Welcome to my another trip report. My semi yearly visit to Thailand with the weekend hop to Vietnam.
For the first time I've decided to fly via Europe. Usually I fly via China, Japan or Hong Kong, but this time I wanted to close the world circle and fly in the opposite direction. In July, United had a sale on miles. Buy miles and get 100%. So for relatively small amount of money I had economy flight from US to Thailand with Business and First Class on the way back.

During my visit to Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away. I knew that Thais loved their king, but I had no idea how really they loved him. From the lounge in our hotel we could see the Siriraja hospital and Grand Palace where they took his body to.
I don't know how many people went to see the car with King's body going from the hospital to the palace, by my rough estimate there were hundreds of thousands. All the boats on the river were full. I'm talking about boats that carry up to 80 people. There were about 5 boats every 10 minutes. All of them full. Everybody wanted to say final goodbye to the King. All TV channels had the same program. It was like that from the day he passed away to the day I left the country 5 days later. After watching TV in the evenings, now I know almost everything about the King. I'm not kidding. They were showing King's biography from the time he was born to the time he passed away.

October 8 2016
IAD - LHR
United Airlines
UA924
Economy Class
Boeing 777-200
N217UA
Seat 44H
Actual flying time 6:35hrs



The trip started with some bumps. My United flight was scheduled for 10pm departure. My family members were going to a wedding and were planning on dropping me off at 7pm. That would be fine, however they thought that the wedding is much later. It turned out that it was at 6pm. They've offered me a ride but at 4pm. I didn't want to go to the airport this early so I took Uber. From DC to IAD I've paid $35. Not bad comparing to a regular taxi which would cost me around $80.

Got to the airport shortly before 8pm. Quickly dropped off my lagguage and went to the train to terminal C. From the time I was dropped off to the time I was in United lounge it took about 15 minutes. Then the disappointment. I forgot that United lounge is just glorified waiting room. I had one glass of house wine and went outside to get actual food.
Boarding started on time. I was happy that in my row there was only one passenger in the window seat. I guess he was happy too

Take off right on time, drink service and food service. I've picked chicken (I think it was chicken)



What a disappointment! They should serve this to Oscar Munoz. I guess after eating this, he would need another heart transplant. I'm lack of words...

The only positive thing was the cabin crew. They were very friendly, and despite serving crap to the customers they've made the flight pleasant.
Hour before landing at LHR they've served croissant with jelly, coffee/tea.
We've landed on time at gate 44 in Terminal 2. I saw my Thai Airbus A380 at the next gate 46. It took exactly 1 hour to walk from gate 44 to gate 46 (or 46 to 44 I'm not sure now which combination). The only reason why I transferred via LHR to Thai was to try the A380 for the first time. I had better connecting options via FRA, MUC, BRU or MXP, but those airports are served with B777 or B747.
After the hike to the gate I had some time to kill before my flight to Bangkok.
When they announced the boarding I was standing near the front for economy class upper deck gate.
It looks like Thai Airways contracts BAA people to work their flight. The lady took my boarding pass and then gave me 3rd degree burn.
- Why are you going to Fuk-it?
- It's Poo-ket, and I'm going there for vacations.
- How long are you going to stay there? I don't see your return flight. Can I see your ticket?
- I'll be there a week.

What if I was planing on staying in BKK for 30 days then moving to another country for 30 days and didn't have return ticket? WTH was her problem? She could see that it was one way ticket. What if I didn't have it? She would deny me to board the flight? I took my sweet time to pull up my return one way ticket on United application. The network speed was 2G so it took a while. She was satisfied when she saw my Business and First class return ticket. Not even talking about this incident, she was very rude. I don't know if that was her personality or if she had a bad day.
I was trying to think of any other rude employee of that magnitude that I have experienced during my years of flying, but I can't think of any other.
I was going to my favorite place in the world so I didn't think anything of this. Didn't want her to ruin my vacations.

October 9 2016
LHR - BKK
Thai Airways
TG911
Economy Class (upper deck)
Airbus A380-800
HS-TUF
Seat 81C
Actual flying time 10:56hrs



Boarded the plane at the front of the aircraft. Had to walk all the way down to the end to take the staircase upstairs.
I was seated at the very end of the upper deck, in the row of 2 seats in seat 81B. There was already somebody in the seat. After the boarding was completed I saw lots o empty seats. Moved to 81C, which was the isle seat in the row of 4. Some people shuffled around, and at the end I had 4 seats to myself for the entire flight.
Pushback was on time. It was nice to watch take off on the tail cam. About 45 minutes after the take off we were served drinks. I think I had some local Thai whiskey. Even pushing it with the Coke didn't taste good
They had nice selection of the movies, but I wanted to watch my show on the iPad. Shortly after meal service started.
My choice was pork curry with pasta. It was actually very tasty. After that second drink service followed. This time I had a beer.



Throughout the flight, the cabin crew was very attentive doing drink runs every hour or so. I had couple of more beers before I hit the lay flat bed on 4 seats I slept very good. Woke up couple of hours before arrival.



About 2 hours before the arrival, breakfast service started. It was also pretty nice. Poached egg with ham, tomato and some bread. Croissant with jelly, fruits and OJ. Overall not bad.



During the end of the flight I had to fill up arrival form and watched "transit" procedure on video. The entire crew in my section was very nice and attentive. Much better than on my previous flight with TG in Business class.

We've landed at BKK few minutes before scheduled time. I thought that walk at LHR was bad. Our arrival gate was at the very end of the BKK terminal, there were signs for transfer to Phuket showing 1600 meters distance (1 mile).
That walk also took a while. Then I had to clear immigration. The line was busy but moved fast. I've got sticker pinned on my chest "International Baggage Claim - Thai", and was told that I will clear the customs at Phuket.
Still had plenty of time to kill. The monitor was showing gate B3 as my departure gate. Took that 15 minutes walk to B3, and by the time I got there they've changed the departure gate to A6! That took good 25 minutes to get to my new gate. After arriving at the gate I had only 20 minutes till the boarding.
Went to the desk with the agents and asked if my seat was a window seat. She looked at the computer and scratched my original assigned isle seat, and with hand writing she wrote 41K - which was window seat.

October 10 2016
BKK - HKT
Thai Airways
TG203
Economy Class
Boeing 777-300
HS-TKA
Seat 41K
Actual flying time 1:01hr



This time I had a seatmate. The flight was uneventful. As this was last day of the Vegetarian Festival, Thai served veggie wrap and a drink.



I've asked for a coffee, and was pleasantly surpised when I got it. They had very tasty coffee. I was hoping for second cup, but by the time they got to my seat again we started descending.



We've arrived way before scheduled time. It was actually my first time arriving at the new terminal. They kept postponing the opening, and finally opened it in September of this year.
Walked through a jet-way and made my way to the baggage belt which is downstairs. I've queued for the customs lagguagge check but after X-raying 3 bags they gave up and let everyone go.
I walked to the money exchange place and went outside to look for our hotel shuttle.