The next stop during the trip was going to be southern Thailand.
The main reason for going there was to visit a friend who had moved to Thailand during five months to study Thai.
Getting to Krabi in southern Thailand meant about an hour of flying on a Thai Airways domestic flight, there are three daily flights in each direction on the route.
In retroperspective I could have tried to book the flights as part of the award ticket, but the problem was that I had not yet finalised the plans for Thailand when I made the award booking.
Also I’m not sure if the woman at Eurobonus member service would have been too happy to book another two flights. I had already stretched the rules, limits and number of segments to excess.
Anyway, the ticket was booked on the Thai Airways webpage, at the very last minute.
I couldn’t be bothered to book business class on the flights as the difference in service is quite small (and the flights are dry). I would get lounge access and priority check-in/baggage anyway as Star Gold.
The cheapest ticket available (Saver) booked in booking class V, which according to the SAS webpage would give me no points at all. Well that didn’t sound too fun! After all I am a mileage junkie.
I checked the second cheapest ticket (Saver Plus). The fare difference between Saver and Saver Plus was about 500 Bath (15 USD).
To my delight I found out that Saver Plus booked in booking class Q, giving 100% points.
Easy choice for that small fare difference!
I tried to pre-book seats for the flights, but did not manage on any of the webpages.
Check-in in Bangkok
I checked out of the hotel at 2.30 pm, just about two and a half hour before scheduled departure time of my flight.
Given the quick ride to get from the airport to the hotel upon arrival I figured this would be enough.
Unfortunately the traffic in central Bangkok was jammed and it took absolutely forever to move just a few meters. I was seriously questioning if I had been too optimistic in the planning.
The taxi driver also chose to drive a different routing to get back to the airport, which in my opinion felt much longer, but what do I know?! We had negotiated a fixed price for the ride, so there was nothing to be gained in that sense.
After nearly half an hour of navigating the jammed streets of Bangkok we finally arrived at the entrance to the motorway. I was relived, to say the least.
From that point the driver kept a very good speed (although not necessarily within the limits) and we drove the last part to Suvarnabhumi in just 20 minutes.
Quite a lot of people inside the huge terminal. Thai Airways has a separate check-in area for domestic flights located in check-in islands B and C.
There were four premium check-in desks open for business class (Royal Silk) and Star Alliance Gold.
I was checked in immediately at one of the desks by a friendly young man.
A red priority tag was attached to my luggage and I was given a window seat for the flight as requested, in case there would be a nice view during the descent in southern Thailand.
No line whatsoever at security control, I was through in a minute, however it was quite a long walk to get from check-in/security to the lounge.
Even though I kept a good speed using the moving walkways it still took a few minutes to get there.
Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounge, Bangkok (Domestic area)
In spite of the lengthy walk I was at least happy to find out that the lounge was located right opposite the departure gate to Krabi.
After a quick look at my gold card and scanning of my boarding pass at the reception I was invited inside.
The lounge was rather crowded with lots of passengers waiting for the late afternoon and evening departures to airports around Thailand.
Many of the passengers were connecting from international flights, there are for example many arrivals from Europe in the mid-afternoon around 3 pm.
Still no problem to find a seat.
The lounge was very tidy and well-maintained, but otherwise a little boring and uninspiring.
An OK place to kill an hour before boarding of the flight, having some snacks and checking the e-mails, but not a place I would arrive hours in advance to visit.
The self-service buffet had some very nice freshly squeezed juices to drink.
There were also coffee and tea as well as different types of soft drinks and sodas.
However there was no alcohol, the domestic lounge was completely dry (in contrast to the international lounges).
The selection of food and snacks was quite all right though.
On offer they had finger sandwiches, fresh fruits, dim sum as well as warm pies and pastries, they had a rather nice chicken pie for example.
As I had not eaten any lunch (just a rather extensive breakfast) I was quite happy to find some more substantial food in the lounge and made myself a rather proper afternoon snack.
The lounge also had free WIFI as well as two internet computers to use.
Boarding
I left the lounge around half an hour and went to the gate almost right opposite the lounge.
Boarding started 25 minutes before departure with priority boarding for business class/Royal Silk and Star Gold.
One of the gate agents held up a sign where these two were written in large capital letters and invited relevant passengers to board.
Sitting close to the podium I was the very first passenger to board the aircraft.
Nice! This is the way it should work! ^
The gate area was quite packed so it was much appreciated as I got to have a seat and store my hand luggage before the masses boarded.
There were newspapers available at the entrance to the aircraft and I had a Bangkok Post to read on the flight.
They were available in very small quantities so surely only the first passengers even got the chance to grab a paper.
The aircraft used for the flight to Krabi was a very old Airbus A300. I don’t even want to think of when these aircrafts were taken into service.
The interior itself was reasonably well-maintained, as was probably the aircraft in general, but all the features available in a modern aircraft were lacking.
All passengers entered the aircraft through door 1L.
I had been given seat 32K for the flight, this didn’t really sound like a big hit at first, but in fact I was completely wrong on that one.
The six or seven rows of business class stretched rather randomly from row 11 until row 24.
The first row of economy class started at row 31 (and went on to row 68). Seat 32K thus meant the check-in agent had secured a seat on the second row of economy class for me.
Nice!
The flight was almost completely full in economy class, there was hardly a single spare seat onboard.
The majority of the passengers were holidaymakers (Scandinavia being well represented onboard). A happy bunch of people, but honestly some of them were a bit too leisurely dressed in my opinion.
Even when travelling behind the curtain I don’t think it’s appropriate to dress like you have just arrived from a long day on the beach. But that’s just me...
Bangkok-Krabi, flight TG 249 operated by Thai Airways
Departure: 16:50
Arrival: 18:10
Aircraft: Airbus A300
Class: Economy Class
Seat: 32K
Pushback right on time at 4.50 pm and the standard Thai safety demonstration video was shown on the screens in the cabin.
The captain welcomed us onboard and announced a flight time of 1 hour and 5 minutes.
During the taxi we passed most of the terminal building and one of the more unusual airlines I spotted was a Boeing 767-300 from Air Madagascar.
I just love flying unusual and exotic airlines and would definitely not mind giving an airline like Air Madagascar a try (in that sense travelling TG is a bit boring).
We finally took off at 5.05 pm from runway 01L with the massive terminal building in sight during line-up and take-off.
Meal service
Immediately after take-off the meal service started, or rather the snack service.
A Thai Airways paper box was handed out to all passengers in economy class.
Interestingly it was actually possible to order a special meal for the flight, so some passengers were given a “vegetarian box” or a “gluten-free box”.
That’s quite ambitious for economy class on a rather short domestic flight.
The regular box included a sandwich with turkey and some kind of meat stew, a fruit cake and a fruit juice.
The crew passed through the cabin offering coffee, tea and water.
The snack was unspectacular but perfectly adequate for the flight and much better than one would have got on a similar flight in Europe or the US.
I dozed off for the remaining part of the flight while listening to some music.
Arrival in Krabi
There had been quite a lot of rain in the Krabi/Phuket area so the weather during the descent was quite grey and cloudy but was clearing up.
Still a rather nice view with all the small islands located along the coast, I would love to land there some other time on a clear day.
After a sharp left turn we landed at 6.10 pm on runway 32.
The rain had just stopped but when getting off the aircraft there was a woman standing right below the stairs with some umbrellas, however fortunately they weren’t needed.
Sitting on the second row of economy I was one of the first persons to get off.
Rather strangely when entering the terminal building (after a short walk on the apron from the aircraft) all passengers had to take an escalator up one floor to some kind of arrivals level, only to walk a few meters and then take another escalator one floor down again.
It didn’t really make much sense...
However a new terminal building is being constructed at the moment, located right beside the current one.
The baggage was delivered on two belts, one for domestic passengers (who started their journey in Thailand) and one for international passengers (who started their journey in another country).
Baggage delivery started almost at the same moment as I arrived and my suitcase was one of the first to appear.
I bought a taxi voucher from one of the desks in the arrivals hall (fixed prices to most destinations in the area) and was on my way from the airport within minutes of landing.
A completely hassle-free arrival!
Verdict
A short and uneventful domestic flight so not much too comment about really.
I really hope the Airbus A300s are soon to be retired for something more modern, they are getting really old.
The snack in economy, although not spectacular, was still better than what would be served in most other parts of the world on a similar flight.