For our trip to Thailand, Trailfinders booked our Boxing Day flights, from London Heathrow to Bangkok, with Thai Airways as they were the cheapest.
Business Class check-in was swift with no queue, although it looked much busier at standard class where the requirement to self-tag luggage was causing chaos.
As Thai Airways are part of the Star Alliance, we had a choice of three lounges: United Airlines, Air Canada and Singapore Airlines. We chose the latter. Whilst it wasn’t spacious or plush, it had everything we needed: i.e. password less and quick Wi-Fi, plenty of loos, free flowing prosecco and a good range of newspapers. The food was simple, but a full English was on offer with snacks, hot and cold drinks.
We took off an hour late, due to congestion, but made up time and our 10-hour 40-minute flight landed on the dot.
The first business class section was huge with around 15 rows, so we were pleased we were in a smaller section of only three rows. Single seats were next to the windows with pairs in the middle: one row had the seats together with tables on the outside, and the next, tables in the centre so they were better for solo travellers.
Service was excellent and one delightful cabin crew served us throughout. She was typically Thai: slim, jet black hair, elegant and immaculately dressed in vibrantly coloured Thai silk. We wanted for nothing, and had two glasses of champagne, served in tall flutes, before take-off and then Sancerre and water flowed without us having to ask. Unlike some airlines, it wasn’t a case of the trolley coming around, service was tailored to the pace of each customer. Lunch was foie gras with a choice of breads with either Thai or European dishes to follow. We chose beef tenderloin in a green curry sauce and salmon in a chu chee curry sauce and then shared cheese and biscuits followed by chocolate mousse.
The entertainment system was good and easy to use, but the film selection was limited, and I’d seen most of them at the cinema.
The seat pitch was slightly less than British Airways, but the beds were comfortable and unlike with BA, we reserved specific seats when flights were booked. Lacoste amenity bags were provided with the usual array of goodies and vouchers for 5MB of free Wi-Fi were available.
Breakfast was served just before landing: either a continental affair with fruit, yoghurt and breads, English-style scrambled eggs with smoked salmon or a Thai option.
On arrival, we waited a while to disembark and when we did, we were greeted by a line of the Kingdom of Thailand’s top brass in immaculate uniforms adorned with gold braid and medals. They appeared not to be waiting for us!
