moremiles

I believe some other Star Alliance members fly to BKK other than just Thai, like ANA and Asiana-wonder if anyone has used their UA miles for tkts on these airlines to BKK? I've been only able to secure the Thai airways non-stop in one direction but would think that any of these Asian airlines would have better biz seats than UA-even NWA are much better.

Guenmai

You need to get your tickets NOW and not wait! Happy Travels!

Bowdoin

While not directly on point to your questions, you should know that Thai seems to have recently adjusted its schedule from LAX to BKK in that they now use an A340-600 on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday flights from LAX which requires a technical stop in Osaka for an hour. On these flights, there is no Premium Economy so your only options are Economy and Business. I booked tickets about a month and a half ago on Thai because of the non-stop option only to find that mu flight now stops in Osaka and I arrive 2 hours late (which means I miss my connection up to Hanoi and now have a 9 hour layover in Bangkok--exactly what I was trying to avoid in the first place!). Thai did upgrade me to business class for the entire trip (I had booked premium economy) so, in the end, I pick up some time in Bangkok and a lot more comfort on the trip.

AskOksana

Great info. I've been battling with my L.A. based travel agency to get me a bulkhead seat as I can't get out of a seat without being lifted by my husband and the bulkhead offers the necessary room for him to lift me UP... (first they claimed they could not be pre-booked)... then we had to change the outbound & we suddenly got a bulkhead on the return flight... but still no bulkhead on the return. I'd asked before we bought tickets to buy the PE seats on Thai Air LAX--BKK... and was told that it was about $5000 more for two! LOL!

I have emailed the travel agency's owner & told her to purchase us two PE upgrades on the outbound. Is there any CODE that I should give her to get them?

$198 more pp, is nothing compared the stress of driving to LAX with a regular seat, knowing that the only way my husband can get me out of the seat is if it's in the bulkhead. If we're in PE there is enough room in any seat for him to lift me, as long as it's on the aisle.

We're flying Feb. 16... any advice?

rkkwan

AskOksana - Those $198 or whatever upgrade are last minute offers at the gate when they have open PE seats open. Why sell them cheaply when others are willing to pay good money for them?

If a regular coach seat is not acceptable to you, you shouldn't have booked one in the first place.

Kathie

I would simply go over the necessity of a bulkhead seaet for you given your disability. I think they (Thai) will try to accommodate you if they can.

I find it hard to believe that Premium Economy is $5000 more for two people. Have you dealt with this travel agency before? I wonder if there is some miscommunication.

KimJapan

LAX - BKK is $903+ for economy on your dates. $1270+ for premium economy and $4343+ for business class. Tax etc. adds $246.92 to each fare.

It's never $2500 per person more for premium economy...so maybe your agent quoted you a discounted business class for $3500 each...which would have been a good deal and account for the $5000 quote.

Also, your original dates which stop in Osaka do not offer premium economy...so it's possible and maybe likely that your agent booked you on the flight with a stop without paying attention and then blamed Thai Air for making a change...it would explain the $5000 increase to upgrade from economy well...no premium so by default the next class is business.

Perhaps you can upgrade your existing tickets to premium economy. You may have to pay for a change, not sure about that, since you did book economy. The economy class pitch on your plane is 36" and premiium economy is 42"...only 6" difference.

Seat requests are only seat requests anyway...it is possible that you do not get your requested seat in the end due to overbooking, families travelling with infants who need to be together and/or need bassinet, overbooking, double booking of seats...double booking of seats has happened to us 4 times since we've been in Japan. In 3 cases, they have upgraded to business class the passenger with the highest status in their FF program, and in one case when neither passenger had status they upgraded someone else entirely who did have high status.

Kristina

Bowdoin-
When exactly do those changes in schedule you mention take place?
I'm flying out on a Thursday night and my flight is still listed as non-stop on a 340-500 and I'm booked in Premium Economy.

KimJapan

I saw those changes and they seemed to only be in effect for after peak in January until mid/end February. You can check on Thai Air's website.

rkkwan

Looks like they need to do maintenance on the 340-500s. Unlike SQ, they only have 4 of them, and they need all of them to run BKK-LAX and BKK-JFK daily.

Bowdoin

My flight is in early January and I was notified of the change about 10 days ago. My understanding is that they have updated their on-line search engine so if your flight still shows as an A340-500 with no stops then that is probably what you have. If you are looking on one of the on-line agencies, the last I checked (which, admittedly, was about a week ago) they were still showing my flight as non-stop. The agent who called me indicated that the swap of equipment was due to normal maintenance procedures and not, as some have suggested on other sites, a reduction in non-stop service to the U.S.


Interestingly, I am booked in Biz Class the whole way but my seat on the return is 1A on the A340-600. Every seatmap I look at on Thai's site, Seatguru.com and Seatexpert.com shows seat 1A as a first class seat. The agent did tell me that the seating is 1-2-1 in the first two rows. Does anyone know if there are other configurations of the A340-600 where it is all business and economy class or did I just win the upgrade lottery?

rkkwan

I think you've won the lottery.

Kathie

AskOsana, I am increasingly convinced that your travel agent screwed up. If this is an agency you have an ongoing relationship with, I'd appeal to them to rectify the situation and get you booked in Premium economy as you originally requested. Even if you don't have an ongoing relationship with them, I'd talk with the manager about the problem. Did you, by chance communicate with them via email? If so, you'll have an electronic record of your request and their responses. Even if the problem was that you requested a date when they didn't have premium economy, they should have told you that so you could chose whether to adjust your dates or adjust your request.

travelduo

Josh,I am curious about how many miles you actually have banked right now with UA? Do you have any status at all with them? If not, then your chances of getting the UG because its your honeymoon are about 0. I remember trying that many years ago when we flew into bkk for the first time. Since then we have really leanred how the FF programs work and how to obtain and keep your status. If they are going to UG someone for free, its going to be that business guy that flies 100,000+ miles a year, to keep him flying their product. Have you ever been on a Thai flight before? I would jump on the flights that Kim found for you, but then again we dont mind the thai economy seats at all!!!

Jeffrey

Guenmai

An extra $5000. for two is totally out of line. I fly Thai Air to Bangkok usually twice a year and have never been quoted that price difference. Happy Travels!

JoshMiller

Jeffrey,
I don't have that many UA miles right now (just burnt 30k for a flight to seattle), but my plan was to open a couple UA credit cards for the 20K mile bonus, if it looked like I could use the miles. Unfortunately, I don't travel consistently enough to have status on any airline.

josh

JoshMiller

Hi everybody,
We've decided to fly Premium Economy on Thai (non stop). Thai Air has a restricted fare for about 1200 and an unrestricted for about 1400. Does it matter which fare we book, since we're not very flexible on our dates (ie we're not going to cancel or change our flights).

Also, I called a couple of the Thai travel agencies (Star and USA Gateway). They quoted me prices about equivalent to Thai Air. Is there an advantage to booking through an agent or through the airline directly?

Finally, we're going to arrive at BKK around 6 or 7 in the morning, and we're planning on immediately hopping on a local flight down to one of the beaches (TBD). We figure after the stress of the wedding and the flight, we should just get to the beach and the relaxing as soon as possible. I haven't checked the local flight schedule yet, but I'm assuming they run pretty frequently. Any thoughts on that plan?

Thanks!

Craig

Josh - since you are unlikely to change flights or flight times, go with the lower fare. For your situation where you have already done all of the research, there is no advantage to booking through an agent.

There are flights all day long to the major beach locations. I would take the potential inconvenience of a few hour layover rather than to cut it too close. Flights do get delayed. Hopefully you can check your luggage through to your final destination. Alternatively, you could spend a day or two in Bangkok to get acclimated to the new time zone.

LynnieD

Bowdoin, This new Thai Air schedule applies to me too. WHen I called Star Alliance (whom i had booked the flight thru) They said it was a 2 hour layover in Osaka, is it 1? Will we be allowed off the plane to stretch? HOw long from Osaka to BKK?

I really wanted that nonstop, and tried to get SA to change me to the previous day (Monday) but alas, no business class seats. Oh well.

rkkwan

The non-stop departs LAX 9:30p and arrives BKK 6:30a + 2. Total time 18:00.

The KIX one-stop departs LAX 9:30p and arrives BKK 9:00a + 2. Total time 20:30.

LAX-KIX should take about 12:30 to 12:40. KIX-BKK takes about 6:30. That leaves just over an hour for the stop.