Gus

Not a rant marley, true, I never ever thought that I would miss T3 Now if LHR had a watering hole at the B terminal shops then I might no be so peed off with LHR.

Just had a quick dummy booking. Mon 29th Jan 2018 LHR 0900 Doha 1845 to 2005 Utapao 0630 Mon 26th Feb 2018 UTP 0750 Doha 1140 to 1300 LHR 1730 £672 The connecting times are pretty good but early starts both ways.

FWIW I have never checked in online but as soon as I put my passport in the machine and then enter my Amadeus code, the boarding pass and luggage tags are printed.

My main reason for changing from Eva to Thai was that BR067 and 068 were always very well loaded and now there are extra seats and less toilets it is not something to bring me back. I first flew on Eva in Evergreen Class (Elite/premium Economy) the fare was not a great deal more than the economy fare, alas quite a lot more now. Some BMs will remember the 1/2 Cargo version of the 747, maybe Thai will bring them back to carry more rice for Qatar.

Goldpanner, rise above the odd setback, most of the BMs look forward to your advisories.

irish Be careful with BA, I have not used them but trip reports are not very good, also BA use the original 777-200 aircraft I think. Eva I always used to use but they kept reducing pluses and increasing minuses so i have emigrated to Thai. I did a post about the EVA 3-4-3 when it was first muted, I know they have been flying this version on 067 and 068 during the summer, but I had something in the back of my mind that they were reverting back to the 3-3-3 later, perhaps someone in the know can update.

I booked today direct with Thai online, 917 on the 31st and 910 on 23rd November, £574. Fares are very up and down at the moment, even for the 2 different flights, STA looked on last night then by this morning fares had gone up again, I didn't book last night because I wanted to book a numbered seat. Also, with the airline business as it is, I booked by credit card with Thai who do not charge extra like travel companies. Interestingly when selecting your seat and you hover the mouse over seats at the rear of the aircraft it comes up with something like 'book these seats last' which is probably because of no overhead bins in the last few rows of seats in the centre. I will post a report of my A350 experience in a few weeks but it will not be a very comprehensive one I am afraid. Chok Dee

Gone, at around 4am UK time. The pilots should get jobs with Ryanair, IF they want to.

Goldpanner thanks for the heads up, one thing I have noticed, is the closer to flight day the cheaper rates become unavailable. :) For my probable flights TG917 is showing 37 available seats at the cheap rate and 157 for the next tier of fares. TG910 is showing 121 available seats at the cheap rate and 282 for the next tier. I missed the boat farewise as it was £513 but now £574 and I note that for November departures the fares increase again for high season. I will book direct with Thai in the next 2 days and even with Skyscanner/Kayak/WestEast etc the TG fares are around £570 for early October departures.

Apparently it was a Worldwide Amadeus IT problem which caused delays.

Butch Seatguru are showing the Thai A350 as having 289 economy seats in a 3-3-3 layout, 32" pitch and 18" width. i think TG may do better business on the Heathrow route this high season, I think the Eva 777-300ER on the LHR route is now 3-4-3 seating layout which will deter some pax.

I don't know what happens if Thai sell most of their cheap tickets but not too many of the next tier, if everyone was sitting near the tail it would upset the centre of gravity of the flight. :) Myself, I do not mind sitting near to the back, OK it can be bumpier and sometimes the food main dish can be run out but I don't mind that. I think that once the flight opens passengers who have not reserved seats fill up the centre of the aircraft first, at BKK I have often thought about leaving a 100/200thb on my passport photo page,, "Tip" What time for TG917 do the Thai airways staff man their desk, is it 5-30pm? Perhaps a handling company man them ? I usually self check in just after 5 pm

59E marley, is that next to a trap door? :) I have not been on a A380 yet.

Once, I think it was on BR068 I managed to wangle 3 seats to myself, then after take off a couple told the flight attendant that they were seated seperately and wanted to sit together, yes, youv'e got it, mine were the only 2 together so I finished up flying to BKK in a window seat trapped in by 2 other pax. :)

Don't they usually transfer passengers to other flights if seats are available in an emergency situation? ie: Bangkok to London passengers,Transfer pax from BR067 to TG917?

Harvey a secondary check is expertflyer.com, it costs nothing to join but you are limited to how many free searches you can have per day, join then create seat alert to see your flight. If you are using more than one flight then it has to be done seperately. For TG on 30th October, LHR-BKK the cheapest fare shows 67 seats available but if I pay the next rate then there are 183 economy (coach) seats free but a certain amount of these will be allocated to passengers who have not booked a seat initially..

Well i learnt something new today, even at my age. If using the Thai (UK) web site and going through the booking process and selecting the cheapest ticket fare you do not see all the seats which are available on that flight, now many of you may have known this, but I didn't :) In the past when looking at seat avilability on TG910 and 911 the middle of the aircraft always showed no seats available, same same on the upper deck, no economy seats going. However, once you click onto the second tier of tickets, Voila, loads more seats available. So if you want to see how busy your flight is looking then try this method, I don't think it is 100% as there will be many passengers who have not booked a seat and wait until check in to be allocated one. I like a quiet flight so travel on Monday-Wednesday, but if I see a flight with lots of unreserved seats then I will book that flight and spread out.

firth Thanks for the heads up, it looks like TG are putting their eggs in the A350 market rather than the 777 one, although from the UK I must admit to liking Boeings. :) My fare is showing agin now, £513 for 30/10 to 23/11 if I book direct with Thai, I like that re-assurance rather than trying to save £20 with some of the other travel outlets.

Are TG916 and 917 changing from 777 to A350, if so when will it be? Also the small economy cabin upstairs on the A380, is it any good or just difficult to book? Finally, this morning there were some TG offers knocking about but now they seem to have disappeared, although no doubt they will re-surface. :) TIA

Bullfrog, Sorry for the late reply, I have used the Eva lounge aat BKK many times, but now I usually fly Thai, I use the Louis lounge near their gates. At LHR, I first used the London lounge when I was BR Silver, then I think a United lounge, when I had to pay it was No1 or Servisair. :) At LHRT2 I now use Fullers London Pride bar/restaurant, a little tip, if you want a sandwich before you have your meal on the flight nip into either Boots or WH Smith and buy a meal deal, a good sandwich, packet of crisps and bottle of water, this all costs about half the price of a sarnie in the Pride, just be discreet. :)

If flying Eva, when you have checked in at BKK, go to the ticket desk which is about 3 desks from Elite check in. Tell them that you would like to buy lounge access, give them a 1000 and off you go, but no fast track. The Eva lounge is very pleasant, even the toilet seat warms your bum.

Owned by the Spanish, only interested in trying to make money for shareholders and not looking after its customers. Gonna cost them £100,000,000-£150,000,000 million quid this fiasco, serves em right. I have been to BKK from LHR over 30 times and it has never entered my head to use BA.

Do not be afraid to fly Thai if you can get a good price. I always used Eva but their flights were always very very busy so I gave Thai a try and I was not disappointed at all.

Thanks for the info.

I always fly direct but this thread got me looking out of the box, I have not yet looked at price comparison for LHR-BKK with Qatar. What i did do was check out seat availability on expert flyer and for the 4 flights I put in there was lots of empty seats on all the flights, out 30/1 and rtn 1/3. Do any members know if you book on the Qatar web site if you can see seat availability and book seats before you pay, with Thai you can do this? I would rather fly on a less than full plane even if it costs a little more. TIA