Recently I flew from Bangkok to Macau in business class in the new "Thai Smiles" which seems to be a subsidiary of Thai Airways. In the past I have always had a very pleasant experience flying Thai Airways business class as the seats are large and comfortable with outstanding food and service, but this recent flight on Thai Smiles was appalling as I felt like I was flying economy on a US airline.

The seats in the business class section are exactly the same as the seats in economy. There might be a couple of more inches between my seat and the seat in front of me, but I could not be sure. Even if there was more leg room, my knees were still stuck in the seat in front of me.

It was about a 3 hour international flight and there was not any kind of entertainment system. Even the economy seats in US based domestic airlines seem to still offer free headsets so we could listen to music, but this business class did not offer anything. The meal offered was similar to something you would get in a normal economy section of other airlines. I asked the flight attendant what was the difference between the economy section and the business section and she said the food was better. I could only imagine what the poor people in economy were getting for this 3 hour international flight.

To sum it up, I found it disgusting and appalling that Thai Airways has the gull to call this section of an aircraft business class. Basically I felt cheated. I checked my itinerary and the only indication I had that I was not going to be flying a normal Thai Airways flight was the flight number had 4 digits, one more than the other Thai Airways flights. I’m sure Thai Airways will be saving more money in the short run by offering this severe downgrading of service, but in the long run they will suffer as I cannot see any reasonable person ever taking this aircraft a second time if alternative carriers fly the same routes.

I booked this business class flight on the United Airlines website. Should I complain to United as it degrades the Star Alliance experience? After arriving in Macau, I took a connecting flight on Eva Airlines to Taipei and had a wonderful experience traveling business class the way it should be.