jacob_m

Boarding

After the very nice and totally unexpected Lufthansa inauguration ceremony I made it to the gate just in time for boarding to start.

At the gate passengers had already begun to form lines, with some help from the ground staff.
There was an economy class line as well as a dedicated premium (business/Star Gold) line.
As I joined the premium line one of the gate agents noticed my gold Thai first class boarding pass and immediately asked me to step aside and wait just by the podium.

At 10.15 am, 30 mins before scheduled departure, boarding started.
Having already been identified as a first class passenger at the gate they were very careful to let me board first, before the others.
Really nice! And always an advantage if you want to take cabin photos...

Settling in onboard



First and business class used the forward passenger bridge leading to door 1L
I was warmly greeted at the door and escorted to my seat 02K.
My jacket was taken, I was offered a hot towel and the FA also asked me if I wanted anything to drink before departure.
They had orange juice and champagne to choose between, not a particularly difficult question...
I asked which champagne brand they had onboard and was told they served the rather nice Dom Pérignon 2002.

A few moments later the female purser also arrived at my seat, greeted me by name, warmly welcomed me onboard and told me I should not hesitate to let her know if there was anything she could do for me.

So far a pretty good start of the flight!



Newspapers and magazines were available at the small table in the middle of the cabin.
I was also given excellent noise-cancelling headphones (in a nice Thai Airways box), slippers and an amenity kit (a nice Rimowa one!).

I was also offered a refill of the champagne, which I happily accepted.



Boarding was completed surprisingly quickly, they managed to board a reasonably full Boeing 747 in less than 20 minutes. The doors were closed already at 10.37 am, eight minutes ahead of timetable.
The standard safety demonstration video was shown on the monitors with the serious Thai captain who ensures the passengers “your safety is our priority, please watch the safety demonstration from our flight attendants carefully”.
I always get a smile on my lips when I watch it.

The load in first class was very light, only three seats were occupied (out of 10 in total).

The flight time to Bangkok was expected to be nearly 7 hours.

Tokyo/Narita-Bangkok, flight TG 641 operated by Thai Airways
Departure: 10:45
Arrival: 15:45
Aircraft: Boeing 747-700
Class: First Class
Seat: 02K



The crew worked hard until the very end collecting empty glasses and securing the cabin for departure.
They barely made it to their seats as we were immediately cleared for take-off when reaching the runway threshold.
We finally took off at 10.50 am from runway 34L.

The Lufthansa A380, which had been baptised during the morning, was scheduled to leave at 10.25 am but was still standing at the gate when we took off.
I think the ceremony took far more time than they had expected.

The menu

After take-off hot towels were offered in first class as well as a post-departure drink, naturally another glass of Dom for me.



The menu and drink list were also handed out and here is what was on offer on the flight to Bangkok:

The meal service

I was offered another refill of the Dom and then the amuse bouche was handed out, two nice skewers. The one with Japanese yakitori in particular was really tasty.
The FA also passed my seat to take my meal order and I decided to have the full meal onboard.



In the meantime the crew prepared the table in the middle of the cabin with the drinks, including champagne, wine, beer, soft drinks and some of the spirits available.
It didn’t take me much time to notice the bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label on display, which the crew happily promoted to me. Although whisky is something I prefer to have after the meal...



The table was prepared for the meal service with a white table cloth.
The table in first class on the Boeing 747 is really massive, half of it would have been enough.

The table setting in first class is quite elegant with nice wine and drinks glasses and a china which work well with the table setting in general.

The first course was then handed out, a rather tasty salmon terrine. I was also offered breads from a nice bread basket and went for some slices of garlic bread.
After a last refill of my Dom I asked for some white wine with the appetizer and decided to try the M de Malle 2007, which was quite nice and complemented the salmon terrine very well.

As we encountered some pretty bad turbulence the FA only filled half of my glass, which was probably a good thing.
Some of my champagne (a rather full glass) ended up on the table and even some of the glasses on the drinks table fell to the floor.



I was also offered some Japanese green tea, which is always nice.

Next the soup arrived, the lentil and sausage cream soup. It was nice but rather filling!

As the turbulence has nearly stopped I was also offered a full refill of my wine glass. I liked the white wine!



There were three choices of main course and I decided to have the chicken in curry “Mussaman”.
It wasn’t very hot, but there were several spices to add in a small bowl, which I did. I like spicy food.

Rather nicely the rice was delivered on a plate, while the chicken curry was served in a separate bowl. Very nice! Just like in a proper restaurant!
I was later also offered more rice.

I asked for some red wine with the main course and went for the Château Cantemerle 2006. Quite nice! I was quite impressed with the drinks list (and the wine list) in Thai Airways First.
I was also offered some more Japanese green tea.



A fruit and cheese cart then passed through the cabin. The Japanese man in 01A ate a little quicker than me so the cart ended up parked in front of the cabin until I was ready.



I asked for some camembert and Appenzell cheese and some fresh fruits. I also accepted a glass of the nice port wine.



Eventually the meal service was coming to an end and the dessert was offered, a nougat cake with vanilla and chocolate sauce. It was delivious!
I also got a well-needed cup of black coffee.

The FA asked me if I wanted some cognac with the coffee, they had the Otard 1795 Extra Cognac onboard, which is far from the cheapest one around.
However having seen the JW Blue on the drinks table it was not particularly difficult to make that my first choice.



The service

The meal service on the whole was very good. Great food and a very nice drink list with plenty of excellent wines, champagne and spirits.

However I thought the meal service felt a little bit rushed. The flight time to Bangkok was nearly 7 hours and there just wasn’t any need to rush through the meal.
I would have preferred it to be slightly slower, especially to have a bit more time to relax between the different courses.
There were only three persons in F, and one person didn’t choose to have the full meal, so the FAs were definitely not overworked (but maybe that made them bored instead).

Otherwise the service itself was really nice, especially the leading stewardess was lovely and really entertaining, struggling to keep my glasses refilled and promoting the nice brands of spirit they had onboard.
She was Japanese (or at least fluent in Japanese) and had a bit of the Japanese mindset to service, which is never a disadvantage.

I was incredibly full when the meal service was over, but otherwise very satisfied.

The seat



The seat in first class has been around for some time now but is still very comfortable and quite competitive in the industry.
The legroom and personal space is massive and there is plenty of storage at the seat.
Each seat also has an ottoman which can be used as a visitor’s seat, a footrest, or part of the bed when the seat is fully reclined (the seat can be made fully horizontal)

The seat pitch in first class is rather good at 78”.



The seat and all the lights are controlled from a seat panel next to the seat.



I found the seat to be really comfortable, both for sleeping/resting, and to sit in at other times.
No complaints whatsoever!



Inflight entertainment

Thai Airways had full AVOD onboard. The selection of movies and TV-series was OK but not spectacular.
I also found the IFE to be slightly tricky to navigate, the menus were not always very logic, and the IFE was also rather slow at times.



I watched an episode of The Simpsons after the meal service, otherwise I did not make much use of it during the flight.