I spend a lot of time on hold with airlines. Possibly close to half my life. That means I get to listen to lots of music — not the quality stuff I’d like to listen to, like the Biebs, but instead inane advertisements and chanting music.

I usually love airlines that have hold music and not advertisements, like US Airways, which advertises pet medication, minibars at low-end Mexico hotels, and their “anything but ordinary” onboard snack menu, with delicacies such as Chex Mix and almonds.

But of the airlines with hold music I think there are some that deserve a big pat on the back, and others that deserve a big kick in the a&@.

Let’s start on a positive note. My favorite airline for hold music must be Thai.

I totally feel like an 11 year old girl for liking this song given how cheesy it is, but damn, it’s mildly addicting and severely uplifting, especially after a two hour geography lesson phone call with MistyJoMarie at US Airways.

Then I also love ANA’s hold music, which is super-classy and relaxing.

Unfortunately that’s where the good hold music ends. On the other end of the spectrum you have Turkish.

They simply repeat “We are Turkish Airlines. We are globally yours.” Over. And over. And over. And over. And over. And over.

Maybe if they say it often enough we’ll believe it?

And then, my friends, there’s LOT. Words can’t do justice to how horrible their hold music is. Do yourself a favor and pick up your phone and call them. Have the agent put you on hold and enjoy the torture (and this doesn’t even begin to address the fact that the phone quality and training of the agents suggests that their call center is run out of the basement of a brothel in Bratislava). Can’t actually find the music online, though if anyone can find a link I’d be simultaneously delighted (so I can play it at night to scare off intruders) and horrified.

Did I miss any good/bad ones?

Introduction
Lufthansa First Class Seattle to Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Lounge & Senator Lounge Frankfurt
Thai Airways First Class Frankfurt to Bangkok
InterContinental Bangkok
Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge Bangkok
Cathay Pacific Business Class Bangkok to Hong Kong
InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific “The Wing” Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to San Francisco

Despite the blog posts I’ve made (here, here, and here), I’m actually quite happy with my move to Seattle. It’s a change of scenery, and I tend to think that in the end we regret the things we didn’t do more than the things we did. And I guess that’s kind of why I moved to the Pacific Northwest on a whim.

As much as I disparaged Tampa, one thing’s for sure — the sun is a beautiful, beautiful thing, and I took it for granted far too much living in Tampa. It’s hard not to be happy when it’s always 80 degrees outside, sunny, and you live in a city with a relatively low cost of living.

It has been quite a while since I’ve taken an international trip, and I’ve been experiencing some withdrawal symptoms. The cold, rainy weather, and short days only make me long for warm climates even more. A friend had a long weekend thanks to Veterans Day, so it seemed like a good opportunity to get away. The problem was that I didn’t have more than a five day period to “escape” before the end of the year, so I figured this was as good of an opportunity as any. In the end we decided on Bangkok for a couple of nights.

It’s my goal to try as many new airline products as possible over the coming months, and I outlined the products that interest me the most in this post. The problem is that sometimes you have to compromise with a travel companion, so that’s what I ended up doing. Oddly China Southern and Korean Air don’t sound as tempting as Cathay Pacific or Lufthansa. I have plenty of trip reports of totally “new” products coming over the next few months, though hopefully you guys enjoy this one as well.

For the outbound we used 70,000 MileagePlus miles per person (transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards) for first class from Seattle to Bangkok via Frankfurt. This was bookable 14 days, as that’s when Lufthansa releases first class award space to partner airlines.

The “no brainer” part of the outbound was flying Seattle to Frankfurt on Lufthansa in first class, as I was quite looking forward to my first nonstop international flight out of my home airport. The tough decision was trying to figure out how to get from Frankfurt to Asia. Originally we booked Frankfurt to Tokyo to Bangkok, with Frankfurt to Tokyo operated by Lufthansa’s Airbus 380 and Tokyo to Bangkok scheduled to be operated by a Thai 747 featuring the new first class.

I was most excited about Thai’s new first class, as it’s one of the products on my “bucket list.” However, a few days before departure the seatmap no longer showed the flight as being operated by a 747 with the new first class, so we were back to the drawing board. As it turned out Frankfurt to Bangkok was scheduled to be operated by the Thai 747 with the new first class cabin, so we switched to the nonstop instead, and decided on Bangkok as the destination. I literally monitored the tail number scheduled to operate the flight till it took off from Bangkok to Frankfurt, since Thai is notorious for equipment swaps.

For the return we used 67,500 AAdvantage miles for Cathay Pacific first class. Cathay Pacific is great about releasing award space last minute, and most flights between Hong Kong and the US had between three and five first class award seats, so we really had our pick. While I’ve flown Cathay Pacific first class several times before (previous trip reports can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here), it’s such an amazing value that I couldn’t say no, not to mention that I was curious how their product was holding up. Besides, in a single weekend it’s not really practical to route via Europe twice.

We also maximized the return award by adding on a “free” one-way ticket from San Francisco to New York. Our return routing was really Bangkok to Hong Kong to San Francisco to Seattle, though instead of including that segment from San Francisco to Seattle on the award ticket, we instead redeemed 7,500 Avios per person to book that separately in coach.

This allowed us to have a “free” stopover in San Francisco (since it’s the international gateway city), and then we booked a Flagship Service first class ticket from San Francisco to New York as part of the same award for 10 months out. We can change the date on that later, though I’m sure it’ll come in handy. And I’d certainly value a Flagship Service first class transcontinental seat at more than a short hop from San Francisco to Seattle.

Besides, by booking San Francisco to Seattle separately we could book an illegal connection of just 70 minutes in San Francisco, allowing us to get home earlier. Thanks to Global Entry I was quite confident in being able to make that connection, and I preferred that over having to wait 3+ hours for the next flight.

In the end our itinerary looked as follows:

11/08 Lufthansa 491 Seattle to Frankfurt departing at 2:00PM and arriving at 9:10AM (+1 day)
11/09 Thai 921 Frankfurt to Bangkok departing at 2:10PM and arriving at 6:20AM (+1 day)
11/12 Cathay Pacific 614 Bangkok to Hong Kong departing at 1:10PM and arriving at 4:50PM
11/13 Cathay Pacific 870 Hong Kong to San Francisco departing at 2:05PM and arriving at 10:00AM
11/13 Alaska 301 San Francisco to Seattle departing at 11:10AM and arriving at 1:20PM

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the report. I’ll crank this one out quickly!

They say variety is the spice of life. I’m afraid Thai Airways probably took that a bit too literally, as I’m convinced they have more aircraft configurations than actual aircraft in their fleet.

Back in July I wrote about Thai’s schedule change on their Los Angeles to Bangkok route (via Seoul), whereby they finally put a 747 on the route as of March 31, 2013. This was pretty exciting news since it meant Thai would finally be offering first class service to the US. They have a good first class onboard product though a phenomenal first class ground experience, including a 60-minute massage in their Bangkok spa for first class passenger.

Well, it appears as if they’ve changed their minds. Instead the schedule continues to show a 777-300ER operating the flight as far as the schedule goes. However, as of October 28 it’ll be a new business class configuration, which looks like this:

The funny thing is that this isn’t a configuration currently in Thai’s fleet, so apparently this is a newly reconfigured plane. This won’t be the product they currently use on the route, which is an angled flat business class seat. And it won’t be their leased 777 featuring first class suites and herringbone business class seats either. Instead business class on this plane will apparently be the same as what Thai has on the Airbus 380, which is a fully flat, staggered product.

So on one hand this is good news since it means Thai will finally have a good business class product to the US. On the other hand it’s bad news since they won’t have first class, as was scheduled as of early next year. Furthermore, while they released plenty of first class award space when the 747 was in the schedule, I see virtually no business class award space on the route, even months in advance. Let’s hope that changes, since this new configuration has 10 more business class seats than the old one.

However, as is the case with all things Thai Airways, this is definitely subject to change.  If Thai Airways actually consistently operated this new configuration on the LAX route it would be the first time they’ve ever done anything consistently. So I wouldn’t count on it…

This is rather sad news. As of January 15, 2013, Thai Airways will be cutting their twice daily service between Bangkok and Koh Samui.

This sucks because Thai is the only airline that belongs to one of the three major alliances that offers service to Koh Samui. As some of you may know I’ve been eying a trip to Koh Samui, given that I was hoping to redeem an AXON award for a villa at the amazing Conrad Koh Samui for only 145,000 Hilton HHonors points for four nights. Beyond the amazing redemption value, Koh Samui looks beautiful and has plenty of amazing hotels.

While this change doesn’t make a trip there impossible, it does mean I’d have to purchase a separate ticket from Bangkok to Koh Samui, which certainly adds to the cost of a vacation when the segment would have otherwise been included at no additional cost on an existing award ticket.

I’m also kind of curious to see what Thai Airways does for those with existing award bookings through partner airlines on the Bangkok to Koh Samui route. In this case it’s not just that they have a schedule change, but they’re cutting the destination altogether. If I had to guess I’d say they’ll just tell those with partner award bookings to pound sand, though I hope that they’ll instead rebook them on Bangkok Airways.

Anyway, I know I’m not the only one that has been eying Koh Samui, so I figured this was worth a heads up.

Thai Airways will be the next carrier to take delivery of the Airbus 380, and it looks like their second longhaul route featuring Airbus 380 service has finally been loaded into the system.

As of February 16, Thai Airways will have daily Airbus 380 service between Bangkok and Paris. Previously this route had twice daily service (some days of the week) with 777-300ER aircraft, though the route is now once daily on the Airbus 380.

The reason I mention this is because they have excellent first class award availability, so I know it’ll interest a lot of you for the novelty factor of flying the Airbus 380 (though it goes beyond that, since the A380 really is a superior flying experience in my opinion). Furthermore, Thai has one of the best first class ground experiences in Bangkok, so this will be making an already amazing first class product even better. Thai is one of the most generous airlines when it comes to releasing award space, and from the looks of it I don’t think that will change with the Airbus 380.

Thai’s first longhaul route featuring the Airbus 380 will be Bangkok to Frankfurt, which begins on December 15.

Can’t wait to finally fly one of these planes in Thai’s livery!