TonyBurr

Can you tell me the difference between the Royal Silk and Orchard lounges? Is one the Business Class and the other the general lounge?

Thanks

A_Lee

I made a post comparing the lounges a while back which I'll repost here. See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/11566792-post47.html for the post in the original thread. I don't think there's really any difference between Royal Silk and Royal Orchid lounges. One thing though that has changed since I made that post is that there is now a sign stating that the Concourse D Lounge is only for business class passengers and economy passengers with a *G card are asked to use one of the other lounges. It may or may not be enforced though. The hot food also seems to have changed very recently, with only dimsum now, though I don't have enough details yet to say if it's across the board at all times and in all the lounges or not.

I prefer different *A lounges at BKK for different reasons.

The SKL on concourse A: Best for food overall, garden view
Pros: Food - very fresh sandwiches, dimsum, Hagen Dazs ice cream, nice decor/seating/garden view
Cons: No toilets inside the lounge, no showers, no slumber rooms, drink selection poor

The TG lounge on concourse D: Best for Thai food, drinks
Pros: Food seems to be replenished more often than other TG lounges and less likely to run out.
Cons: Can be very crowded at times, no showers, view not the greatest - varies a lot depending on seating. No slumber rooms.

The TG lounge on concourse C, east (left) side: Best for showers, runway view
Pros: Hot food is served if available, great showers, good tarmac/runway view
Cons: No slumber rooms

The TG lounge on concourse C, west (right) side: Best for slumber rooms
Pros: Dark slumber rooms, showers
Cons: Seems no hot food available here, but sometimes they'll get some for you from the lounge across the hall. View is just so-so tarmac view

The TG lounge on concourse E, east (left) side: Best for showers
Pros: Hot food is served if available, great showers.
Cons: View is just so-so tarmac view. No slumber rooms

The TG lounge on concourse E, west (right) side: Best for runway view
Pros: Runway view. Has slumber rooms, but too light and noisy to be very useful. Showers, but they are inferior to other TG lounge showers (small, no toilets)
Cons: Seems no hot food available here, but sometimes they'll get some for you from the lounge across the hall.

So depending on what I want from the lounge, I'll choose one or two based on the above criteria, and also based on my departure gate.

Trajan

thanks A Lee, good summary ^

one technical point, as I understand...

all the TG business class lounges are named "Royal Silk" lounges

the one "Royal Orchid" lounge (in Concourse E on the right (west) side I believe) has a "Royal Silk" area and a "Royal First" area

the "Royal Orchid" Spa, also has a "Royal Silk" area (which is just foot and back/should massage zones) and a "Royal First" area (for fuller spas treatments)

therefore, it appears that "Royal Orchid" merely means a lounge or spa that has both "Royal Silk" and "Royal First" areas....

Michael

The SKL lounge also has fresh coconuts available!

pueywei

Yes -- ate two the last time I was there -- and laksa. I presume the garden is outside security?

A_Lee

I'm here at the SKL now, having just enjoyed my breakfast looking out over the garden. It is on the ground level, open to the road running in front of the terminal. So no, it's not a secure area.

Thai-Kiwi

The SKL lounge I visited was located on Level 3, in Concourse A. Certainly was airside and the garden was visible, but not visitable!

Are we talking about the same thing??!!

TK

SiliconValley1k

Thanks for the great information A_Lee. I posted in the UA thread as well but wanted to see if my question could get answered here. If I arrive on Thursday nite (10pm-ish) to BKK on TG from Phuket and don't fly out until 6:00am-ish the next morning (UA to NRT); will I be able to get bags checked, get through security, and into the lounge/gate area to crash for a few hours? I am a UA 1K, *A Gold, flying biz class, etc. I just want to see if I can rest comfortably at BKK without having to worry about a hotel for a few hours. I saw that TG lounges are open 5am to 1am so really just leaves 4 hours to kill assuming I can get into the gate areas and spend time in the lounges and or an empty gate? Any info or advice is well appreciated. Thanks!!!

A_Lee

If you were replying to me, yes, we're talking about the same thing. It's the garden I was referring to that's on the ground level and outside the secure area. Of course the SKL is the same place it's always been, airside Concourse A, Level 3.

A_Lee

I've never tried to check in at HKT, etc. for a connecting international flight the next day. I did though once check-in early in the morning for a flight HKT-BKK, and was connecting on an international flight that night but they wouldn't allow it. If they don't allow it in your case, then there's very little hope of getting your boarding pass that night in BKK. TG at BKK definitely disallows checking in for a morning flight the night before, but don't know about UA. You will not be able to access the transfer desk without your boarding pass, so you'd have to go to the UA check-in counters if they're open. If it was all international, there should be no problem. I've done that many times - check in for one segment of an international flight in the evening and get my boarding pass at the same time for a connecting international flight the next morning. All of that is applicable to TG-TG connections. I've never tried a TG-UA connection.

Try it and see. If you get the UA boarding pass at HKT, you'll be admitted to international airside on arrival at BKK. They probably will not let you into the gate area that early, but you can probably find some seats in the TG "transit lounge", located on Concourse B, Level 3. It's simply a public seating area that anyone can use. First though you can access one of the TG lounges till they close, which is usually about 1AM or so.

If you have Priority Pass, you can access one of several Louis Tavern CIP lounges, which are open 24 hours. There's a Business Class CIP lounge on Concourse C, Level 3, and First Class CIP lounges on Concourse A and Concourse G. I regularly do this being I have a free Priority Pass and don't have to pay anything for lounge access. They're quite diligent in always telling me I can only stay 2 hours per card registration, but never seem to enforce it so late at night. The food/drinks aren't the greatest there, but the seats are comfortable enough for me to get some shuteye without worrying about the security of my belongings.

BizflyerNorway

I have also visited all the TG lounges at BKK, and I share the opinion of A_Lee.

I am surprised that TG is not serving any wine in their lounges. None of them have had red and/or white wine on my visits the last 4-5 years. Anybody knows why?

When it comes to food, I would call their selection more as "snacks" as the food items are smallish and makes you hungry again 5 minutes after you ate it.

Are there any other StarA lounges at BKK besides SQ and TG? On the old airport I know that SK and LH also had lounges.

BFN

JSlo

What if you had carry on only, and therefore no need to get luggage at baggage claim. As such, you could stay airside with your carryon on disembark, and just stay in lounges/whatever until the next AM when UA counters open at 4AM (or is it 430AM? cant remember). Then leave airside and check in, get BP and return airside? Would that work?

A_Lee

No that will not work because if transiting domestic to international, you will not have been "checked out of Thailand" by immigration when you arrive. When doing a proper domestic to international CIQ transfer, you will pass through immigration at HKT or wherever your domestic check-in point is. They give you a CIQ sticker to wear and then when you arrive at BKK you are allowed through the domestic-to-international security checkpoint. No sticker, no entry. Even if you did manage to get through it would probably be a problem trying to exit immigration if they check on the computer that you'd never properly checked out previously.