Thai Airways New 777-300Er For Lax/Bru Route

[WilliaminBKK]

Thai has taken delivery of the first of eight brand new Boeing 777-300 Extended Range aircraft on 08AUG

Short Video showing Y class with seat back monitors & new 180 degrees J class

Will initially serve NRT then USA & Brussels.

http://www.asiatrave...aiAirways.shtml

Edited August 10, 2012 by WilliaminBKK

[lomatopo]

On lease from BOC Aviation. HS-TKK aka "philalvan" (pee - lah wan?)

http://www.hflight.n...gger;à¸à¸²à¸£/

http://www.airliners...inct_entry=true

http://www.hflight.n...7-3aler-hs-tkk/

http://www.hflight.n...o;ทย/

Interesting delivery flight? Although it may have stopped in PEK?

Edited August 11, 2012 by lomatopo

[WilliaminBKK]

Lomotopo great info and fantastic links - thanks for sharing

[Sam Drucker]

Good links Lomotopo. To answer your question, the delivery flight was a non-stopper from Paine Field (Everett WA) to BKK, 7,437 statute miles. Some of the Thai comments in one of those links indicated it was a flight of about 14:30 minutes, easily within the range of the -300ER (especially on an empty delivery flight and with the lighter headwinds of summer.) Not sure about the absolute longest flights with these birds, but Cathay runs them nonstop on the JFK-HongKong route, and that one is 8,072 statute miles.

Disappointed to see the economy cabin seat pitch has been set at 32"; not 34" like other long-range aircraft in the THAI fleet. If the passenger in front reclines his seat, I can't even read a magazine, cause I can only hold it 6" from my face. Airlines need to realize (on these longer, 10 hour+ routes) that passengers need some additional personal space. It's not the same as flying a crowded plane on a 90 minute flight from BKK down to Phuket!

I personally prefer the Airbus cabins because of the 8-across 2-4-2 economy layout. Many people travel in pairs, and the 9-across 3-3-3 layout on the 777 means one of those two people is going to be sitting in a dreaded center seat. Still, on this front THAI is to be commended: At least they didn't go with the narrower-seats-and-aisles 10-across 3-4-3 seating option, like some other airlines are doing (such as Air France, KLM, etc.)

As for Business Class, it's hard to tell from the photos what it is actually like, but those seats look pretty narrow! At 20", they're only 2" wider than economy. In particular, the area for the feet (when the seat is laid flat) looks very small.

I'm not sure if they are correct about this new aircraft serving the LAX route? LAX is currently using a 777-200ER, and THAI plans to put a 747-400 (with additional First class) on it next spring. Seems a little odd to put one of these planes on the route for a 6 month run. It also seems a bit big for the route to Brussels. But I could be wrong there . . .

[tartempion]

I understand the 777/200 to Brussels has high load factor from luchtzak's website (nearing 100%).

Also a Thai office booked me for a return trip in business class a few days ago for a October trip and I got waitlisted ex-Bangkok.

Anyway their price for UTH-BKK-BRU return was 132k baht.

I booked today with Etihad 85K BKK-BRU_BKK W booking code.

If unlucky I will find a D code for less before September 1st

Rumors are the 777/300ER will add a 4th weekly to the 3 weekly flights to BRU, thus the existing 3x will remain 777/200, but the 300ER is not to be seen in their schedule yet.

[Sam Drucker]

I think for both the Brussels route and Los Angeles, they should focus on getting service up to daily before thinking about up-gauging the aircraft.

[seadoo]

I fly Thai in Royal Silk to various international destinations every 2 weeks and I can't understand why they are using their new aircraft such as the 380 and 777's on routes that they only service every second day such as LA and once per day such as Europe when for example they use shitty retro fitted aged aircraft on very busy routes such as Sydney where they have up to 3 flights a day - I would be pampering segments that are paying dividends or are more frequent. But I guess thats the thai mentality for you.

[RabC]

The business class seats look very similar to Etihad, a bit narrow and claustrophobic when first used but I now like them. If they start to use these lay flat private seats on LHR flights I will happily stop using First and move to Business.

[jcb2001]

Does the new 777-300ER have the legs to fly non-stop from BKK to LAX like the old A340-500ER that Thai use to use? I personally do not like the non-stop flights and was happy to hear that Thai recently dropped their non-stop flight between BKK and LAX. Hope the route between LAX and Bangkok includes a couple hour stop in Japan or Korea when they start the new 777 service.

[Sam Drucker]

Since May, they have been using a 777-200ER on the route, with a stop at Seoul (about 1:15).

As for whether a 777-300ER has the legs to do the route nonstop: certainly east-bound to LAX. And it probably could do the west-bound to BKK at times too, especially in the summer. But in winter, there are strong headwinds much of the way. Generally, it is not a simple question of "Can it fly that far?" As limits start to be approached, they start taking hits on how much cargo (or even passengers) they can carry to make the full distance. When that starts happening, then profitability goes out the window.

The BKK-LAX route is 8,260 statute miles. Cathay uses these aircraft on their HongKong-New York route, which is 8,072 miles. So it is close to being capable on the THAI LAX route.

Sent from my GT-P5100 using Thaivisa Connect App

[dabhand]

The business class seats look very similar to Etihad, a bit narrow and claustrophobic when first used but I now like them. If they start to use these lay flat private seats on LHR flights I will happily stop using First and move to Business.

I fly Cai/Bkk/Cai with Etihad every month or so in business class and really appreciate the privacy that this seat configuration offers. Certainly consider that, if travelling on a Thai serviced route which had simiiar seating in business, I would now be more likely to choose Thai.

Edited August 13, 2012 by dabhand