Just sharing a review of a very disappointing Economy experience on Thai Airways (flight TG941 from Milan MXP to Bangkok BKK), especially for a Star Alliance frequent flyer.

Due to an aircraft change to a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, my two travel companions and I (all adult men over 1.75m) lost our pre-booked seats. I called the Thai Airways contact center, and the agent manually reassigned us to row 59 (seats 59H, 59J, and 59K).

The problem? The agent completely failed to mention that seat 59K has absolutely no window. It�s just a solid plastic wall. This meant zero lateral shoulder or head room. We spent 10 hours cramped in a claustrophobic space that is completely inadequate for three large adults.

The rest of the flight didn't make up for it. The passenger space on their 787-9 is extremely tight, the food was mediocre (well below average for long-haul flights), and the In-Flight Entertainment was seriously lacking, with only 2 or 3 movies available in Italian.

To top it off, the Customer Service was totally unhelpful. They did reply to my complaint emails, but they offered absolutely no solution, no alternative, and zero compensation. They simply hid behind a copy-pasted policy about "automated seat reallocations due to aircraft changes", completely ignoring the fact that their own agent manually assigned us a windowless row without giving us any warning.

If you are flying the TG 787-9, avoid row 59 at all costs. And don't expect their customer care to actually help you if their staff makes a mistake.

Sorry to hear your experience. A type change can be unfortunate, especially if there are fewer seats.

What mistake did the call centre make? Someone needed to be allocated seats in row 59, and I doubt they personally would know which seats have no windows. The same situation could occur with any airline.

Did you ask to pay for and exit row seat with more legroom, given you mention all 3 of you are tall?

That might be an idea for your return flight - I trust that goes well.

Compensation?! You bought an economy seat, and that is what you got

gibipi - First, let me welcome you to FlyerTalk and the TG Forum. You have discovered that flying economy class on TG long haul is not the greatest. Being a Star Alliance frequent flier in itself does not benefit you. I do not believe you are entitled to any compensation though.

TG offers 32" pitch in economy on the 789 throughout the cabin. This is better than most European airlines, which offer 30-31" in regular economy. Of course, with 9 across in economy, the Boeing 789 will nearly always offer a less comfortable Y cabin than the Airbus 350 due to the narrower cabin. Looking at Aerolopa there is a slight loss of shoulder space in the window at row 59 in TG's configuration due to the cabin curvature (in addition to no window), so not an ideal seat assignment. It does never fail to amaze me that pax will take seat assignments for a long-haul flight blindly, without first checking any of the various available resources to determine which seats are better or worse.

What mistake? Did you ask for row 58 but got mistakenly assigned 59?

The issue I have with the TG 787 aircraft is the poor seat padding; after 4-5 hrs on the seat one gets a really sore bottom. A little better on 777, perhaps average, but TG A350s are so much better with seat comfort, well padded and changes the seat comfort drastically.