Good Experience On Thai Air

[Merlin]

Hi,

I just wanted to mention that I flew Thai Air BNE - BKK yesterday and had a great flight. It seems Thai Air has been spending some money on planes - the one I was on was a Boeing 777 and only 2 weeks old, I was told. A comfortable seat and nice touch screen with movies on demand in each seat - a vast improvement from the last time I flew with Thai. Even the food was pretty good!

Once I got in to Suvanabhumi, all was quite ok as well. Signage led me straight to passport control where there was only a minimal wait and then to baggage pickup where my bag was already on the carousel, then straight through customs without any checks at all. Couldn't be easier.

[Spee]

I just wanted to mention that I flew Thai Air BNE - BKK yesterday and had a great flight.

Nice post and ditto for me. For biz and pleasure, I fly all over the place, typically between 50k-75k actual miles each year. I had never flown Thai Air before a couple of years ago. Now I fly on them whenever I can on my itineraries to southeast Asia. They're great. Nice new planes as you say. Very customer service. Very affordable biz class on domestic flights. And their online sales system is getting better and better.

[tuky]

I have yet to fly on a new Thai plane, infact I flew business class just the other day and the seats didn't have foot rests or electric operation and only a projection screen, obviously no upgrade in the last 10-15 years.

For a long while I was flying Emirates from Dubai to Bkk and then Thai the other way, Emirates were in a different class.

[Krub]

TG is a hit and miss on the hardware but they have nealry always very friendly and efficient service and food.

The ticket prices vary but are generaly good value especially if you can base your departures from Bangkok.

Wish they would upgrade the hardware at a quicker pace

[Fielder]

Did the same trip BNE to BKK on the new planes. Great planes and service.

I hasve been following this forum for some time and I approched the new airport with an open mind. On arrival my thoughts were that it is very large and modern. Immigration was a breeze as was recovering our luggage. Nice touch on the carousel, was flight information and BNE in very large letters which made it easy to find. Walked straight through customs, down to level 1 and into a cab to our hotel in no time. Impressive.

Departure was a completely different experience.

Checked in, though immigration and customs no problem. The duty free area seemed OK, but the further one went towards the gates, the worse the floor became and the whole place took on a very cold dismal look. With no where to sit, we made our way to the departure lounge. The gate number was clear enough but there was no information regarding flight numbers. We later found a hand written sign as we passed though the final boarding gate. The departure lounges are a disgrace. They look cold, feel cold and the seats are cold, and very noisy. So much so I started to feel ill and had to go for a walk. I have never been in a prison, but I felt that it must feel something like this. To cap it all off, we were bussed to our plane.

The impression I got was that this part of the airport was not finished. It need brightening up, carpet the floors and replace the seats. The new departure lounges at DM were brilliant compared to the new airport.

[JacksonGlurk]

...For a long while I was flying Emirates from Dubai to Bkk and then Thai the other way, Emirates were in a different class.

I agree that Emirates is 'in a different class,' just not a good class. Thai Air is bad enough, but after a dozen first-class legs on Emirates in the last year, I wouldn't fly them again for free. What a bunch of clowns. Arrogant, stupid clowns, at that.

Still, if you're flying back and forth between Bangkok and Dubai, I realize that particular pair of hopelessly inept, second-rate airlines is probably your only choice. I feel for you, brother. Why don't you try for a job in Singapore or Hong Kong instead? Then you could fly a real airline like Singapore or Cathay.

[PeaceBlondie]

Merlin, welcome home.

I cannot think of a bad experience on Thai Airways, and that's in economy class. The only delicious Thai food I've ever eaten! I'm flying BKK-Moscow round trip in May/June, and expect it to be worth giving up all those frequent flyer miles. Okay, one bad thing: their online reservation system almost never worked for me, 2003-2006. So I just went in to the ticket office in person. And when I couldn't tolerate being on standby, the clever lady at the ticket counter found me a solution. Top marks, although EVA from Los Angeles to Tapei to BKK was a bit better. Also, I liked going through Don Muang as a transit passenger, and not reaching immigration until Chiang Mai (and vice versa).

[CbrLad]

I have yet to fly on a new Thai plane, infact I flew business class just the other day and the seats didn't have foot rests or electric operation and only a projection screen, obviously no upgrade in the last 10-15 years.

For a long while I was flying Emirates from Dubai to Bkk and then Thai the other way, Emirates were in a different class.

Where did you fly between? Was it a long flight or a short flight? Thai has upgraded the business class seats on the 747 aircraft that do the long haul, to Australia, Europe etc. They are now the beds, pretty much the same as the Qantas Skybed, only with subtle differences. They have introduced new aircraft inlcuding the A340-500 they use to the US and the new 777-200ER's like they run to Brisbane and elsewhere. The new aircraft unlike the upgraded 747's also have better IFE in economy class.

For short haul, which is most flights within Asia they operate aircraft such as their older 777's, A330's and A300's which have a lesser standard of seat in business class. Just like Qantas, British Airways and every other airline I can think of does for their short flights. I know I would rather be sitting in an old Thai A330 for 3 hours than the British Airways A319 I spent 3 hours on the other day. With BA intra-European flights business class the ONLY difference is the service. the seats are the same, so no extra leg room. They do move the middle handrests on the LHS seats but not on the right for some reason, and they do not gurantee 2x2 seating, it could be 2x3. Quite cosy. And IFE, what IFE, they don't even have the capability for audio, despite having nice LCD screens showing the moving map.

Yes Thai have been behind the times with their seating and IFE, but they are on their way, and as I said don't expect long haul standard on intra-Asian flights, because you wont get it.

[stament]

I have yet to fly on a new Thai plane, infact I flew business class just the other day and the seats didn't have foot rests or electric operation and only a projection screen, obviously no upgrade in the last 10-15 years.

For a long while I was flying Emirates from Dubai to Bkk and then Thai the other way, Emirates were in a different class.

Have to agree with you there. However, my experience is in economy not business. Flew Thai air and they had one big screen at the front so no choice of movies. Emirates has on-demand films (over 200 I think) in economy plus video games, etc, etc. I would never fly thai again (it didn't help that the film was a mermaid one) as for me I don't sleep so being entertained is more important to me than a direct flight. (London to BKK).

BA were bit better than Thai as you had your own screen but only a choice of about 4 movies at a time and they weren't on-demand, i.e. they started at set times.

Emirates is the way forward for me. Does anyone know what Etihad and Qatar are like? I've heard Gulf aren't too good.

Seems the food is improving on all airlines so that's a good thing!!

[Zoowatch]

I have yet to fly on a new Thai plane, infact I flew business class just the other day and the seats didn't have foot rests or electric operation and only a projection screen, obviously no upgrade in the last 10-15 years.

For a long while I was flying Emirates from Dubai to Bkk and then Thai the other way, Emirates were in a different class.

Have to agree with you there. However, my experience is in economy not business. Flew Thai air and they had one big screen at the front so no choice of movies. Emirates has on-demand films (over 200 I think) in economy plus video games, etc, etc. I would never fly thai again (it didn't help that the film was a mermaid one) as for me I don't sleep so being entertained is more important to me than a direct flight. (London to BKK).

BA were bit better than Thai as you had your own screen but only a choice of about 4 movies at a time and they weren't on-demand, i.e. they started at set times.

Emirates is the way forward for me. Does anyone know what Etihad and Qatar are like? I've heard Gulf aren't too good.

Seems the food is improving on all airlines so that's a good thing!!

there's aproblem with LHR-BKK route for Thai... the traffic is high... so only big planes will be adequate... and LHR is always busy with no additional landing slots available to Thai...

so for this route, we will have to wait for the 6 new A380s to be delivered to Thai in 2010 / 2011 and they will replace the old 747s