Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus - Old TG F or train from MXP to FCO?

I currently have two F award tickets booked from DPS-BKK-FRA-DFW early in September. We were going to stopover in BKK on our way home, but we're going to instead stop in Europe. It looks like Rome is the choice.

I can reroute BKK-FCO-FRA-DFW, but FCO looks to be the old 14 seat config both days that we are looking at. All of the BKK-FRA flights are booked right now, that would be an easy connection and still get us to FCO by 9:00am.

The ZRH flight doesn't offer good connection times, not getting us in until 3:00pm.

One option is MXP. We would arrive in MXP at 7:35 and would have to catch a 40 minute train into the main MXP station to catch the fast train to Rome Termini. It would be about 4.5 hours on the train and we wouldn't get in until about 2pm.

So, is the Old F product worth avoiding so much that I take the MXP flight and train?

The BKK-FCO flight leaves at midnight, so we'll probably enjoy a few glasses of champagne, nibble at our food then try to get some sleep.

So, is the Old F product worth avoiding so much that I take the MXP flight and train?

Given it's a night flight, I would avoid the old F (7442). The old F is quite comfortable (each time I sit in those lovely big old blue velour seats I sort of get swept back to the feeling of 1970s travel) but I prefer the newer pod-style F seats.

If it were me, I would take the flight to MXP then enjoy blasting through the Euro countryside on a fast (and comfortable) train.

H

Most of the Malpensa Airport Express arrive into Cadorna station, the Rome trains go from Centrale station.

You can take the subway between the two,

**Some** of the Malpensa Airport Express trains go into Centrale, however they make multiple stops and take much longer.

Something to factor into your final decision.

Otherwise, you could fly from MXP to FCO -- I am a regular in Milan and this is what I would do in your case (especially coming off a long overnight flight from BKK, even in F)

I would just buy a cheap flight from MXP to Rome flight. They are cheap. For the train you will need to most likely connect in Milano Centrale and the flight will probably not cost you much more the the train especially if you are talking about the fast train

Thanks everyone. I should have mentioned that I looked into flights but they don't fly that regularly from MXP to FCO. The regular flights are out of LIN.

I would arrive at 7:35am and there is an 8:00am direct. After that there isn't another direct out of MXP until 11:00, so I'd have a 3.5 hour layover. Might as well take the train at that point.

Then I have the added cost of about $250 for two tickets regardless of the train/plane choice.

Looks like I'm talking myself into enjoying the Thai service and crappy seats of the FCO flight.