Thaikwai

I am sick and tired of the increasing number of THAI flights being parked at aprons and bussed to Immigration. I was bussed recently after a 12-hour London flight...awful. And it only ever seems to happen with THAI, not when I fly with other non-Thai carriers into BKK. Every Jakarta flight in recent memory has been a bus to Immigration. One hears the saying that it is always best to fly the home carrier to its home airport as you will always get superior service than when flying visiting carriers, well thats certainly not the case with THAI!!!

Also, why do they insist on packing out the first bus until it is absolutely chock full of passengers? Business Class passengers in Jakarta, Singapore and other regional airports are bussed away quickly in a separate bus....even in Dhaka each Business Class passenger on US-Bangla gets an individual Toyota Camry ride from the aircraft to the terminal. THAI really seem to be dropping the service standards and now they are significantly devaluing the ROP program.....seems like a campaign to drive away those pesky, loyal Business Class passengers.

BinSabai

I was once on an extra bus for F passengers
and once while loading the plane, they had an extra bus for business class passengers BUT....this one waited and waited and waited until the last business class passenger was in the bus, while 3 bus loads of cattle class passengers were already taken to the plane
After that i never again boarded the separate business class bus

chris63

Flyingbiker

It is now pretty shocking and a very poor show for premium passengers arriving at their home base. Always a good experience when you depart BKK on TG but ever worsening on arrival back there. I haven't arrived at an airbridge on Thai in BKK for several years now.It really is the last thing you want after a 12 hour flight to be shoved onto a pretty crappy bus with mostly standing room to be thrown around by a driver who is obviously in a very great hurry. Now as a last straw they have devalued their points really badly. I have a couple more NZ to Europe trips this year on TG and after that I am heading over to SQ or EK.

wpcoe

I regularly get the bus gates in BKK for the OZ flights to/from ICN, as well. And, no separate bus for J class on OZ, either. When UA used to fly here, bus gates were common, as well.

worldclubber

Kamalaasaa

maerim

In the last month have landed at bus gates twice, with cabin crew announcing this a few minutes before landing and the usual reason of no gates to park at. Second time landed at 0420 and would estimate that more than half of the gates were available.

On both occasions bus was available for business class passengers; first time it was used exclusively for business class passengers; second time every man and his dog got aboard with the kind help of the ground staff. As the only farang in business class (two Japanese and the rest Thai) I politely waited.

Anyway my wife and myself were first through the autochannel and luggage was waiting so from getting off the plane to arriving home took about 40 minutes.

There have been a few threads on this topic before with reasons why Thai use bus gates as much as they do.

Kacee

I agree. I've grown to dread the TG bus gate arrival, it is always an unpleasant experience. This, along with the aircraft swaps, is one of the main reasons I prefer flying OALs into BKK.
Both carriers (OZ, UA) on the cheap end of the spectrum. I've never gotten a bus gate at BKK on CX, SQ, or BR.

chris63

Kacee

Yes, it's absolutely not a gate shortage.

So does TG do this to avoid airport fees for gate usage, or because somebody's cousin operates the bus concession?

paolo64

chris63

chris63

Noppasit

For your information, even on an A380 flight to LHR, occasionally its a BUS gate!