FlyerTalk Forums - Misadventures of a spoiled brat

If you’ve never flown an airline before, I’d say start off in Economy, then experience Business, and then splurge on First. Unless you’re the kind of person who either knows they can fly F and never fly the airline again, or someone who knows they will never have to sit at the back of the plane, no matter what.

After a pleasant flight from Dubai to Bangalore, I had to kill about 3 hours in the departures hall till the check in for Thai opened. Someone at that airline decided not to equip their 772s with a First cabin, despite Thai’s loads being the highest in F on every flight I took. All I wanted to do on a flight that departed at 0100 and arrived at 0600 was sleep, so I guessed having to fly Business couldn’t be that bad.

Check in was a quick affair. As soon as the counters opened, there were about 20 people queuing up. A good reason to avoid flying Economy on an airline on which you don’t have status! While the commotion went on, as soon as the first counter had opened, I was checked in, and on my way to the lounge. The lounge was bordering on ‘pleasant’ at this hour, with a section that was fairly quiet. The staff remembered me from my previous visit, and everyone was very helpful.

Boarding was a similar process. While a long and winding queue started to form, I was whisked through and at the door. ‘Right this way,’ said the young FA, directing me to her left. Boarding was at 2L, and while I couldn’t have cared less which seat I was occupying since the flight was in Business, I was quite confident it wasn’t so far back. I pointed out the error, and eventually made it to my seat.

Here’s what I don’t like about Thai’s J product. Everything. Yes, they have a 2-2-2 layout, but their seats are as narrow as Economy seats. You’d wonder what they did with all the leftover space, except that the aisles are as wide as 2xJ seats. Thankfully everyone had 2 seats to themselves, otherwise it would have been quite annoying to have a seat neighbor. And the other annoying thing was the seat recline. The FA joked with me when I asked to move to a window seat from an aisle, that I could put my head against the window to sleep. And then she said, no you have a great bed. Which is like American Airlines saying they have a world-class product. I’m not that tall, and I couldn’t fit on the seat in bed mode. And it’s at an angle that is extremely uncomfortable while trying to sleep. All this when they have all that space going waste in the aisles.

And you would then think that they made use of the wide aisles to roll down enormous carts laden with a Christmas dinner on every flight. But no, the meal was served in a tray, with the starter, main and dessert dishes replaced with each course. I must say the meal service was efficient, but the portions were tiny and the food quite poor. It seemed like Economy food being offered up on china and linen. Not impressed.

Thai do seem to manage to crew their flights quite well, in the sense that you would think HQ has sent a team onboard to do a product evaluation. I’m not sure what tasks all those people are assigned with, because they do so little. Champagne wasn’t even offered as a pre departure beverage, and the only amenity was a pair of really bad socks. Which I left on the plane. The Purser did however come by my seat several times asking if everything was alright, which was a nice touch, even though there was nothing he could do to fix any of the problems I had.

When I got to Suvarnabhumi, I was completely exhausted. And then we parked at a remote stand, and the bus was filled to the brim, with Economy passengers as well. All the more reason to be annoyed that there was no First service on this flight. And the fact that I could not use the First lounge, or get a spa treatment because my onward flight was on Singapore Airlines.

I did however make it into a fairly quiet Thai Business Class lounge. Actually, I found my way to the SQ lounge, which was a disaster, and left about 30 seconds after I entered it. With nothing to do at the TG lounge, I tried to get some more sleep. Everything really had gone downhill now!

Now, I have a bit of a longstanding gripe with Singapore Airlines. One of course is that their frequent flyer program is completely useless (Skywards is getting there, but very slowly). The other is that the very few times I’ve flown with them, I’ve found the service to be quite poor. Granted, this was in Economy, with their old regional seats to look at (so what would I use those miles, if I ever earned any, for?). But the crew were consistently uninteresting. The only thing I liked was the 3-3-3 layout on their 777, where I would always get a G seat, with the center empty.

But ofcourse, everyone raves about SQ’s service, even though many complain it is a bit robotic. I thought a 2 hour hop from BKK to SIN would be an opportunity to give them an opportunity to redeem themselves, while adding some variety to my trip.

Even though the seats were, once again, disastrous, one can’t really complain for a 2 hour flight. I just happened to be extremely tired and wanted to sleep throughout, which proved to be near impossible. What did annoy me was that the aircraft was a 3-class being operated as a 2-class. So their reason for not letting me fly F was worse than Thai’s.

I didn’t touch my main course, so I won’t comment on the food, but the service was actually very good. I was addressed by name every single time someone spoke to me, and the crew did manage to make some lighthearted banter. When I was offered a newspaper and declined, one of the crew asked if I would like a magazine instead. When I declined that as well, her colleague commented ‘what he means is he wants you to leave him alone.’ And when I was done with my first glass of Bollinger (even though the menu said Henriot), it was promptly filled right back up.

So my verdict on SQ is that I would probably fly them in Business class, all other things being equal. On a good day, it is impossible to beat EK’s service in the Y cabin, so I would much rather fly BlingAir when at the back of the bus. And in F, well I haven’t yet flown SQ, but their attitude towards their First cabin is even more pompous than my attitude to flying. Might give it a miss, considering I have only excellent things to say about Emirates in First.

Arrival in Singapore mid afternoon made me realize why it is one of the nicest airports around. It doesn’t feel big at all, even though it is, and it is extremely efficient. And then getting home, and passing out for the rest of the day because silly airlines don’t have seats one can nap in!

So, that’s the trip. I don’t know when the next one will be, sadly. I keep getting excited reading about some great fares out there, and I want to go back to some of the great places I visited and see some of the cool people I met again. But for now, I might need to wait till 2069 for the interest on what’s left in my bank to add up to something that equals a First ticket halfway across the world.