Originally Posted by
andyptrav
I have been doing LHR -BKK - HKT return 8+ times a year for 7 years and I can assure you Thai is way way ahead. The personal service from the London office is exemplary. You will achieve gold status very quickly and 8 flights a year will give you two free return upgrades every two years but the icing on the cake is you will get one free first class return every year and miles to spare. BA and Emirates won't come anywhere near this.
Emirates is a non starter, the stop in Dubai is a killer.
Fly LHR - BKK TG917 and BKK - LHR TG910 and sleep 7 hours of the flight. No jet lag. When gold you will generally get a good seat and if you ask politely when boarding the purser will find you 3 or 4 seats if available.
Flights with full miles do cost more but well worth the returns.
Fully agree with the above including the comments about the London office. I don't know about the free first class return every year (I guess based on calculating the miles earned combined with birthday award?), but in any event TG is streets ahead of BA, especially when you achieve Gold. I've also found that if the crew see you working on your laptop during the flight they'll take extra care to make sure you're looked after. Having said all of this I only get to see the full capabilities of TG more consistently on their longhaul BKK-LHR flight, the intra-Asia flights tend to be more hit and miss.