A_Lee
Oct 4, 09, 8:15 pm
It's quite clear TG made a number of changes to their service as of October 1. Most, though not all of them I think are to the disadvantage of passengers. Based on flying 8 international TG segments in the past 3 days, compared with flying 4 segments in the prior 2 weeks, I definitely noticed some of these changes. My list based on my experience and what I've read here on FT follows. Please add any other "enhancements" you may have experienced since Oct. 1.
* As reported by others, frozen food in the TG F lounge. See the other thread for details.
* Perhaps a bit related to the above, I reported in that thread that I got served a meal that was still frozen in flight (in Y). That has never happened to me ever in all my hundreds of flights with TG or with any other airline for that matter. Cold food, yes, frozen food, no. Then, it happened again yesterday!!!! Out of 8 flights I've taken since Oct. 1, I only ate on 4 or perhaps 5 of the flights, and got frozen food on two of the flights. The last incident the food was completely frozen, not even slightly thawed out - the meat and vegetables could be picked up all together as one frozen mass. My guess is that they've changed something in their food preparation compared to before, but not sure what it would be to be causing this problem.
* The left-side TG lounge on the C concourse is now only open at nights from 9PM onwards. During early morning hours the right-side lounge is now overcrowded due to everyone being directed into one lounge. I haven't experienced the lounges in the late afternoon, but wouldn't be surprised if there was a similar overcrowding situation then. This problem can easily be negated by simply going to the SQ lounge on the A concourse, being it should be open during most times when the single C concourse TG lounge is overcrowded. Should TG also close one of the E concourse lounges though, you don't have much of a choice then unless you have time and want to make a very long walk.
* Apparently, based strictly on my observations, TG is no longer serving the two hot dishes for lunch/dinner (usually fried rice and noodles) in the C lounges, nor are they serving a hot breakfast (scrambled eggs/omelet). They've replaced it with dimsum, which to me looked totally unappetizing. The food choices in the TG C lounges was never great in my opinion, but at least it was acceptable. Thankfully they still have the fresh fruit which I enjoy, but the rest of it I now pass, except maybe a sandwich or two. Again this problem is very easily solved if it's early enough and you're near the C concourse by going to the SQ SKL which has much better food, although they do not serve scrambled eggs for breakfast as far as I've seen.
* Yesterday out of four international flights, all four of them got remote stands. I cannot definitely say that there's been a change in this, and they're using remote stand more now, it could have just been a coincidence that all of those flights didn't get the air bridges. On my four other flights on the two previous days, two had remote stands. Remote stands have some pluses and minuses. On the plus side, it can be quicker through immigration from a remote stand/bus than if the aircraft parks at a far-end air bridge and you have a long walk. On the minus side, during rainy weather such as last night, you'll get a bit wet. I've seen passengers fall over on the buses when they start/stop suddenly. Sometimes the buses are delayed a while and you have quite a long time to stand, which for elderly or people with foot/leg problems, it could be quite uncomfortable. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some cases of actual injuries to passengers caused by remote stands and busing.
* On the positive side, yesterday I was told by staff at one of my check-ins that they would give me a "better" seat due to my being ROP gold. It turns out he wanted to put me in the first row of Y on an AB6, which for me is the worst seat on the plane. I politely declined and asked for my original seat, but the point is he was trying to give me what he (and some passengers) consider a prime seat. I've never once felt my ROP gold card did anything for me with regard to seating in the past, except for often when I get the domestic semi-opups, and once just a couple weeks ago when I got an international opup from Y to C, my first ever. This first case of preferential treatment wouldn't be enough to suggest anything is different, but then on my next flight yesterday, the check-in agent told me due to my ROP gold card she was blocking the other three seats next to me, so I got a four-seat poorman's F seat. If the flight was quite empty, this wouldn't have been a big deal, but I was the only one on the flight with four seats to myself. The forward Y cabin was mostly full, and the rear Y cabin was well over 50% full. Since Oct. 1, I had four seats to myself on four flights, and could have probably had it on a fifth flight if not for my wanting to be upfront in order to get into immigration quickly. So my point is that perhaps TG has finally "gotten it" and realized that they need to treat their best customers better by giving them preferred seating, blocking seats, etc. Let's hope that my experience wasn't some fluke but rather new TG policy.
* As reported by others, frozen food in the TG F lounge. See the other thread for details.
* Perhaps a bit related to the above, I reported in that thread that I got served a meal that was still frozen in flight (in Y). That has never happened to me ever in all my hundreds of flights with TG or with any other airline for that matter. Cold food, yes, frozen food, no. Then, it happened again yesterday!!!! Out of 8 flights I've taken since Oct. 1, I only ate on 4 or perhaps 5 of the flights, and got frozen food on two of the flights. The last incident the food was completely frozen, not even slightly thawed out - the meat and vegetables could be picked up all together as one frozen mass. My guess is that they've changed something in their food preparation compared to before, but not sure what it would be to be causing this problem.
* The left-side TG lounge on the C concourse is now only open at nights from 9PM onwards. During early morning hours the right-side lounge is now overcrowded due to everyone being directed into one lounge. I haven't experienced the lounges in the late afternoon, but wouldn't be surprised if there was a similar overcrowding situation then. This problem can easily be negated by simply going to the SQ lounge on the A concourse, being it should be open during most times when the single C concourse TG lounge is overcrowded. Should TG also close one of the E concourse lounges though, you don't have much of a choice then unless you have time and want to make a very long walk.
* Apparently, based strictly on my observations, TG is no longer serving the two hot dishes for lunch/dinner (usually fried rice and noodles) in the C lounges, nor are they serving a hot breakfast (scrambled eggs/omelet). They've replaced it with dimsum, which to me looked totally unappetizing. The food choices in the TG C lounges was never great in my opinion, but at least it was acceptable. Thankfully they still have the fresh fruit which I enjoy, but the rest of it I now pass, except maybe a sandwich or two. Again this problem is very easily solved if it's early enough and you're near the C concourse by going to the SQ SKL which has much better food, although they do not serve scrambled eggs for breakfast as far as I've seen.
* Yesterday out of four international flights, all four of them got remote stands. I cannot definitely say that there's been a change in this, and they're using remote stand more now, it could have just been a coincidence that all of those flights didn't get the air bridges. On my four other flights on the two previous days, two had remote stands. Remote stands have some pluses and minuses. On the plus side, it can be quicker through immigration from a remote stand/bus than if the aircraft parks at a far-end air bridge and you have a long walk. On the minus side, during rainy weather such as last night, you'll get a bit wet. I've seen passengers fall over on the buses when they start/stop suddenly. Sometimes the buses are delayed a while and you have quite a long time to stand, which for elderly or people with foot/leg problems, it could be quite uncomfortable. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some cases of actual injuries to passengers caused by remote stands and busing.
* On the positive side, yesterday I was told by staff at one of my check-ins that they would give me a "better" seat due to my being ROP gold. It turns out he wanted to put me in the first row of Y on an AB6, which for me is the worst seat on the plane. I politely declined and asked for my original seat, but the point is he was trying to give me what he (and some passengers) consider a prime seat. I've never once felt my ROP gold card did anything for me with regard to seating in the past, except for often when I get the domestic semi-opups, and once just a couple weeks ago when I got an international opup from Y to C, my first ever. This first case of preferential treatment wouldn't be enough to suggest anything is different, but then on my next flight yesterday, the check-in agent told me due to my ROP gold card she was blocking the other three seats next to me, so I got a four-seat poorman's F seat. If the flight was quite empty, this wouldn't have been a big deal, but I was the only one on the flight with four seats to myself. The forward Y cabin was mostly full, and the rear Y cabin was well over 50% full. Since Oct. 1, I had four seats to myself on four flights, and could have probably had it on a fifth flight if not for my wanting to be upfront in order to get into immigration quickly. So my point is that perhaps TG has finally "gotten it" and realized that they need to treat their best customers better by giving them preferred seating, blocking seats, etc. Let's hope that my experience wasn't some fluke but rather new TG policy.