Thai Airways’ turbulence at Suvarnabhumi: Transport minister threatens contract termination

[RandolphGB]

On 2/19/2024 at 10:17 AM, scorecard said:

About 15 years ago (just a guess) a foreigner was appointed to the board of directors. The man had achieved Thai citizenship many years beforehand, had an impressive work achievement managerial record and could read/write speak Thai language same as a Thai national.

 

First meeting, many Thai members of the board of directors refused to be seated and made it very clear they refused to work with a foreigner and they refused to accept that he had Thai citizenship, had worked in LOS is snr. positions for a couple of decades with impressive results / performance ratings. He was 'let go'.

 

Ordinarily it would take a generation or two before the country changes. The current graduates who are reasonably intelligent and open minded would replace those in senior positions in all walks of life.

 

But in Thailand, the army and police are given the best jobs in any influential positions. Usually because they bribe their way up the ladder. Everything in Thailand for the last 70 years has been about the army retaining power.

 

Move Forward knew this and it's why they wanted to reduce the power of the military. 

[orchis]

On 2/15/2024 at 12:38 PM, spidermike007 said:

a nightmare when trying to check in with overweight baggage. He ended up having to pay almost $1,000

these are things you can manage easily before. it was a nightmare of his own making.

[superal]

9 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Make that three....    Mate flew Malaysian and his surfboard arrived snapped. Malaysian took no responsibility until he stalked them on all their FaceBook Social Media posts.....    took a few months but they relented.  I cam imagine that turning into a defamation lawsuit in Thailand. 

 

Flying Thai recently:  Badly injured leg while overseas. Wife contacted Thai call centre overseas... No answer. Contacted their e-mail before travel (3 days) to ask for Airport assistance, no reply, e-mailed again, no reply...   In the end she had to pull the 'I've got a friend working in TG card'....  Who she contacted directly and the wheel-chair assistance was set up.... 

... And the reason it was necessary to book the wheel chair is she was told by another friend that that ground services don't have enough and they get booked out.

- IMO it was very poor form of TG not to reply to the e-mail at all.....  its as if there is a mail account with thousands of e-mails that on one bothers to reply to at all.

I often have to use a wheelchair in airports because I have a spinal problem . With Thai Air , apparently they say  when making your booking , there is an option to request a wheelchair , though on a test booking I could not find that . They also have a web page titled " Special Assistance " but that only  refers back  to the requesting wheelchairs when making your booking . At most international airports there are wheelchair providers that are not attached to any airline but are part of the airport service . I have never requested a wheelchair when making a booking , only ask when at the airport but that seems to be on a first come first served basis and one time there were none available at Suvarnabhumi airport . There were able bodied Asian fat women sat waiting for a wheelchair and I would have to get in the queue . The system is badly run . The same at Heathrow where the electric mobility buggy is occupied by lazy , overweight Indian  women at the expense of disabled passengers who have to wait by the aircraft for transport .
In my experience the wheelchair service is  abused  and wheelchairs are  often provided to people who are not handicapped but are often overweight Asian women , or lazy fat ( under the influence of alcohol ) men .  IMO wheelchairs should only be provided to people with a doctors note / medical cert .  

Tip , get to the airport early if needing the use of a wheelchair , especially if making a long haul flight with many passengers .

[richard_smith237]

11 minutes ago, superal said:

Tip , get to the airport early if needing the use of a wheelchair , especially if making a long haul flight with many passengers .

 

Cheers...  This was actually a one off....  Perfectly physically fit - until an incident in the latest trip rendering one of us in need.

 

Wife was advised by a friend to book a wheel-chair before we got the airport because they'd had a similar accident the previous year and a wheel-chair was not available. Like them, we too were arriving at the airport from distance (scheduled bus) so the 'early arrival' was not an option.

 

There 'wheel-chair service' turned out to be excellent and necessary and one was waiting with our name taped to it as soon as we arrived at the airline counter. But, going through official channels with TG returned a blank, and this is disappointing of a non-low budget international carrier.

 

The only way this worked was because my Wife had contacted a friend, high up in TG who nudged through the request and confirmed the wheel-chair booking.

 

Thus, had we been normal punters, we'd have potentially been left struggling through the airport, unless additional chairs were available. 

 

One point I should make in the interests of fairness: I've never had to rely on a similar service with another carrier - so have no frame of reference as to how this service is dealt with by other airlines, but it would certainly make me think twice if a regular user and wishing to book through regular channels with TG.

[richard_smith237]

1 hour ago, orchis said:

these are things you can manage easily before. it was a nightmare of his own making.

 

Or easily managed quite quickly with most major airlines.

[richard_smith237]

On 2/15/2024 at 8:46 AM, steven100 said:

yes ,  I won't fly TG ever again ....  now Singapore or Malaysian,  but Singapore is by far one of the best around.

As for Air Asia ... I'm reluctant to ever jump on their jets following their scrupulous ways trying not to refund following Covid cancellations.

 

100% Agree....    FiL has to nip down to Singapore for a funeral.... 

 

First choice was Singapore Airlines, but the price too high and times a little awkward.

Wife suggested Thai Air Asia and that was a hard no for me.

We booked him on Thai Airways and feel comfortable that the journey will be fine for him (at 75 yrs of age).

 

 

[steven100]

23 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

100% Agree....    FiL has to nip down to Singapore for a funeral.... 

 

First choice was Singapore Airlines, but the price too high and times a little awkward.

Wife suggested Thai Air Asia and that was a hard no for me.

We booked him on Thai Airways and feel comfortable that the journey will be fine for him (at 75 yrs of age).

 

 

Scoot use to fly out of DMK to Singapore or KL if I remember correct ....   ?

[richard_smith237]

3 hours ago, steven100 said:

Scoot use to fly out of DMK to Singapore or KL if I remember correct ....   ?

 

Also a low budget Airline....    I wouldn't put my Father in Law on that.... 

 

For regional flights I think TG are fine...   for flights to Japan, TG are also fine (as JAL and ANA are more expensive and not really a great deal better)....  

 

Again... this has little to do with ground services.... apart from when comparing other airlines... i.e. when using Qatar Airlines with Business Class, on arrival the Baggage comes onto the Carousel quickly... I'm assuming this is because of the organisation of their ground services in Doha who put all Business Class Bags in the Baggage Cart which is loaded on to the air-craft last and off it first.

 

Garuda (Indonesia) the Business Class bags come out on a different carousel. 

 

With all of that digression, I'd like to note that I think the baggage handling at Suvarnabumi airport is pretty decent - the bags nearly always arrive within 20 mins - which I think is rather good.

[spidermike007]

5 hours ago, Skipalongcassidy said:

So your friend cannot read and comprehend what baggage he is allowed or is he special and just thought that he should be able to do as he wants without paying the fare...?

That's a completely juvenile response and it really has very little to do with my original post. This has nothing to do with whether or not my friend had excess baggage, this simply has to do with what he was charged for the excess baggage. Most airlines have policies that are in line with the majority of airlines around the world. Malaysia Air does not, the amount that they're charging for excess baggage is insanity, and is well beyond the price of the original ticket. 

 

Just say no to Malaysia Air is going to be my lifelong policy. 

[still kicking]

7 hours ago, Skipalongcassidy said:

So your friend cannot read and comprehend what baggage he is allowed or is he special and just thought that he should be able to do as he wants without paying the fare...?

Hang on my ticket said 20 kg and when we checked in the girl said it is for a couple. We had to pay another $300 

[scorecard]

12 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Cheers...  This was actually a one off....  Perfectly physically fit - until an incident in the latest trip rendering one of us in need.

 

Wife was advised by a friend to book a wheel-chair before we got the airport because they'd had a similar accident the previous year and a wheel-chair was not available. Like them, we too were arriving at the airport from distance (scheduled bus) so the 'early arrival' was not an option.

 

There 'wheel-chair service' turned out to be excellent and necessary and one was waiting with our name taped to it as soon as we arrived at the airline counter. But, going through official channels with TG returned a blank, and this is disappointing of a non-low budget international carrier.

 

The only way this worked was because my Wife had contacted a friend, high up in TG who nudged through the request and confirmed the wheel-chair booking.

 

Thus, had we been normal punters, we'd have potentially been left struggling through the airport, unless additional chairs were available. 

 

One point I should make in the interests of fairness: I've never had to rely on a similar service with another carrier - so have no frame of reference as to how this service is dealt with by other airlines, but it would certainly make me think twice if a regular user and wishing to book through regular channels with TG.

Singapore Airlines are fabulous with wheelchairs. And they don't include your personal wheelchair in the total check-in weight. 

[Skipalongcassidy]

15 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

That's a completely juvenile response and it really has very little to do with my original post. This has nothing to do with whether or not my friend had excess baggage, this simply has to do with what he was charged for the excess baggage. Most airlines have policies that are in line with the majority of airlines around the world. Malaysia Air does not, the amount that they're charging for excess baggage is insanity, and is well beyond the price of the original ticket. 

 

Just say no to Malaysia Air is going to be my lifelong policy. 

Your friend seems to be the only juvenile except maybe you as well... Malaysia Air is one of the few airlines that offer a further reduced price ticket for "lite" travel... if he bought a "lite" ticket and then showed up with overweight check-in baggage and complained that they upgraded his ticket from the "lite" price to the full fare economy or to the business class fare... then it is he who is the ass in this situation... not the airlines... and it is your choice to deny yourself the pleasure of a first class airlines based on your friends story... which we all know is complete bs.

[Skipalongcassidy]

14 hours ago, still kicking said:

Hang on my ticket said 20 kg and when we checked in the girl said it is for a couple. We had to pay another $300 

It is per bag per ticket... her supervisor would have explained it to her if you had asked... if she really said that

[spidermike007]

5 hours ago, Skipalongcassidy said:

Your friend seems to be the only juvenile except maybe you as well... Malaysia Air is one of the few airlines that offer a further reduced price ticket for "lite" travel... if he bought a "lite" ticket and then showed up with overweight check-in baggage and complained that they upgraded his ticket from the "lite" price to the full fare economy or to the business class fare... then it is he who is the ass in this situation... not the airlines... and it is your choice to deny yourself the pleasure of a first class airlines based on your friends story... which we all know is complete bs.

I don't even know why I'm replying to such an inane response, he had a normal ticket not a lite ticket, and his excess baggage amounted to $1,000, which is insane and bizarre by any airline standards. Continue living your life and denial, it has no impact on the rest of. 

[mfinasi]

4 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

I don't even know why I'm replying to such an inane response, he had a normal ticket not a lite ticket, and his excess baggage amounted to $1,000, which is insane and bizarre by any airline standards. Continue living your life and denial, it has no impact on the rest of. 

Hard to imagine unless he was 20kg+ over allowance.  Rates look reasonable enough to me.  
https://askmh.malaysiaairlines.com/faq/s/article/What-is-the-excess-baggage-fee-structure?language=en_US

I have bad luck - I always seem to get stuck behind your friend 😅 and always same spiel "i never got charged on the way out", "blah blah never had a problem with X airlines", "i fly 3,000,000 miles a year blah blah" 
 

Edited February 27 by mfinasi

[Skipalongcassidy]

14 hours ago, mfinasi said:

Hard to imagine unless he was 20kg+ over allowance.  Rates look reasonable enough to me.  
https://askmh.malaysiaairlines.com/faq/s/article/What-is-the-excess-baggage-fee-structure?language=en_US

I have bad luck - I always seem to get stuck behind your friend 😅 and always same spiel "i never got charged on the way out", "blah blah never had a problem with X airlines", "i fly 3,000,000 miles a year blah blah" 
 

Exactly!  Those who cannot read and comprehend or consider themselves "special" always bitch and moan the most.