steveman518

I think DTF is generally very overrated outside of HK/Taiwan-none of the locations in the US are particularly great...

glennaa11

Always love to see Bangkok. Thanks.

quirrow

Wonderful use of miles and wonderful photos to match too! Thanks for the report shogunate03!

shogunate03

Thanks quirrow! Appreciate the comments, since I am a fan of your trip reports and photography. Don't think I've seen one your reports on FT in a little while.

Thanks glennaa11!

TravellingBeard

Thanks for the post. Toronto here.

Flying YYZ-LHR-FRA-BKK, but in J, this December. Wish I would be able to spend more time in Bangkok, but going for a cousin's wedding, south near Krabi. Ideas on how to format my first report when I come back.

gaobest

Great TR!
Will you have pix for bkk-muc-JFK?
And were you allowed to use FCT In FRA since you flew LH F?
Do the TG 747 have an F lounge on the plane? I can't believe the lounge & bathroom!
Does Thai F lounge dining have food out in buffet style or do you order with table service? Did anyone explain the Thai f lounge spa shower? It looked better than LH f lounge shower.

quirrow

Not much interesting travels lately but I do have a short trip coming up that I might post do a TR on.

goodeats21

Great TR so far. Brings back a lot of memories for me as I have done the LH to TG BKK trip in F many times. Very sad to have the miles go up so dramatically for these trips.

Interested to hear about the details on the "rude" TG staff on the next flight.

shogunate03

Sorry for the late updating and responses - life has gotten busy and I just lost a lot of steam on this TR. Let's try to get this show back on the road.

I am certainly not an expert on the TRs but I feel that the common approach seems to be splitting by flight segments and then some destination/hotel segments. But I think it is just up to each author on how they feel like expressing their trips. I like doing it via photos more than words - and others like Seat2A and eightblack have awesome reports but are more about the written report.

Yeah I'll cover that TG flight during the next segment. Not actively rude in like an in your face way but definitely not what I would consider a FC experience.

BKK-MUC and MUC-YYZ are coming up! Not allowed to use the FCT because we were not departing on a same-day LH flight. Since we arrived on the same-day LH flight we could use the FC Lounge but not FCT.

TG 747 F doesn't really have a lounge but a open-bar tray/table area, much like you see on other carriers with F in the nose. I'll show them in the next segment.

For the TG F lounge, there is some buffet but it is pretty limited. Most all of the food is ordered from the lounge attendants. Nobody really gave me any details about how that fancy spa shower worked - thought I would figure it out and I guess I did. Just not all of that large area in the middle which seemed like it would be an awesome mega shower.

shogunate03

BKK-MUC, TG F 747, Refurbished

Annnddddd…we’re back!



I was excited to finally try out the new refurbished F on the 747. It is a big improvement over the old F in that there is more privacy/space with the semi-suite configuration. Though there are still old touches there, using the same heavy/huge tray table and the bathrooms that are at the very back in pairs.

Hard product is definitely quite nice.





The "middle" seat
















PJs and amenity kit were the same as the last flight. Sadly, still the Porsche branded kit and no Rimowa.

And the legendary inconsistency of TG F shines through once again. There were two primary FAs that I interacted with. One was fantastic. He was always smiling and eater to help out, and seemed to truly enjoy his job. The other one really did not seem to be happy to be there and only seemed to smile once the flight was about to land. She was very curt and abrupt and you'd feel like you were burdening her whenever asking for something.

Starting off with some Dom...



Note that the lavs did not seem like they were really modified all that much with the refurb. Still seem to be about the same.







Beautiful view of the clouds once airborne.



Much less beautiful view to my right as the guy in 1k decided to change into his PJs at his seat. Right.

Menus to start - taken out of their booklet




Meal service soon started, with some caviar. And that was about the highlight of it all.



I had pre-ordered one of the special Thai set meals, thinking that (esp ex-BKK) this would be really good. But boy was I wrong. It was a really strange set and didn't look like the photos at all - and not as good as the curry dishes I had ex-MUC. It started off with some type of bit too chewy beef salad.



Followed by a bacon-wrapped eggplant dish of some type.



And that was the main meal. Not very good and not a lot of food but then again I also wasn't really that hungry to begin with. This was followed by cheese and dessert.





Service was just so-so with the female FA just dropping off plates without saying much or smiling. Refills were not really often and had to flag somebody down to get more drinks. What was easier was just to go to the table/bar and pour myself something else. The downside was that this area wasn't really replenished - so later in the flight, I had to keep bugging the FAs just to get some more water to stay hydrated.

After dinner, it was time for bed. The FA changed it bed mode and applied the mattress padding, and then essentially tossed the duvet over to me. Now that's fine and all but a stark contrast to most other Intl F carriers where they will lay it out on the mattress pad.



After a few hours of sleep, I woke up and wanted to get something to drink so thought I would push the call button. Now, I could have gone to the galley to flag somebody down but thought I would just wait and see how long it would take. And waited. 5 min. Ok. And waited - 10 min. Hmm, ok that's a bit long. 15 min - surely somebody will see that light. Nope, 25 min later the female FA came by and not really apologetic about the delay. Wow - now that's a record for me. You know what, just put some stuff out in the self serve area and let me take care of it myself.



Breakfast curry was much better than the dinner.





Overall, the flight was fine. I mean it's hard to complain too much about flying in Intl F. Hard product is definitely good but soft product and overall experience is definitely quite lacking when compared to SQ, LH, CX, and the various other airlines that TG would consider its competitors.

TravelinWilly

I'm not normally one to quote myself, but your experience BKK-MUC matches mine very closely; I just posted about my trip a couple of weeks ago here.

TG is a carrier I'm going to be trying to avoid in the future to the extent that I can avoid them. I've flown them in first many times over the years (the majority of flights being revenue), and they've just fallen down too far.

Great job on the report, though, and the TG 380 flight seemed okay, and the LH flight looked great (I'm a huge LH first fan myself). Thanks for posting this!

shogunate03

That's interesting! I wonder if we had the exact same flight crew. Though who knows with TG - could have been multiple bad crews. I would probably still select TG on select routes, mostly ex-BKK if I can get Spa access. But if I had a choice in longhaul F, I would indeed probably choose another carrier like LH for a better overall experience.

The LH flight back was even better since they were doing their special around the world theme.

shogunate03

Prague - Part 1

I got a lot of photos from Prague so I'll split it out into two parts.

Upon arrival in MUC, we did a quick overnight at the Le Meridien which is conveniently really close to the train station. It was a quick stay so didn't get many photos in and won't really say too much about it. It was a decent enough stay with a convenient location. One plus - I had two rooms and technically per SPG rules, Plats only gave breakfast for one. But they were generous and gave us breakfast for both rooms - woohoo!

We were taking a train to Prague from Munich but had some time in the AM to look around. So we made a few stops.

First, some delicious schweinshaxe!





And then a little AM drinking at Hobrauhaus.









And then off to Prague!

In Prague, we stayed at the Sheraton which was a decent enough hotel. The location was fine and relatively close to the metro and trams which would take us where we wanted to go. Plat recognition was reasonable. They were sold out so not much in the way of room upgrades but we did get complimentary breakfast in the lounge every day (3 nights). The lounge really is quite small and would probably get a bit cramped if you had 8+ people in there but it never seemed too busy, fortunately. Breakfast options were ok - nothing fancy and happy hour really only had light snacks and definitely not dinner substitute.

Sheraton Prague Lounge





The Sheraton also had a nice rooftop area that they made into a bar. The views were pretty nice though the one day we stopped by at around 6pm we did not see a single person. So not really sure how busy it was from my limited data point.

Here is the view from the rooftop, with Prague Castle/St. Vitus Cathedral in the distance.



First stop on touring Prague was the gothic and beautiful St. Vitus Cathedral.



Though before going inside, we noticed that there was some type of performance by a military band/honor guard for Prague Castle. Made for some excellent photo opportunities.











Back inside the Cathedral. Will let the photos speak for themselves (because otherwise, I don't remember all of the details of the Cathedral history anyway )







And then off to explore the other areas around the Castle grounds.

Trusty Rick Steves book along with the extra ticket for the photo permit.





Then off for some more brews and food at the Strahov monastery. Excellent beers and pretty good food too.











Oddly enough, there's bubble tea even in Prague. And even (disgustingly enough) bubble beer! Did not try as I imagine it would not be very good.



Charles Bridge and Astronomical clock. The Charles Bridge is a fun walk with all types of interesting artists who have setup shop along the bridge. Though quite a bit crowded in peak times of the day. It makes for a really tranquil walk if you are able to get there in the early AM.

shogunate03

Prague - Part 2

Continuing on with the Prague photos.

View from the rooftop bar at the Sheraton Prague. Nice view especially when the weather is good.



Astronomical clock. Watch you wallets for pickpockets! Lots of easy marks there.



View of Prague Castle and Charles Bridge at night.




Petrin Tower - if the Eiffel tower had a Czech, dwarf little brother.


Great views though from Petrin Tower


Tour of the Staropramen beer factory. It's ok - not an amazing tour but somewhat interesting and you get a couple of beers for the price of admission.







Funny Staropramen add that I think was intended to be "multi-cultural".


On the way to Budapest - and hey there's a club lounge for the train! Though really not a whole lot there. Like a dingier United club without the attitude.

shogunate03

Budapest

We stayed at the Marriott Budapest which is an excellent property. It has a great location and a fantastic club lounge with amazing views over the Danube, including the Chain Bridge, Elizabeth Bridge, and Buda Castle.

View from Marriott club lounge at night.


Romance


Daytime view


Hungarian Parliament


Along the river


Light at the end of the tunnel




Matthias Church


Walking around, I also came across a fashion-show that was ongoing in the middle of a square. So I had a chance to play pretend fashion photographer.





Hungarian Parliament exterior - "misting" that created a cool, fog-like effect




Inside the Hungarian Parliament




More night shots






Reagan statue