Thai Airways down the tubes?

[OneThailand]

Gone are the days when Thai Airways was renowned for its high level of service, impeccably maintained aircraft, and well-trained staff. Once an airline in the upper tier with Singapore Airlines, Thai has steadily declined to the point where it has become no better than an ordinary airline.

On TG 624 going to Manila on April 25, I encountered staff who were polite, but at least one of them appeared to be every bit the beginner, probably a stewardess who should have been trained on domestic flights.

As she and a more senior stewardess came around with the drink cart about 30 minutes after take-off, it was clear that she hadn't been flying international flights very long - perhaps not even flying at all for very long. She was struggling to get the plastic cups separated from each other.

She managed to get one glass of orange juice poured, then without warning, I was suddenly doused with the orange juice as she struggled to get another cup ready. Of course she apologized profusely, then after instructions from the senior stewardess, who kept muttering "Jai yen yen" as she had been since the drink cart came out, she came back with a cloth which wasn't damp enough to wipe any of the orange juice off.

Eventually that got sorted out but they did not come back to apologize again, or offer to pay for laundry - had I been wearing a suit, this would have been totally unacceptable - but I was wearing sweats and a polo shirt, and as I always travel with carry-on luggage, I had a change of shirt.

Strike one - if you spill something on a customer, at least offer to cover the cost of cleaning the clothes. Or, considering the plane wasn't full, perhaps an upgrade to business class would have been nice.

Later on, during the meal, the drinks came out again - I asked the steward for a can of Pepsi Max. The young stewardess went off to the galley to find one - and meanwhile the other stewardess came back and replaced the steward, upon which he told her what drink I had ordered.

Young stewardess comes back empty-handed. She is told to go get Coke Light instead, whereupon she comes back with two cans. Then the senior stewardess asked the stewardess in the other aisle if she had Pepsi Max, and managed to secure a can - then to my amazement, she hands it to the guy BEHIND me, and tells the young stewardess to serve me - whereupon, already flustered, she serves me a glass of Diet Coke after being told by the steward that I had ordered a CAN of Pepsi Max.

The senior stewardess tells her to go back to the galley yet again - completely silly since it was clear there was no Pepsi Max back there. Again she comes back empty-handed, whereupon the senior stewardess herself goes back to the galley... and comes out with two Diet Cokes and again apologizes that there is no Pepsi Max - because she handed it to the guy behind me.

Needless to say I told her off gently, since I wasn't really in the mood to cause a big fuss. But by this time my mood isn't good and the flight is spoiled.

Movie comes on. I plug in the headset - and the sound is terrible. Decide to plug into the seat next to me, which is empty - and discover that the sound panel is damaged and there is no where to plug in. So I reach two seats over, plug in again - and the sound is terrible. Clearly something was wrong with the sound system, if not just in that row, then on the entire plane. By this time I couldn't be bothered to complain.

To make a long story short, we finally arrived in Manila - on time, thank goodness - and the staff did not apologize or make amends. Yes, they were polite and friendly - but that doesn't go far towards an unanticipated cleaning bill or a poor sound system.

Thai Airways has fallen a long way from its heydays not so long ago. If I didn't have my home base in Thailand and wasn't in need of easy flight access, I would be switching airlines. And I suspect many others would do the same, or indeed have already done so.

Potentially worse for them is the fact that I also am a qualified and registered travel agent in Thailand. Needless to say I'm not exactly going to be recommending Thai to my clients.

Shame on you, Thai. It's time you cleaned up your act.

[OneThailand]

Well, had to fly to Kuala Lumpur, so decided better to fly Thai than Malaysian. Unfortunately, yet again I encounter silly problems which aren't difficult to resolve.

I get to the airport slightly late due to early-morning traffic, but still plenty of time to make the flight. Heading into rows H and J, the area reserved for Thai economy class, I can still see lines on both sides - but I remember that they have a counter for internet check in, as well as a counter for no checked baggage.

Good, I think to myself, I qualify on both counts.

But when I head for the counters, both of them are closed - during what is normally a busy period - well hell, what's the point of internet check-in if you still have to wait in line?

Fortunately, the standby counter next door is open so I ask the lady why the other two counters aren't open, she shrugs and motions for me to give her my passport.

To her credit, she had me checked in within two minutes. But then I discover another niggling problem - having checked in online, I had already reserved a seat - and my boarding pass indicated a different seat, even though the plane was far from full. Again, what's the point of online check in?

The other problem with online check in is that once you have checked in, you cannot access your reservation again - and worse, if you have started the process and allow it to time out, it will automatically create the reservation based on the last available data - and then not allow you in to modify it.

The flight itself wasn't so bad, though one stewardess in particular seemed totally disinterested in her job. But we'll see how it goes on the way back.

added -> The flight back was on a newer Airbus - and the staff were much better, though one stewardess inexplicably raised my seat before meal and before landing without asking - kind of strange since she was otherwise polite and friendly. All she had to do was ask in either Thai or English and I would have done it myself.

Seems to me that being on the newer planes makes a difference. It's their Boeing fleet which is aging, so if you have a choice timewise try to find out which of their flights are flying the Airbuses.

[OneThailand]

Had to make a quick trip to Hong Kong, so stopped by TV Air in the Emporium and booked a return ticket by TG. The TV Air staff are really friendly and efficient and their ticket prices are excellent.

So I booked a morning flight, TG600, and chose a seat (37D, or so I thought) and a return on the last flight the next day - and chose a seat for that too.

Imagine my surprise (you would think I have learned my lesson by now) when upon check-in - again a long ass line in the morning, never book a morning flight if you can help it - my seat was not reserved, and the ticketing person told me to complain to my agent for not booking my seat.

This is frustrating. As soon as I attain Gold Status - for two years, probably the only good thing about Thai - I'm switching to another mileage program on Star Alliance, not to mention flying with SQ from now if I can.

[OneThailand]

So lo and behold, on the flight back... my seat had indeed been reserved. Wonder if the lady on the flight outwards was lying, or perhaps someone simply disregarded the request and moved me because she felt like it, notwithstanding the fact that I was a Silver member? Not only that, but the flight wasn't full, though the aisles were...

At least this time there were seats available at the front of the aircraft and I managed to secure one with the help of the purser.

But this time I noticed something that I had forgotten about on past trips - when it came time to serve food and drinks, they started from the back of the section, not the front!

Now any good airline knows that its most frequent flyers, usually businesspeople, prefer to stay in the front of the aircraft. Even KLM, not exactly my favorite airline, knows that - so it occurs to me that the airline should begin to serve food from the *front* of the section, not the back... fortunately as they got 2/3rds of the way towards me, the purser came out with a smile on her face and asked what I wanted to eat. She even managed to find me a Pepsi Max that the stewardess couldn't find when she was serving drinks.

The food was not that great either - a far cry from the days when they actually served good food. But at least the staff for the most part were friendly, especially the purser.

Another strange thing - for the last three months that I've been flying, they've been showing the same damn entertainment in economy class, no matter what destination. Does it not occur to them that people might be flying frequently with them and could be interested in seeing something different?

Now in this case it wasn't the fault of the onboard staff - clearly upper management has dictated the policy of serving meals, as well as showing the same video until the tape breaks. It's almost as if this was part of a massive cost-cutting exercise, despite the fact that they charge more than most airlines, and staff costs are probably quite a bit lower.

What is wrong with you, TG?

[OneThailand]

Heck - I haven't even travelled on my next flight yet.

Had a different agent book this ticket for me, all fine and dandy and I go to the Thai Airways site to check in.

Now some of you will have noticed that the site is frequently slow or doesn't respond when you try to check the availability of a flight.

Now something new - try to check-in, and the system isn't available. Nor can you check availability. You can log into your Royal Orchid Plus account - but you can't do anything beyond that.

*sigh*

[OneThailand]

For the past few months, things seem to be getting better at Thai. The staff are more friendly as well. No major problems on flights either, but I wish they would make their Internet check-in service a bit easier to use - at least now they've moved the Internet check-in counter to the first booth in Row J.

Today I flew on TG 606 to Hong Kong. The aircraft was a nice 777-300, with entertainment systems in economy class as well.

The food hasn't gotten any better, but it hasn't gotten worse either - and still they have this strange practice of working from the middle towards the ends on Eastbound flights, and from the ends towards the middle on Westbound flights when serving food. Very irritating for many ROP members, though as it happens this time I was sitting right in the middle so I got served first.

The staff were all very friendly - smiling, courteous, an absolute pleasure for a change. I spent half the flight watching one particular stewardess, Ms. Subhawadee C, serve my row, always with a smile that used to be the standard of Thai and Singapore Airlines, and she was very efficient as well. I tried to take a photo but the idiot next to me complained that I was using my mobile phone... duh, like I can actually make calls from 10,000 meters in the air...

Also, one of the stewards, Mr Theparit Y, also took time to speak to passengers and served everyone with a smile as well.

I think, for a change, the entire crew of TG 606 on Oct. 22, 2007 must be commended - now if the rest of the TG crews would only follow this wonderful example...

By the way, the flight was about 98% full - even more credit to the crew because they had to work much harder.