Got My Thai Airways Gold Card Today

[kunash]

wow. i am impressed with my new shiny gold card.

i can get a free upgrade from business to first in the next two years (return trip) .

i can also use my accumulated points to give my wife the same upgrade, within the next two years. Not sure what to do with the two kids though

use of star alliance lounges when travelling economy, and 40kg baggage allowance

[tw25rw]

I tried to use my gold upgrade before it expired at new year and they wouldn't let me as I was travelling during high season. I was booking in September as well.

[kunash]

I tried to use my gold upgrade before it expired at new year and they wouldn't let me as I was travelling during high season. I was booking in September as well.

i am flying to thailand one way with thai air this october. i asked if i could upgrade to first with the ''mileage'' and they said no. - high season. i asked if i could upgrade with my new gold membership reward to first and they said yes.

i didnt take the offer as i will use it for august 2013, when i fly with my wife and kids ( yes a long way off ). i hope there will be seats to upgrade to 1st. we will give them maybe 6 months notice of travel.

edit; not sure when high season starts - maybe around september / october? i hope august will be ok or we could travel in spring

Edited August 30, 2011 by kunash

[tw25rw]

October isn't high season. I was going at xmas. The guy I spoke to was a shifty liar anyway.

[venturalaw]

I enjoyed the perks when I had the gold card; the lounge, going to the front of the line when boarding, extra luggage checkin for free, etc. Now I don't travel as much so they revoked the card. It was fun while it lasted. Enjoy.

[kunash]

October isn't high season. I was going at xmas. The guy I spoke to was a shifty liar anyway.

Maybe with Thai Air the whole year is high season

[tw25rw]

I enjoyed the perks when I had the gold card; the lounge, going to the front of the line when boarding, extra luggage checkin for free, etc. Now I don't travel as much so they revoked the card. It was fun while it lasted. Enjoy.

I wasn't able to travel so much because of the recession etc. some people were given a 1 year extension for free, but I wasn't unfortunately.

[sezze]

I have a Gold Card from China Airlines and i love it . Never waiting for security checks or checking in . Extra luggage but i do not use that . Abd the best of the best is that i fly at least 80% of the times in bsiness while only paying for economy , due to upgrades at checkin counter ( no mies upgrade ) . It's in my possession for 3 years now and i fly from Amsterdam to BKK 3 times a year .

Enjoy your card ...

[kunash]

Abd the best of the best is that i fly at least 80% of the times in bsiness while only paying for economy , due to upgrades at checkin counter ( no mies upgrade ) .

wow... i dont think thai air gold card is as good as that. or maybe thai air check in do this as well ( if available ). but i dont think so

[tw25rw]

Abd the best of the best is that i fly at least 80% of the times in bsiness while only paying for economy , due to upgrades at checkin counter ( no mies upgrade ) .

wow... i dont think thai air gold card is as good as that. or maybe thai air check in do this as well ( if available ). but i dont think so

You can always hope..

I think there was a time when it happened, but I haven't had it on Thai.. Fluked an upgrade on BA once (BKK-SYD) which spoiled me off economy forever.

[Jebhead]

Where is the Emirates lounge at Swampy?

JH

[sezze]

Abd the best of the best is that i fly at least 80% of the times in bsiness while only paying for economy , due to upgrades at checkin counter ( no mies upgrade ) .

wow... i dont think thai air gold card is as good as that. or maybe thai air check in do this as well ( if available ). but i dont think so

Well , i do not know , i can only give you the experience from my Gold Card from CI . I have my card 3 years now so flying 18 times ( 3 times a year return ) . From all those times i had 1 return flight , standard as all the rest . 2 other flights ( return ) i had in economy but i had only 1 person on the same row or nobody while the rest of the aircraft was pretty full and as far as i know of all the rest were business class flights . I do not know that this is standard practice for CI or any other airline but i reccon that they not give gold cards easy so they give more priviledges to the owners ( ??? ) . Personally i do not care , as long as i have them , i am a happy camper :DB)

[merijn]

Where is the Emirates lounge at Swampy?

JH

The lounge is towards the F gates.

The planes dock normally at the E gates.

[ToffeEFCpower]

I've had gold cards for 20 years with several airlines. I had the Thai one for 4 years and never got upgraded once.

[drdoom6996]

If they let you use it.

[theoldgit]

If they let you use it.

If who let you use what?

[Arkady]

The gold card is no longer their top card, since they introduced the platinum card for people flying over 150,000 miles a year. So can we can probably expect the benefits of the gold card to diminish.

I just used mine to get two biz class tickets to Jo'burg return for price of one econ (upgraded) tax and air miles at 50% discount plus the tax for one seat. Last year I did the same to London. They usually send a special offer in Dec for the next year. The last two years have been a 50% discount on redeeming air miles.

Compared to other Star Alliance lounges the biz class one in Swampy is a disgrace. No wine or spirits. Limited food, including THAI own dreadful Pie & Puff soggy offerings. No computers. Crowded. I think they don't even allow gold card holders travelling economy in there any more and have set up some even worse lounges for them. They have not been able to use the biz class check in desks since before Swampy. There are some gold check in desks that are hard to find and with long queues.

Mainly I buy tickets on other Alliance airlines that have better cabins and lower fares and use THAI just for redeeming awards.

[Jebhead]

Where is the Emirates lounge at Swampy?

JH

The lounge is towards the F gates.

The planes dock normally at the E gates.

Thanks

JH

[tw25rw]

The gold card is no longer their top card, since they introduced the platinum card for people flying over 150,000 miles a year. So can we can probably expect the benefits of the gold card to diminish.

Compared to other Star Alliance lounges the biz class one in Swampy is a disgrace. No wine or spirits. Limited food, including THAI own dreadful Pie & Puff soggy offerings. No computers. Crowded. I think they don't even allow gold card holders travelling economy in there any more and have set up some even worse lounges for them. They have not been able to use the biz class check in desks since before Swampy. There are some gold check in desks that are hard to find and with long queues.

Platinum is by invitation only. There aren't any published fixed criteria except that you've been a gold for a while and fly premium classes. Also, only TG flights count towards it. So flights on LH or UA will count towards gold but not platinum.

Economy passenges can still use the lounges in C and E but not the big one in D.

Unless they moved them, the *gold check in was next to the Royal Silk check in.

[UdeBoCM]

DId you carbon compensate? or feel good to help burn fuel endlessly?

[fredob43]

DId you carbon compensate? or feel good to help burn fuel endlessly?

I read what all have said. But Gold Platinum card 1st business what ever there is one major problem with all of them It's with Thai Air only used them once in the last ten year's didn't have a choice that was a London to BKK Business Old plane, crap food, I've had better in economy with other company's, service!!! if you can find them. They have got to be the worst airline about. I know some peep's have to use them due to where you are going. I wouldn't use their rubbish lounge just in case someone saw me coming out. Embarrassed you bet.

[ExpatOilWorker]

I've had gold cards for 20 years with several airlines. I had the Thai one for 4 years and never got upgraded once.

Same here. Have Gold card, but NEVER ever got upgraded!

[Jangot]

I have been upgraded twice over the last couple of years, after check in, at the boarding lounge. When econ is overbooked, they upgrade Gold holders to free up econ seats.

This may sound pompous, but it a fact of airline life - you stand more chance of upgrade if you are dressed neatly.

Slacks and a shirt, rather than shorts, vest and thongs.

[infernalman7]

The gold card is no longer their top card, since they introduced the platinum card for people flying over 150,000 miles a year. So can we can probably expect the benefits of the gold card to diminish.

Compared to other Star Alliance lounges the biz class one in Swampy is a disgrace. No wine or spirits. Limited food, including THAI own dreadful Pie & Puff soggy offerings. No computers. Crowded. I think they don't even allow gold card holders travelling economy in there any more and have set up some even worse lounges for them. They have not been able to use the biz class check in desks since before Swampy. There are some gold check in desks that are hard to find and with long queues.

Platinum is by invitation only. There aren't any published fixed criteria except that you've been a gold for a while and fly premium classes. Also, only TG flights count towards it. So flights on LH or UA will count towards gold but not platinum.

Economy passenges can still use the lounges in C and E but not the big one in D.

Unless they moved them, the *gold check in was next to the Royal Silk check in.

It's invitation only but there's an algorithm behind it in which I happen to know

Quite hard to attain though and the benefits aren't really worth it. It's only good if you're flying out of Bangkok. And if you already fly First and Business almost all the time anyway (in order to get Platinum in the first place), you don't really need these perks anymore. Unless you have to fly Business because TG doesn't offer First for that destination.

Edited September 5, 2011 by infernalman7

[lomatopo]

It's invitation only but there's an algorithm behind it in which I happen to know

Quite hard to attain though and the benefits aren't really worth it. It's only good if you're flying out of Bangkok. And if you already fly First and Business almost all the time anyway (in order to get Platinum in the first place), you don't really need these perks anymore. Unless you have to fly Business because TG doesn't offer First for that destination.

There's a longish thread on FT re: TG ROP Platinum. TG publicized the "algorithm" so it's not super secret.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thai-airways-royal-orchid-plus/1111588-platinum-plus.html

As for the new top tier, ROP members entitled to gain that status are Gold members who have flown at least 100,000 miles a year and 80% of their travel must be in first or business class.

“From the current gold members, we have 3,500 members who can switch to platinum status. We will review the members list every six months to see if there are others who qualifiy for the platinum card,” said Mr Aran.

[tw25rw]

Always thought it was a bit crap how ROP status is calculated by miles accumulated in a calendar year instead of over the last 12 months. Makes it fiddly to plan to requalify. Plus I think they should have gold upgrades for say every 50k rather than just 2 over the 2 year period.

[lomatopo]

Didn't they used to have some sort of rolling re-qualification window? I imagine it can be a bit of a nightmare to track when you think about the number of individuals in a FFP?

Hilton HHonors had a "rolling tier" requalification for a while; it was pretty cool. But they stopped that a few years ago.

I have a vague notion that some middle eastern carriers offer rolling requal. in their FFPs, but I may be mistaken?

[Familyonthemove]

Good for using the lounges when flying economy and for quicker check in .... but I've found that there's so many restrictions on actually using the points for upgraders and flights that I never do it ... and then the points expire.

I think the airlines make it complicated to use the miles to discourage use.

I recently noticed that you can spend the points on the duty free goods at the Thai shops .... but again there's so many restrictions I've never done it.

Nice luggage tags though!

[theoldgit]

Hilton HHonors had a "rolling tier" requalification for a while; it was pretty cool. But they stopped that a few years ago.

Indeed they did, I managed to drag myself up to their top diamond tier when they did that.

Now I'm retired, and don't travel as much, I have lost my Thai and Virgin gold cards as well as my top tier Hilton, Sheraton & Holiday Inn cards, well and truly yesterdays man.

[infernalman7]

I agree. When it comes to redeeming points, for almost everything from credit cards to airlines flight awards, it doesn't make you feel like the privileged members at all. You're more like a second class citizen. They are so many conditions and everything is very difficult to understand. And once you feel like you have to ask for your rights, they try to make you feel embarrassed once you misunderstood these restrictions.