Shout Out to Thai Airways

[Brightly]

Recently my friend was flying back to Chiang Mai from the US.  On a domestic flight (Jet Blue from NC to NYC), he had to relinquish his hand luggage at the gate, and was told it would be “first out on the conveyor belt” at JFK Airport.

 

Very long story short:  The bag was missing, Jet Blue claimed no liability (according to the Montreal Agreement, the carrier of his China layover destination was responsible for the bag, although they never touched it).  Jet Blue would’t do much; the China airline had little impetus to chase his bag down, as well.

 

It was Thai Airways (who only served to connect him from BKK to CNX) that went the extra mile (kilometer?) to track, locate and reunite my friend with his bag.

 

That kind of customer service has won his loyalty, and by proxy, mine too.

 

i hope this won’t draw snarky remarks.  I just thought it was a story worth passing on.

[melvinmelvin]

man,

if you travel a lot - shit like that happens not infrequently

 

[natway09]

Well Done Thai Airways & thanks for sharing.

Notice the "Thai knockers" are very quiet this morning

[eyecatcher]

12 minutes ago, natway09 said:

 

Notice the "Thai knockers" are very quiet this morning

Thats why the thread died from the start, the op asked for naysayers to keep quiet.

if he hadnt said that then the thread would have been great

[malibukid]

i was traveling back to Bangkok after surgery in the U.S.  i had filed a SSR with for the flight from Tokyo to Bangkok.  Thai Airways ignored my Special Service Request upon deplaning in BKK.  would not assist me with my luggage since i was not "flying in Business Class" this was the only explanation i was given.  was left at the top of the stairs with no assistance what so ever.

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, natway09 said:

Well Done Thai Airways & thanks for sharing.

Notice the "Thai knockers" are very quiet this morning

Sure nice story, all agreed, nice to hear the passenger got his bag back, but doesn't change my very negative attitude to Thai from many very poor customer service incidents. 

[Odin Norway]

Baggage lost with KLM from Europe last year. Delivered 2 days after by Thai in Udon Thani. Only good things to say about them.

[DrDave]

Similar story for me as well. First leg of flights from Florida to BKK was delayed. Missed the connection on Qatar in Miami, but was re-booked on JAL via NY.  Despite checking with JAL that our our bags had been transferred, they were nowhere to be found when we arrived in BKK a couple of days later. Thai Airways, who had nothing to do with any of our flights, stepped up and located our bags (they never left Miami), had them sent to BKK, and then onward to Phuket at no charge. I was really impressed with their service, especially since none of our flights were on TG.

[eyecatcher]

Years and years ago my mate flew uk to Florida for a family hol. For whatever reason his sons suitcase went KLM to Bkk.

He never diid see that suitcase even when he returned home, so he put in an insurance claim.

It was refused as they say baggage will always be found and will always get back to the owner.

 

5 years later, yep, you guessed, knock on the door and a courier with a suitcase.

The clothes in the suitcase would no longer fit the teenager who was 10yrs old when they left but only then did he make a claim.

Insurance refused yet again, after all he had his suitcase retuned so nothing lost.

 

If only I knew then that Thai airways will deal with everyone elses problems I could have told him

[canthai55]

Charge tickets via credit card. Lost baggage is covered.

They will reimburse you.

I always snap a pic when departing - with location logo prominent.

[geisha]

Nothing to do with Thai, sorry, but a while back my suitcase arrived in Bangkok bound up in string and very worse for wear. I immediately put in a complaint at the desk,and contacted Lufthansa Bangkok . Apparently it had been forced open . Nothing was stolen as I never  put valuables in checked in cases. I spoke to someone very much in charge, and was reimbursed for a new Samsonite on my next stop at Bangkok airport. When i returned again a few months later to go home to France, I was called over the speaker to customer service desk, where they took my boarding card and gave me a new one , buisness class all the way.I was thrilled and thought that was a very kind gesture. 

[EricTh]

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

Sure nice story, all agreed, nice to hear the passenger got his bag back, but doesn't change my very negative attitude to Thai from many very poor customer service incidents. 

What do you mean by Thai?

 

Do you mean Thai airways or just Thai people in general?

[StevieAus]

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

Sure nice story, all agreed, nice to hear the passenger got his bag back, but doesn't change my very negative attitude to Thai from many very poor customer service incidents. 

Agree, stopped flying with then over 10 years ago used to fly business class internationally the service went down and the fares up.

Arrived at the airport with my wife in Bangkok to fly back to Sydney told my booking had been cancelled despite that we had reconfirmed in person the day before at their office in Chiang Mai.

Totally disinterested had to wait until about 15 mins before the flight left to get a seat.

To this day despite many emails have never received an explanation and they have never received any more of my money.

Plenty of better airlines out there who know what service means.

[scorecard]

24 minutes ago, EricTh said:

What do you mean by Thai?

 

Do you mean Thai airways or just Thai people in general?

I mean Thai airways / Thai international airline.

 

Have you not noticed that this airline is commonly referred to as Thai.

 

If you'd like to go back along the thread Thai / Thai airways is mentioned many times. 

 

 

[Poopyface]

46 minutes ago, canthai55 said:

Charge tickets via credit card. Lost baggage is covered.

They will reimburse you.

That would totally depend on the credit card LOL

[JimmyJ]

Several of the Thai Airways stories here make no sense.

 

"My luggage was lost.

Thai Airways - which had no connection to any of my flights - found it for me and got it back to me." ???

 

How does this happen?

The person who lost the luggage called every airline asking for help with luggage they had never carried, and Thai Airways willingly got involved?

 

A big part of these stories seems to be missing.

[dotpoom]

6 hours ago, melvinmelvin said:

man,

if you travel a lot - shit like that happens not infrequently

 

Even if you don't travel a lot.

[richard_smith237]

I always find the Thai Airways staff to be quite pleasant and helpful... I'm not sure why some feel some animosity towards TG staff... perhaps its because they expect to be treated like kings and treat the flight attends as servants???? 

 

A couple of years ago my Son was violently ill on was was fortunately a very quiet flight from Tokyo to Bangkok...  seriously vomit went everywhere, how I escaped 'chunder-free' is beyond me... 

 

The staff helped as I stripped my son down (he was covered) and wiped him off in the isle as I redressed him in fresh clothes (we always travel with a spare set - just in case of turbulence etc... I don't want my son to have to sit in wet clothes after drink is spilt on him).... fortunately the flight was almost empty and we could change seats... 

 

The flight attendants didn't blink... we extremely helpful and even brought me a couple of Black Labels  (whisky) from business class (cos the whisky they serve in economy really is rocket-fuel). 

 

I've flown TG a lot... and always have a pleasant flight even if sometimes their plane is a little more dated than the competition... (example: BKK to Haneda last month - older plane poorer entertainment - not an issue, my son has an iPad).

 

[Dante99]

51 minutes ago, JimmyJ said:

How does this happen?

The person who lost the luggage called every airline asking for help with luggage they had never carried, and Thai Airways willingly got involved?

No need to call every airline.  Thai Airways has contracts for ground services including baggage handling at a number of Thai airports.  That is baggage for everybody not just Thai customers.

[DrDave]

1 hour ago, JimmyJ said:

Several of the Thai Airways stories here make no sense.

 

"My luggage was lost.

Thai Airways - which had no connection to any of my flights - found it for me and got it back to me." ???

 

How does this happen?

The person who lost the luggage called every airline asking for help with luggage they had never carried, and Thai Airways willingly got involved?

 

A big part of these stories seems to be missing.

I think you're referring to my post.

In my case, when the bags didn't appear on the belt at Suvarnabhumi, my wife spoke to a Thai baggage service rep who was standing nearby. This rep asked for our bag tag receipts, took us to the Thai baggage service counter and filled out a missing baggage form. She then either called someone, or looked it up on a computer terminal (I don't recall which at the moment), to find out where the bags were and asked where we'd like to have them delivered.

Maybe they got involved because they might provide baggage services for airlines that don't have their own baggage services at BKK. I don't know. All I can tell you is that they handled everything (including putting the bags on a TG flight from BKK to HKT), even though we were not on any TG or TG codeshare flights.

[yogavnture]

seems odd they wouldnt give them a stub of any sort.  just saying it would be off the conveyor belt. i wouldnt have trusted that.  i would have demanded some sort of tag or i wouldnt have given up the bag. period..

[richard_smith237]

In New Zealand someone walked out of the Airport with my bag..... a genuine mistake - this person had left his identical bag on the carousel and walked off with my bag (his contact details were on his luggage ID). 

 

Emirates tried to tell me that their responsibility lies with delivering the baggage to the carousel, what happens to it after that point is not their responsibility (which it may not have been)... but, I didn't take kindly to this information, after getting hold of a 'supervisor' of sorts (someone slightly higher up the food-chain), they understood the damage social media could do the the Airline image if they were prepared to continue being so unhelpful... 

 

As I was a 'valued customer' (flying business class) they agreed to make a call to the guy who we suspected had picked up my bag (from the information on luggage ID of what we suspected was his bag, identical to mine) - he did have my bag. 

Emirates suggested I take his bag out of the airport and do a swap in town at my hotel !!!! WHAT ???

No...  we hadn't passed customs and I wasn't carrying a strangers bag through customs !

 

Ultimately, I left to my hotel empty handed and the guy who'd mistakenly picked up my bag dropped it off at my hotel (with a bottle of wine - a nice touch as an apology), he then had to go to the airport to pick up his bag. 

 

 

My point here is that Emirates initial response was 'sorry, not our problem'.... and they are supposed to be a far superior airline... These reports suggest that Thai Service (or Thai Baggage services) is better !!! (based on this one encounter anyway)...

[amexpat]

2 hours ago, yogavnture said:

seems odd they wouldnt give them a stub of any sort.  just saying it would be off the conveyor belt. i wouldnt have trusted that.  i would have demanded some sort of tag or i wouldnt have given up the bag. period..

You one tuff sumbitch.

 

[scorecard]

Some good situations, some not so good. I admit i"m quite negative about Thai Inter.,

 

For some 12 years I flew 2, even 3 flight a week, often day trips Bkk to other cities in Nth and S.E. Asia. all on Thai Inter. because the company international policy is that local offices must use the national carrier of that country. Ninety % of my tickets were the most expensive class because I needed total flexibility to continuously, often last minute, change flight and dates.

 

I could write a book about poor / very poor service, unacceptable rudeness and attitude. And yes there were plenty of flights which were average and a few quite good service.

 

One negative example, travelling bus. class evening flight Bkk to Jakarta, with 18 yr old Thai son, his ticket (paid by me) also the most expensive class of ticket.

 

Perhaps 30 minutes after dinner all finished and trays etc., all packed away, half the bus. class seats empty, my son asked politely for a glass of Coke. Response from the bus. class trolley dolly: 'Go and ask in economy class'.

 

No further comment needed.

 

 

Edited February 7, 2019 by scorecard

[steve187]

13 hours ago, EricTh said:

What do you mean by Thai?

 

Do you mean Thai airways or just Thai people in general?

the story is about Thai airways, so just read 'Thai' as Thai airways, why would someone think any different

[Dante99]

21 minutes ago, steve187 said:

the story is about Thai airways, so just read 'Thai' as Thai airways, why would someone think any different

You do need to get to know Eric better.  It's an adventure.

[orchidfan]

19 hours ago, DrDave said:

Similar story for me as well. First leg of flights from Florida to BKK was delayed. Missed the connection on Qatar in Miami, but was re-booked on JAL via NY.  Despite checking with JAL that our our bags had been transferred, they were nowhere to be found when we arrived in BKK a couple of days later. Thai Airways, who had nothing to do with any of our flights, stepped up and located our bags (they never left Miami), had them sent to BKK, and then onward to Phuket at no charge. I was really impressed with their service, especially since none of our flights were on TG.

Probably a code share flight using Thai 's landing slot.v

[canthai55]

18 hours ago, Poopyface said:

That would totally depend on the credit card LOL

Why would you use a credit card which does not provide this service to purchase tickets ?

One easy solution, problem solved

[Captor]

On 2/7/2019 at 12:23 PM, geisha said:

Nothing to do with Thai, sorry, but a while back my suitcase arrived in Bangkok bound up in string and very worse for wear. I immediately put in a complaint at the desk,and contacted Lufthansa Bangkok . Apparently it had been forced open . Nothing was stolen as I never  put valuables in checked in cases. I spoke to someone very much in charge, and was reimbursed for a new Samsonite on my next stop at Bangkok airport. When i returned again a few months later to go home to France, I was called over the speaker to customer service desk, where they took my boarding card and gave me a new one , buisness class all the way.I was thrilled and thought that was a very kind gesture. 

Wow! Very nice.

[mike324]

Since Thai was the last leg of the flight, its not surprising they would track your baggage for you since they are the airline that would carry your bag to the last destination. If it was me, I would have ask Thai to track it, not Jet Blue or China Airline.