Thai Airways: A Downward Spiral of Service, Accountability, and National Pride

[webfact]

Five years ago, in 2018, Thai Airways proudly ranked the 10th best airline in the world, according to Skytrax. Fast forward to today, the airline has fallen to 40th. 

 

Amidst plumetting rankings and the precarious financial situation it’s in, customers are suffering the ramifications and repercussions of its declining policies and services. 

 

The Deterioration of Thai Airways’ Miles Program

Thai Airways filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020 during Covid and are currently completing their restructuring. 

 

But even before Covid, the airline underwent a restructuring of their mileage program, devaluing their miles immensely. In October 2019, miles needed for certain reward seats more than doubled. The airline also doesn’t allow “pooling” of miles, so if you have miles spread across different family members, you can’t transfer them to each other to be utilized.

 

This contrasts with other airlines in the region, such as Korean Air, whose “Family Plan” allows you to pool miles from up to five different family members. Transferring miles to other accounts is also possible on Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific. 

 

by Tessa Charupatanapongse

 

Full story: THAI ENQUIRER 2024-01-29

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

 

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[zhounan]

Let's be honest, it was a good company.

[proton]

26 minutes ago, zhounan said:

Let's be honest, it was a good company.

 

When was that? even in the 90's Thais I knew in the UK always used Eva as they claimed they got poor service from Thai. I had to agree with them after a while when buying a one way ticket having a multi entry visa, they sent an email saying I would not be allowed to enter with it. They would not answer emails or the phone so had to go to the office London. When I got there just two staff no customers and phone ringing not answered, when I asked them they did not know they had to ring the check in staff at Heathrow- no problem, why the email then? oh rules must have changed. Never used them after that.

[soi3eddie]

THAI will blame their ranking decline on Covid and their bankcruptcy. Nothing else. 

 

THAI were, in my opinion, much better before Covid and all the cost cutting through bankcruptcy. As they shed staff, the onboard service and smiles declined. Food and beverage declined too. Still no menu cards in transcontinental business class and less quality choices. With the now higher fares being charged, there is no excuse for THAI not to be back in the top 10 globally. Just goes to show how poorly managed the airline still is.

 

The cut in mileage redemptions awards in 2019 was dissapointing, but back then I would suspect that very few passengers in business or first class were paying for their seats. Also, the rumours of freebies for "connected individuals" was rife.  

 

Having said the above, it is still my favoured airline for LHR/BKK/LHR due to scheduling and ease of travel (and until my ROP Gold expires).

 

Edited January 29 by soi3eddie

[JoePai]

Domestic - no idea how but since taking over Thai Smile they always seem to be late and staff (ground and air) not up to the Thai Smile standard

[tomazbodner]

Let me add something to that full article - and the flight bought with miles, as the OP mentioned... I did the same - miles were expiring so what the heck, let's use them. Surcharges were more expensive than Air Asia's entire ticket price, yes, but at least time of flight was great, and would maximize the time there.

 

Fast forward 2 months from booking and I've received SMS from THAI, telling me that morning flight has been rescheduled to evening and I'll arrive to Singapore at 8 pm. THANK YOU, THAI. I think I'll let the rest of miles lapse from now on, as it's just not worth it.

[SmartyMarty]

Like the economy this airline has been sliding backwards ever since Covid. High prices, terrible food, patchy service, prehistoric IT.

[jollyhangmon]

... yep, just look at their 'opening' price, that's FROM 41k thb upwards, round-trip supposedly but haven't looked into it ... too freakin' expensive in comparison anyway & always have been ... no thanks, no more questions, 555 ...

 

 

[impulse]

I scratch my head every time I fly into Swampy and see all those jumbos lined up in such neat rows.

 

[retarius]

TBH I haven't flown them since 2008. It was a business class flight from Tokyo and the service was appalling. Never again, Fool me once....

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Five years ago, in 2018, Thai Airways proudly ranked the 10th best airline in the world, according to Skytrax. Fast forward to today, the airline has fallen to 40th

Blame those who ran it and abused it... they tried to milk it like they do the foreigners.

[DualSportBiker]

My last flight with TG was from Zurich to Bkk in 2008. I was on a business trip and any Co trip over 4 hours I flew business class. Typically we'd fly Singapore Airlines as we were based in Singapore, but this was what they got me. The lass next to me was TG staff. They were overstaffed and she got the short straw for not working that leg. They put her in business class and did not upgrade one of many regular gold-card holding customers. When I asked her why she was not in economy and an upgraded customer in her place she simply asked 'Why would we do that?' In her experience, customers never got upgraded.

 

That is the attitude you get with Thai Airlines. They were there for their benefit alone. Passengers are just along for the ride. Pay up, shut up, and be grateful for the privilege of being allowed on their ageing and poorly maintained aircraft. 

[dundas]

Thai have also made it much harder to earn points in economy -- and that, and the new higher prices, are the reason I've stopped flying them. It's a shame, I flown them since not long after their inception. 

[Bangkok Barry]

2 hours ago, SmartyMarty said:

Like the economy this airline has been sliding backwards ever since Covid. High prices, terrible food, patchy service, prehistoric IT.

 

The last time I flew with them was in Business and the food was completely inedible. The only other time I've experienced that was on Aeroflot back in the cold War days.

[tomazbodner]

2 hours ago, jollyhangmon said:

... yep, just look at their 'opening' price, that's FROM 41k thb upwards, round-trip supposedly but haven't looked into it ... too freakin' expensive in comparison anyway & always have been ... no thanks, no more questions, 555 ...

 

 

I was usually continuing to KLU, so I took Austrian most of the time, but their price was higher than this a few months back, about 50k on promo, about 70k normally. Used to be about 35-40k before COVID.

[richard_smith237]

3 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

Let me add something to that full article - and the flight bought with miles, as the OP mentioned... I did the same - miles were expiring so what the heck, let's use them. Surcharges were more expensive than Air Asia's entire ticket price, yes, but at least time of flight was great, and would maximize the time there.

 

Fast forward 2 months from booking and I've received SMS from THAI, telling me that morning flight has been rescheduled to evening and I'll arrive to Singapore at 8 pm. THANK YOU, THAI. I think I'll let the rest of miles lapse from now on, as it's just not worth it.

 

Same here...  as per the article - it was very annoying after amassing miles that they devalued then, effectively halving their value. 

 

Then there is the issue of actually being able to secure Award Seats...   

We are flying with then in a couple of weeks...   we had to book our Airmiles seats 330 days in advance and few flights had Airmiles seats available. 

Contrast this with many other airlines and if you have air-miles you can get any seat, the don't allocate limited seats per flight etc.

 

One improvement is the Cash+Miles option... but we are maxed out on 50,000 miles to spend per ticket, which is also limiting when you have over 200,000 miles etc and Award seats are not available.

 

All they need to do is Copy Emirates...     how hard is that ?

 

 

 

 

[The Old Bull]

I think Thai Smile cancelled the senior discount?

[brfsa2]

One of their main issues are that they are offen late on schedule.

Last time I flew with them was Bangkok<->NewChitose/Japan 

First flight of the morning, still got delayed 40 minutes.

Attendant "forgot" my meal, lol, i got skipped. 

My luggage arrived with no wheel, broken and torn off.

 

[proton]

ey up Yorkshire Airline is better than Thai

 

 

[richard_smith237]

3 minutes ago, brfsa2 said:

One of their main issues are that they are offen late on schedule.

Last time I flew with them was Bangkok<->NewChitose/Japan 

First flight of the morning, still got delayed 40 minutes.

To be fair in light of my own criticisms of this airline..   that sort of delay is not uncommon at all.

 

A lot of my Emirates and Qatar Airways flights are similar.

 

3 minutes ago, brfsa2 said:

Attendant "forgot" my meal, lol, i got skipped. 

 

Were you sleeping ?... If not, didn't you point out at the time as soon as they started serving the row behind you?

 

3 minutes ago, brfsa2 said:

My luggage arrived with no wheel, broken and torn off.

 

Luggage - thats not the airlines fault - but they are accountable for any compensation claim you make. 

 

------

 

While I too have criticism of Thai Airways, I do sometimes thing some criticism are unfair.

 

I recall a number of years ago that I was told to 'go and get a beer myself'...  !!!...

On a flight to Japan - Wife was asleep, I was with my Son (4 yrs old)...  I'd had one beer with dinner, all trays cleared up and we were entering the 'quiet phase' of the flight... I'd not seen an attendant pass through the cabin for about 20-30 mins... I didn't want to get up and leave my Son unattended - so I hit the call button... Apologised when the flight attendant came.."Sorry to bother you, I didn't want to leave my Son unattended by going to the galley... But could I have a beer ?"...    the flight attendant clearly didn't like having the call button pressed and really didn't like the idea of getting me a beer... 

...  I was told that if I wanted a beer, I should go to the galley and ask for one myself... I was shocked by the attitude of the flight attendant. I complained to the Purser, who didn't seem to think there was any issue with this...    

 

That was a shocker.. but that said, mostly the service on all travel in and around Asia is pretty good so no major or consistent complaints there.. just a one off.

 

----

 

Eithad did switch our booked seats (at the Gate) so my Wife and I weren't next to each other - this was so a Pilot and his Wife could sit together in the 'honey moon seats' (two business class seats next to each other) - written complaint that time, no response. 

 

When my sons Pushchair was snapped in half and Etihad rejected the compensation claim that it, never flown then again (and I was a gold card member at the time).

 

So... All airlines have their cra.ppy moments... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CygnusX1]

3 hours ago, JoePai said:

Domestic - no idea how but since taking over Thai Smile they always seem to be late and staff (ground and air) not up to the Thai Smile standard

I’m at the departure lounge about to fly Thai to Hong Kong. OK, the plane’s an hour or so late, but I class that as being on time by standards of international travel (my Qantas flight to Bangkok was over an hour late). The Thai ground staff were lovely, doing everything for me without my asking at a self check-in kiosk (way better than waiting for ages at Qantas self check-in at Sydney airport when there’s a problem).

[eyeman]

Across the board economy catering has got worse over the last decade, the applies to everything from Qatar Airways to Emirates, but Thai Airways catering is something else, absolutely horrendous on international. I wouldn't fly them international again even if they were the cheapest.

The only good thing is that they cancel and reschedule domestic flights so often that you can generally bet on a free flight change if you got something booked a few months out..

 

And always late, gets worse as the day goes on, but sometimes they can't even get their noon flights out on time.. Also annoying is they don't declare it's late until the last possible moment, even if they are fully aware of a long delay as inbound flight is nowhere to be seen, on domestic the lounges are prior to security so that's annoying as hell.

[findlay13]

4 hours ago, JoePai said:

Domestic - no idea how but since taking over Thai Smile they always seem to be late and staff (ground and air) not up to the Thai Smile standard

Yes I reckon Smile were better too. I just flew Thai domestically and they were pretty poor a very old plane worn out and shabby.Thai were good for me when they flew from Brisbane and I knew the airport and office staff but that was different times.It took 3 and a half years to have money [$2,400] refunded.I said then no more international with them.A Potemkin airline

 

Edited January 29 by findlay13

[richard_smith237]

1 minute ago, eyeman said:

Across the board economy catering has got worse over the last decade, the applies to everything from Qatar Airways to Emirates, but Thai Airways catering is something else, absolutely horrendous on international. I wouldn't fly them international again even if they were the cheapest.

The only good thing is that they cancel and reschedule domestic flights so often that you can generally bet on a free flight change if you got something booked a few months out..

 

And always late, gets worse as the day goes on, but sometimes they can't even get their noon flights out on time.. Also annoying is they don't declare it's late until the last possible moment, even if they are fully aware of a long delay as inbound flight is nowhere to be seen, on domestic the lounges are prior to security so that's annoying as hell.

 

I was on them last year (Eco Int'l) to Japan and didn't notice anything negative, I didn't notice anything great either... flying sucks !!..

I have fairly low expectations anyway - a couple of beers, edible food, noise canceling headphones on and watch my iPad.

 

I'm flying them again in a couple of weeks (Airmiles Buisness Class ticket).. its been a while, but again, my expectations are not hight.. 

I just expect a comfortable functioning seat, a couple of beers, edible food on a slightly larger tray so I'm not so scared of spilling something all over-myself... and again, watching something on my iPad...  Eco again on the return, standard expectations... 

 

 

 

[spidermike007]

I have flown Thai only a few times over the years and I always found the service to be poor, the baggage handling to be slow, and overall disappointing. 

 

EVA puts them to shame. 

[findlay13]

10 minutes ago, CygnusX1 said:

I’m at the departure lounge about to fly Thai to Hong Kong. OK, the plane’s an hour or so late, but I class that as being on time by standards of international travel (my Qantas flight to Bangkok was over an hour late). The Thai ground staff were lovely, doing everything for me without my asking at a self check-in kiosk (way better than waiting for ages at Qantas self check-in at Sydney airport when there’s a problem).

Qantas have gone downhill badly since Joyce stuffed the company up.Took his ill gotten gains and shot through.

[JoePai]

10 minutes ago, CygnusX1 said:

I’m at the departure lounge about to fly Thai to Hong Kong. OK, the plane’s an hour or so late, but I class that as being on time by standards of international travel (my Qantas flight to Bangkok was over an hour late). The Thai ground staff were lovely, doing everything for me without my asking at a self check-in kiosk (way better than waiting for ages at Qantas self check-in at Sydney airport when there’s a problem).

 International quite different to Domestic

[eyeman]

57 minutes ago, DualSportBiker said:

My last flight with TG was from Zurich to Bkk in 2008. I was on a business trip and any Co trip over 4 hours I flew business class. Typically we'd fly Singapore Airlines as we were based in Singapore, but this was what they got me. The lass next to me was TG staff. They were overstaffed and she got the short straw for not working that leg. They put her in business class and did not upgrade one of many regular gold-card holding customers. When I asked her why she was not in economy and an upgraded customer in her place she simply asked 'Why would we do that?' In her experience, customers never got upgraded.

 

That is the attitude you get with Thai Airlines. They were there for their benefit alone. Passengers are just along for the ride. Pay up, shut up, and be grateful for the privilege of being allowed on their ageing and poorly maintained aircraft. 

 

To be fair they do have some relatives new planes, I was on 787 to London recently and it seemed clean and fresh, but yeah the service is atrocious, I asked for a beer whilst watching a movie in the afternoon to be told that the bar will be open in roughly 6-7 hours, ask again then!

[steven100]

I must have flown with Thai probably 100 times Aust-BKK and some other routes from 2000-2011 ....

and they were up to par in the early 2000's until around 2011 ....  and then it started to go downhill ... so I switched to Singapore & Malaysian airlines ....  and Singapore is still one of the best in airline rankings.

 

Thai airways is a crappy airline .... the sooner they cut it up and dismantle it to stop the bleeding the better I say ..

It'll never be any good while ever there's a Thai at the helm.

[findlay13]

3 hours ago, SmartyMarty said:

Like the economy this airline has been sliding backwards ever since Covid. High prices, terrible food, patchy service, prehistoric IT.

I'm surprised they aren't lower than 40th