Review of Thai Airways flight from Phuket to Bangkok in Economy

Introduction

After having spend some days in Phuket with my wife's family and visiting the beautiful island of Koh Yao Yai with my wife, it was time for us to return to Bangkok to spend our remaining days in Bangkok before returning home. We also needed those days to buy some groceries to take home, visit some other family members of my wife and some of her friends.

Given that we had to position from the Koh Yao Yai back to Phuket, we decided to book us a flight that was somewhere early afternoon, so we did have plenty of time in Bangkok for other things as we really needed the time over there. Thai Airways gave us the best option with there 1.40 pm flight for two persons including luggage. The price tag for this one-way fare was about 60 USD for two persons. PG, VZ & DD gave us also some options on similar times, yet VZ I try to avoid at all costs and DD would bring us to Don Mueang, which was unfavourable for our hotel. PG was charging the same price, yet would depart an hour later, so the choice was made. 

So about thirty minutes past our decision, we received our itinerary on our email after having some difficulties with TG's website as I received multiple errors when booking this flight for some reason that was probably related to TG's website as it often appears so now and then.

On our way to Phuket

After spending three magnificent days at Koh Yao Yai Village Beach Resort as shown in the gallery below, it was unfortunately time for us to return to Bangkok. We kindly requested the hotel to arrange our transport for us, so that we were in Phuket about two hours to 90 minutes prior to our flight departure.

In case you are visiting Phuket anytime soon and you prefer a quieter place with a huge focus on nature, I highly recommend you guys to visit Koh Yao Yai as the island is a nice retreat from Phuket and it's huge tourism industry.

Transportation is quite a hassle though if travelling with large pieces of luggage like we did as we needed a ride from our resort to the pier. Given that the ride from the resort to the pier took about 30 minutes or so, we had to leave around 10.30 AM to catch the speedboat of 11.15 AM, which of course turned out to be late as the previous speedboat departed late.

While there are several companies running to Koh Yao Yai, the hotel arranged a private speedboat for the guests who were checking out, so the speedboat wasn't overly crowded and took another 30 minutes or so to reach the pier in Phuket.

We kind of expected our speedboat to drop us off at the Bang Rong Pier in Phuket (which was our pier to go to Koh Yao Yai), we were quite surprised to see that we were actually dropped off at the Ao Po Grand Marina. From here our luggage was brought to us at the station where minivans where waiting for passengers to bring them to their final destination.

As we were the only ones who were actually heading to the airport, we departed quite quickly and the friendly chap who drove us did speak a lot and giving us plenty of information about regional projects. My wife nor me were actually interested in it, yet we appreciated him doing his best to accommodate us for the 25 minute ride to the airport.

Phuket International Airport

Phuket's domestic terminal could really do with a restructuring and update of it's terminal.

The chap dropped us off in front of the main exit, which so happened to be right in front of THAI's check-in counters.

Upon entering the terminal, you are greeted by a row of Self Service Check-in Counters which airlines prefer you to use and to ease the drop-off of your luggage. The system is quite easy to handle, yet tests your patience as it's quite slow to respond and you may hit the same button for multiple times to actually show the number or letter.

Five check-in counters were in use with just one being occupied, so it was fair to say that it did not take a lot of time for our luggage to be dropped.

A lot of security stations were in service, yet the way it is handled is quite chaotic. Staff wasn't the friendliest either with their snarky short instructions, though it took us about 5 to 10 minutes to clear.

Thai Royal Orchid Lounge

Despite flying economy, I managed to gain access to Thai's lounge via my Priority Pass, which has quite a few selection in Phuket's domestic terminal I must admit as one can choose between the lounge of Coral, THAI and PG.

Given that I was flying THAI, it was an obvious choice to actually choose Thai's lounge for today's flight.

The lounge itself does not provide you with a view over the apron, but has plenty of seating available for the amount of passengers as you can see in the pictures below.

The lounge does provide you with some hot options like a wonton soup, which you are able to adjust to your taste with spices.

With the other three options being white rice, fried eggs and some stir-fried glass noodles with vegetables.

Sandwiches, Pastries and Cereal were available on the Kitchen Island.

Also one could find some noodles with fish curry or some instant noodles. You could also choose some ice cream, yet I did not take a photo if it.

In terms of beverages, choices were limited ranging from tea to coffee and from juices to soft drinks. No alcoholic beverages were served.

A more detailed look on the last part of the kitchen island containing some salads, fruits and a variety of sandwiches.

Flight TG 208

My wife and me decided to leave the lounge on our scheduled boarding time, which by that time, was already in progress as the aircraft arrived well ahead of time. Today's flight would be performed by HS-TXP, a 10.2 year old Airbus A320 (at time of flying) that was originally delivered to THAI Smile in September 2014 before being moved to THAI's fleet on the last operating day of Thai Smile. This specific bird is named after the city of Surat Thani.

During our boarding process, I saw this Airbus A321 of Juneyao Airlines being prepared for it's flight to China.

Upon boarding the aircraft with a crowd that was not moving particularly fast, I decided to have a chat with one of the flight attendants in the forward cabin in my very limited Thai (basic conversation level) as the row was stuck in the same position for quite a while with some elderly trying to stow their cabin. The flight attendant was quite cheerful and did greet anyone with a huge smile.

Eventually found my way to my seat for today's flight. The legroom was okay and acceptable for this flight, but wouldn't be so pleasant like I said before if being used on their longer routes like to Delhi sometimes.

The window view was excellent though.

By now the cabin was fully ready for it's flight and push-back was engaged about seven minutes ahead of our schedule.

A final view of Phuket's tarmac with an A340 of Mahan Air. 

An Airline I have experienced back in 2010 from Dusseldorf to Bangkok via Tehran and back, which was quite an adventure I must admit and probably one of my better memories as they were still using their B743 and A310s that time. 

About two minutes past our scheduled departure, we were rolling for our departure to Bangkok in an easterly direction giving us this wonderful view of Thailand. 

While I'm not a huge fan of Phuket itself (mainly due to the number of tourists), the area around Phuket and neighbouring provinces are spectacular.

The table was clean and passed it's test, though the age of the traytable was definitely visible.

The literature in the seat pocket contained only of a safety card and a disposal bag.

Our complimentary snack was served in a bag like my previous flight containing of a refreshing tissue, bottle of water and a sandwich about 25 to 30 minutes into the flight. The nasal inhaler on the photo was obviously not included as I simply forgot to remove it.

Once everyone got their snack, flight attendants appeared again about ten minutes or so to serve us some juice, coffee or tea. I asked for a cup of coffee with some milk. Luckily enough they provide you with a shot of milk and not creamer.

The sandwich contained a filling of chicken and spinach, but was not enjoyable at all as it was very dry, tasteless and I couldn't appreciate the texture. It took me just a single bite to determine that and threw it back into the bag.

Enjoying the views.

While the seat itself is quite comfy with the padding (minus the legroom), it has seen better days as you can see in the photo below.

Clean up followed soon after when the captain already announced himself that we were descending into Bangkok about 45 minutes into the flight.

Touchdown about 26 minutes ahead of our scheduled arrival time.

With a short ride to our gate, I came across this Airbus A330 of Condor. While this livery is quite unique, I absolutely dislike it……

Upon disembarking the aircraft, the friendly flight attendant was very accommodating once again and wished every one of us a pleasant day.

After disembarkation, luggage took about 10 to 15 minutes to appear on belt and we quickly went on our way to find our hotel.