Flight-Reporters, thanks for your interest. Installment 8 today!
It's interesting how expectations often play out as assumptions without basis. After having high expectations for my Singapore Airlines 777 business class flights, then being disappointed, and fresh memories of the debacle on Thai's A380 in first class, I was less than enthused about this Thai 747 trip from Singapore to Bangkok. As I said, baseless opinions.
First a few images from Singapore.
Singapore is another Asian city with an amazing transit system. (All these cities put the US to shame with their safe, reliable, extensive and affordable rail systems.) An easy 30 minute ride from downtown, only making a single transfer it's time to leave this beautiful city.
Time to go.
Today Thai flight 404 was departing from Terminal 1. And it is just as beautiful as Terminal 3.
Some kind of game for the kids.
Instead of the Krisflyer lounge I thought I'd check out Thai's lounge up the escalator and if you blink you will miss it.
A small, quaint and comfortable lounge.
Lunch items were on display, somewhat limited but certainly adequate. In fact there wasn't much more room to put anything else.
These "Young Coconut Jelly" things were incredible! I want to go back.
Off to the gate.
A brief, typical, thunderstorm was passing making me feel lucky my few days in Singapore were rain free and not oppressively humid.
Boarding commenced on time.
My original flight had been on a Singapore old 777-200. While some of these aircraft have the newer regional leather seats, the seat map on this aircraft was showing the old Ultimo seats. (courtesy airliners.net)
I decided to try for better and sure enough, Thai had a flight at the same time, on a 747! So I changed. Then when going to grab a seat you could select a seat in the first class cabin. Ok, I'll take the chance of getting booted from first on my business class ticket. 1A is mine.
Upon further investigation I learned Thai was not selling first class seats on this flight, so my 1A seat selection was legit. Similar to the Asiana 747 regional flight earlier this year. Wow, I went from an ancient 777-200 6 across seating to sitting in the nose of a 747-400. Stars were aligning. (If any of you were on the A350 flight to Melbourne that has been pushed back a thousand times, chances are you got this 747 option, lucky you!)
The view upon entering.
Other side.
The 9 seat first class cabin is configured: Row 1: 1x1 Row 2: 1x1x1 Staggered Row 3: 1x2x1 Staggered (Seatguru is wrong on row 2 as they show 1x2x1)
Best seat? Pick any one!
The middle 2 seats in row 3.
The view of 1K from 1A. Notice the 4 window allotment for Row 1.
Behind row 3 is an aisle where you access the lavatories. Curtains separate business from first as well as the galley on the far side. There are no hard walled partitions.
A view of the lower deck business class seats.
If you are sitting on the ride side end seat and think you have a window you're in for a surprise. The legroom in row 23 is enormous. I'd opt for upstairs, this looks a little claustrophobic to me.
Thai employs a unique galley arrangement. The flight attendants get a nice view while making your tea.
Lavatories are large and well stocked.
On to 1A.
From the command center.
Why do lillies get a vase on the 747 and not the 380?
For those who like to sit on the right side, or are scoping out legroom.
Back in the comforts of 1A, ottoman with ample room for storage underneath.
Not bad for a business class ticket, ehh?
Storage compartments are well conceived and thought out.
Opened reveals a magazine holder as well as an electronic port.
You can actually fit stuff in there.
My laptop posing as a magazine.
Next to the armrest is a compartment holding the IFE controller, 2 USB ports and a storage compartment for your phone with a lid that closes, brilliant.
Reading lamp.
Unlike the useless nite-light monitor on the A380 (at least that's all I could figure out it did), this touch screen monitor was your seat control as well as light control.
You can also use the buttons, but that's no fun.
My question, why isn't this first class suite in the A380?
For a 2 hour daytime flight I at least got a good bed photo even though I wouldn't try the bed out.
Long and wide enough, however the suspect is the crease. I don't know if a mattress pad is given out on overnight flights.
Time to drink.
Well the A380 flight finally has a winner over the B747 flight. No Dom on this one :(
Not that 6,052THB a bottle Dom was expected.
And Eat
So the iPad hasn't found its way to the B747.
Curiously, in a attempt to showcase Thai culture this page was in the menu. I fail to see the appetizing appeal to this history lesson.
A massive tray is revealed.
I went for the Fried Marinated Snapper with Spicy Lemongrass Sauce. They must consider "fried" somthing other than I do, which was fine with me.
The food
Now for the real test. Not enough time had passed for the last Thai meal to have been erased from memory.
A nice serving of almonds accompanied the wrong wine I had ordered. After I mentioned this to the flight attendant I think every time she came by my seat, which was often, she apologized.
The Crab and Avocado timbale was excellent, except their avocado is shaped like asparagus.
The snapper was outstanding, with just enough heat to make it flavorful and not like eating a pepper.
I wanted to eat this first, but I have discipline.
IFE : A huge monitor to watch what interests you.
And on this short flight it was the airshow.
One of the better airshows I've seen.
No WiFi
The flight attendants were awesome. From the boarding welcome, to taking pictures, apologized for making a mistake and constant attentiveness they made the flight even better.
An oshibori and lemon tea on boarding.
Who doesn't love the 747? I certainly do, especially sitting in front. This was Thai's last active 747 delivery, back in late 2003 . The aircraft was in immaculate condition. Granted they have some older 747's so maybe they aren't in as good of condition, but this one sure was.
Upon descent we did a loop over Pattaya allowing for some good photos.
Thai totally redeemed themselves on this flight. I now have a goal to fly this 747 in first sometime in the future. And it was the best regional flight I've had, by all measures. Good job Thai!
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My oh my, what a pleasant surprise after all the shenanigans you went through. And it came from none other than the Queen of the Skies. Definitely better than what their A380s offer. Though the Business Class is still better on the A380. If only one coule get the best of both worlds.. Would that be the case on their 777-300ER I wonder?
Was priority boarding and deplaning respected for the elite passengers?
Food presentation looks okay, but I think portion would've been better if it was larger, no? At least they used real cutlery
Hi Razza_PR, thanks for responding. Newer TG 777,350 have the A380 Solstys all aisle access seats. Doubt they will upgrade the 747's. Normal boarding on this one, no flights of stairs to climb! They did board business class first.
The meal was excellent. Portion size it was great, especially for a 2 hour flight. Better than what was to come next. See you next week!
HaHa, Panda got it right too! Thinking about taking the BKK-SYD run in first with the lounge access in BKK? Price is going up in November. I may even re-book it for next year. Going from 40K to 65K.
I've been searching for it for my trip in a couple of weeks but, oddly, no availability. Yes, the 40K is an unbelievable deal. Maybe for a November trip I'm playing with...of course booked before the deval...
Hi Rewardflying and thanks for sharing this amazing FR with great pics.
It's always a treat to fly on the 747, especially in the front. For such a short flight, I think the catering was great and the little details like printed menu and orchids are a big plus.
Probably just too close. For the ultimate book HKG-BKK-SYD and get the 1PM A380 out of HKG. You still get 3 hours in the lounge and it's the same 40K. I had it for my upcoming trip but gave it up. After realizing I had 38K air miles in less than 2 weeks booked, I scaled back and got a little more sensible.
I looked and didn't see much in Nov. Make sure you get the 7PM flight and not the 8AM flight. The day flight has the old seats, not the same as in this report. You can tell on the seat map if the cabin has 9 seats then it's the good one. If 10, well they still serve DOM in your mimosa. Happy reward flying!
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10 Comments
My oh my, what a pleasant surprise after all the shenanigans you went through. And it came from none other than the Queen of the Skies. Definitely better than what their A380s offer. Though the Business Class is still better on the A380. If only one coule get the best of both worlds.. Would that be the case on their 777-300ER I wonder?
Was priority boarding and deplaning respected for the elite passengers?
Food presentation looks okay, but I think portion would've been better if it was larger, no? At least they used real cutlery
Thanks again, and happy flying!
The meal was excellent. Portion size it was great, especially for a 2 hour flight. Better than what was to come next. See you next week!
It's always a treat to fly on the 747, especially in the front. For such a short flight, I think the catering was great and the little details like printed menu and orchids are a big plus.
I looked and didn't see much in Nov. Make sure you get the 7PM flight and not the 8AM flight. The day flight has the old seats, not the same as in this report. You can tell on the seat map if the cabin has 9 seats then it's the good one. If 10, well they still serve DOM in your mimosa. Happy reward flying!
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