Review of Thai Airways flight Dubai Bangkok in Business

Airline Thai Airways
Flight TG518
Class Business
Seat 15A
Aircraft Airbus A330-300
Flight time 05:51
Take-off 11 Nov 15, 22:06
Arrival at 12 Nov 15, 06:57
TG   #43 out of 95 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 398 reviews
hometoyyz
By 6169
Published on 18th November 2015
Welcome, dear reader, to the third stage of a little adventure I’m calling “Around the World in 80 Hours.” This flight report is the third in a series that will take your humble flight-reporter around the world over the course of roughly 3.5 days.

Stage 1: 11/10/2015 - ET503 YYZ-ADD - http://flight-report.com/en/report-12152.html
Stage 2: 11/11/2015 - ET602 ADD-DXB - http://flight-report.com/en/report-12192.html
Stage 3: 11/11/2015 - TG518 DXB-BKK - You are here.

When last we saw each other, I had arrived into Dubai, and set out to find the transit desk for Thai, which I find in no time. Or at least, I find the desks where it says TG transit will be. But there’s nobody there right now. All the desks are empty. No problem. I take a seat nearby, and actually get around to posting my YYZ-ADD trip report. Soon enough, an agent shows up at one of the desks and turns it on. Singapore Airlines. Oh well. I approach her an ask when the Thai desk will open, and she replies about three hours before departure. Oh super. Perhaps I should have tried to go into Dubai. A little too late to bother now, though, so I sit back down and kill time. Eventually a crowd starts to gather, with a few fellow passengers waiting for the transit desk for BKK to open.

About 3.5 hours pre-departure, the sign over the desk next to SQ lights up with TG518 to BKK. A-ha, says I, and I approach. Yeah. Still no one there. And the booth still isn’t lit like the Singapore booth. Oh well. More waiting, some writing, and the crowd gets up to about eight people. At T-3 hours, I take a look up, but it’s still not lit up. About ten minutes after that, an older American couple are shown up to the transfer desk by an airport agent. They initially assume there’s no one at the desk, but the agent says “No, he’s there.” I’m not the only person to hear this, and I’m the fourth in line. The agent seems to take a fair bit of time with each person, but eventually my turn comes up. It takes the agent a little bit of time, and some consultation with another agent, to figure out how to get it to print out just my next couple of boarding passes, as it seems to know my last name, despite that being very clearly attached to the reservation. Correctly, no less. But he gets my next two boarding passes printed out, and hands them over along with an invitation to the TG contract lounge here in DXB, the Marhaba.

A quick walk over to transit security — which has the most friendly, helpful, and attentive security agents I’ve ever seen anywhere — and I’m downstairs and into the concourse at DXB.

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I had initially planned to try to hunt down the Star Alliance lounge, operated by Lufthansa, assuming it’s in the same terminal, but with the Marhaba located right next to my departure gate for BKK, I decide to check it out. Interestingly, it's not listed here on flight-report, so I presume it's pretty new.

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I inquire about a shower, but I’m told it’s only available at an extra cost. I’m cheap, so I’ll pass. I head into the lounge. It’s a fairly compact lounge, with an area at the end of the main hall cordoned off as a designate TG pax zone. But I decide to set up in the front room, which is at this point pretty much empty, and most importantly for me, has a seat with a plug available.

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The buffet is pretty extensive, with some interesting options.



I grab a samosa, another savoury pastry, some fattoush, and some kafta, and grab a seat. Most of it is pretty good, and the kafta is really good, but I’m disappointed by the fattoush. I kinda expected more, being in the middle east and all. Oh well.

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There’s a very friendly lounge attendant, who keeps bringing me refills of my water and tea, and eventually, the lounge starts to fill in. Just in time for me to head next door, to the gate area, where my ride across to Thailand awaits. Unfortunately, there’s not a really good picture of the plane, as it’s obscured by the jetway.

Priority boarding is called right on time, and after the gate agent fends off a few passengers who apparently shouldn’t be boarding quite yet, I’m off and on my way down to the A330-300 that will provide my ride. I’m the first person down the first jetway and into the business class cabin, so needless to say its wais all around from the always-friendly Thai crew.

I’m shown over to 15A, a window seat in the second-last aisle of the J cabin, which takes up just the space between doors 1 and 2. They manage to fit 30 J seats into the space, with 5 rows in a 2-2-2 configuration. Although this is my first time on a TG 333, I’ve flown on this product before on a BKK-SIN flight on a 777 a few years ago. It’s an angle flat seat, which is fine for the short run between BKK-SIN, but less than ideal for a six-hour overnight flight like this. The product is definitely looking a little dated.



Legroom is about what you expect, the entertainment system is fairly large and while a little bit old, is easy to use. A headphone is waiting for me in a cubby next to my seat. But there isn’t a second set for the aisle seat. Perhaps a sign I won’t have a seatmate? Basic seat controls, and a remote for the IFE system are located in the armrest, with a cover over the remote. The headset port and two USB ports are located under the centre arm rest, but unfortunately, no AC port.

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The seat has a decent pillow, a thin blanket, and an amenity kit, a pleasant surprise. The kit isn’t anything special, but has the things one might need for this flight. By the time we’re boarding, I’m feeling pretty bagged, so I’m hoping for a decent sleep.

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Service begins with a hot towel service, scented with jasmine. Then pre-departure beverages — champagne, orange juice or water — are all offered. I grab a champagne and an OJ.

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Next up are menus, and dinner sounds pretty good.

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Not feeling any of the new releases on offer, I put on Inception, which I’ve somehow never gotten around to seeing. Although I’m initially not sure that a movie about descending multiple levels into dreams is something I’m going to be able to follow in my pretty exhausted state, I’m able to follow along (I think) and enjoy it.

“Boarding is complete” is called about 15 minutes after I board. The seat next to me remains empty, and the J cabin has about 20 passengers. I have no idea what the load is in the back, but it never ceases to amaze me that it seems like many Asian carriers can board a widebody in less time than it takes AC to board an Embraer. We push back, and the surreal Thai Airways safety video, complete with a Thai emblem that transforms into a robot and ultimately into an economy seat, and very smily flight attendants, plays.

A short taxi and we’re up and on our way towards Bangkok.

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Service starts with drinks and (non-warmed) almonds. I decide to just go with water.

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Meal service starts quickly, and it looks like they’re trying to get dinner done in a hurry so passengers can get some sleep. The tray contains starter and salad, and the breadbasket follows. I grab a pretty boring white roll, and some slightly overdone garlic bread.

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The starter is nothing particularly special, although the julienned vegetables are quite nice. And the salad is very uninspired, with hard tomatoes and far too much iceberg lettuce. But the sour cream and chives salad dressing is quite nice.

Dishes are cleared quickly, and my selected entree, the lamb, is brought around. Quite a tasty dish, and the meat is still a little pink in the middle, so it’s not too overdone.

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A fruit service is up next, a nice little palate cleanser.

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And then dessert, which doesn’t look great, but is actually quite tasty.

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Another hot towel service finishes dinner.

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I head off to the Royal Silk (Thai’s brand for business class) lav. It’s pretty standard, aside from this little burst of colour with the omni-present Thai orchid.

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Back at my seat, I finish the movie, and check in on the moving map. We’re well underway, starting across India.

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I turn the screen off, grab the eye mask from my amenity kit, and put the seat down as “flat” as it will go. It has quite an incline, but with my belt tightened to prevent any slide-down, I’m pretty quickly out for the night.

I get a solid few hours of sleep, awaking well into descent into Bangkok. Looking around the cabin, there’s some evidence that a pre-arrival snack was offered, but it’s clearly too late for me, as the moving map is saying we’re about 15 minutes out of BKK. The sun is already up as we descend into Thailand.

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On final into BKK, we race our shadow onto the ground.



We taxi around the airport, getting a good look at a Qatar A380, and then our TG twin — which will be the only opportunity I get to get a descent picture of a Thai 333, because of the arrival system in Bangkok.

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Finally, we pull into Gate C6, and we’re quickly on our way off, getting wais and thank-yous all the way out.

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It’s a short walk through BKK to transit security, and since I’ve already got my next boarding pass, I’m soon released into airside at Bangkok, ready to enjoy a little of Thai’s signature premium-cabin ground services at the airport.

We’ll pick up the journey there.

Thanks for reading!
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Verdict

Thai Airways

7.5/10
Cabin6.5
Cabin crew8.0
Entertainment/wifi7.5
Meal/catering8.0

Dubai - DXB

7.9/10
Efficiency6.5
Access8.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness9.0

Bangkok - BKK

9.0/10
Efficiency8.5
Access8.5
Services9.5
Cleanliness9.5

Conclusion

A decent overnight flight with a fairly good night of sleep, even if it was an angle-flat seat, which is less than ideal. It's my first time on a TG A330, so check that one off the list.

In my few flights with them, I've always enjoyed Thai's on-board service, and very much enjoyed the ground services for BKK. This flight was about getting to those ground service, and getting to the next flight, which will introduce another experience I can check off the list.

Information on the route Dubai (DXB) Bangkok (BKK)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 23 avis concernant 3 compagnies sur la ligne Dubai (DXB) → Bangkok (BKK).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Emirates avec 8.4/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 5 heures et 58 minutes.

  More information

6 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 150704 by
    beijinner 157 Comments
    Than's for the report.

    The cabin looks really dated, maybe it's time for some refurbishment for TG
    • Comment 329044 by
      hometoyyz AUTHOR 539 Comments
      Thanks for the feedback.

      And I agree... while their business product is pretty good on newer planes, it's time to bring the older members of the family up to speed.

      I've only ever flown this product before on BKK-SIN, and that was on a 777 (I forget if it was 200, 200ER, 300, 300ER). I really hope this isn't the product they're sending on their long longhauls.
  • Comment 150775 by
    airtraveladdict 117 Comments
    Thank for the report, it looks like TG like OZ, MH and other Asian carriers need to start updating their cabin and seats.
    The contract lounge looks okay, decent food selection and generous considering this is a contract lounge.
    I wonder why TG doesn't tell passengers to use LH lounge instead, i guess it might be far from the departure gate.
    The onboard catering looks okay. However the champagne offering is good for business class, much better than what other airlines serve.
    • Comment 329045 by
      hometoyyz AUTHOR 539 Comments
      Thanks for the feedback!

      The lounge was definitely a pleasant surprise, aside from the whole shower issue. And no idea why they don't send pax to the LH lounge. Although, after hearing very poor reviews of said lounge, I can't say I was in a hurry to go hunt it down.

      It's unfortunate that the J cabin on newer planes from TG, OZ, etc. are so good, but then you get these older birds, and it's clearly (at least) a couple of generations behind what's offered on the 388 or other newer planes.
  • Comment 151302 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6668 Comments
    Thanks for sharing this next leg in the series. Not a fun experience to have to wait around so long for the transit desk to open, especially after 2 flights already. But it seems like you took it in stride. Thai has such a hodge podge of different J products--From full flat all-aisle-access seats on some planes to there old angled flat on some aircraft. These seats are fine for a short regional route like BKK-SIN/HKG, but a real flat bed would be better on a redeye.

    I added the Marhaba lounge to the database for your. Feel free to use the contact link at the bottom of the page if you need lounges/airlines added in the future.
  • Comment 412368 by
    STAR-ALLIANCE-FLYER 48 Comments
    Just one meal? Is LH lounge really far away from the gate? Do TG food tastes good compared to AIR CHINA? Food Quantity?

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