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.