Around 300 Thai Airways passengers found themselves stuck at Zurich airport in Switzerland, after the carrier postponed their planned flight to Bangkok. Not once but twice.

 

Nation Thailand reports that TG971 was cancelled due to an undisclosed problem with the aircraft.

 

Passengers had been expecting to arrive at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport at 1.15pm on Monday, January 15, but were instead told the airline was unable to find the spare part required to fix an issue with the aircraft and that the flight was being postponed until the part arrived from Thailand the following day.

 

By Peter Roche

Caption: FILE PHOTO

 

Full story: Phuket GO 2024-01-18

 

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Which hotel were they put up in? Zurich is horrendously expensive and 350 rooms might be hard to come by.  

Are you laughing because I implied they might get a hotel room? Or that the rooms would be hard to come by? 

56 minutes ago, retarius said:

Are you laughing because I implied they might get a hotel room? Or that the rooms would be hard to come by? 

 

Disregard the laughing icon. It is meaningless, because it can have too many different meanings when used as a reaction to a post.

Stuck for maybe two nights in a Zurich airport hotel? Could be worse. Could be on a JAL A350 flying into Hokkaido.

 

A lot worse.

 

Anyway, all airlines and all aircraft have 'technicals' so this isn't so special unless one's a Thai basher.

 

Maybe they're asleep already.

8 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Anyway, all airlines and all aircraft have 'technicals' so this isn't so special unless one's a Thai basher.

Experienced with SAL many years ago. Extremely short night in a Copenhagen hotel.
Taxi to hotel racing like a fool on snow covered roads. Felt like the end is near.

Departing late morning about 11 AM(!) and arriving about 3 AM at empty Suvarnabhumi (only a fuel stop to Australia at the gates)

Edited January 18, 20242 yr by KhunBENQ

This is news, or is it only Thai airways who ever have delayed flights? 

Usually I thought airlines tried rebooking passengers with other airlines if possible 

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Passengers had been expecting to arrive at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport at 1.15pm on Monday, January 15, but were instead told the airline was unable to find the spare part required to fix an issue with the aircraft and that the flight was being postponed until the part arrived from Thailand the following day.

Not a big issue... enjoy the extra night in a hotel

40 minutes ago, Dave0206 said:

Usually I thought airlines tried rebooking passengers with other airlines if possible 

That cost a lot of money.

I am certainly not a fan of TG and have not flown with them in 20+ years for the main reason of unreliable, narrow seats and arrogant crew on ground and in the air. 

Having said that, TG met the expectations one might have when irregularity hits. They had a technical issue on HS-TKV (TG971) and needed a spare part from Bangkok to be flown in on their next service - 24 hours later on HS-TKU (TG970). Meanwhile all passengers were provided with meal vouchers, transport to/from hotels and boarded TG971D (HS-TKV) the next day. 

This can happen to any airline at any airport; so while the technical irregularity was not explained (yeah, I know, everyone is an airline mechanic and engineer) they lived up to expectations, kept the airframe on the ground and provided food and accommodation. And yes, this exercise has cost them a truckload of cash in Switzerland which is even much more in Thai Baht. 

Today's service from Bangkok to Zurich left 4+ hours late ........ TG = tomorrow go! 

It happens, I had the same with a TG flight from Sapporo-Bangkok around a decade ago.

TG put us in the Sheraton for the night and gave us each Y5,000 cash.

 

A good time was had by all !

 

On a more serious note, this will have cost TG a lot of money and one wonders why they were not able to work co-operatively with other airlines either at Zurich or nearby airports to source the part in short order ?

Got diverted from Munich in a thunderstorm while en route from Heathrow to Bangkok, landed in a minor airport of Milan. 
 

Promptly abandoned by all Lufthansa staff and left with two ground handling agents completely overwhelmed trying to book 300 passengers individually into hotels. Most taxi drivers would not take the passengers. No means of booking hotels and coaches en masse. Eventually next day they booked me into a hotel 60km from airport where I was looked after well. Had to rebook my own flight (free) via Geneva next day as no flights direct to Bangkok. 
 

Will not fly Lufthansa again or take anything but a direct flight.

I was once booked on United to fly business class to LA and the flight was cancelled. As I lived in Bangkok I declined the free hotel room offer. Back to the airport next day, cancelled again. Now here's the thing. They said they would transfer us business class passengers to another airline (I think from memory it was EVA). Sounds good. But I thought to myself, how does the alternative airline have enough business class seats to accommodate us all?

 

And of course it didn't. United had 'forgotten' to tell us we'd be downgraded. I went to the EVA (?) desk to check and went back to United and said I was on to them, and instead they put me on Korean in first. That went okay, but when I asked for a cup of tea during the flight they brought me a cup of water and a tea bag. In first class!

 

That still wasn't the end of the story. I knew I would lose my frequent flyer miles as I hadn't flown United, and that was their fault and not mine, so when I got back to Bangkok I went to their office and saw the boss, who agreed to give me the miles.

 

Sometimes you have to have your wits about you with the airlines.

EU Air Travel Delay Compensation rights probably cover this mechanical (Mx) delay.

 

https://www.europe-consommateurs.eu/en/travelling-motor-vehicles/air-travel/air-passenger-rights.html

 

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Dave0206 said:

Usually I thought airlines tried rebooking passengers with other airlines if possible 

300 on last minute to Bangkok from Zurich?

2 hours ago, realfunster said:

It happens, I had the same with a TG flight from Sapporo-Bangkok around a decade ago.

TG put us in the Sheraton for the night and gave us each Y5,000 cash.

 

A good time was had by all !

 

On a more serious note, this will have cost TG a lot of money and one wonders why they were not able to work co-operatively with other airlines either at Zurich or nearby airports to source the part in short order ?

Probably needed to search the second hand wreckers yard first for a replacement part. 

6 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

300 on last minute to Bangkok from Zurich?

 

ZRH-BKK

 

Swiss Air is the only direct, non-stop option. Suspect they were booked to capacity at this time of year.

 

Re-booking, with stops, would have been challenging. Again capacity.

the part realllllyyy needed to come from bangkok as there is no airbus spare parts in... ahum... Europe ?

5 hours ago, hotchilli said:

That cost a lot of money.

So does putting everyone up in hotels feeding them transporting them to and from hotels back to airport plus perhaps European compensation for delayed flight

46 minutes ago, Dave0206 said:

So does putting everyone up in hotels feeding them transporting them to and from hotels back to airport plus perhaps European compensation for delayed flight

 

And this is a daily flight, with each day probably close to being overbooked, so passengers pile up quite quickly. And you've got to get that aircraft back in service ASAP.

 

 

Looks like it (HS-TKV) departed +26:45 as TG917D https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/hs-tkv#33a48997

 

2 hours ago, john donson said:

the part realllllyyy needed to come from bangkok as there is no airbus spare parts in... ahum... Europe ?

 

Aircraft is a Boeing 777-3D7(ER). https://www.planespotters.net/airframe/boeing-777-300er-hs-tkv-thai-airways-international/ropv79

Edited January 19, 20242 yr by bamnutsak

19 hours ago, retarius said:

Which hotel were they put up in? Zurich is horrendously expensive and 350 rooms might be hard to come by.  

Does it matter...they weren't complaining about the accommodation, were they?

9 hours ago, Artisi said:

This is news, or is it only Thai airways who ever have delayed flights? 

Yes, it is news. 

5 hours ago, realfunster said:

On a more serious note, this will have cost TG a lot of money and one wonders why they were not able to work co-operatively with other airlines either at Zurich or nearby airports to source the part in short order ?

Maybe they did.   Perhaps other airlines were the ones not working co-operatively with TG.  All airlines need to maintain a minimum spares stock level for the operation of their own fleet and won't lend/sell parts to the competition if it depletes their stock, possibly jeopardising their own flights.

Edited January 19, 20242 yr by Liverpool Lou

23 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Stuck for maybe two nights in a Zurich airport hotel? Could be worse. Could be on a JAL A350 flying into Hokkaido.

 

A lot worse.

 

Anyway, all airlines and all aircraft have 'technicals' so this isn't so special unless one's a Thai basher.

 

Maybe they're asleep already.

The JAL A350 Was Flying into Haneda, Tokyo......

 

12 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

I was once booked on United to fly business class to LA and the flight was cancelled. As I lived in Bangkok I declined the free hotel room offer. Back to the airport next day, cancelled again. Now here's the thing. They said they would transfer us business class passengers to another airline (I think from memory it was EVA). Sounds good. But I thought to myself, how does the alternative airline have enough business class seats to accommodate us all?

 

And of course it didn't. United had 'forgotten' to tell us we'd be downgraded. I went to the EVA (?) desk to check and went back to United and said I was on to them, and instead they put me on Korean in first. That went okay, but when I asked for a cup of tea during the flight they brought me a cup of water and a tea bag. In first class!

 

That still wasn't the end of the story. I knew I would lose my frequent flyer miles as I hadn't flown United, and that was their fault and not mine, so when I got back to Bangkok I went to their office and saw the boss, who agreed to give me the miles.

 

Sometimes you have to have your wits about you with the airlines.

O.M.G. You DO like a Moan Don't Yer ?? Upgrade to FIRST on Korean You NOT Happy the way thet served you a Cup Of Tea ??   Grow Up Barry FFS !!

21 minutes ago, 747man said:

O.M.G. You DO like a Moan Don't Yer ?? Upgrade to FIRST on Korean You NOT Happy the way thet served you a Cup Of Tea ??   Grow Up Barry FFS !!

 

If that is what you consider to be first class service then that is up to you. I didn't. Depends on your standards, I suppose.

On 1/19/2024 at 7:02 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

Sometimes you have to have your wits about you with the airlines.

Absolutely...... I recall I had  return ticket from Caracas to KSA in Biz, but the company had sent me to Argentina, so I  was trying to get back from there. BA treated me well, sat me in the lounge while they sorted out the rerouting of my ticket. They came back with a CC slip, and it was absolute fortune, quite a rip-off actually. Thanks to another passenger who told me a one way Buenos Ares to LHR was far less than what BA wanted to get off me... which is what I did. Got a refund too on unused ticket legs when I got back. 

They certainly do not have your best interests at heart.