Arnur
Oct 2, 01, 12:23 pm
18 Aug SK 1642 CGN-CPH 0745-0925 Dash-8
My trip to Thailand started at Cologne-Bonn airport (CGN), where the check-in for SAS is done by Lufthansa. Check-in is quick with not much of a line, as the number of international flights departing CGN and handled by LH is comparatively small. I spent the remaining 20 minutes until boarding at the LH Senator Lounge which is open to holders of LH's FTL card on weekends, when the FTL lounge is closed. The selection of newspapers is quite good and I got hold of a International Herald Tribune as well as of the current copy of Die Zeit. Food offerings, unfortunately, are not the strong point of LH's lounges in Germany - they offer cookies, joghurt and muffins. At this time, the lounge was quite empty.
The flight is surprisingly full, the majority of passengers seemingly on a tour package to Denmark. Departure is on-time, the two flight attendants serve a very decent (cold) breakfast consisting of different kinds of breads and rolls served from a basket, plus a tray containing cold cuts and some fruit, in addition to coffee, tea and orange juice. The flight attendants do several rounds of drink service and do their best to accommodate the somewhat elderly and non-English speaking German tourists. Overall, I was very impressed by the service on this short turboprop flight which was operated in an all-economy set-up under the SAS Commuter brand.
Arrival in CPH was ahead of scheduled time. As I had more than five hours until my connecting flight, I decided to take the train downtown, leaving my carry-on luggage at the airport in a locker. The train station is just a few steps from the arrival hall, the one-way fare to the Central Station is about US$ 2.50 and the train ride takes about twenty minutes. The weather in CPH is unusually good on my visit, clear blue sky and warm, and I enjoyed some three hours of wandering through the city.
18 Aug SK 8601 (a.k.a. TG 951) CPH-BKK 1435-0600+ Boeing 747-300
Back at the airport, boarding has already started for my flight to Bangkok which is operated by Thai International (TG) under a code-share with SAS. Predictably - this is the holiday season - the flight is packed in economy class. Pitch on TG is quite generous, the seat is comfortable enough for economy class, however the entertainment systems seems a bit antiquated. The quality of the headphones provided by TG is poor and to my dismay I learn that my seat (34H) does not allow me to see the movie screen, a fact my travel agent did not advise me of. So no movie for me, this time, but plenty time to read the Bangkok Post and my novel.
Right after take off, the service starts with a towel service and drinks, followed by a Lunch service. The menu (printed - a rare sight these days in economy class):
Shrimps with Carrot and Celery Salad
---
Coq au vin, Buttered Egg Noodles
or
Pork Curry "Pa-naeng", Steamed Hom Mali Rice
---
Roll, Crackers, Butter, Cheese
---
Vanilla Cake with Cherry Sauce
No wine menu is provided, by the time the trolley gets to my seat I learn that they have run out of the Pork curry but have a third choice, over baked Salmon with two kinds of noodles, which I take in addition to some white wine. The shrimp cocktail is quite decent as is the salmon - overall, this meal is definitively among the best I had recently in economy class, both in terms of quality and quantity.
Afterwards, the flight is uneventful, the flight attendants serve water, coca cola and juice frequently through the entire flight and the service call - which my seat neighbor triggered accidentally - is answered promptly.
Breakfast consists of
Fresh Fruit
Omelet, Grilled Veal Sausage, Grilled Bacon and Vegetables
Roll, Croissant, Butter, Marmelade
This is a typical economy class breakfast, nothing outstanding and the rolls served from a basket are pretty stale, the breakfast on the SAS commuter flight was better in my opinion. Overall, the flight was pleasant enough, the food was ok, the service excellent. However, the lack of entertainment in the form of a movie was annoying, Thai should follow the example of other airlines and offer small screens right and left of the main screen, or even better, introduce personal screens.
Flying in Thailand on TG
During my time in Thailand, I took two roundtrips from Bangkok to Chiang Mai on TG, once in Business class and once in economy class. Here a couple of random observations:
Equipment - three of my flights were on A 330, one on a Boeing 777. Bangkok-Chiang Mai is probably Thai's most important domestic trunk route and there are plenty of daily flights with wide-body aircraft. Load factors were high on all my flights for economy class, business class was rather empty on my first (evening) flight and 100% on my morning flight back.
Lounges - Thai operates Royal Executive (Business) class lounges in both Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Both lounges offer comfortable seating, a limited range of international newspapers and magazines, finger food and a assortment of drinks. While they don't have business corners or computers, they do beat Lufthansa Lounges in Germany. They even had German newspapers (along with English ones) at Bangkok. Very impressive.
Service - In business class, TG served a decent dinner of rice and shrimps on China during the short evening flight to Chiang Mai, while the return flight was drinks only even in C. In economy class, TG has adopted the system of lunch boxes - card board boxes containing a cold snack, desert cake plus orange juice. On the flight from BKK, the food was alright but not really exiting, on the flight from Chiang Mai it was inedible. Curiously, the flight attendants handed out plastic bags before landing for passengers, to carry the boxes home - plenty of people did.
Pricing - In Thailand, as in many other developing countries, there are very few promotions or discounts. Round-trip tickets are twice the one-way price, all tickets are fully flexible. Business class was maybe 30% more expensive than economy class.
Flying in Thailand on PG (Bangkok Airways)
After the business part of my journey, I took a quick trip to Koh Samui, one of Thailand's premier islands resorts. The island is served exclusively by Bangkok Airways, Thailand's second scheduled airline, which owns the airport on the island and pioneered tourism on Samui. The ticket to Samui was considerably more expensive than domestic tickets on TG - clearly the airlines is capitalizing on it's monopoly on air transportation.
Departure is from the lower level of BKK's domestic terminal, where the airline 'owns' three gates - after security, PG has its own departure lounge offering free soft drinks, snacks, a computer corner (free internet access) and newspapers. Very nice touch - PG offers only a single class, so the lounge was open to all passengers.
PG operates a fleet of two Boeing 717s and nine ATR 42 / 72 aircraft on regional routes from the hubs of Koh Samui, Surat Thani and Bangkok, including international flights to Cambodia and Singapore. My flights to Samui were on the 717s - pleasant, sparkling new aircraft. Load factor was maybe 30% outbound and 100% on my return flight, the difference due to the amount of connecting traffic - I returned at a time when the evening wave of international flights from BKK was due.
Service on-board was very impressive, tuna sandwiches and cake outbound (noon departure), a pasta dish and ice cream on the flight back, plus drinks service and a second round of coffee or tea. All on a flight of 50', mind you!
At Samui, the airline operates a nice airport, consisting of a number of open-walled structures serving as check-in and waiting areas. In the evening, flight were leaving every 30' to BKK to connect to the international flights. Again, a small counter served coffee, soft drinks and snacks. Unfortunately, PG has no interline agreement with other carriers, so it's impossible to check-through luggage.
4 Sept SK 972 BKK-CPH 0020 - 0645 Boeing 767
When I had contacted SAS earlier, I was told that the flight was overbooked substantially and that they were looking for volunteers for a re-route and I had informed them that I would not mind flying a different carrier, if necessary, as long as it was *A. When I checked-in, I asked about a complimentary upgrade to business class, as I knew that there were three open seats in C, while Y was overbooked.
I was asked to report back 40' before departure for the final decision and given a food voucher as a compensation for my willingness to give up my confirmed Y class seat. While I was constantly worrying about being stuck on the middle seat of some other airline - since I would definitively check-in very late as all planes to Europe leave within a short time window before and after midnight, I wondered whether it was really such a great idea to take chances.
However, the gamble played off and when I finally received my boarding pass at a few minutes to midnight, it was on my original flight but in business class. As it was about 30' before departure, I had barely time to clear security and immigration. However, I did check-out the Lufthansa lounge at BKK, which was empty at that time as the LH flight had already left. Both the newspaper and drinks selection was good, the food available was even outstanding by LH standards, with plenty of different sandwiches being available.
When the flight departed, the Boeing 767 - coming from Singapore - was 100% full in both C and Y. The seats in C were comfortable enough, if not precisely outstanding, but on a free upgrade, how could I complain. The amenity kit was nothing to write home about, it contained the usual toiletries and came in a cheap blue SAS textile bag.
SAS does not offer seatback video, but rather goes the Sony DVD player route in its 767 fleet. The movie selection did not strike me as outstanding but I probably go to the movies too often, so usually its difficult to find something I'm interested in.
Food choices:
The main meal
A snack with your drink
Salad
Mixed salad with a choice of dressing
First course
Shrimp and fennel brunoise with mayonnaise
Main course
Grilled beef steak with parsley butter, pearl onions, potato purée and red wine sauce.
*
Salmon churchee with stir-fried Chinese broccoli and steamed rice
*
Chicken thighs in lemmon grass and tomato sauce with egg noodles, carrots and buttered spinach
*
Grilled aubergine and tomato with ratatouille and penne pasta (vegetarian alternative)
Cheese
Selected cheeses with garnish
Desert
Petit fours
Coffee or tea
Medium roasted coffee with Arabian, Kenyan and Columbian beans specially blended for Scandinavian airlines
*
Highest quality of pure Ceylon tea
Today's quick alternative
A cold meal including a starter, salad and cheese.
Wine Selection
1999 Chablis St Martin
1999 Allandale Chardonay
1997 Don Osvaldo Reserve Merlot
1998 Chassagne Montrachet Labouré Roi
Champagne was a 1995 Henriot
I was quite impressed by the food and presentation on this flight. The salad for once was fresh and crisp, the first course (shrimp) very decent and sizeable, and the main meal (Grilled Aubergine) surprisingly tasty for airline food. With the food, I had the Chablis which was decent. This was by far the best overall dining experience I had in the sky. I asked the flight attendant what the quick alternative was, and he said it was essentially the same food without the main course, making it quite clear that I should stick with the normal meal. Service was quick and my glass was re-filled frequently.
After the dinner I slept through most of the flight, which is rare for me and IMHO the best way to spend any flight. Thumps up for sleepability J J The flight attendants provided every passenger with a bottle of mineral water, which is a nice touch. I wonder why it's not more common. It can't be the extra cost of the water…
Breakfast
Tropical fruit plate
Rolls, croissants, marmelade and yoghurt
Cold cuts
Chicken chipolas and pork sausage with scrambled egg, fresh mushrooms and tomato concassé
Or
Thai style stir-fried noodles with shrimps.
Coffee or tea
While the dinner was outstanding, the breakfast service was ok but not really terribly different from coach. Certainly, the food was somewhat better and the presentation nicer, but nothing to write home about.
Arrival in CPH was on-time. As there is no LH Lounge in CPH and since my upgrade did not entitle me to the use of the SAS Lounges (I tried…), I spent the two hours hanging around the pleasant terminal.
4 Sept SK 641 CPH-CGN 0915-1055 Dash-8
This flight seemed rather full, maybe 80%. To my surprise, it had separate business and coach sections (unlike my flight from CGN) dived by nothing but a sign (not even a curtain). About 20' after take-off we had to return to CPH because of problems with the cabin pressure. We deplaned, spent another 45' at the terminal and took a different plane (same type) with the same crew. SAS handled the situation professional - since CGN is a small airport, few people had connecting flights and we arrived about 90' late at CGN.
Service on this flight felt worse than on my flight to CPH three weeks earlier, but maybe that's just the step down from intercontinental business class to commuter class. The breakfast was ok if nothing outstanding.
Overall:
TG International: Decent service in coach, nothing outstanding, food a bit better than average. Antiquated entertainment system.
TG Domestic: OK service in coach, good service in business class. Meals are really depending on the flight times. Nice domestic lounges.
PG Domestic: Outstanding service, however clearly overpriced by Thai standards. Would like to try them again some time soon to Cambodia.
SAS Commuter: Service clearly above average. Very nice crews.
SAS Business: Very pleasant, seats could need improvement. Very good food on that specific flight.
My trip to Thailand started at Cologne-Bonn airport (CGN), where the check-in for SAS is done by Lufthansa. Check-in is quick with not much of a line, as the number of international flights departing CGN and handled by LH is comparatively small. I spent the remaining 20 minutes until boarding at the LH Senator Lounge which is open to holders of LH's FTL card on weekends, when the FTL lounge is closed. The selection of newspapers is quite good and I got hold of a International Herald Tribune as well as of the current copy of Die Zeit. Food offerings, unfortunately, are not the strong point of LH's lounges in Germany - they offer cookies, joghurt and muffins. At this time, the lounge was quite empty.
The flight is surprisingly full, the majority of passengers seemingly on a tour package to Denmark. Departure is on-time, the two flight attendants serve a very decent (cold) breakfast consisting of different kinds of breads and rolls served from a basket, plus a tray containing cold cuts and some fruit, in addition to coffee, tea and orange juice. The flight attendants do several rounds of drink service and do their best to accommodate the somewhat elderly and non-English speaking German tourists. Overall, I was very impressed by the service on this short turboprop flight which was operated in an all-economy set-up under the SAS Commuter brand.
Arrival in CPH was ahead of scheduled time. As I had more than five hours until my connecting flight, I decided to take the train downtown, leaving my carry-on luggage at the airport in a locker. The train station is just a few steps from the arrival hall, the one-way fare to the Central Station is about US$ 2.50 and the train ride takes about twenty minutes. The weather in CPH is unusually good on my visit, clear blue sky and warm, and I enjoyed some three hours of wandering through the city.
18 Aug SK 8601 (a.k.a. TG 951) CPH-BKK 1435-0600+ Boeing 747-300
Back at the airport, boarding has already started for my flight to Bangkok which is operated by Thai International (TG) under a code-share with SAS. Predictably - this is the holiday season - the flight is packed in economy class. Pitch on TG is quite generous, the seat is comfortable enough for economy class, however the entertainment systems seems a bit antiquated. The quality of the headphones provided by TG is poor and to my dismay I learn that my seat (34H) does not allow me to see the movie screen, a fact my travel agent did not advise me of. So no movie for me, this time, but plenty time to read the Bangkok Post and my novel.
Right after take off, the service starts with a towel service and drinks, followed by a Lunch service. The menu (printed - a rare sight these days in economy class):
Shrimps with Carrot and Celery Salad
---
Coq au vin, Buttered Egg Noodles
or
Pork Curry "Pa-naeng", Steamed Hom Mali Rice
---
Roll, Crackers, Butter, Cheese
---
Vanilla Cake with Cherry Sauce
No wine menu is provided, by the time the trolley gets to my seat I learn that they have run out of the Pork curry but have a third choice, over baked Salmon with two kinds of noodles, which I take in addition to some white wine. The shrimp cocktail is quite decent as is the salmon - overall, this meal is definitively among the best I had recently in economy class, both in terms of quality and quantity.
Afterwards, the flight is uneventful, the flight attendants serve water, coca cola and juice frequently through the entire flight and the service call - which my seat neighbor triggered accidentally - is answered promptly.
Breakfast consists of
Fresh Fruit
Omelet, Grilled Veal Sausage, Grilled Bacon and Vegetables
Roll, Croissant, Butter, Marmelade
This is a typical economy class breakfast, nothing outstanding and the rolls served from a basket are pretty stale, the breakfast on the SAS commuter flight was better in my opinion. Overall, the flight was pleasant enough, the food was ok, the service excellent. However, the lack of entertainment in the form of a movie was annoying, Thai should follow the example of other airlines and offer small screens right and left of the main screen, or even better, introduce personal screens.
Flying in Thailand on TG
During my time in Thailand, I took two roundtrips from Bangkok to Chiang Mai on TG, once in Business class and once in economy class. Here a couple of random observations:
Equipment - three of my flights were on A 330, one on a Boeing 777. Bangkok-Chiang Mai is probably Thai's most important domestic trunk route and there are plenty of daily flights with wide-body aircraft. Load factors were high on all my flights for economy class, business class was rather empty on my first (evening) flight and 100% on my morning flight back.
Lounges - Thai operates Royal Executive (Business) class lounges in both Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Both lounges offer comfortable seating, a limited range of international newspapers and magazines, finger food and a assortment of drinks. While they don't have business corners or computers, they do beat Lufthansa Lounges in Germany. They even had German newspapers (along with English ones) at Bangkok. Very impressive.
Service - In business class, TG served a decent dinner of rice and shrimps on China during the short evening flight to Chiang Mai, while the return flight was drinks only even in C. In economy class, TG has adopted the system of lunch boxes - card board boxes containing a cold snack, desert cake plus orange juice. On the flight from BKK, the food was alright but not really exiting, on the flight from Chiang Mai it was inedible. Curiously, the flight attendants handed out plastic bags before landing for passengers, to carry the boxes home - plenty of people did.
Pricing - In Thailand, as in many other developing countries, there are very few promotions or discounts. Round-trip tickets are twice the one-way price, all tickets are fully flexible. Business class was maybe 30% more expensive than economy class.
Flying in Thailand on PG (Bangkok Airways)
After the business part of my journey, I took a quick trip to Koh Samui, one of Thailand's premier islands resorts. The island is served exclusively by Bangkok Airways, Thailand's second scheduled airline, which owns the airport on the island and pioneered tourism on Samui. The ticket to Samui was considerably more expensive than domestic tickets on TG - clearly the airlines is capitalizing on it's monopoly on air transportation.
Departure is from the lower level of BKK's domestic terminal, where the airline 'owns' three gates - after security, PG has its own departure lounge offering free soft drinks, snacks, a computer corner (free internet access) and newspapers. Very nice touch - PG offers only a single class, so the lounge was open to all passengers.
PG operates a fleet of two Boeing 717s and nine ATR 42 / 72 aircraft on regional routes from the hubs of Koh Samui, Surat Thani and Bangkok, including international flights to Cambodia and Singapore. My flights to Samui were on the 717s - pleasant, sparkling new aircraft. Load factor was maybe 30% outbound and 100% on my return flight, the difference due to the amount of connecting traffic - I returned at a time when the evening wave of international flights from BKK was due.
Service on-board was very impressive, tuna sandwiches and cake outbound (noon departure), a pasta dish and ice cream on the flight back, plus drinks service and a second round of coffee or tea. All on a flight of 50', mind you!
At Samui, the airline operates a nice airport, consisting of a number of open-walled structures serving as check-in and waiting areas. In the evening, flight were leaving every 30' to BKK to connect to the international flights. Again, a small counter served coffee, soft drinks and snacks. Unfortunately, PG has no interline agreement with other carriers, so it's impossible to check-through luggage.
4 Sept SK 972 BKK-CPH 0020 - 0645 Boeing 767
When I had contacted SAS earlier, I was told that the flight was overbooked substantially and that they were looking for volunteers for a re-route and I had informed them that I would not mind flying a different carrier, if necessary, as long as it was *A. When I checked-in, I asked about a complimentary upgrade to business class, as I knew that there were three open seats in C, while Y was overbooked.
I was asked to report back 40' before departure for the final decision and given a food voucher as a compensation for my willingness to give up my confirmed Y class seat. While I was constantly worrying about being stuck on the middle seat of some other airline - since I would definitively check-in very late as all planes to Europe leave within a short time window before and after midnight, I wondered whether it was really such a great idea to take chances.
However, the gamble played off and when I finally received my boarding pass at a few minutes to midnight, it was on my original flight but in business class. As it was about 30' before departure, I had barely time to clear security and immigration. However, I did check-out the Lufthansa lounge at BKK, which was empty at that time as the LH flight had already left. Both the newspaper and drinks selection was good, the food available was even outstanding by LH standards, with plenty of different sandwiches being available.
When the flight departed, the Boeing 767 - coming from Singapore - was 100% full in both C and Y. The seats in C were comfortable enough, if not precisely outstanding, but on a free upgrade, how could I complain. The amenity kit was nothing to write home about, it contained the usual toiletries and came in a cheap blue SAS textile bag.
SAS does not offer seatback video, but rather goes the Sony DVD player route in its 767 fleet. The movie selection did not strike me as outstanding but I probably go to the movies too often, so usually its difficult to find something I'm interested in.
Food choices:
The main meal
A snack with your drink
Salad
Mixed salad with a choice of dressing
First course
Shrimp and fennel brunoise with mayonnaise
Main course
Grilled beef steak with parsley butter, pearl onions, potato purée and red wine sauce.
*
Salmon churchee with stir-fried Chinese broccoli and steamed rice
*
Chicken thighs in lemmon grass and tomato sauce with egg noodles, carrots and buttered spinach
*
Grilled aubergine and tomato with ratatouille and penne pasta (vegetarian alternative)
Cheese
Selected cheeses with garnish
Desert
Petit fours
Coffee or tea
Medium roasted coffee with Arabian, Kenyan and Columbian beans specially blended for Scandinavian airlines
*
Highest quality of pure Ceylon tea
Today's quick alternative
A cold meal including a starter, salad and cheese.
Wine Selection
1999 Chablis St Martin
1999 Allandale Chardonay
1997 Don Osvaldo Reserve Merlot
1998 Chassagne Montrachet Labouré Roi
Champagne was a 1995 Henriot
I was quite impressed by the food and presentation on this flight. The salad for once was fresh and crisp, the first course (shrimp) very decent and sizeable, and the main meal (Grilled Aubergine) surprisingly tasty for airline food. With the food, I had the Chablis which was decent. This was by far the best overall dining experience I had in the sky. I asked the flight attendant what the quick alternative was, and he said it was essentially the same food without the main course, making it quite clear that I should stick with the normal meal. Service was quick and my glass was re-filled frequently.
After the dinner I slept through most of the flight, which is rare for me and IMHO the best way to spend any flight. Thumps up for sleepability J J The flight attendants provided every passenger with a bottle of mineral water, which is a nice touch. I wonder why it's not more common. It can't be the extra cost of the water…
Breakfast
Tropical fruit plate
Rolls, croissants, marmelade and yoghurt
Cold cuts
Chicken chipolas and pork sausage with scrambled egg, fresh mushrooms and tomato concassé
Or
Thai style stir-fried noodles with shrimps.
Coffee or tea
While the dinner was outstanding, the breakfast service was ok but not really terribly different from coach. Certainly, the food was somewhat better and the presentation nicer, but nothing to write home about.
Arrival in CPH was on-time. As there is no LH Lounge in CPH and since my upgrade did not entitle me to the use of the SAS Lounges (I tried…), I spent the two hours hanging around the pleasant terminal.
4 Sept SK 641 CPH-CGN 0915-1055 Dash-8
This flight seemed rather full, maybe 80%. To my surprise, it had separate business and coach sections (unlike my flight from CGN) dived by nothing but a sign (not even a curtain). About 20' after take-off we had to return to CPH because of problems with the cabin pressure. We deplaned, spent another 45' at the terminal and took a different plane (same type) with the same crew. SAS handled the situation professional - since CGN is a small airport, few people had connecting flights and we arrived about 90' late at CGN.
Service on this flight felt worse than on my flight to CPH three weeks earlier, but maybe that's just the step down from intercontinental business class to commuter class. The breakfast was ok if nothing outstanding.
Overall:
TG International: Decent service in coach, nothing outstanding, food a bit better than average. Antiquated entertainment system.
TG Domestic: OK service in coach, good service in business class. Meals are really depending on the flight times. Nice domestic lounges.
PG Domestic: Outstanding service, however clearly overpriced by Thai standards. Would like to try them again some time soon to Cambodia.
SAS Commuter: Service clearly above average. Very nice crews.
SAS Business: Very pleasant, seats could need improvement. Very good food on that specific flight.