neilri2001

Sorry for the tardy response. I haven't checked in for a couple of weeks. I didn't pay the extra. I convinced the guy that it would be in his best interests to convey me for the agreed fare. Not typical behavior for me as i always think it a good policy to avoid confrontation in foreign lands but rip off taxi drivers are a bug bear of mine. It's also one of the reasons ( other than safety ) why i have never taken a motor cycle taxi in Thailand.

In 30 years of visiting Pattaya the Eastiny on soi 8 probably ranks as the worst hotel that i have stayed at in Pattaya. To cap off a very poor experience the taxi back to the airport arranged through the hotel tried to extort me for a higher fare than agreed by leaving the motorway and pulling up in a very quiet area. Ive no idea whether or not anyone from the hotel was in on this.

PE on the 787-9 tends to be 2-3-2 rather than 2-4-2 . I think the dreamliner will be switched from an existing route as if it was brand new it would probably be a 787-10. For whatever reason BA doesn't tend to put the better equipment on the BKK route even though load factors tend to be fairly high.

If you're flying from the UK ( specifically within easy reach of Heathrow ) to Thailand in Business Class then EVA is pretty much untouchable in my book. The only negative is the day flight on the way back.

Apparently they are working on a software fix rather than re configuring the plane! The specific situation is apparently when the plane might need to climb very sharply and very quickly such as when aborting a landing. Personally i think that the legacy carriers should differentiate themselves from the low cost carriers rather than go head to head with them but apparently in steerage price is still the main driver for a majority of customers.

BA and Lufthansa are having to leave the back rows of their new "densified " A320 neo's unsold because of safety concerns caused by uneven weight distribution. The planes are now basically too heavy at the back which could be dangerous under certain specific circumstances. Serves them right for joining the race to the bottom in my opinion.

My brother flew Emirates economy from Birmingham and he seemed fairly content with the experience. If the price is genuinely approaching EVA's premium economy fare then for me Eva would be a no brainer. I'm in a minority but i didn't go a bundle on Emirates Business. Despite the nice lounges at LHR and BKK and good IFE the seat width was a miserly 19 inches which is firmly in premium economy ( at best ) territory

At the end of the day we all choose to spend our time and money the way that we see fit. Personally i have never flown a low cost airline such as Ryanair or Air Asia in my life and would never fly long haul on any aircraft with a 17 inch wide seat unless it was the last flight out of a war zone. If finances dictated that i could choose two trips flying economy or one flying business i would choose the one flying business every time provided that it was on a decent airline. That is my choice. Others would choose a different option. That is their choice and i respect their choice.

I don't personally travel economy but to answer your question EVA, Thai and BA all have wider seats on flights from London to Bangkok departing on Tuesday. EVA's economy seat is wider than the premium seat on TUI. I didn't check indirect flights but seatguru.com is an invaluable resource for this type of information. Anyone with a body shape larger than skinny is going to have a pretty uncomfortable time in a 17 inch wide seat even if they get an extra inch of seat pitch.

Granted. But the seats are only 17 inches wide!

I know everyone is different but if someone offered me a free week in Thailand but with the proviso that i would have to fly on a Thompson charter flight i would stay at home

I haven't flown on EVA for three years but must have had over 20 flights with them in premium economy and business going right back to the time when the London flights used to stop off in Vienna and i have to say that personally i have never had a bad flight or even what that was significantly delayed. Maybe the original poster was just unlucky. Sometimes you only get a complete picture of an airline when things go wrong. Some of the middle eastern airlines have great hard product but a poor reputation for customer service . BA may have many faults but if things went wrong i would feel more co

For those of us who make use of Avios points and Amex two for one vouchers to facilitate trips to Thailand BA have just loaded an additional 50,000 business class reward seats across their destinations. There is currently good business class reward availability to / from Bangkok across May and June 2019. Be advised that these reward seats usually go fairly quickly

I agree with you that Hilton Pattaya is over priced but with exchange rates being what they are i'm not sure how many nice guest houses you are going to find in the 750 baht ($25) range

I would guess to a certain extent on whether you had status with either chain. Diamond membership would typically get you a good upgrade ( often to a suite ), free breakfast for two and executive lounge access with free refreshments throughout the day and a light evening meal with drinks. With status i would choose The Hilton, without status probably Avani as The entry level rooms at Pattaya Hilton are a bit over priced.