Thai #624: Bangkok-Manila: 2 hours 55 minutes

This was a fairly uneventful trip, except for the late model airplane (Airbus A300-600).  Actually passengers had to take a bus from gate D1A to a remote gate, climb 3 flights of stairs and then walk through the jet way.  The cool thing was that we were practically standing on the runway when we got off the bus.  Unlike my transpacific flight with Thai, champagne was offered before takeoff and there was also an in-flight magazine to browse through.  The inside of the plane was somewhat tired, but it didn’t matter because the service was great.  Close to perfect.  No personal televisions, just big screen in the front of the half-full cabin.  I did not pay attention to what was playing but flight attendants did pass out noise cancelling headphones.  The seats were clean, wide and comfortable.  I felt like I was in a La-Z-Boy.

The food was fresh and tasty.  My only gripe was the paper that portioned the main dish; I think the preparer should have removed this.

After the meal service, I slept like a baby.  Recently, I have heard some complaints about regional service on Asian Airlines, but having flown Korean Air, Malaysia Airlines, Asiana & Thai regionally… uh…yeah…I’m gonna have to go ahead and disagree… Upcoming posts: Delta’s SkyClub Manila, Qatar Airways & the Premium Terminal in Doha.  Thanks.

A Layover in Bangkok

I had flown Thai Airways Business Class and therefore had access to their Royal Silk Lounge, or in this case loungesssss.  I am now sitting in my third different Royal Silk Lounge of the day.  Royal Silk Lounges are scattered… no, smothered, all over the Bangkok airport. OBW (oh by the way) the lounges I speak of do not include those for First Class Passengers.  In some instances Silk Lounges are, literally, right across the hall from one another.

The lounges are all very similar, but I favor the layout of the lounge across from gate D1.  There are bunch of private alcoves to relax in. The one below is a separate room.

The food is plentiful and although there is not a huge selection, I noticed the staple of each lounge was anchored by rolls: small pastries stuffed with “stuff”… ham, tuna, chicken sausage, chicken ham (?) and chicken chicken (chicken?)  There are a lot of hot and cold beverages and a self service liquor bar.  My personal recommendation is the “Butter Coconuts” crackers…phenomenal (and I hate coconut)

 If you do nothing else, no matter how far you have to walk, (it’s a sprawling airport) visit the Royal Orchid Spa.

A business class boarding pass gets you a complimentary foot or head/neck message.  The spa is very peaceful and the masseuse did an outstanding job.  Post massage, the staff will make you a cup of tea accompanied by a few slices of oven baked banana.  Enjoy this while you relax in the Spa’s Lounge.

I don’t normally take pictures of bathrooms, but this wasn’t a normal bathroom:

The Royal Orchid Spa is the perfect experience after sitting in the same place for 17 hours.

THAI AIRWAYS: LOS ANGELES to BANGKOK 

Several hours after I arrived in Bangkok I was a little dizzy and felt like I was still moving; moving on an airplane that is.  It was at this time that I looked up a list of the longest flights in the world.  I was somewhat surprised to see the flight I had just taken was #3 on the list-#3 by scheduled time and #5 by distance, but enough about the facts, we wouldn’t want facts to get in the way of a good story.  A 17 hour flight is a 17 hour flight regardless of what class you’re seated in; although surely some real estate in business class can make the trip a bit easier to handle.    I cannot fathom doing this in coach; I would give myself a least 1 connection to fly to BKK from LAX if I knew I had to fly coach.  I timed our takeoff, from beginning of the roll to airborne and it came to 52 seconds.  This doesn’t sound like a lot of time but it is.  Lots of fuel to fly for 17 hours = lots of weight.  Now I have to try to write about those 17 hours in under 500 words.

Service

I did not find the flight attendants as approachable or outgoing as those on as Korean Air or Malaysia Airlines.  They were, however, attentive and professional.  They offered water, orange juice, hot towels and newspapers just before push-back.  They just seemed like they were anxious to get to BKK (Bangkok) but so was I.  On more than one occasion, I saw the flight attendant tidying up the bathrooms.  Instead of paper towels, cloth towels were in the bathrooms to dry your hands.

Seat

My in-seat power did not work at first, but I left my laptop plugged in for a few minutes and it began to charge. The seat is angled lie flat.  It was plenty comfortable for a few hours of solid sleep.  In certain positions the seat felt like one of those old pull out couches that have some steel bars in weird places that undulate into your back.  Amenity kits containing toothpaste, toothbrush, socks, eye shades, lotion, and a comb were at each seat.   The seat has a massage function, which I periodically switched on to help prevent me from getting blood clot.  I am kind of kidding, but kind of not.  There was an envelope at each seat with postcards, stationery and a comment card, just like a fine hotel.  There was no in flight magazine to be read.

Food

There were three (3) meal services on this flight: dinner, breakfast and a snack, but there were enough choices that you could have considered dinner breakfast, the snack dinner, breakfast the snack or…well, you get the picture.  While the food was good, I expected to see more traditional Thai dishes offered, but it was more of an international mix.

The flight attendants only brought the full drink cart out during the first service.  During the other services, they just brought a tray with water and orange juice.  They then had to scramble to a galley when someone ordered a cocktail.  The cocktails, by the way, were served in tiny glasses, like the size of the cups you rinse your mouth with at the dentist.  Not exactly a 42oz Canes tumbler…

Entertainment

The audio video on demand entertainment had lots of breadth, but not too much depth.  In other words a lot of variety but not too many choices within each variety.  There was an underlying theme to the movies: half of them starred Matt Damon..whoopee!!  I think January is Matt Dmaon month because he was also on the cover of Thai’s entertainment guide.

Some of the movies: Fame, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, Love Happens, Julie & Julia, The Hangover & Harry Potter 12.  The TV on demand (Better off Ted, Life on Mars, Trust Me) was pretty weak; nothing I had ever really heard of—the one documentary I started watching (The Media Project) was some yoyo screaming about not having al-jazeera TV broadcast in English so the other half of the world could “hear the other side of the story”  …shut that off pretty quick.  There were a ton of games.  I found out that I still have a soft spot in my heart for the original Super Mario Brothers, even though I can’t even get past the 3^rd level anymore.

We arrived at 6 am, right on schedule.  Thai Airways definitely met my expectations, but did not exceed them.  I would rate Thai as a strong 4 star airline.  My upcoming posts will look at Thai’s lounges in Bangkok and Thai’s regional service.  Thanks for reading.  Your feedback is always welcome.

TBIT: Tom Bradley International Terminal

Good morning from Heathrow!  The carry-on bag I have travelled  the globe with over the past few years, somehow, today, at Heathrow, is too big to be a carry on and I had to check it.  Also, the agent at the Delta check-in desk charged me an unexplainable $72 tax upon check in.  Balance out those two items with the fact that I am going home and it’s still a good morning!   Anyway, last Saturday was my second visit to the Star Alliance Lounge in TBIT at LAX (Tom Bradley International Terminal) in as many years and while it is not the grandest in terms of food and amenities, I’m sure it’s convenient for both passengers and airlines to have one central lounge.  It is located to the left, on the 5^th floor after you pass security.  There is a separate area for First Class Passengers which I have yet to visit; any comments or photos are welcome and I will post them.

It was tricky finding a seat, as the lounge was packed on this Saturday night.  I wound up with a counter seat, all the way at the back, in the secondary smaller lounge area.  This area has a great view of the apron; except when its pitch dark out of course.

The bathrooms are small and located in the lobby area.  A better idea, if you need to us the facilities, is to have the attendant unlock a shower room for you.  They are bigger, well equipped and cleaned more often than the regular bathrooms.

The basics for food: fruit, cheese, peanuts, finger sandwiches, soup, fried rice and instant noodles.  A good selection of beer, soda, liquor and wine are available.

Gate agents for most flights come in to the lounge and try to round up passengers at boarding time.

I am currently in the SkyTeam Lounge at Heathrow and have visited a few others this week including Qatar Airlines’ Premium Terminal in Doha, which is, what I like to call, ridonkulous!  Stay tuned…

Atlanta-Los Angeles First Class

Delta has two types of premium class service; Domestic First Class and Business Elite.  Their First Class product can be found on most domestic routes with the exception of some regional aircraft.  A wider seat with more leg room, some food and possibly a personal television are pretty standard for Delta’s domestic first class.  Business Elite is Delta’s first class product found on international routes.  In this cabin, you can expect to see a linen table cloth, (as opposed to paper) a seat with much more recline (fully flat on some aircraft) and a meal with several courses.

Delta recently started implementing their Business Elite product on select “transcontinental” routes. JFK-LAX and JFK-SFO.  My question is why did they choose these routes?  Is it to compete with United & American who alraedy offer a type of product above and beyond their domestic first class?  Or are the Travelers from NYC/SFO/LAX of more importance? Or is it to meet the higher expectations that foreign travelers often have?  Are these the highest profile routes?

Why not have this product on transcontinental flights from Atlanta, Delta’s flagship hub head-quarters; its wheelhouse?  Last time I checked, ATL-SEA, ATL-SFO, ATL-LAX are transcontinental.  Instead of copying and or playing catch up with your competitors, why not do something original/different?  Maybe there are not enough planes equipped with this business elite configuration.  Until I hear or see differently, I will give Delta the benefit of the doubt and assume they will implement premium domestic service from their Atlanta hub (sometime)

All that being said, I just took a flight from ATL-LAX in Delta’s regular old first class and the service was outstanding!  The flight attendants were jovial and smiled throughout the flight. A choice of two hot dinner entrées were offered.  My chicken, skin on and breaded was mediocre at best, but the rest of the flight was very pleasant and on time, despite heavy rain a poor visibility at ATL.

At the end of the day, I don’t care whether my tablecloth is paper or linen, I just question the motivation behind the strategy.  Does anyone have input on this?

Flying from Charles De Gaulle to Heathrow is a pretty straight forward affair, right?  Not so much on my recent British Airways flight, although it was no fault of their own.  In fact, the captain was one of the most formal, professional sounding I have heard.  He kept us informed throughout the flight.  Due to heavy air traffic, we circled Heathrow four times before coming in for a very bumpy approach.  Essentially, we circled for a longer period of time than than it took us to fly from Paris.  I had a row to myself and they served us a drink and a snack.  I noticed the row I was in, 14, was the only row on this Airbus A320 that had no overhead air vents.  I asked the flight attendant why this was and he just looked at me, perplexed.  I was pleased to be at Heathrow and find my hotel.

In a few short days I will be making my second airline trip around the world, which also happens to be my first trip of 2010.  Unlike the first time I went around, this time I had no intention of flying around the world, it just worked out that way due to the best fares, routings and times.  I first found a super fare from Asia to Europe, booked it and worked backward from there.  The trip:

Atlanta-Los Angeles-Bangkok-Manila-Doha-London-Atlanta

Airlines I will be flying include Qatar Airways, Thai Airways and Delta.  Among other things, I am anxious to see the new, fully flat bed seats Delta has begun to install on their 767’s.  Please let me know via comments or email (chris@planereality.com) if there is something you would like me to check out (airport/airline related, of course).  I will do my best to get a photo or at least take some notes on whatever it is you are interested in.  I will make some posts while on the road and you can follow me on twitter (twitter.com/planereality) to see some play-by-play in 140 or less.  Thanks for reading!

What?

If you are reading this, chances are you have, at one time or another, visited FlyerTalk.com, if not, here is a primer. FlyerTalk claims to be the “world’s most popular frequent flier community” (and I believe it is, based on traffic anyway) where travelers from all over the world can post opinions, ask questions and mention deals about almost anything travel related, but most discussions pertain to airlines and hotels.  Each subject or brand has its own forum (i.e. the Delta Airlines forum).  Each forum is assigned a moderator to edit or block submissions that are inappropriate or off topic. The moderators are a somewhat salty bunch and jump at the opportunity to reprimand you, should you post something that they already knew.  I suppose, these moderators know every possible thing there is know about a particular topic… how else would one obtain the astute title: FlyerTalk Forum Moderator?

Who?

There are a number of users who take themselves extremely seriously, sometimes called FlyerTalk Evangelists, who I assume aspire to become moderators.  Many of these folks find it their duty to not only welcome new users, but to also scold users who post topics in the wrong forums, question a user’s character when they make errors while posting, chastise them when something has been previously mentioned and make all “community” members aware that they knew something before all other users….  This all makes for pretty solid entertainment.

What Happened?

A few months ago I found an airfare on my online booking engine that I determined to be a very good value which did not require a minimum stay.  I thought it would make a perfect fit in the mileage run forum.  What I failed to do was include the details of where I found the fare.  I received an email immediately from the “Mod” (cool member slang for Moderator) asking me to please include where I found the fare.  In addition, several other users asked where they could find the fare.  I obliged, posted where I found the fare and…voila…I received an email notifying me that I had been suspended from FlyerTalk for 48 hours for including a link to what they called a “commercial link.”  (this was right after another user suggested that my post may be some type of scam, but, in true FlyerTalk fashion, I think he was just annoyed because he didn’t find the fare first and turn did not get to post it)

Still Confused…

I was somewhat confused (not unusual) …users should never post an airfare without saying where they found it but you can’t include any commercial links.  I asked the “Mod” if I could say where I found it without including a link (just plain text) and the response was that if it was my own booking engine, this was not allowed.  From what I gather, users can only link to the big boys…Expedia, Priceline and airline web sites, so long as one does not have any official “tie” to that particular web site.

I’m Rich!

In fairness of full disclosure, I stood to gross a whopping $3, for each of those fares sold.  In contrast, the fare was roughly $150 less than what I could find on other web sites.  FlyerTalk can be a very helpful resource for extracting information, but I will leave the input to the “experts”