Thai Airways Flight Changes
 

Thai Airways just called and changed our LAX - BKK and return flights in November, claiming they no longer offer flights on the days we booked. We can go a day earlier or later on both legs. Has anyone else been contacted? This is going be a real hassle as all other flights and hotels are booked and some paid for. We had to use American to get to LAX and they are not linked to Thai Airways and charge to change the flight. I am wondering if the flights were really cancelled or we are being bumped. If anyone has advice on how to deal with them it would be appreciated.

They pulled this last year as well. Take the extra day(s) in Bangkok and make the most of them. That's what we did. I have not noticed any changes on the JFK-BKK schedule but will monitor it since we are going again in February.

We are definately going to lean towards making our trip longer rather than shorter. Still not happy with paying AA $75 a ticket change fee plus they now charge $15 just to talk to an agent!

i think i would see if thai would comp you something....how long have you had the res?? made directly with them...remember terryr last year who booked through and agent and never got the call until just before the trip...what a mess....

Yep...Thai Air does that from time to time....But, not only Thai Air....worse. I flew from L.A.-N.Y.-Milan where I was to change planes and fly on to Ghana and was told upon arrival in Milan that the Alitalia flight had left to Ghana the day before....now not one person had contacted me or told me a thing and I was on Delta/Alitalia...partners and stranded in freezing Milan...wearing khakis...and the agent who checked me in at LAX checked my luggage through to Ghana on the non-existent flight. Plus, I had a plane ticket for the non-existent flight...... So although I understand how it's a real drag...feel happy that at least you were contacted. Smiles. Happy Travels!

Well, I was looking at EVA air for HNL-BKK (with plane change in Taipei) over Christmas.

I luckily found out-- before I purchased the tickets-- that they are dropping the entire HNL-Taipei route this month!

We had the same situation with Singapore Airlines- Lax to Bangkok, and a seperate ticket to Lax with US Air several years ago. US Air was not agreeable to change with no penalty, but did advise to have Singapore Airlines deal with it. The upshot was that Singapore Airlines contacted US Air and did the ticket change, for no additional $$$.

Well, since rhkkmk brought it up, you might want to reference the thread that I began last 12/05 when we learned two weeks before our departure of Thai Airways' cancellation of our flight. You can find it under terryr's posting, "Thai Airways Cancelled our Flight from JFK to BKK." The multiple responses that followed were helpful and informative. Good luck to you, scfphoto! Your situation is bringing back our nightmares from last year with two weeks to go before our trip. Just curious: did you book directly with Thai Airways or through a travel agent? We booked through a travel agent and believe that she wasn't on top of the situation. At least the airlines has called you two months prior to departure so you are not scrambling at the last minute...but we know what you mean about the extra expenses now that you will have to incur. Please keep us posted.

Terry

I thought I had read just recently that Thai was going to start operating twice daily nonstops LAX-BKK, but I must be mistaken. Your original flights must have been scheduled for Wednesday or Friday in both directions. The Thai nonstops are not scheduled on those days of the week this November (anymore).

That's just part of the bargain in getting an advance purchase fare, you get a better price but you have to pay it up front and have a greater risk of schedule changes.

I once read an explanation of how it is the apex ticket buyers who keep the planes flying. The airlines sell low-priced tickets well in advance in the hopes of getting enough revenue so that they can operate the flight (at not too much of a loss). Then they look for the last minute high fare customers to buy so that they can make a profit. Without enough advance sales, they can't risk waiting for the last-minute buyers (who might not show) so they cancel the flight. The point was that it is the low-price ticket buyers who keep the planes flying for the high-priced buyers.

So you took a risk to get a bargain. You lost the gamble this time, but $75 or $90 is not so bad. If you had waited and bought the tix today they might cost $100 more, and in 6 to 8 weeks you would have little chance of a sked change but the tix would cost a heck of a lot more.

They might be able to get you on a United or Singapore flight on your original date to Tokyo to connect to a Thai flight.

We booked directly with Thai Airlines. I think part of the problem is we booked premium economy. When I checked Thai's website for schedules, The flight that uses Airbus 345 that has premium economy now flies everyday except Tues. and Thursday. On those days they fly 757 with stops somehwere taking 33 hours or something. I will see if Thai may comp us something or will deal with AA for us, but they did not seem responsive yesterday when they dropped this on us.

We were scheduled to fly on Tuesday out of LAX. Just checked the posted schedule again. They have added flights since we booked. The nonstop was on only 3 days a week. Tues, Fri., Sun. I believe. Now it is every day except Tues. and Thurs. On those days they operate af light to JFK and you could then connect on the JFK to BKK nonstop. Why anyone would do that I have no idea. So we will eat the change fees and stay a night at each end at Penn in BKK tough, but you have to do what you have to do!

Just spoke to a friend who is also flying Thai Airways in November LAX to BKK. He used United miles to purchase the tickets through UA and they did not notify him of the Thai Airways schedule changes. If we had not told him of our problem he would not have known. So anyone flying Thai Airways this fall may want to check thier flights to make sure there have been no schedule changes. Good luck.

Same thing happened to me last year as your friend - tickets through United, no notification. If I hadn't seen a post about it on this board, I never would have known about the change.

We also had the Thai air flight in Nov from LAX to BKK using United miles. However, we were called by Thai air telling us that there was no more Tues non stop, but they would get us seats on the Wed flight. This would cut our time in Cambodia, so we asked to go earlier on either Sat, Sun, or Mon. After many calls back and forth between Thai Air and United, Thai said that they had business class,freq. flyer United seats available. But when I called United they said their computer did not show seats were available. After I convinced them to call a specific Thai agent on her direct line United finally obtained the seats. So the lesson to be learned, do not necessarily believe what United says in regard to seats as they said"our computers were not talking properly with the Thai computers" Right!

lucy, try china air. they have a flt three times a week that goes direct to taipei, and gets into bkk at a decent hour, like 5pm, instead of midnight like ua.

I guess it goes to show that regardless of which way we book our airlines, whether on our own directly with the airlines or through a travel agent, we all need to continue to keep vigilant about our flights prior to our departure and return dates.

Is this cancellation tendency, based on economics and revenue decisions on the part of the airline, more so with airlines going to Asia...or is this really a worldwide trend? Last year was the first time this ever happened to our family, and we have traveled a lot, but we were first time travelers to Asia last year.

Second question, our family is considering a trip to China next May. I will be looking into flights from Boston-Beijing or JFK-Beijing with a return from Hong Kong. Are there airlines that you would particularly recommend to us, for comfort, service, food, reliability (I prefer to go with a SEA airlines rather than an American carrier, as they are more interesting and an experience in of itself)...and are there airlines that will tend to cancel their flights, as Thai Airways does, or are notoriously known to "fail" the customers? If so, will you please share your experiences, good or bad??! Thank you.

I really don't understand why anyone thinks that Thai is a culprit here. They changed their schedule by adding a flight: instead of flying LAX-BKK on Mon/Thu/Sat, they will instead be flying Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat. Having made this schedule change (2 months in advance), they offered <b>scfphoto</b> the option of changing his/her flight from Thursday to either Wednesday or Friday.

scfphoto's connecting flight was not only on a different airline, but on an entirely different ticket (passenger record). If the connecting flights had been on the same ticket, I am certain that flights would have been made available. (I guess I'm also wondering why scfphoto didn't do this: I believe that the miles required are the same for LAX-BKK as for LAX-BKK and the connecting flights between LAX and anywhere in US/Canada.)

Seems like a common occurrence. The same thing happened to us this summer flying JFK-BKK. I had booked seats through USAir. Thai had a schedule change, eliminated the flight on the day we were flying, and rebooked us on the next day. Nobody notified us, and I never would have known were I not pretty anal about confirming and reconfirming. Be vigilant, and if -unlike us - you've actually bought your ticket instead of using miles, I would try to hold the airline accountable - although with Thai that may be easier said than done.

They are the culprit. They sold me a confirmed reservation, I did not purchase with FF miles. All they offered to do was rebook on another flight. However, all plans based on that flight had to be changed. Hotel reservations, connecting flights to get to LAX, which cost a rebooking fee. They offered no compensation for any of the trouble. Even when I asked ofr something to offset costs, They refused to deal with AA period since they are not affiliated. Why do they offer flights that far in advance? I am not very sympathetic to the agrument they just changed the schedule, deal with it attitude. It is not the end of the world all has been worked out but with extra night of hotel and rebooking it still cost a few hundred dollars. I am not complaining too loud since I will have 2 days extra travel time vs, work time. Happy travels.

I was looking at star-alliance.com which had W/F as the days without the nontstop, but Thai site says T/Th

I can't imagine that Thai is going to be able to work anything out with AA. They aren't partners. Thai might be able get you on one of their partner flights to NRT or SIN and from there on Thai to BKK. The option of flying via JFK uses a codeshare with partner United to get from LAX to JFK, then Thai from there. But maybe they can only put you on the partner codeshare flights.