Originally Posted by
goodeats21
Been that way in Thailand for awhile. Secondary cities are now served by Thai Smile, an offshoot of Thai Airways that is not part of Star Alliance.
Makes it impossible to redeem to/from the secondary cities in Thailand, and no Star Alliance benefits when you now have to book them separately.
Sucks.
I haven't found it to be that big of a problem if you're just flying around in Thailand. You can fly TG from BKK to USM, HKT, CNX & KBV. It's cheap enough and didn't really need any benefits flying Bangkok Air USM-CNX, Kaan Hua Hin-CNX or Nok CNX-Udon Thani.