a little improperly:-

 

This flight is normally operated by Boeing 777. But due to a technical issue the aircraft was grounded, and the company decided to use a Boeing 747 instead.

The flight crew of the 777 are not certified to fly the 747, so it was decided to let them travel back to Bangkok as passive crew (deadhead).

When reseating the passengers from the 777 to the 747 many passengers were upgraded from business to first class. The ground agent forgot the deadheading crew, and the mistake was discovered after all first class seats were given away.

The ground agent asked for volunteers to move back to business class, but none of the passengers wanted to give up their upgraded status.

That said, it was a poor decision of the captain to insist on first class seats for the deadheading crew. Even a business class seat is much better than the cockpit when it comes to comfort. The deadheading crew was scheduled to have a rest period after arriving in Bangkok as well.

 

So this means as you can see, there is a fault on many fronts including selfish passengers, selfish deadhead crew, who were still going to get further rest in Bangkok, and a Captain who exercised poor judgment in this instance.

 

So really, it depends on whose side of the argument you take in deciding who was wrong.

Thank you - this makes sense but the damage to Thai Airways reputation has been done. Definitely a case of poor judgement.

[NanLaew]

13 hours ago, observer90210 said:

And you are the first poster challenging it as usual instead of doing your research on google ????

 

Bye bye and welcome to my ignore list.

And you are obviously not the first poster to make sh!t up, post it as fact and then squirm with indignation while trolling with the 'do your own google research' mantra when politely asked to simply qualify their claims.

 

Cheerio... and enjoy your stay in my "I really don't give a sh!t if you ignore me" world.

Edited October 22, 2018 by NanLaew

[OJAS]

22 hours ago, NanLaew said:

I reckon THAI has a Thai national as ZRH station manager... as if that makes anything better of course.

Showing a red rag to a bull as far as a fair few on this thread are concerned, I think!

 

But you are probably correct since TG appear to operate a daily schedule between ZRH and BKK most of the time:-

 

https://info.flightmapper.net/flight/Thai_Airways_TG_970

 

Edited October 22, 2018 by OJAS

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, Scouse123 said:

So this means as you can see, there is a fault on many fronts including selfish passengers, selfish deadhead crew, who were still going to get further rest in Bangkok, and a Captain who exercised poor judgment in this instance.

The detailed explanation you relate has already been posted in this thread albeit with the additional information that the deadheads were allegedly going to get more rest time on arrival in BKK.

 

I would say the order of responsibility from highest to lowest is:

 

1  Ground staff. Their oversight on the deadheads being added to the manifest was the root cause of the delay.

 

2  Passenger ignorance. The seat you are assigned is never, ever guaranteed on any commercial airline. The only way to get that guarantee is to charter a plane.

 

The air crew are in no way to blame. The actual Captain of the flight knew company policy with regard to deadheads and enforced it. Unfortunately, they just had a couple of travelers who took 2 hours to surrender probably their 'once in a lifetime' chance to ride FC. Their lack of comprehension and unwillingness to comply with the conditions of carriage as well as their obvious sense of entitlement and total disregard for their disruption of other passengers agendas is what looks bad. Me first attitude. You just KNOW they're good at that.

 

The deadheading crew members were in no way assured or guaranteed that they would get that extra BKK rest-time as the plane hadn't even taken off yet. The dynamics of flight time, landing, taxiing and deplaning doesn't allow for that luxury of precision. The simple fact that THIS flight departure was delayed by ~2 hours attests to that unknown variable, ie, they got to sleep at least 2 hours later and would arrive 2 hours later, foreshortening their 'promised' BKK rest time that probably resulted in further flight crew assignment shuffles to meet the legal requirements.

Edited October 22, 2018 by NanLaew

[blorg]

On 10/20/2018 at 7:19 PM, NanLaew said:

Yes it is. Most carriers place deadheading flight crew at the front of the bus, usually in the quietest seats, ie. front row, away from the galley. They have to get sleep in order to comply with the industry's strict rest-hours v flying time protocols.

Not in the industry but my understanding is the deadheading cannot be counted as rest time.

[spidermike007]

12 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Regardless of who has priority I would have though TG, including all it's senior staff, including pilots should be well aware that they are in deep financial trouble and all concerned very focused on quickly regaining profitable business and one major key to that is the overall brand / image of the airline, and of course fares and SAFETY.

 

Given the details that have been shared re the current incident it seems they could have made all concerned much happier than the result we now observe.

 

Somehow they seem to keep shooting themselves in the foot.

 

 

This is the key problem with a government monopoly or company owned by the govt. They do not have to be responsible or profitable. This airline has been coddled by one administration after another. They have never really had to be accountable. The pilots who misbehaved should be fired immediately. Will that happen? Of course not. The airline is not accountable. 

 

Just stop using Thai. 

[zzaa09]

12 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Regardless of who has priority I would have though TG, including all it's senior staff, including pilots should be well aware that they are in deep financial trouble and all concerned very focused on quickly regaining profitable business and one major key to that is the overall brand / image of the airline, and of course fares and SAFETY.

 

Given the details that have been shared re the current incident it seems they could have made all concerned much happier than the result we now observe.

 

Somehow they seem to keep shooting themselves in the foot.

 

 

They've been quite oblivious to all this - 

Yet, continue on with their misguided business practices as well as discourteous customer relations. 

[zzaa09]

20 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

This is the key problem with a government monopoly or company owned by the govt. They do not have to be responsible or profitable. This airline has been coddled by one administration after another. They have never really had to be accountable. The pilots who misbehaved should be fired immediately. Will that happen? Of course not. The airline is not accountable. 

 

Just stop using Thai. 

????

[tifino]

on the path about delays and cancellations...

we're heading up on TA on 1Nov.  Yesterday the entire Flight DEP 1Nov 00:30 from MEL is Cancelled in advance, in toto! 

So we are, probably along with 500 others, all awaiting to see what will happen with reallocations, for a lot of bums on seats!

 

strange, that this cancellation is a week and a half prior to the day of flight! must be something really big happening?

it is a fair enough time way from today. to still replace a Plane/Crew etc planned maintenance?   

 

I can see some many new Business Seat disruptions coming up soon!

 

Do they have some sort of 'How many seats on a Flight not yet booked up to 2 weeks before we reach that point for decision as to whether we cancel everything sort of thing?

Edited October 22, 2018 by tifino

[stevemac]

And you are obviously not the first poster to make sh!t up, post it as fact and then squirm with indignation while trolling with the 'do your own google research' mantra when politely asked to simply qualify their claims.
 
Cheerio... and enjoy your stay in my "I really don't give a sh!t if you ignore me" world.

See link to Daily Mail article

https://dailym.ai/2PgLRA0 via http://dailym.ai/android


Sent from my SM-G920F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[kkerry]

Refreshing comments from the Thai Airways International Labour Union president in a new article in BP this evening... so maybe hope yet for Thai Airways...

 

[spidermike007]

1 hour ago, tifino said:

on the path about delays and cancellations...

we're heading up on TA on 1Nov.  Yesterday the entire Flight DEP 1Nov 00:30 from MEL is Cancelled in advance, in toto! 

So we are, probably along with 500 others, all awaiting to see what will happen with reallocations, for a lot of bums on seats!

 

strange, that this cancellation is a week and a half prior to the day of flight! must be something really big happening?

it is a fair enough time way from today. to still replace a Plane/Crew etc planned maintenance?   

 

I can see some many new Business Seat disruptions coming up soon!

 

Do they have some sort of 'How many seats on a Flight not yet booked up to 2 weeks before we reach that point for decision as to whether we cancel everything sort of thing?

Symptomatic of a second class airline, run by bureaucrats, with little talent. Stop the support of government monopolies, and these will no longer be your problems. Thai Airways is a poor substitute for what it could be with private ownership and management. But, then the govt. employees would not enjoy so many free trips!