FlyerTalk Forums - Interesting experience

It has been awhile since I have been on TG but just flew short haul on KUL-BKk in J class . It was , for a lack of a better word , interesting . Plane swap from scheduled 787-9 to 359 version C . This meant a change in J layout from 1-2-1 to 2-2-2 . There had been no communication of the plane swap at any point in advance or at check-in or at the gate . I double checked and indeed my email and mobile were attached to the record and both were correct . The plane , while not old , was clearly worn . There was no WiFi available .

The boarding was chaotic and began 25 minutes after the scheduled boarding time. When I asked , I was told that boarding was delayed due to late arrival of inbound . However , the inbound , according to TG website was on time . When I pointed this out , I got no reply . Not once was there an announcement about the delay in boarding.

The flight itself was fine though I wouldn’t want to be in J on this configuration for a long haul flight . The arrival gate was listed as C9 but we ended up parking at the satellite terminal . As far as I could tell there were no other aircraft at the new satellite terminal and there didn’t appear to be any other ground crews awaiting aircraft . Despite being the only aircraft at the terminal , we parked quite a distance from the train to the main terminal . I don’t know if this was some sort of training exercise but there were a large number of young people in colored armbands at the train entrance directing people to get on the train . The only highlight was that the train from the satellite terminal drops you off right at immigration .