Thai Air Recently?
 

I am considering flying Thai Air from Lax to BKK, since they will be a Star Alliance partner with Continental Air starting next week. I know there has been some posts about reliablity of flights and cancellations in the past. Has anyone dealt or flown with them in the last few months, and give me an update? I have been flying EVA air in the premium evergreen class. Anyone familiar with the differences of Thai Air's economy and premium class? I want to continue getting mileage with Continental and you have to fly EVA business class to get mileage now.

I'm not sure what you're alluding to when you mention reliability and cancellations. There was a lot of discussion here a year or so ago about Thai's change from non-stop flights to one-stop flights on the LAX - BKK route. They vacillated a lot about the change, and some of us did end up with radically different schedules than we originally planned, but this was a purely temporary situation. There's very little chance that they will reinstate the direct flights, so there won't be any radical schedule changes. Reliability and cancellations have never been a big problem with Thai.

With the end of direct flights, I think premium economy also came to an end. Your choices are economy, business or first on the LAX - BKK route (but check this with the airline). I avoid flying economy on this route, so I usually only make the trip to the states if I have the miles to upgrade.

We just flew Thai Air...got home a few days ago.

It was a direct LAX-BKK and back. 16.5 hours to and 14 hours from.
There was business, premium economy and economy.

From my understanding, no first class on the airbus.
During our flight, they allowed premium economy to board with business.

Hope that helps!

Premium Economy is great. I used to fly them regularly. Happy Travels!

Michael, I think you're mistken.

They have not ended the nonstop flight at all. And, as far as I know, they have no plans to.

It's biz, premium economy and economy in the A345 direct from LAX to BKK.

As Michael stated, there was some back and forth last year about removing the nonstop, but it never ended up happening.

You should be absolutely fine. I've only flown their biz product, not their PE (but haven flown EVA's.) I hear that they two compare very similarly, with Thai edging out EVA by a hair.

Thai still fly direct LAX - BKK - LAX so no worries. The big advantage of EVA is that the flight is direct!

Thai Air - are for me a last resort.

I have a photo taken on a flight to Oz of an Air hostess leaning on the emergency door towards the end of a flight - she is reading a newspaper surrounded by rubbish - tissues, cups and general flotsam and jetsam from the eight hour flight.

I earned enough air miles for a free return flight UK to Oz and was so happy that it would be the last time I flew with them -unfortunately i've had to use them since - the last time was about a year ago - and sadly there had been no improvement - in fact they had probably got worse.
I would choose EVa -over them ant time - their Economy Delux or whatever it's called is great.

Thanks for the good information. From what I can see, there is not much difference in the premium and economy seats. It looks like the premium seats are 1 inch wider. I can't find out if there is the same leg room. Any thoughts?

There's actually a significant difference between Economy and Premium Economy seats.

Premium Economy has 42 inches of pitch (whereas Economy only has 36 inches)--this is where it really counts...pitch is essentially the legroom you're talking about. And the difference in seat width is 19 inches in PE (vs. 17.4 in Economy)--not a huge difference there, but take into consideration seat width doesn't vary greatly on any airline (Thai's Business class seats are only 21" wide.)

I would never, if I had the choice fly in Economy on an 18hr trip--there's just no way to not be miserably uncomfortable...the more legroom you have, the better.

Can't speak for KW's experience, but I've flown both airlines, and I would ALWAYS opt for Thai Air, if for nothing other than the fact that it's a direct flight. EVA, while great, stops in Tapei and you're looking at adding another 3-4 hours onto your trip.

There's actually a significant difference between Economy and Premium Economy seats.

so correct and its worth every penny on such a long haul
if you have not booked Premium try at airport to up grade if room allows they will do this for you at last minute..some times even at a discount

I always try for seat that face or back up rest rooms ..this also give a little more floor space ..also usually just 2 seats so you and wife can fly with out a stranger sitting next to you .
This flight to me is hard so I seek every option to aid in its comfort

My mistake. I thought they ended the direct flights after the high season this year. All I read in the local papers is how they can't unload the planes. Nobody wants those gas guzzlers.

EVA flies direct Bkk to London.

EVA deluxe fit wider seats - a sort of second-hand business class seat

Thai used to fly direct to Brisbane - maybe still do - but in the past used to do it via Melbourne!!!!

Thai Air have always had company structural problems and financing problems - they now have compounded that with poor staff training and poor moral.

The thread entitled "Has Thai Air Lost Its Mind" reached 92 posts until it ended last January. See http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...t-its-mind.cfm
I flew with Thai Air Osaka-BKK and return last February on Air Canada points, and experienced more disorganization than I've ever seen before in an airline. I detailed the schedule change issues on the other thread.
But the last straw was when I went to reconfirm the return flight in Bangkok and they told me they had cancelled my ticket because I was a "no show" on the Osaka-BKK flight. I showed our hotel concierge our boarding passes and he went to bat for us by phone, but Thai still insisted we re-book through Air Canada. Eight hours later we were back on the return flight to Osaka and able, after all, to leave BKK the next morning.

Tthai air certainly would like to believe their computers or paperwork before concrete evidence -

i asked for a leg-room seat on one flight and they gave me a seat behind a bulkhead with LESS legroom.

I complained to the chap at check-in who looked at his diagram and told me I was wrong because I was next to a door. he was insistent that there was no bulkhead. just a door.....

In the end I had to lead him onto the plane and show him my seat - he looked at it...looked at the bulkhead and no door and he said ""Well. there used to be a door there"

I settled for a standard aisle seat where they could spend the night running over my toes with the drinks trolley.

I see that my earlier post has been deleted - thanks Katie!

For those interested in factual information regarding the legroom of the premium economy class check this link out.

http://www.seatguru.com/charts/premium_economy.php

You can clearly see that Thai has far bigger seats than EVA.

Further more, Thai only uses the A340-500s(the only aircraft in Thai's fleet that offer premium economy seats) on 2 routes, the LAX - BKK and the OSL - BKK routes. I fail to see how someone who has never flown that route can make comparison.

Regarding the BKK - BNE route. Thai has just started on the 26th October 2009 to fly there direct in one of their newest plane(a 777). They never offer the direct flight before that so that's another misinformation.

Well, I haven't FLOWN on them yet, so we will see, but the reservation agent I recently talked to when I found I couldn't use the credit card I wanted to online was one of the best customer service people (from any company) I've spoken to in quite a while.

I flew Thai business class yesterday. 9 hours. It's $1000 cheaper than any one else. That's the only reason I fly Thai in and out of Melbourne.

But yesterday's flight reached new levels of woefulness. It was a 4.00 p.m. flight. After 90 minutes they turned out all the cabin lights and that was that till an hour before we arrived. I sent back both meals. They can't even make a Bloody Mary. There were no menus. Food choices A,B,C and D were written out on a scrap of paper.

No, I'm not joking.

More to the point, the joke lie-back seats are just bloody uncomfortable.

So I'm over it now - after ten return trips on Thai I'll fly into the rest of the world on Singapore Airlines, via Singapore. Life is short.

Wow that's a bad flight! I'll forward your story to the people at Thai Airways.

Hanuman - that's a NORMAL Thai flight. The only thing that was different was the lack of menu. The only thing I did different was to fly in the day, instead of night. They love to turn the lights off - less work to do. Then they pull the blinds down.

So I sat in the dark for seven hours. When I fly back on my morning flight they'll do the same thing. I'll sit in the dark all day again. That's O.K. - it'll be the last time.

Actually I prefer that. I've had passengers in their window seats with the blinds open and the sun beam shining right at my face so that I could actually feel the heat of the sun! All those lights on the plane, overhead lights, those telescopic thingy that looks like the eye from "war of the world", should be sufficient reading light IMO.

No problem and enjoy SQ as I love them too but I will still let people at TG know about it.

OMG thats is funny about the light being like the eye out of war of the world....

Thai Air dropped its JFK-BKK service shortly after 911.
I flew Thai Air from Hongkong to Bangkok few months ago.
It was on time. Service was great.
I still miss Air Siam.

Air Siam ceased operation over 30 years ago!

Yes, Hanuman. Time does fly.
Last time I flew Air Siam was from Hong Kong to Honululu in the early 1970s.

Hanuman-

If the light was shining in your eyes, then they should have been asked to lower the window shade, and there is not much excuse for non-compliance.

But in their defense, maybe (1) the cabin lighting really wasn't enough for them to read by due to bad eyesight; (2) the lack of natural light was affecting their ability to enjoy, or maybe even just to endure, the flight; (3) they enjoyed looking out the window (of course, this is less likely to apply for hours over the Pacific); (4) they were cold, and the heat of the sun warmed them up.

It might be easy to laugh at or scoff about some of those suggestions, but I'll bet there are people for whom each of them is true!

On one flight - direct to Brisbane - a passenger near me complained that the back of his seat was faulty - faulty - it had collapsed backwards completely! The crew told him there was no other seat on the entire plane and he would just have to "sit up" for take off!!! (is that even legal???).
when the plane was airborne they gave him one of their own seats for the rest of the flight - How Chivalrous!
What he did for landing I don't recall.
Thai fly direct to London and used to - and as far as I know still do - fly direct to Brisbane.

I would use EVA over Thai everyday (and they are much cheaper when you get one of their deals) i have just snagged Biz class LHR to BKK next month £1165 each Thai was £1965.....their premium economy is excllent value to. A pal of mine used to fly Thai biz to BKK he has switched to EVA's PE cause he thinks it's such good value

Info for the recently launched BKK - BNE route on TG:

Brisbane airport news: http://www.bne.com.au/media-centre/m...-take-brisbane

Bangkok Post: http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/...ts-to-brisbane

kw,

do you mean the old stopover at BNE for TG's BKK - AKL route about 10 years ago? The were flying the old MD11 at that time.

Smeagol,

Eva is much cheaper than Thai but have you tried any of the Middle Eastern airlines? Cheaper still, great service, top of the line equipments BUT a stopover midway through the flight somewhere in the Mid East.

As a "curvilinear correctional technician of the genus musa" I used to fly regularly (4/5 times a year) time Bkk - Brisbane - there was a direct flight - May have started in Mel/Syd to Bkk from Brisbane - unfortunately when they first started it they flew a loop! - so flying back you got to stop off and Melbourne and Sydney - they then changed to Brizzie Bkk e/w direct (the flights would have started in Syd or Mel).

the plane appeared to be a Morris Minor Thousand with wings nailed onto the sides.

I also think that leg room on Thai Air is not accurate - a case of believing the paperwork rather than reality - I noticed on the flights to Oz especially that it would appear the plane had an extra row of seats - presumably added after their seating spec was sent in.

My problem with Thai air is the sad standard of service and the "jobsworth" attitude that permeates the entire company.

the economy class food was SO BAD on the flights to Ozthat I would try all sorts of things to get something edible.

I would ask for a special meal on most flights - usually Indian vegetarian - (my background) - on one flight an attendent came a slopped a meal in front of me - I opened it and it was Chinese Chicken noodles - when I pointed it out they tried to say it was Indian vegetarian - when I showed tem the food they tried to deny it STILL - what is the point?!?!?!

They HAD to argue the toss! - this kind of thing is simply not worth debating - just pick up the dish and get something else - tat flight I had cheese and biscuits - on many other flights I had nothing to eat just water and fruit juice - the food was so disgusting

Anyone who has flown "Cattle" - battery or free-range - to UK from Bkk (direct) will know that EVA seating and service far outstrip anything Thai Air offer in this class

I haven't flown Thai Air transpacific for a couple of decades (but we had excellent service, food and champagne on that flight). I regularly fly them within Asia (last year to BKK-KTM, the year before to Sri Lanka) and have always had excellent service and good food in Biz.

I'm struck that both dogster and KW have complaints about the Thai service to/from Australia... do they have a special crew for dealing with Aussies?

I think kw's information is decades old and a bit blurry but the dogster recent experience is very unusual - the no menu situation that is. My last international flight on Thai was perfect, the best for a long time and just a few days ago I flew with them in economy, on the old A300 and everything was good on the flight.

I guess if you don't mind paying more than there are several alternatives to fly between BKK - any Australian ports. Direct flights, apart from TG, are offered by BA, Qantas, Emirates and a few other airlines so no shortages of option.

Our Thai flights from LAX to BKK last December were not really what I'd say I expected (vis a vis what one might expect for their first experience in international biz class.) I built a lot up in my head, so maybe that had something to do with it. Even leading up to the flight itself--we had a lot of headache with Thai and their customer service. Their M.O. seems to be to point the finger at someone else all the time and then act as if they have no control over anything. It was frustrating, to say the least.

For the flights themselves, I thought everything about the experience was very nice EXCEPT the flight attendants. They just seemed not to really care all that much. The seats were wonderful, the food was pretty good and the lounges exquisite (love those free massages in BKK!)...but when on-board (even in both directions) the service was just phoned in. Not that I have a lot of experience flying business class, but I certainly had an expectation in my mind of how much attention passengers in that cabin should get and Thai definitely fell short in all regards to attentiveness and care for their on-board customers.

That said, we're still taking them again in May to Bali because a) it was one of the only options for our FF tickets and b) even for all their flaws, they're still a mile better than US-based carriers, such as United.

I've also flown EVA in Premium Economy multiple times and I do love them, although I don't know if I'd say their Business Class was much better. It looked to be on-par with Thai. And my experience with EVA's on-board service wasn't particularly memorable or resplendent by any means.

When talking about coach/economy product, I would definitely agree that EVA takes the cake.

All-in-all, our experience flying them was a VERY comfortable and very pleasant one. And I look forward to sleeping well and being all-too-comfy again on the ride over the Pacific in a few months. Not really expecting much more than that.

For me though the cost savings on EVA far out weighs the maybe minor service differences. (as i mentioned above it £££) AND the UK leg has all refitted biz class which i am not sure has rolled out across the US yet
Hanuman - Muffin will only do direct flights... he's a sensative soul!! (and EVA is still cheaper than some of the middle east carriers)

Agreed, Smeagol. I should've specified that we're doing award tickets again. When paying, EVA is always far cheaper. Always.

Thai Airways once were on par with Singapore Airways. These days par for Thai is Garuda.

Then of course there's always the chance you're booked on a flight that an important Thai is booked on. If they're running late then no one is going anywhere until they make it on board...

We just flew Thai Air from BK to Phuket on October 26 (return on Oct 31). No problems at all, they gave us priority service on the return leg due to a "short" connection to Sri Lankan to Hong Kong (1:50....all of it needed in BK). Friendly service, comfortable and clean plane, on time and "as advertised". No issues at all.

I flew Thai ICN-BKK-CNX and then CNX-BKK-(HKG)-ICN in December. Seats were comfortable, service was attentive, food was mostly good (except for some little sandwiches that tasted like they were made with cat food on the BKK-CNX and CNX-BKK legs!). It seems like they did run out of the Korean meal choice on the ICN-BKK leg, which some of the Korean passengers found hard to grasp or accept. The hot tea was fantastic - served with lime slices.

My only complaints would be that the quality of the video was pretty bad on the ICN-BKK flight (overhead screens) - it was OK for the return trip - and that the stop at HKG was a little annoying when going from BKK to ICN. We had to deplane and go through security and then wait to re-board.

I had all daytime flights - no overnights.