Thai Air is pissing me off!

[teelack 9,352]

I was reading this morning that Thai Air is badly in need of increased revenue. It is losing billions ( this year expecting 11 billion) each year and I suppose that the fall off in Euro travellers may be biting as well. The reason that I am losing faith in them is that the pricing is all over the place and can vary for me by NZ$600 or so from Auckland to Bangkok return. That's in the region of 12000 baht. Today's announcement was also a pisser in that they are starting to charge between 480 and 3195 baht if you want a "Preferred" seat at the front row or beside the emergency exit. I realise that other airlines also charge for this but add to that the dynamic and ever changing fare structure and I will be happy to use alternative flights where I never seen to pay over NZ$1000 even if there is a small stopover.  One general rule that I work on is that when these austerity moves start everything seems to get cut back including food and drinks. It doesn't look good for the future. 

[yogi100 1,925]

12 hours ago, teelack said:

I was reading this morning that Thai Air is badly in need of increased revenue. It is losing billions ( this year expecting 11 billion) each year and I suppose that the fall off in Euro travellers may be biting as well. The reason that I am losing faith in them is that the pricing is all over the place and can vary for me by NZ$600 or so from Auckland to Bangkok return. That's in the region of 12000 baht. Today's announcement was also a pisser in that they are starting to charge between 480 and 3195 baht if you want a "Preferred" seat at the front row or beside the emergency exit. I realise that other airlines also charge for this but add to that the dynamic and ever changing fare structure and I will be happy to use alternative flights where I never seen to pay over NZ$1000 even if there is a small stopover.  One general rule that I work on is that when these austerity moves start everything seems to get cut back including food and drinks. It doesn't look good for the future. 

I recently flew Sardine Class on a 380 with Thai BKK - LHR. 

Every seat was taken and you don't even get any salt and pepper with your meals. By the time you realise that you have to ask for some the trolley dolly is about six rows away. That flight must have made a profit. At £667 (26,000 B) it was not cheap either.

Edited July 24, 2019 by yogi100

[jacko 8,777]

I flew with them early in the year to Bali, I thought non-stop would be good after having some horrible transfers at KL with Malaysian. 

Couldn't afford their Biz Class, or rather far from worth it at about 45000 baht. Economy not that cheap, remember thinking Malaysian Biz about the same. What I hadn't realized is Thai must be marketing a lot in India, and transit fares via Bangkok especially. My flight packed, nowhere to sit at boarding gate except on somebody's feet who seem to think they have a right to occupy 4 seats. Lot of couples, few too many kids, reasonable flight but too packed. Queuing for check-in and boarding at Bali on return a bit slow and chaotic. Thai have always lost money, they give seats away to their cronies. But I think the Thai 'face' will keep them going.

[Kev 173]

I fly with Thai because they are the only ones who offer a direct flight from PER to BKK. Have only flying cattle class but yep they do have a lot of Indians on the plane even flying from Perth. Either we have a hell of a lot of Indians in Perth flying, but I believe they may be on the plane from over East on route to India or Europe somewhere.

 

If anyone ever finds a direct flight from Perth (Australia)  to Bangkok please let me know.

[Bob Belzy 150]

22 minutes ago, Kev said:

I fly with Thai because they are the only ones who offer a direct flight from PER to BKK. Have only flying cattle class but yep they do have a lot of Indians on the plane even flying from Perth. Either we have a hell of a lot of Indians in Perth flying, but I believe they may be on the plane from over East on route to India or Europe somewhere.

 

If anyone ever finds a direct flight from Perth (Australia)  to Bangkok please let me know.

There are no other direct flights currently. I found that once I got Silver status it let me select seats in the forward cabin, even though I was on near cheapest ticket, but only when I did the online check in. Less Indians in that section, who are as you correctly mention, en-route to India or Europe mainly.

I was going to use them next month to fly to the UK, but with no PE and business class fares up around the same price as Qatar, and a lousy connection wait, I'm going to fly with Malaysia. I might go with Malaysia on future BKK trips, as their fares are a bit cheaper than Thai and reasonable connection time in KL.

Other options I've tried are QF via Singapore, but you have to use Deathstar as the connecting flight to BKK. Scoot and Air Asia do not feature in my decisions.

[Gus 97]

It surprised me that the A380 was full at this time of the year, there must be a lot of folk still holidaying in Thailand in spite of the very poor exchange rate.

I just have a gut feeling that since Thai and Eva joined this Star Alliance they pick up a lot of code share pax.

I used to enjoy the flight to BKK but not so much in the past year or two.

[ozboy 31]

11 hours ago, teelack said:

I was reading this morning that Thai Air is badly in need of increased revenue. It is losing billions ( this year expecting 11 billion) each year and I suppose that the fall off in Euro travellers may be biting as well. The reason that I am losing faith in them is that the pricing is all over the place and can vary for me by NZ$600 or so from Auckland to Bangkok return. That's in the region of 12000 baht. Today's announcement was also a pisser in that they are starting to charge between 480 and 3195 baht if you want a "Preferred" seat at the front row or beside the emergency exit. I realise that other airlines also charge for this but add to that the dynamic and ever changing fare structure and I will be happy to use alternative flights where I never seen to pay over NZ$1000 even if there is a small stopover.  One general rule that I work on is that when these austerity moves start everything seems to get cut back including food and drinks. It doesn't look good for the future. 

I recently looked at Thai from Perth to BKK and the price was reasonable though not great, however if you wanted to up your luggage allowance from 20kg to 25 kg the mongrels wanted an EXTRA AUD $145, absolute bloody stupidity.

[yogi100 1,925]

4 hours ago, Gus said:

It surprised me that the A380 was full at this time of the year, there must be a lot of folk still holidaying in Thailand in spite of the very poor exchange rate.

I just have a gut feeling that since Thai and Eva joined this Star Alliance they pick up a lot of code share pax.

I used to enjoy the flight to BKK but not so much in the past year or two.

Lots of Anzacs fly to LHR via BKK not only with Thai but other airlines. The couple next to me were Poms flying back to the Mother Country from Oz to visit friends and relatives. They had not set foot in the LOS outside of the airport. You don't have to have holidayed in Thailand to travel through or from BKK Airport.

[Butch 3,456]

I think Thai are following suit with eVA on the pricing for seat selection. EVA introduced it this year sometime, so it's basically a revenue generator which has cost them nothing, apart from a few web pages, to introduce. I've found their pricing (on the LHR-BKK route) to be slightly more thanthe EVA equivalent.

Even BA are coming in cheaper for later this year and next year in their Econ (with baggage 1x 23kg) seat class, less if you're taking hand carry. I checked yesterday, it was £604 for October. Despite bA being an utter shambles of an Airline, for a direct flight that seems to be quite competitive. Thai and EVA both around the £640 - £670 mark for the same dates. PE on BA is £1064 as opposed to EVA at £980, BA give 46kg allowance and EVA 35kg.

*I might be wrong on some of the figures above, I was slightly drunk on Aspalls cider when looking ?

[Brown1950 67]

On 7/24/2019 at 9:16 AM, Gus said:

It surprised me that the A380 was full at this time of the year, there must be a lot of folk still holidaying in Thailand in spite of the very poor exchange rate.

I just have a gut feeling that since Thai and Eva joined this Star Alliance they pick up a lot of code share pax.

I used to enjoy the flight to BKK but not so much in the past year or two.

During summer 2020 Thai Airways have filed schedule LHR-BKK  from 29 March 2020 TG910/911  as 777-300ER to replace A380.

[Gottsy 46]

Having been persuaded to go back to Bangkok for next Songkran........4 weeks back I checked the fares. Thai were £475.

Checked yesterday Thai £751 !! Eva at £582.

I suspect the Olympics in Japan is creating some increases

[Bob Belzy 150]

16 hours ago, Gottsy said:

Having been persuaded to go back to Bangkok for next Songkran........4 weeks back I checked the fares. Thai were £475.

Checked yesterday Thai £751 !! Eva at £582.

I suspect the Olympics in Japan is creating some increases

It doesn't always work, but I find that the price 'sweetspot' is often just over a month before flight date. By then they have a good idea what the load is going to be and will discount more if there is an over supply. However, leave it any later and the price will often go up due to the removal of the lowest 'saver' fares.

Nothing much that you can do about the school and other holiday period price hikes, other than avoid those periods.

[forcebwithu 4,806]

I use Google Flights to track the pricing on flights I'm interested in and alert me when there's a price drop. It also has a price graph function that is quite useful for finding lower cost fares.
 

[aussiechic 209]

I love Air Asia short flights are great but had two horrible long haul flights form the Gold Coast to Bangkok via KL so never do more that 4hr flight with them now. I book at least 6 months ahead and take advantage of their sales. This trip Air Asia Bali to Kl 3 hr flight 1300 baht staying 3 nights, then Kl to Da Nang 1.30 hr flight 800 baht staying 5 nights.

Changi Mi to Utapo was 400 baht While deciding how to get to Changi Mi they changed the time so I got a credit. 

Now flying Da nag to Can tho with Vietnam airlines 1.30 hr flight 1000 baht staying 1 night and then private boat up the Mekong (3 nights 18,000 baht ever thing included)  to Phnom Penh 1 night and then flying Air Asia to Bangkok 1.30 hr. 1300 baht.

10 days in Pattaya then via boat to Hua Hin (1300 baht) for 5 nights then Airasia Bangkok to Bali 3.30 hr flight 3000 baht.

Spend 3 nights in Bali on the way over and 5 nights on the way back. Flights are pre person including seat choice some flights have meals booked and our homeward bound flights have baggage booked..

I book all my accommodation on Hotel.com (free cancellation, match any price and collect free nights) pay 400 baht a night in Bali, 600 baht a night in Kl, 800 baht a night in Da Nang 1000 baht a night in Pattaya, I splashed out in Can tho, Phnom Penh and Hua hin at 1300 baht a night. (2 person in a room) works out 1,000 baht a day all with breakfast included expect Pattaya where we usual don't get up for anyway.

What pisses me of is where we live we don't have international flights (they cancelled our TSV to Bali flight) so now we drive 5 hours to Cairns and fly Jetstar to Bali and back same flight time (go figure). 32 days in the car park is 2700 baht. I normally book these flights early for about 4,000 baht return but this time it was 6000 baht so I waited but they didn't go on sale for the time we are travelling and they kept going up I finally bit the bullet and paid 8000 baht twice as much if I 'd just booked early.

So not counting the 2 boat trips paying the same price to fly to Bali and back as all the flights in Asia.

At the end of our last trip I got very sick (elephant flu) doctor in Bangkok said I could fly but only made it to Bail and we extend our stay in Bali total cost of the Bali return flight with extension worked out the same price as the fare this time, so no extending this time or at least will be claiming it on insurance.

 

 

Edited September 7, 2019 by aussiechic
Changed photo

[Severn 109]

How do you avoid the Air Asia payment fees for each leg of the journey?

Sent from my ASUS_X00HD using Tapatalk

[aussiechic 209]

On 8/3/2019 at 8:31 PM, Severn said:

How do you avoid the Air Asia payment fees for each leg of the journey?

Sent from my ASUS_X00HD using Tapatalk
 

Not sure what your asking? This sale was free seats and I paid for taxes, Another good sale for us is 2 for 1 sales as there is two of us flying so half prices.

Edited August 4, 2019 by aussiechic

[Brown1950 67]

On 8/3/2019 at 9:53 AM, aussiechic said:

I love Air Asia short flights are great but had two horrible long haul flights form the Gold Coast to Bangkok via KL so never do more that 4hr flight with them now. I book at least 6 months ahead and take advantage of their sales. This trip Air Asia Bali to Kl 3 hr flight 1300 baht staying 3 nights, then Kl to Da Nang 1.30 hr flight 800 baht staying 5 nights.

Changi Mi to Utapo was 400 baht While deciding how to get to Changi Mi they changed the time so I got a credit. 

Now flying Da nag to Can tho with Vietnam airlines 1.30 hr flight 1000 baht staying 1 night and then private boat up the Mekong (3 nights 18,000 baht ever thing included)  to Phnom Penh 1 night and then flying Air Asia to Bangkok 1.30 hr. 1300 baht.

10 days in Pattaya then via boat to Hua Hin (1300 baht) for 5 nights then Airasia Bangkok to Bali 3.30 hr flight 3000 baht.

Spend 3 nights in Bali on the way over and 5 nights on the way back. Flights are pre person including seat choice some flights have meals booked and our homeward bound flights have baggage booked..

I book all my accommodation on Hotel.com (free cancellation, match any price and collect free nights) pay 400 baht a night in Bali, 600 baht a night in Kl, 800 baht a night in Da Nang 1000 baht a night in Pattaya, I splashed out in Can tho, Phnom Penh and Hua hin at 1300 baht a night. (2 person in a room) works out 1,000 baht a day all with breakfast included expect Pattaya where we usual don't get up for anyway.

What pisses me of is where we live we don't have international flights (they cancelled our TSV to Bali flight) so now we drive 5 hours to Cairns and fly Jetstar to Bali and back same flight time (go figure). 32 days in the car park is 2700 baht. I normally book these flights early for about 4,000 baht return but this time it was 6000 baht so I waited but they didn't go on sale for the time we are travelling and they kept going up I finally bit the bullet and paid 8000 baht twice as much if I 'd just booked early.

So not counting the 2 boat trips paying the same price to fly to Bali and back as all the flights in Asia.

At the end of our last trip I got very sick (elephant flu) doctor in Bangkok said I could fly but only made it to Bail and we extend our stay in Bali total cost of the Bali return flight with extension worked out the same price as the fare this time, so no extending this time or at least will be claiming it on insurance.

 

Am i missing something but what has Air Asia and Thailand trip report got to do with the OP and Thai Airways ?

Very confused ???

[aussiechic 209]

On 8/7/2019 at 8:20 AM, Brown1950 said:

Am i missing something but what has Air Asia and Thailand trip report got to do with the OP and Thai Airways ?

Very confused ???

Yes

A discussion is when 2 or more people share information. Discussing how we have, do or when we book flights is on topic started by @teelack and he is a big boy and if he had problem I am sure he will tell me next time I have a drink with him.

Do you have some thing to add to the a discussion about flights or are you trolling.

A trip report is after you have been.

You are.

 

Edited August 9, 2019 by aussiechic

[keyman 1,379]

42 minutes ago, aussiechic said:

Yes

A discussion is when 2 or more people share information. Discussing how we have, do or when we book flights is on topic started by Teelack and he is a big boy and if he had problem I am sure he will me next time I have a drink with him.

Do you have some thing to add to the a discussion about flights or are you trolling.

A trip report is after you have been.

You are.

 

 

if he's missing something, so am I!

The topic was Thai Airways, which you never mention once, not flights in general which seems to be what you're talking about.

He can hardly be called a troll when he has actually posted a contribution to this thread, whereas you're completely off topic.

[aussiechic 209]

And you wonder why people don't post on here any more.

[keyman 1,379]

23 minutes ago, aussiechic said:

And you wonder why people don't post on here any more.

 

Why? 

You should back up your statement and not leave us hanging.

[Butch 3,456]

On 7/26/2019 at 1:53 AM, Brown1950 said:

During summer 2020 Thai Airways have filed schedule LHR-BKK  from 29 March 2020 TG910/911  as 777-300ER to replace A380.

I think I'm right in saying that their 777-300's are still 3-3-3 in econ?. I'e read that the legroom is better on the 380 in comparison (then again I'm a short arse so it doesn't effect me too much).

[forcebwithu 4,806]

33 minutes ago, Butch said:

I think I'm right in saying that their 777-300's are still 3-3-3 in econ?. I'e read that the legroom is better on the 380 in comparison (then again I'm a short arse so it doesn't effect me too much).

Seatguru is a good resource for this kind of info. According to the site, the 777-300ER has a seat pitch of 32 and 3-3-3 seating in economy. Whereas the 380 has 31-32 seat pitch with 3-4-3 seating.

[Bazle 1,451]

3 hours ago, Butch said:

I think I'm right in saying that their 777-300's are still 3-3-3 in econ?

On the LHR / BKK route, some are 3-3-3 and some 3-4-3.

If you want to know which before you book, you need to 'phone them. 

[forcebwithu 4,806]

1 hour ago, Bazle said:

On the LHR / BKK route, some are 3-3-3 and some 3-4-3.

If you want to know which before you book, you need to 'phone them. 

According to Seatguru, only the A330-300 has 3-4-3 seating (link).