A380 on Thai London-Bkk

[pattaya_mad 208]

Thai are to introduce the A380 on the Heathrow route from July,not sure if this means they will revert to one flight a day or not because during low season they have trouble filling the 747s

 

http://www.thaiairways.com/en_GB/exp_thai/our_aircraft/THAI_A380.page?

[Butch 3,456]

Hi PM

I put a post elsewhere a while back, it was due to be introduced in June 14 iirc, but instead they put it on the Frankfurt or Paris - BKK route, they deferred it to October then it just didn't happen, probably due to the changeover to Terminal 2 at LHR and reduced passenger numbers. Thai seem pretty fickle when it comes to Aircraft on LHR services, sometimes it's a 744, others it's an A340 and now seems we might be getting the A380 thrown into the mix lol. However, their 747's are getting old now, and despite a couple of them having had a comprehensive refit, they still show their age.

 

My one issue would be that if you ever happen to look at "Flightradar 24", have a look at the Thai flights heading into SVB between 05:00 and 06:30 in the morning, there's about 5 of them from Europe and one Russia, so immigration will be hit by over 1000 people over the period of a couple of hours if the planes are full, and I for one wouldn't want to be at the rear of an economy section of an A380 which landed behind a couple of inbound 744's. I've heard the queue's are still pretty horrendous there these days.

 

 

It is a great plane though, despite me nearly croaking it (due to illness) on a Malaysia A380 in 2013 it was a nice experience, very quiet but I found that it was bloody cold, due (I was told) to the cold air from the upper deck sinking down and making some "cold spots" downstairs, near to the bulkheads apparently. I've had a look at a couple of youtube vids of the A380 cabin on Thai and it looks bloody impressive.

[TheFiend 1,181]

TG have already announced their 6 A346's are being retired by the end of March and their 747's are meant to be going by June as they rationalise their fleet.

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/National-airline-to-downsize-and-reduce-routes-30252743.html

 

TG are also rationalising their flight schedule and LHR is dropping down from 2 to 1 daily flight, hence the move to an A380

[pattaya_mad 208]

I`m going June 1st till 20th, due to be flying 747 , already picked my seat so it would appear it`s not about to change

[Butch 3,456]

Thai have some very competitive prices at the moment, coming in at £530 for May / June if purchased before the end of Feb (LHR-BKK) . It's a restricted ticket though, no change / refund and 25% mileage accrual, but slightly better than the equivalent EVA for the same dates price wise, but the EVA allows changes with a fee.

BTW Pattaya Mad, Reading beat my home town Ipswich 1-0 today..grrr...

[pattaya_mad 208]

How do you know I`m a Reading man Butch? yes we are a much better away side now, rubbish at home!

[Parkwahn 61]

Thai have some very competitive prices at the moment, coming in at £530 for May / June if purchased before the end of Feb (LHR-BKK) . It's a restricted ticket though, no change / refund and 25% mileage accrual, but slightly better than the equivalent EVA for the same dates price wise, but the EVA allows changes with a fee.

BTW Pattaya Mad, Reading beat my home town Ipswich 1-0 today..grrr...

Every time I look Thai are lumpy ? BA have been cheapest direct last few years on my dates

[Butch 3,456]

How do you know I`m a Reading man Butch? yes we are a much better away side now, rubbish at home!

Saw it on your profile location, just under the girl with the lovely bouncing boobs!.

 

Reading have always been a strong team (I thought they were higher up the table than 13th to be honest), often coming up in the fixture list just when we need the points to hold position!, Reading have now won 7 out of our last 8 meetings , a true "bogey" team for the Blues . I saw most of the match, it wasn't a bad goal at all from Mackie, we've actually got 3 former Royals players in our current lineup, the Hunt brothers and Tabb, but Noel was out due to injury. It was a well earned win though, not a bad game all in all the Royals defence is pretty strong to be fair. Looking at the Reading fixture list the next 3 games should hopefully get a few points in and hopefully a return to form.

 

Parkwahn, I actually forgot about BA and didn't check them , they are normally competitive as you say, but I've just checked them out and they're coming in at £531 for dates during May which is not bad at all and you're right, although the same price / slightly cheaper than Thai & EVA but with a change date charge of £100 but no refund except taxes.

[nkped 1,208]

I`m going June 1st till 20th, due to be flying 747 , already picked my seat so it would appear it`s not about to change

Good luck, but offering seat selection doesn't guarantee there won't be a change of aircraft.

[rnine 75]

I`m going June 1st till 20th, due to be flying 747 , already picked my seat so it would appear it`s not about to change

I'm flying out on July 11th. When selecting my seat for that date it shows the A380 floorplan.

So would guess the swap between aircraft types is some time between our combined dates.

 

I'm looking forward to popping my A380 cherry. So hope they don't revert back to the swap747. But any aircraft will do as long as it is going to the L.O.S.

[Billions 687]

Just received an email from Thai,confirming the changeover to the A380-800 from 1st July. I'm gonna miss those 747s.....

[pattaya_mad 208]

I got two more trips this year after June, so will definately book Thai, really want to try this big bird, wondering what flight on the London route they will ditch?

[Billions 687]

^^Thai have binned the evening flight out of LHR and the mid-day one from Bangers. So TG911 is the remaining outbound one from London and TG910 the midnight-ish one departing the Swamp.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Billions

[Gus 97]

I have just done some quick sums, the A380 has 435 economy seats, the 747-400 I think has 325, so one A380 per day= 435 seats, 2 xB747=650 a loss of 215 economy seats per day, low season Mai pen rai but high season?

I just returned on Thursday on TG910 and there were only a handful of empty economy seats, and that was midweek.

[marleyboy 140]

Same as Gus says!

This year I flew out of Heathrow mid-day, flew out of Bangkok early morning flight. Both flights full, hardly any spare seats..... its been the same every time (excepting last year! when for the first time ever I had 3 seats to myself on BOTH! flights!).

I normally fly the same times, (mid-day from Heathrow and early morning/mid-night ish!) from Bangkok...........The flights always seem full..........so with a reduction in seats (as they are binning the one flight) it could be interesting!

 

As an aside. Thai now use Terminal 2 (was 3) in Heathrow............I found it much worse than terminal 3!

[Fatboyfat 361]

Pure surmission on my behalf, but many airlines run their " cattle class " at a slight loss or barely break even, so the loss of capacity wrt reduced number of flights is likely to be secondary to overall profit margins of running just one more economical aircraft. The telling factor would be are the 1st and Biz classes at capacity with " full paying" fares and not upgrades.

[Fireman Sam 336]

marleyboy wrote,

 

" As an aside. Thai now use Terminal 2 (was 3) in Heathrow............I found it much worse than terminal 3! "

 

 

 

Jesus H, Terminal 2 must be bad !!!!

 

 

 

Regards

Edited February 28, 2015 by Fireman Sam

[keyman 1,413]

marleyboy wrote,

 

" As an aside. Thai now use Terminal 2 (was 3) in Heathrow............I found it much worse than terminal 3! "

 

 

 

Jesus H, Terminal 2 must be bad !!!!

 

 

 

Regards

 

 

Err, yes - it is!

i used it last year and found it a little strange. First of all, instead of going to a normal check in you have to use an automated checkin system that may or may not issue a boarding pass. then regardless of getting a boarding pass you still have to use a normal checkin for your baggage. Now, they probably use this system to reduce manpower, but they have someone available at each of the automatic checkins and then you go to normal checkin anyway, so actually doubling the manpower!!

 

KM

[Butch 3,456]

 

 

Err, yes - it is!

i used it last year and found it a little strange. First of all, instead of going to a normal check in you have to use an automated checkin system that may or may not issue a boarding pass. then regardless of getting a boarding pass you still have to use a normal checkin for your baggage. Now, they probably use this system to reduce manpower, but they have someone available at each of the automatic checkins and then you go to normal checkin anyway, so actually doubling the manpower!!

 

KM

Sounds like a bloody headache. Shame they swapped from T3 as I always liked that terminal, apart from the fact there was always building work going on!.

 

With Thai dropping one service, they're also saving an absolute fortune in landing fees and turn around costs at LHR, plus the reduction in staff / aircraft leasing costs. Additionally, it could give them an excuse to push prices up as demand will increase due to 300+ seats a day not being available on one of the direct LHR-BKK services, so as far as the other direct operators (EVA & BA not sure if Qantas run or ran a direct service) are concerned then it's probably a major plus.

 

Time will tell, as they're introducing the A380 in the middle of low season (as far as pattaya is concerned) but during peak holiday season for the UK (School holidays etc when prices increase with the blatant profiteering of the Airlines).

 

Couple of pics of the economy cabin found in google, seems more spacious, which you'd expect and not bad at all.

 

 

[marleyboy 140]

Getting back to terminal 2......It "seems" as if you have to walk for bloody miles to get to the gates, also the "walk" from the Heathrow Express (train service to Heathrow)took me bloody ages! It involved stairs, lifts, escalators, walking outside etc etc........Personally for me too, the shops/pubs/restaurants etc in the actual terminal didn't seem as god as in terminal 3, plus there didn't seem to be half as much room/space in terminal 2.

[TheFiend 1,181]

Looking at those pics it looks like the upper deck economy class section of their A380's... the lower deck has the 3+4+3 layout.

[Butch 3,456]

Hi Fiend

 

Yep, only noticed that after you mentioned it!, you sharp eyed bugger lol :) , I think I had assumed that the upper deck area is reserved for business / first , didn't expect to see economy seating there. Still, can't be a bad thing, leg room looks pretty decent and the IFE boxes are not too intrusive a la Boeing 777's / 747's. Odd also that the centre seats don't have any supports separating them in the floor area, but by the looks of things they have fold down footrests .

 

I reckon an upper deck econ seat is the way to go if flying on this, the 2-4-2 looks pretty spacious. I'll have a google to see if I can find some lower deck pics later on along with some business / first pics (not that I'm ever going to be rich enough to experience it )

[TheFiend 1,181]

Qatar have an economy section in the upper deck of their A380s as well. I'm sampling one of theirs in May Doha-BKK, but wasn't able to pre-book the upper deck economy seats

[Roughneck 26]

Sounds like a bloody headache. Shame they swapped from T3 as I always liked that terminal, apart from the fact there was always building work going on!.

 

With Thai dropping one service, they're also saving an absolute fortune in landing fees and turn around costs at LHR, plus the reduction in staff / aircraft leasing costs. Additionally, it could give them an excuse to push prices up as demand will increase due to 300+ seats a day not being available on one of the direct LHR-BKK services, so as far as the other direct operators (EVA & BA not sure if Qantas run or ran a direct service) are concerned then it's probably a major plus.

 

 

That`s exactly what I thought

[Fireman Sam 336]

Qatar have an economy section in the upper deck of their A380s as well. I'm sampling one of theirs in May Doha-BKK, but wasn't able to pre-book the upper deck economy seats

 

I flew on Qatar's A380 last week in economy on the upper deck DOH-BKK. Really good layout and plenty of leg room, if you somehow manage to pre-book your seat up there go for a window seat, you get a storage box due to the curvature of the plane, there are no entertainment boxes in the footwells also.

 

I think Qatar reserve this area for their frequent flyers. I am a gold card holder with them so had no problem selecting seating in this area online. I would go as far as to say one of, if not the best economy class seats I have ever flown on. Good quick meal and drink service as well as there are a limited number of passengers up there. Only downside I could see is when you're getting off the plane in BKK, think we were last off, again no problem for myself as I get a premium lane immigration card also.

 

 

Regards