CheshireTom

Nice aircraft ..... but I can't see that it will make any difference to us for routes from/to BKK. Thai doesn't seem to be able to make the US non-stops work so I can't see any US carriers trying the route in reverse in the immediate future. I do have to say that its "little sister" the 777-200ER flown by Singapore was particularly comfortable and I'm sure Thai's 777-300ERs will be equally so when they are delivered. Tom

You have to go to Ekamai or Mo Chit. Sai Tai is on the Thonburi side of the river and has no skyway or subway connections so it will be a taxi job I would think. Tom

ferocious, LOL ........ I knew there was something. I've heard good things about the LH Munich service and the Bavarians tend to be a lot friendlier than their northern cousins. Make sure you let us know how the trip goes. Tom

moby, The headline price only tells half the story. If you get a carrier with a decent FF programme the real price can come down by around 25-30% by the time you work out the savings on upgrades/silver and gold card benefits etc ......... even access to the lounge is worth a few bob. With Qatar (currently selling biz class at a shade over 1,200 quid incl of taxes etc) they also provide a limo to and from MAN airport for Gold Card holders so you can also save a small fortune on car-parking at the airport. For economy class from Manchester the only airline that I've flown with that I would now consider is Singapore's non-stop 777ER. Excellent seat pitch, service and in-flight entertainment and the total journey time is not much different from going through Heathrow. Probably the only trip I've made in economy over the last few years that I've actually enjoyed. Oh, and there is the small matter of their trolley dollies to consider! For the guys down south Etihad is currently putting brand new aircraft onto both its Gatwick and Bangkok routes so economy and biz are a bit of a bargain at the moment if you don't mind the stopover in Abu Dhabi. Tom

makavelli, China Airlines operates three different 747 configurations on the AMS-BKK route. If you have the cash to spare all are well worth the extra in their business class cabins IMHO, the later aircraft particularly so. If you do book with them, get onto their London office (0207 436 9001) to pre-allocate your seat up to 90 days prior to the date of travel. Row 10 in the upper cabin seems to be the most sought after seats regardless of the aircraft configuration. If I lived in the north-east they would be my airline of choice to BKK ....... none of the hassles associated with Heathrow or travelling cross-country to MAN. Tom

Matty, I had, by the time I got the confirmation, already booked a couple of nights at the JW Marriot in BKK but no worries since I was more concerned about getting my upgrade confirmed. Although I like the Sabai Inn they only have one suite and it's not really worth the amount of money that they ask for. I would have looked at the options for a suite at either the Sunshine Vista or the Bella Villa on Soi 4 a bit earlier if it wasn't for the building work going on at Mike's Orchid Resort. I'll see what's available in the general area of Sois 2-4 nearer the time and I'm happy to spend around 2k Baht for a suite. Failing that, there's always Skytop! Tom

There have been a couple of recommendations on the forum for guys to book with THG in Swansea due to them regularly having the cheapest prices from UK to BKK. It would be fair to say that I was pretty cynical about the set-up as I am aware that neither THG nor any other agent continually has access to cheaper flights on most of the main airlines. So, with an upcoming trip to book in order to secure my time off from work and no cheap fares appearing anywhere for travel on my regular carrier (Qatar from Manchester) I decided I'd give them a go and perhaps get and insight into how they operate. The first thing I do is ring them and get quoted a pretty good price for my flights (489 quid, all in). Seeing that there is nothing available elsewhere approaching this price, I decide to take it. At this point I made sure that the guy doing my booking (Gary?) was aware that I was a Gold Card holder with Qatar so I wanted to make sure that the booking class allowed me to upgrade to biz class on my airmiles and that I would accrue the economy class airmiles on the ticket the were going to issue. Although he assured me that I would, I was still a bit cynical. Two days later, I received my confirmation invoice/receipt for my flight (I also received a voucher for a couple of nights accommodation at the Sunshine Vista in Pattaya) but no tickets, without which I couldn't arrange my upgrade. I phoned Gary back and explained the situation and he agreed to send my tickets out there and then. I also queried the accommodation voucher and asked what the situation was with them. Basically, any agent can access what are known as IT (Inclusive Travel) fares which require accommodation to be booked with the flight. These tickets are normally 10-15% cheaper than "flight only" prices and it is those IT tickets that are issued by THG, but to comply with the accommodation requirement of the booking they throw in the voucher and hope that you don't use it. Finally received my tickets and sent off my upgrade request to Qatar which I received confirmation for this morning so no problems so far. The only problem that could now crop up is if there is some issue with the flight as the flight ticket, having effectively been issued as part of a holiday, my contract is with THG rather than the airline. So, if there are no "flight only" deals coming up for your preferred airline I would recommend giving THG a call as it appears that they will be able to come up with a decent price in that situation. THG Tom p.s. I'm not on commission from THG or anything ...... probably just eating a bit of humble pie for being such a cynical bastard!

I've stayed there many times ......... never had any complaints about the beds

hillybilly, It shouldn't be a problem. Dubai airport was specifically constructed with the ability to handle the rapid transfer of connecting passengers and their bags in mind. Tom

stamboy, What dates are you after - less than a 3 month stay is generally cheaper. What do you call cheap? Less than £400, £450, £500? Is Gatwick OK or only LHR? Tom

Dungheap, Sorry, I thought you were referring to direct flights from the US west coast. Tom

Dungheap, Any idea what the flight numbers are for the BKK direct flights or is it a Star Alliance codeshare on Thai? Tom

Lex, I was told that they are currently migrating their booking system ....... I was looking for economy flights as well for the first week in Feb and, as you rightly say, there was nothing available from the normal agents. However, I got on to THG on Saturday and booked MAN-BKK with Qatar departing on 6 Feb for UKP 489 incl taxes. THG did say that they expected to get cheaper seats over the next 3-4 weeks but I wanted the tickets in my hand now so that I could arrange my upgrade and make other hotel/flight bookings in LOS as well as confirm my holiday dates at work so I took the price offered and got my confirmation this morning. The telephone number for THG is 0870 055 0360. Tom

Owen, China Airlines has never had a fatal accident involving aircraft on its European or North American routes. True, the last fatal accident involving a 747 was indeed China Airlines in 2002. The one prior to that was? No point having lovely looking trolley dollies before the aircraft smashes into the ground, is there? Tom

sanook, Thanks. I was just trying to guage what the chances were that we would see the 773ER in MAN. It would seem to be the ideal aircraft in a 2 class configuration like the SQ 772ER that we currently have and bend the A346s to those places that can generate enough first class pax. I'll keep my eyes open for anything further on the aircraft. Tom

sanook, Thanks for that. Presumably they are being lined up primarily for the European secondary routes ...... any idea which ones or what the planned seat configuration will be? Tom

C'mon Val ...... we all know that Etihad is a 3* airline. You'll probably find that they fly biplanes, strap the passengers onto the wings and feed them on halal gruel. Tom

steve, It's no problem to get a bahtbus either from the South Pattaya Road/Second Road traffic lights or as a private hire from further afield. Personally, I think it's no bad thing to stay out at Jomtien since it is very easy to get into the habit of going no further than the Beach Road/Second Road circuit if you are staying in that area. Tom

steve, Yes, it's guest friendly. I have it on a shortlist of 3 or 4 for my next trip. Assuming you are aware of its location (at the very end of Soi 4 in Jomtien) and the bahtbus situation, it's probably best described as unusual. The rooms are great to look at but I think the novelty would run out after about 3 or 4 days. The one big drawback that I experienced when I visited it was the request for my CC details by e-mail. Over a secure link I would have no problem but by e-mail is a no-no in my book. I will probably try a walk-in for a few days just for the experience. They have a deal with their sister property on Koh Chang which may be worth considering as a side-trip. Tom

Floyd, Thai has got all four MD11s up for sale with an availability date of April 2006 so I am sure there is going to be several route adjustments over the next few months. Good news for the Auckland pax if it means you will get the A340-600 on a permanent basis. I agree with echster that NYC was always a bit of a fantasy route for Thai and I'm clueless as to which secondary routes they can put the A340-600 on that will fill up the front of the aircraft (first and biz) in its current configuration. Does anyone know when Thai takes delivery of its new 777ERs? Tom

"Thai Airways International will reduce US service as it is not happy with the performance on these routes. On Dec 1st it will reduce the frequency on its Bangkok to New York route from 6 to 4 flights a week while cutting Bangkok to Los Angeles from 4 to 3 flights a week however that flight will go nonstop instead of via Japan. Thai will also revise its Bangkok-Auckland-Sydney route on the same date into a daily Bangkok-Auckland and daily Bangkok-Sydney service." A bit of good and bad news really. How an airline can cut back on a route that has only had around 6 months to mature (BKK-JFK) is beyond me. I'm not sure how they will manage to compete against Singapore Airlines who have daily non-stop flights to both NYC and LAX from SE Asia. It appears that one of the A340-500 aircraft that they bought for the ultra long-haul routes to continental US will be serving .......... Italy! Tom

Thai effectively has three versions of long-haul biz class on the go at the moment. The crappiest version (80s) is that which exists on the MD11 and some of the older 747s e.g. those currently serving LA. The middle version (90s) is on the later 747s e.g. those serving London. The latest version is on a couple of 747s serving Frankfurt, the A340-500 which currently serves JFK non-stop and will be scheduled into LAX and Milan over the next couple of months and the A340-600 which will serve Zurich, Auckland and a couple of secondary routes over the next few months. That's how things stand at the moment but, as all things with Thai, they are subject to change ................. often! For value for money, I agree with ruskiehat that it is hard to fault Qatar but both Lufthansa's service via Munich and Swiss via Zurich are very good products at prices generally 30% lower than the likes of BA, Singapore and Thai. Etihad will also be putting its new 777ER aircraft on both its Gatwick and BKK routes from the early part of next year at very competitive prices. Tom

Unfortunately the Skytrax ranking system is based on a huge numbers of factors across the airlines' total operations. For the vast majority of guys on this board they are only interested in the economy or premium economy products of the airlines. It is true that the first and business product of Qatar compares favourably with any other airline in the world, however, their economy class product, in particular that offered on their A330-200 aircraft on routes such as MAN-DOH, is nothing particularly special. As for preferring 4/5* airlines over 2/3* that argument is a bit flawed and, dare I say, a bit snobbish. Compare the economy class product offered by, for example, Etihad (a 3* airline) to that of any of the so-called 4/5* airlines and the difference is negligible. Indeed, in many respects, Etihad's product is superior (and will continue to improve as they take delivery of 5 new aircraft over the next 3 months which will be used on the LGW route amongst others) and can be got for less than 400 quid through almost all of the main travel agents. As a final thought ......... those guys that are continually searching for the "cheapest" fare aren't making the best use of the airlines' frequent flyer programmes. As BongoBill highlighted, his flight with Qatar probably costs around 450-500 quid but since every fifth flight is free the effective price is probably nearer 350-380 quid. Tom

Is there a reward? Tom

BongoBill, Thai are still pencilled in for late 2006/early 2007, but Thai being Thai .... who knows? They have just pulled out of Johannesburg without even making one flight and are planning to cut back their JFK service from 6 to 4 flights per week. I would think that they are waiting for delivery of their 777ERs next year, presumably in a two-class configuration as per Singapore do at the moment, as I can't see them selling many first class seats from MAN. To say that Thai is a bit unpredictable is probably a bit of an understatement. "BTW, during recent trip watched Toxin on TV "opening" the new airport. - what a freakin charade!!! A hundred identical red suitcases going round the carousel so it must all be working!!!" A bit like the LV copies going around the carousel at LHR then! Tom