Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus - TG ending 794/795 BKK-LAX non-stop - customer service info to protest!

TG just announced that they're ending their always-full TG794/795 BKK-LAX non-stop, instead routing through ICN, starting in May of 2012.

This is insane!

When I called TG customer service to find out why, I was told it was for 'marketing' reasons. The person I spoke with also thought that it was insane.

I was told that concerned TG customers can write (politely!) K. Chalika via <customer@thaiairways.com> to express concerns about this boneheaded move. If you feel the same, please write and express your opinion!

Always full? Where did this information come from? I flew this route 10 days ago and economy and premium economy was at around 50%, business maybe 80% but who knows how many of those were free seats. Flying it again on Saturday. The A340 is a thirsty bird with minimal seats in the current configuration so hard to turn a profit.

This has also been discussed in a few other threads and has been known for a few weeks.

It will be interesting to see whether there is a drop-off in bookings as a result of this move. I have just moved my family booking (2 adults, two kids) back to SQ because of this policy change. I suspect others have done so too. What annoys me even more is the really unsuitable arrival and departure times from BKK - making it almost impossible to connect further in the region...:(

Nothing presented so far suggest all flights, all the time, are full.
But full flights don't necessarily mean big revenue (or any, for that matter)

Nothing presented so far suggest all flights, all the time, are full.
But full flights don't necessarily mean big revenue (or any, for that matter)

Flying from LAX to BKK on Dec. 13, the flight seemed full but flying back to LAX from on Dec. 29, there were many empty seats in PE.

Besides the stop at ICN, PE will be no more. Also, the new late-night arrival time at BKK makes it impossible to make a same day domestic flight connection. It'll be Eva for me for future flights.

This 'news' is a week old. The A340-500 Thai must use on the route burns too much fuel for the non-stop to be profitable. Sad to see it go away.

This 'news' is a week old. The A340-500 Thai must use on the route burns too much fuel for the non-stop to be profitable. Sad to see it go away.

It would be interesting to know how the A345's fuel consumption would compare if it were used on the new routing with stops at ICN ie. eliminating the ultra-longhaul fuel penalty and using it for more typical stage lengths.

Of course, if doing so they could certainly also benefit by adding seating density, reducing seat pitch in economy, and even eliminating Premium Economy. The plane was purposely configured with less density (more passenger comfort!!) so it could make the ultra long range requirements.

Wouldn't like to see them eliminate Premium Economy though. The biggest failure by far with Premium Economy is simply that THAI never knew how to market it and never expanded it to other longhauls such as Europe and Australia.

It would be interesting to know how the A345's fuel consumption would compare if it were used on the new routing with stops at ICN ie. eliminating the ultra-longhaul fuel penalty and using it for more typical stage lengths.


Given that the 345 is pretty much a dud (32 built, 2 on backlog, out of nearly 400 total of the A340 family), and given that TG wants them out of the fleet ASAP, I'd have to think that it's not a good match for shorter routes- otherwise TG would be redoing the seating plan and keeping a paid-for plane around, instead of dumping them while having to pay for another plane.

The plane TG really wants to be flying on BKK-LAX is the 787 (the fuel economics work better and it's not too much plane for the route)- I would expect to see them start up the nonstop again once they take sufficient 787 deliveries and do enough proving flights. They're probably just keeping the route authority warm with a 777 stopping in ICN, instead of losing money hand over fist.

As for the OP: good luck convincing an airline that they should keep running a route they lose money on. No, full planes do not mean making money. It means they've priced the tickets to fill the cabin- if I price tickets so each ticket loses an average of $50 per seat, but I sell all of them, I'll fill the plane, but I won't make money. I'll just lose less than if I didn't sell all the tickets. Airlines don't leave profitable nonstop routes.

Could they have at least kept similar times? The arrival into BKK kills this new flight for most people, not just the nonstop. Just have the outbound leave an hour earlier, and the inbound arrive an hour later to make up for the stop (if it's just a tech stop, the times at ICN don't matter).

Could they have at least kept similar times? The arrival into BKK kills this new flight for most people, not just the nonstop. Just have the outbound leave an hour earlier, and the inbound arrive an hour later to make up for the stop (if it's just a tech stop, the times at ICN don't matter).

It's not a tech stop; they plan on carrying ICN-bound traffic, and leaving evening BKK time/morning LAX time makes for a rotten arrival time at ICN (around midnight both ways).

It's not a tech stop; they plan on carrying ICN-bound traffic, and leaving evening BKK time/morning LAX time makes for a rotten arrival time at ICN (around midnight both ways).

But don't they have other flights to ICN? Midnight both ways isn't that bad if you also have a morning and afternoon flight as well. Also, do they have rights for LAX-ICN traffic? There should be enough capacity on that anyways though.

But don't they have other flights to ICN? Midnight both ways isn't that bad if you also have a morning and afternoon flight as well. Also, do they have rights for LAX-ICN traffic? There should be enough capacity on that anyways though.

You'd think... except a good chunk of TG's ICN traffic actually goes BKK-HKG/TPE-ICN. (I've been on one of those fifth freedom flights; ICN-HKG has loads of C award space.)

My guess is they crunched numbers and figured their onward connecting traffic at BKK from LAX wasn't worth flying into ICN at midnight. (You'd have to think that a flight that arrives at midnight local time is pretty much going to be bottom-feeding- which is probably a statement on how critical LAX-BKK is to TG's business.)