The Ultimate Gold Experience - i.e. Emirates vs. Qatar
Dec 31, 2012, 1:27 am
#16
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2010
Programs: QR Gold, EK Gold, HH Diamond
Posts: 23
I have now lived in Bangkok for almost a year and managed to get status with Thai Airways (star) and at the same time to maintain my Emirates Skywards Gold so comparison is again possible. If I consider EK gold vs. QR gold vs. TG gold, the ranking would be as follows:
#1 is Skywards Gold
#2 is Privilege Club Gold
#3 is Star Gold
Differences between EK and QR were already discussed in favour of EK. Here few points about the experience with Star/ Thai Airways:
Was flying once a month to Yangon. Several times to Shanghai, Singapore and the Maldives and on occasion to Johannesburg as well as Manila and Colombo.
Checking in: They usually only open few check-in counters (if you do not depart from Bangkok) so that even the Gold counter or business class counter requires you to wait 10 to 15 minutes until its your turn to check in. CI in Bangkok is good.
Upgrades: Virtually impossible. Seems they have a strict no overbooking in Eco strategy. Did not get any upgrade on 40+ segments in few months.
Lounges: They are in very bad condition and F&B is poor (Manila in particular). Bangkok is nice, however overcrowded. I had to wait 15 minutes, walk round to hunt a seat until I was able to sit down to drink my cup of coffee. When it was empty I asked one of the waiters if she would be so kind to bring me another one (as I expected to loose my seat if I get up) but she just said " this is a self service lounge" - this would never ever happen in a Emirates Lounge!
Priority luggage: Is a complete joke, yes you get the tag, even if you are on a paid business class ticket but luggage did not get priority handling and often came last. This is for both, overseas and Bangkok arrival.
Reward tickets: I'm German and booked a paid ticket for me and are ward ticket, return from Bangkok to Frankfurt for my wife but I still had to pay THB 14,000 for the redemption ticket on top of the mile for taxes. Why I learned from this is to only use the mile for upgrade to biz or first instead of purchasing redemption Eco tickets. Also what really annoys is that if you upgrade on mile over the phone, onetime thy require you to pay a small difference of the tax (last time only USD 4) in their ticket office. So I had to waste an hour in the traffic to get there plus another USD 5 for the taxi back an forth. Is it really worth enforcing cash payment for such small amount or is this a strategy to make it just difficult to use them so that some people don't take the hassle.
Business / they call it Silk class experience: Not nice at all! The air hostesses were very old and unfriendly. When they took my meal order I told them that I will sleep, not have dinner but that I will have the breakfast. So I naturally expected that they will wake me up... But they didn't so I missed breakfast.
As I am also flying a lot in SEA unfortunately I am still required to fly on Thai a lot, no choice but the trips to Europe, Africa and the Indian Ocean will continue with my favourite Emirates airline!
Have a good start into the New Year everyone!
#1 is Skywards Gold
#2 is Privilege Club Gold
#3 is Star Gold
Differences between EK and QR were already discussed in favour of EK. Here few points about the experience with Star/ Thai Airways:
Was flying once a month to Yangon. Several times to Shanghai, Singapore and the Maldives and on occasion to Johannesburg as well as Manila and Colombo.
Checking in: They usually only open few check-in counters (if you do not depart from Bangkok) so that even the Gold counter or business class counter requires you to wait 10 to 15 minutes until its your turn to check in. CI in Bangkok is good.
Upgrades: Virtually impossible. Seems they have a strict no overbooking in Eco strategy. Did not get any upgrade on 40+ segments in few months.
Lounges: They are in very bad condition and F&B is poor (Manila in particular). Bangkok is nice, however overcrowded. I had to wait 15 minutes, walk round to hunt a seat until I was able to sit down to drink my cup of coffee. When it was empty I asked one of the waiters if she would be so kind to bring me another one (as I expected to loose my seat if I get up) but she just said " this is a self service lounge" - this would never ever happen in a Emirates Lounge!
Priority luggage: Is a complete joke, yes you get the tag, even if you are on a paid business class ticket but luggage did not get priority handling and often came last. This is for both, overseas and Bangkok arrival.
Reward tickets: I'm German and booked a paid ticket for me and are ward ticket, return from Bangkok to Frankfurt for my wife but I still had to pay THB 14,000 for the redemption ticket on top of the mile for taxes. Why I learned from this is to only use the mile for upgrade to biz or first instead of purchasing redemption Eco tickets. Also what really annoys is that if you upgrade on mile over the phone, onetime thy require you to pay a small difference of the tax (last time only USD 4) in their ticket office. So I had to waste an hour in the traffic to get there plus another USD 5 for the taxi back an forth. Is it really worth enforcing cash payment for such small amount or is this a strategy to make it just difficult to use them so that some people don't take the hassle.
Business / they call it Silk class experience: Not nice at all! The air hostesses were very old and unfriendly. When they took my meal order I told them that I will sleep, not have dinner but that I will have the breakfast. So I naturally expected that they will wake me up... But they didn't so I missed breakfast.
As I am also flying a lot in SEA unfortunately I am still required to fly on Thai a lot, no choice but the trips to Europe, Africa and the Indian Ocean will continue with my favourite Emirates airline!
Have a good start into the New Year everyone!
