To Bangkok with Thai Airways
International!
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| Delivery of THAI's first A380 a week before the Inaugural. Photo credit: http://www.nycaviation.com/photo-galleries/photos-thai-airways-first-airbus-a380/photo-galleries/image/thai-airways-international-thai-became-the-ninth-airline-to-receive-an-airbus-a380-jetliner-during-a-ceremony-held-in-toulouse-france-photo-by-p-mascletairbus/ |
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| Cheap promo fares, who could resist?! |
Reasons behind the trip:
2) Thai Airways were offering S$280 all in return econ fares to BKK which were reasonably cheap.
3) Flights were on the A346 (which I was dying to try) and the Inaugural date of THAI’s A380 ops.
4) Bangkok was a place I've only transited at and not toured.
So with all those positive reasons
put forth to my mum, the green light was given and within a couple of
discussions among my friends (Daniel L & Terence) , our tickets were
booked!
A couple of issues though, as I
wasn’t the credit card holder, I was required to go down to the local TG office
and sign some documents that confirmed that the ticket was actually valid and
not a fraud case. Secondly, they opened the seat selection map for the A380 and
all seats were available for selection, however a friend Aaron who got an upper deck seat
secured at time of booking was bumped out of it by the system closer to the
inaugural date for no reason whatsoever. I mean the least the airline should do
is to honour it right? But alas he managed to get his seat in the upper deck
through a lot of hassle, just ask him. Thirdly,
seat changes could not be made once one had selected them during booking, not
even through the mobile application, the Singapore office, the check in counters
at the airport nor the head office in Bangkok which is pretty appalling. Really a big thumbs down for Thai Airways's on-ground operations.
I realized thereafter that more
friends would be on this BKK A380-do; Charles would be on Scoot (TZ301) that
evening, Aaron and Hoe Jyh would be doing a daytrip up and down on the
Inaugural day (TG402), 6th of October, a couple of Ninervictor
members were on our flight (TG414) whereas a few more would join us in BKK.
Great company!
Trip details:
4th October - TG 414 Dep: 1555 Arr: 1714 - Airbus Industries A340-600
6th October - TG 409 Dep: 1705 Arr: 2020 - Airbus Industries A380
Departure day:
I was to meet up
with the fellow ‘CEO’s at Changi Airport’s Terminal 1 for this trip’s shirt
distribution. Yes we've all specially made a shirt just for the THAI A380
Inaugural. It was a small price to pay that garnered much attention later on
(stay tuned!). I’m not bragging but the shirt came out to be fantastic!
All 3 of us flying that day booked on the late afternoon flight (TG414) as we wanted to get on the Airbus A340-600. We all knew that the flight had a very strong tendency to get equipment swapped but nontheless we decided to try our luck at the time of booking. Thankfully, we were reassured by data.flight24.com a couple of hours before departure that HS-TNC was operating the inbound flight!
We weren't TG'ed! (famous phrase for being equipment swapped at the last minute)
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| Fisheye view of T1's departure hall |
Terence and I decided to get a quick munch before boarding and we decided on Delifrance @ Terminal 2 where we could do some plane spotting in the central E gates whilst getting a bite.
Here are some photos, enjoy!
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| TAV turning into the central apron |
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| SLF returning from regional flight MI622 |
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| Close-up of the Tiger A320 @ T2 (No longer at the budget terminal!) |
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| Flight PR508 leaving for Manila |
After settling our empty tummies, we decided to head back to our gate (D46 at Terminal 1) as our flight was already called as 'Gate Closing'. A quick security scan was done at the gate and a chat with the ground staff revealed that we were the last few passengers to arrive. Thus, we were asked to take Door L1 into the first class cabin as Door L2 was already closed awaiting for departure.
Flight details:
Photos of HS-TNC from Airliners.net & Jetphotos.net
Carrier: Thai Airways International
Flight number: TG 414
Date: 4th October
Routing: SIN-BKK
Aircraft: A340-600 (HS-TNC)
Age: 7.3 Years
Named: 'Chon Buri'
Config: F8 C60 Y199
Load: Approx: 85%
Dep Gate: D46
Arr Gate: D*
Dep RWY: 20C
Arr RWY: 19L
STD: 1555, ATD: 1559
STA: 1715, ATA: 1659
The stewards and stewardesses spotted us coming down the jetway and immediately smiled pointing towards our specially made t-shirts for this trip. A 'Sewadeekap' greeting and a bow followed by a short conversation regarding our special travel plans made me feel at home right away. Walking down the cabins to our seats 47K & 48K, we were greeted by many glances in the cabin all whom are pretty inquisitive about our purpose in traveling today, I'm sure.
5 minutes after settling down, the doors were closed and the 4 Rolls Royce Trent 556 engines powered to life. I was ready for my first A340-600 experience. My favourite safety video was then played whilst waiting for taxi clearance. It was a no-nonsense, informative yet calming video that i enjoyed. The cabin crews then went down the aisle with warm cleansing tissues. It was a good touch for passengers to freshen up, however i'd rather they gave those heated towels like SQ instead of the tissue ones.
Outside the window, a swift taxi out via TWY A6 A1 E1 took us to Runway 20C in less than 5 minutes. We were number 3 in sequence for takeoff and right after a Fedex A310 freighter lifted off, we lined up.
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| Engine start! |
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| Taxiing on TWY A1 with an overview of stands 404-400. |
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| Waiting for a Fedex A310F to takeoff. |
Meal service begun 30 minutes after takeoff after the pilots had safely reached the cruising altitude of 38000 feet. Lunch options that day were either fried rice with chicken or fish with tamarind sauce. Considering that all meals for flights EX-SIN except TG 402 were catered out of BKK, i was sure that i couldn't go wrong with either choice. However, having tasted chicken for far too many times in the air, i decided to go with the fish option.
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| Fried fish with tamarind sauce and jasmine rice. |
And boy the food didn't disappoint! I walloped it all up in less than 5 minutes, IT WAS THAT GOOD.
Also notice the use of the casserole and metal cutlery in economy class, not many airlines do that these days. Unfortunately turbulence settled in and the drinks service had to be called on and off a couple of times and most of the time we were cruising, the seatbelt sign was switched on.
Service was attentive and the flight attendants were always smiling genuinely at any request we had and delivered it without any mistakes.
30 minutes after meal service, the trays were cleared and we roamed around the cabin for some photo taking.
Here are some shots taken inflight out of my window.
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| Wingview of the Airbus A340-600. |
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| High above at 38000 feet. |
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| That lovely purple winglet. |
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| Some islands en-route. |
Before we knew it, the FO came on the PA system, did his formalities and announced that we would be hitting landfall in 30 minutes time. I reset my watch to follow Bangkok time and returned to my seat for the landing preparations.
A series of banks put us in sight of RWY 19L. I vaguely remembered that the THAI A346 does indeed have a nose camera function and i frantically toggled between the up and down buttons. Within a few clicks, it appeared on my screen and i went to tell Daniel and Terence who were seated infront of and behind me respectively.
A thunderstorm was approaching at this time and Bangkok was relatively dark, however i still managed to make out the THAI A380 'Si Rattana' parked outside one of Thai Airways's hangers when we were on finals. As we flared over the runway expecting a hard thud landing based on the characteristic of the A340 family, we somehow greased the tarmac, the thrust reverses opened and the brakes applied to bring us back to normal taxiing speed.
A routine taxi of almost 10 minutes took us to one of the D-piers of Survanabhumi's gates. We waited for the general public to leave the plane before we indulged in more photography of the plane's interior. Our photo requests for business and first class were also granted and a corporate kit containing paper matter and a pen was given to me when all i asked for was a feedback form. I think they know we love any form of souvenirs!
As i headed for the exit, i thanked the captain for the smooth flight and the awesome landing to which he replied ecstatically, 'I did it!'. I broke into the smile and thanked him again.
Anyway here are some photos after landing!
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| Bangkok with a thunderstorm approaching. |
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| HS-TUA on the parking stand. |
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| Economy. |
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| Business. |
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| First. |
We thanked the crew and stepped into the steel structures of Survanabhumi and realised that we had been locked in the aerobridge! The airport staff probably thought that everyone had already left the aircraft. Thus we had to trouble the ever wonderful crew again and the inflight manager called for assistance. We thanked them profusely again as we parted ways.
In a nutshell, it was the joyride we were after and having known that TG's inflight service was good, it certainly didn't disappoint. The service and food were top notch, seat pitch at 34' was really generous although the IFE selection could be better (much improved on the A380 but i'll leave that till later). In general, the hard product and the soft product were both equally outstanding and i must say THAI has secured my business as long as the fares remain competitive and the service remains excellent.
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| From left: Terence, Myself, The Captain & Daniel! |
Thai Airways over Singapore Airlines any day and i stand by that. Smooth as silk.
Ratings:
Service - 9
Food - 9
Aircraft - 10
Punctuality - 10
IFE/Seat - 7
Overall: 45/50 (Excellent)
Thank you for your attentiveness, Part 2 coming right up!
