Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus - TG: Hit or Miss (my first thread)

I spent many nights reading thru the threads about TG and noticed that many members either praise or dislike the service of TG. Service is basically a soft skill so it is all about people, Thai people.

While many readers are aware of the nuances of Thai culture others are pretty blank. I don't mean only TG! So I would like to report of my life coping with Thai culture.

Before I start two simple things:

First, get a friend at TG. Computers are a nice thing but you never can be sure everything turns out fine. After every booking I make, I sent the file key to a friend at TG (I do not disclose name or office) to make sure everything is fine. I am a WCHS pax (explained this in another thread already), I have a certain seat request etc. So I have peace of mind.

Second: For Thais everything has to look nice outside. (The inside is not so important). You don't always have to wear your Armani suit but make sure you are groomed properly and look decent. I even have a nice leather jacket for my passport to look nice. When handing the passport to the check-in agent DO NOT throw or just put in on the counter, hand it directly, smile and look into her/his eyes.

Thais are very receptive to those minor things. Even agents outside Thailand respond positively to this gesture.

The following is a general Thai thing and will ease your life fundamentally.

Smile. I mean not the toothpaste commercial smile, a real smile. Not smiling is considered impolite in Thailand. And keep that smile even when it gets awkward. When the kitchen is on fire, stay calm and tell them take your time I am not in a hurry. You will see how fast your problem gets solved.

A big key to Thai culture in the language. I will NOT start a language lesson here, but everybody who encounters Thai people regularly should have a clue about the differences of English and Thai, huge differences! While check-in staff an F/As master English pretty well, the "other" staff has a very limited command of English. E.g. the buggy drivers or the buzz boys in the lounges. Once I was asked if I want to go to Laos and I said "no". It turned out he meant "lounge". Native Thai speaker cannot pronounce several consonants together, so when they say lounge they just stop when it gets difficult. (a typical Thai phenomenon in general) And so "Laos" and "lounge" spoken by a Thai sounds similar.

So be prepared for some surprises AND don't forget to smile. With the right attitude you will enjoy everything Thai, if it's the airline or just the supermarket.

Because this is a thread and not a blog I stop right now and hope a couple of readers add their thoughts and reports of their experiences. Very much appreciated are comments from Thai natives!

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

First, get a friend at TG.

Why is that even neccessary?

Second: For Thais everything has to look nice outside. (The inside is not so important)...

Wow, so much for those dumpy looking houses from the outside that are beautiful inside.

Smile. I mean not the toothpaste commercial smile, a real smile. Not smiling is considered impolite in Thailand. And keep that smile even when it gets awkward. When the kitchen is on fire, stay calm and tell them take your time I am not in a hurry. You will see how fast your problem gets solved.

OK, to some extent you're correct. Staying calm is important, but an inordinate number of Thais are curt and show disdain when not happy. And no matter what you do your problem will either be solved or not. It depends upon who your dealing with, not solely your demeanor.



A big key to Thai culture in the language. I will NOT start a language lesson here, but everybody who encounters Thai people regularly should have a clue about the differences of English and Thai

You mean they don't eminate from the same language family? How odd.


...huge differences! While check-in staff an F/As master English pretty well, the "other" staff has a very limited command of English. E.g. the buggy drivers or the buzz boys in the lounges. Once I was asked if I want to go to Laos and I said "no". It turned out he meant "lounge". Native Thai speaker cannot pronounce several consonants together, so when they say lounge they just stop when it gets difficult. (a typical Thai phenomenon in general) And so "Laos" and "lounge" spoken by a Thai sounds similar.

It has nothing to do with several consonants. Lots of words have multiple consonants (I'd write them in Thai but I've no clue which keys are for which letters etc): plaa (fish) gluay (banana) and I could go on. Now it's quite different that more colloquial conversation tends to omit that second consonant: paa, guay... even the polite term: krap tends to be pronounced as 'kap'.

Your particular example is much more akin to Thais not having that particular sound at the end of a word. These are two very different things and should not be conflated. Many Thais have difficulty with 'L' and 'R'. I have a difficult time with 'gn' beginning a word, but I digress.

And Thai doesn't even have words ending with 's' such as Laos (nor the Lao for that matter).

I'm not even sure you're a native English speaker.

Because this is a thread and not a blog I stop right now.

But unfortunately not soon enough.

Mai pen rai.

Why is that even neccessary?

It has nothing to do with several consonants. Lots of words have multiple consonants (I'd write them in Thai but I've no clue which keys are for which letters etc): plaa (fish) gluay (banana) and I could go on. Now it's quite different that more colloquial conversation tends to omit that second consonant: paa, guay... even the polite term: krap tends to be pronounced as 'kap'.

Your particular example is much more akin to Thais not having that particular sound at the end of a word. These are two very different things and should not be conflated. Many Thais have difficulty with 'L' and 'R'. I have a difficult time with 'gn' beginning a word, but I digress.

And Thai doesn't even have words ending with 's' such as Laos (nor the Lao for that matter).

I'm not even sure you're a native English speaker.



But unfortunately not soon enough.

Mai pen rai.

I bet you just read "How to Win Friends and Influence People", no?
He is quite right about consonant clusters. Unless that cluster occurs in your language, they are hard to pronounce. In fact, the brain doesn't even hear them properly. It's why languages like Polish or Russian seam so daunting to us despite being spoken easily by millions.
And Laos with the pronounced s is an error that has become accepted as conventional in English. In other languages the s is not pronounced or not present. Our pronunciation is a mistranslation from French.

It has nothing to do with consonant clusters. The particular sound in question does not exist at the end of Thai words. And it could well be the OP just doesn't have a good ear for sounds. (There was some condescension in there no?)

I'm not even sure what the purpose of the post was truthfully.

You are correct that the 's' at the end of Laos comes from the French. They also changed (drastically) the pronunciation of the current capital of the LPDR.

Not sure the reason for the thread really.

The problem is really quite simple. Some TG staff/crew just do not want to be at work and have no interest in looking after passengers, regardless of how you act towards them. Others are not bad and actually provide decent service. As a group, they really are as wildly inconsistent as the experiences reported here.

No need for a lengthy post with sweeping generalisation about Thai people and a lecture about how to receive better service. Yes, it's true that you attract more bees with honey than vinegar. But some bees seemingly have no interest whether you're giving them honey or vinegar, in the case of some TG staff/crew.

The lesson to be taken away is management expectation, not how to change your behaviour to what you think TG staff will like. If you want consistent high quality, go for one of the other airlines that have a proven track record such as NH, OZ or LX.

The problem is really quite simple. Some TG staff/crew just do not want to be at work and have no interest in looking after passengers, regardless of how you act towards them. Others are not bad and actually provide decent service. As a group, they really are as wildly inconsistent as the experiences reported here.

No need for a lengthy post with sweeping generalisation about Thai people and a lecture about how to receive better service. Yes, it's true that you attract more bees with honey than vinegar. But some bees seemingly have no interest whether you're giving them honey or vinegar, in the case of some TG staff/crew.

The lesson to be taken away is management expectation, not how to change your behaviour to what you think TG staff will like. If you want consistent high quality, go for one of the other airlines that have a proven track record such as NH, OZ or LX.

I agree 101% - and I think it is fair to say that there are many airlines that fit this category and constantly board disengaged FA's, TG included... However, for the most part I have good service when flying TG C, or I would certainly switch as stargold suggests...

My thought is you generally get back what you give, but if an FA does not want to be at 35K ft. serving you dinner and drinks - they do not want to be there serving you dinner and drinks - end of story...

Ding, another whiskey for Airgroovin', please... Aah, that's better...

Cheers,

AG. :-:

...., I don't I don't speak any Thai, so now I have to fly different airline ?

Her is a tip, on how to make your new friends, feel at home,

Act like them and accept that they not thai, even better if you biz is to handled and interact with different cultures than thai, then lean about them and find what part of your culture that will work well and which ones is juts plain dumb to expect that you guest will understand or appreciate ( standing in movies ).

My biggest errors has alway been to think that speaking the local lingo ( I do 7 but not thai) will help, in fact it don't others expect you to understand much more then you do! included culture things, its just at times better to be dumb as door, and in fact I found in Thailand I get better services being dumb and helpless

You are correct that the 's' at the end of Laos comes from the French. They also changed (drastically) the pronunciation of the current capital of the LPDR.
Actually they didn't.

The capital is pronounced in Lao as Vieng Chang or something similar. The French transliterated it as Vientiane. If you pronounce Vientiane as though it were a French word, it sound similar to the Lao pronunciation. However, these days, people tend to pronounce Vientiane as though it were an English word (Vee en tee ann) and that is where the pronunciation discrepancy came in.

Actually they didn't.

The capital is pronounced in Lao as Vieng Chang or something similar. The French transliterated it as Vientiane. If you pronounce Vientiane as though it were a French word, it sound similar to the Lao pronunciation. However, these days, people tend to pronounce Vientiane as though it were an English word (Vee en tee ann) and that is where the pronunciation discrepancy came in.

In Lao it is pronounced Wiang Chan (really wish I had Thai/Lao keyboard). However even locals have started to call it Vee en tee an, presumably from the English style pronounciation and talking with foreigners who, almost to a person, pronounce it that way.

Sorry, I have no knowledge of French.