5khours

So when I fly the following are important to me

• Seat comfort
• Reliability
• Efficient and comfortable airport experience
• Friendly and attentive service

Less important:

• F&B
• IFE
• Etc.

I fly a lot, mostly F (NH, TG, UA, LH, CX, EK, SQ) so maybe I'm biased. But with the exception of UA, all of these carriers do a very good job IMHO. TG's not as good on F&B, and given a choice, I prefer LH or EK for the seat, but on the other hand TG has one of the better airport experiences (departure AND arrival).

Maybe it's different in the back of plane. (TG is definitely slow in getting flat beds installed.) But my impression is that with the exception of the old J seats (which I would never fly), they have a decent and pretty well operated product in the back also.

As for schedule/equipment changes, who cares? Unless you' a route/hub captive, just take a different route/carrier/flight.

Aussie_flyer

Hmm, well if you book a flight to BKK, connecting onwards somewhere from THE SAME airport and then later find out you have a 1 hour trek across town to DMK to make the connection, so you cancel it, or you book a transfer or make arrangements, then the week afterwards the whole thing gets moved again back to BKK.

Can't you see how absurd it is? Moving an airlines operations from one airport to another then back again at a moments notice? The cancelling of F to sydney, destroy everyones plans , make them rebook, then 2 weeks later re-instate it?

There is no forward planning whatsoever.

But you keep looking through your rose coloured glasses, life must be good from behind those.

5khours

Totally agree about DMK. It's totally stupid. In fact so obviously stupid, it will never happen IMHO. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

My comments were not about DMK or planning.... just about how they run airline, which for me anyway works pretty well. Or at least better than my other choices.... NH (no flat bed from Tokyo) or UA (totally cancelled service to BKK), etc.

I admit though the last minute changes stink. Was happening a lot on HND/NRT as well for awhile, but fortunately I usually have pretty flexible travel plans.

BTW - Do QF and EK have F between SYD and BKK?

A_Lee

I'm not at all trying to argue with you or anyone about what they find about TG that works, or what doesn't work. I just wanted to point out that it's a bit ironic that you're talking about flying up front, when this thread is about Thai Smile, which doesn't have any F at all, and has now downgraded what they were calling C to premium economy. And also ironic that for a number of destinations they're now the only choice, with TG dropping their mainline flights in favor of WE. So even someone like yourself would be subject to a lot less seat comfort and service if you were to fly to one of those destinations where WE was your only option.

5khours

Well except HKT and a couple of other destinations, the domestic J seats have always been pretty mediocre, but they're always short flights. I was really just responding to the comment that TG was the most disorganized airline around. I don't think it is. I think they do a pretty good job overall. As to DMK, as I've said, I don't think it's going to happen.... at least not for any extended period of time. It's just to much of a hit to TG's international pax who are their bread and butter.

And actually, the service on Smile is pretty good IMHO.

A_Lee

I wasn't thinking so much about domestic WE flights, but more along the lines of regional flights of a few hours, where for being cramped in an economy seat with limited legroom, or even their "premium economy" with the same legroom would put it into the "uncomfortable" classification for some people. I don't think there's many would would complain too loudly about being stuck in economy for an hour-long domestic flight, but at 3 or 4 hours, it's a different story. And the difference in service between TG and WE I would think would also be more apparent on international flights compared to domestic flights.

Anyways, I know you were just responding to what was being said, and not talking specifically about WE. I just found it ironic being it's a WE thread.

wozup12

The circus continues.

Thai suspending the move of WE to DMK. Provides valid reasons...

http://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/ne...airport-switch

dsquared37

Reported by Magnus back in post #49.

Sam Drucker

The last paragraph of the article linked above is significant. It says there have already been at least 5 A320's transferred back to THAI Airways from THAI Smile. Looks like the idea of THAI being a widebody-only airline is now abandoned.

Smaller-traffic international routes such as Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Phnom Penh and others are now operated by THAI Airways again, using A320's. There are some complications with these international route traffic rights that were granted to THAI Airways. THAI was able to operate them with THAI Smile when it was operating under it's old status. When THAI Smile became a separate entity and started operating under the WE code, it became a separate airline and those rights were not immediately transferable.

BinSabai

good to see TG back for those destinations!

A_Lee

Well that's a step in the right direction. Unfortunately it appears they were basically forced to do it. Had they come to realize on their own that it was an idiotic idea to begin with and thus reversed the decision I'd have a tiny bit more confidence in the management. But being forced to undo their stupid decision just means they're still as incompetent as before.

Sam Drucker

Yep. It was a boo boo.

A_Lee

A boo boo by WEe WEe.

A_Lee

When checking on the Thai Smile website's booking engine, looks like Macau is the only international destination left. Basically Thai Smile just imploded, with the exception of domestic routes.

Creole Spirit

that's exactly the case
and if one imagines that the idea of moving to Don Mueang airport was the idea of just one single person (former board member (?)) which had such an impact on the operations of the whole company / TG group then we can be happy that things have been corrected again...