BRISBANE BANGKOK RETURN ON THAI

[charlie298 0]

I have just booked 2 tickets on this Thai airways special from Brisbane airport direct to Bangkok, only $A867 return each including taxes.

 

No need to fly via Sydney, so for Brisbanites, just 9hrs 20 mins to Land of smiles.

 

I got the invite on Webjet email yesterday, but then went to STA TRAVEL at Indooroopilly Shopping Town, better than Webjet, easier to talk with the travel consultant. Her name is Kia-Adella Ireland ph 07 37200951

 

I went to Flight Centre first, but they quoted me $1100, would not accept the Webjet email as a valid quote...... stuff them, STA Kia baby was more flexible, good onyer STA

 

The offer is for travel from July 17 through to September 13, so be quick you sick bastards, this is a great rate IMHO

 

Charlie

[Strugg 0]

Strange that Flight Centre did not honor the web price...I went in and had forgotten my printout from Zuji.com and they still beat it by $20...think it was $940 ex SYD including taxes which was $200 cheaper than their window price.

 

Then again the next week after I booked and paid they were $100 cheaper again on Zuji =( my timing sucks

[lemons 0]

Thats a great deal. They must milk petrol from parked jets or something!

[whitespider 1]

I have no idea what your options are from OZ and especially from the different cities but Thai is just so damn awful these days.

 

being and old lag I remember the days when Thai was world renowned as a premium carrier but days are long gone.

 

I cant say Im a great fan of Qantas either but given my experiences of the two from LHR I would take Qantas any time

[ozboy 31]

options from Perth are pathetic to say the least,qantas doesnt fly to bangkok from perth so if you try and get a f/f seat you get routed via brisbane,sydney or melbourne, at the princely sum of 44000 points each way plus god only knows how much taxes,prob around $500 as flights in todays paper direct to singapore have taxes shown at $340.Thai of course flies but you are looking in the region of $1000, bloody ridiculous.

ozboy

[Shuggy 8]

I have no idea what your options are from OZ and especially from the different cities but Thai is just so damn awful these days.

 

being and old lag I remember the days when Thai was world renowned as a premium carrier but days are long gone.

 

I cant say Im a great fan of Qantas either but given my experiences of the two from LHR I would take Qantas any time

Thai are making an effort to get back up thier at the moment but they have a long way to go. The new A340-600's they are flying are an amazing piece of kit and very well equiped. Unfortunately thier arent too many of them in service. You are more that likely to get stuck on one of thier older and very poorly equipped 747's which are an absolute disgrace. Even on the shorter routes around Asia they have gone with very basic equipment only. I suppose it doesnt matter as much on a short flight though.

 

They have also started to replace thier uniforms and are finally getting rid of the washed out looking purple sacks that the cabin crew wear during boarding/take-off/landing/disembarkation. They are in the process of introducing a new uniform which is brighter, cheerier and much more individually tailored to the curves of each flight attendant. In other words it leaves much less to the imagination. Some of the female cabin crew are even wearing trousers !!! Thats a very big step for Thai.

 

The serice is still pretty damn good and as the national carrier of the Land Of Smiles they still do plenty of genuine smiling. The food also could be better but isnt that bad compared to some of the competition.

 

Given the choice of say Singapore, Emirates, Malaysian or Thai I think Thai would come in equal last with Malaysian. If however it was a choice between Thai & Qantas I would definately chose Thai.

[Shuggy 8]

How an airliner is equiped is entirely up to the airline that purchased it. I've seen JAL B747-400s, 4 years ago, with all the latest, at that time, electronic gadgets.

Some airlines put all the gadgets in First and Business Class and few in Tourist Class. As I said, and have said before, it is all up to the airline.

Totally agree with the gadget comments. The problem with Thai's 747's is that there are no gadgets at all. They went for the cheap option for whatever reason and now these aircraft are looking severly dated from a passnger comfort point of view. Not sure what thier 777's are like though. Anyone ever flown on one?

 

On one flight with Thai late last year I ended up in an MD-11 for fucks sake. It was a fucking antique. They only moth balled them early this year.

[Samsonite 181]

Totally agree with the gadget comments. The problem with Thai's 747's is that there are no gadgets at all. They went for the cheap option for whatever reason and now these aircraft are looking severly dated from a passnger comfort point of view. Not sure what thier 777's are like though. Anyone ever flown on one?

 

On one flight with Thai late last year I ended up in an MD-11 for fucks sake. It was a fucking antique. They only moth balled them early this year.

The MD-11 is in big demand as a cargo plane. If they want to sell them there shouldn't be a problem. I did see the Thai Air DC-10/MD-11s parked at BKK just a couple of weeks ago. Don't know how many they own, but there was more than one parked way down toward the north end of the field. They were also a few Lockheed L-1011s parked down that way, but I'm not sure of the airline livery.

The Boeing Converted Freigher program converts older Boeing passenger jets into cargo planes and you are starting to now see a plane designated the Boeing 747-400BCF. Many more will follow. Cathay Pacific has taken delivery of one, the first I believe, and has 5 more on order to be converted, not including the 6 brand new 747-400ERF-s (Extended Range Freigher) they ordered last week.

The Boeing 777, being a newer plane has a "better" interior, IMHO, than the older 747-400s, but, again, it depends on the airline as to what "toys" they have installed.

Some airlines are refubishing their older 747-400s with new 777 "style" interiors with all the latest toys. China Air, Taiwan, has taken delivery of 4 or 5 brand new 747-400s in the last year or two and all but one were the passenger model.

With the A380's latest troubles there is talk that the airlines are asking Boeing to make the new 747-8 passenger version as long as the Freigher version so it can seat about 500 in a "normal" 3 class configuration. I imagine we will hear an announcement along these lines in 3 or 4 weeks.

Here is something of interest, IMHO, about the re-newed interest in the Boeing 747-400:

"Boeing has sold 132 747-400s and 747-8s since the beginning of 2000--the timeframe in which the A380 (edit in: 154 Firm orders to date) has been offered in the marketplace--including last week's Cathay Pacific order for six 747-400ERFs (ATWOnline, June 23). While the A380 had its industrial launch in 2001, Airbus was gathering MOUs and LOIs through 2000 from Emirates, ILFC and Air France before Singapore Airlines and Qantas committed to the aircraft in late 2000. The order rate for the 747 has picked up in the past 17 months, with 63 orders booked for 10 customers against 20 for the A380. Airbus customers include UPS (10), Kingfisher Airlines (5) and China Southern Airlines (5). While most of the 747 orders have been for the freighter models, a surprising 30 have been passenger versions, including three VIP transports. Boeing has logged 1,439 orders for the 747 family not including the 747-400BCF program."

Source: http://www.atwonline.com/news/other.html?i...e=6%2F26%2F2006

Edited June 26, 2006 by Samsonite