The next leg of my “Round the World in 8 Days” adventure was a quick hop from Phuket up to Bangkok. I had a few choices among the airlines competing on this route, but as I have Gold status with Star Alliance I chose Thai Airways.
Nothing in the booking journey led me to believe I’d not receive the Thai Airways experience, but as it turns out, I didn’t… For a reason I’m not particularly happy about… Which I will reveal in this video…
Flying on Thai Smile was still a great experience though!
⭐ #flightreview #ThaiSmile #MattsPlanet ⭐
▶ Support me on Patreon! ◀
▶ https://www.patreon.com/matts_planet ◀
🛒 Check out my new Amazon Store 🛒
▶ http://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/mattsplanet/ ◀
▶ Get 83% off a subscription with SurfShark ◀
▶ https://surfshark.deals/MattsPlanet ◀
▶ Applying for an American Express card? Email me for a referral ◀
▶ planet @ ttamsenoj . com ◀
▶ Follow me on Instagram ◀
▶ https://www.instagram.com/mattschannels/ ◀
▶ Visit my website – https://www.ttamsenoj.com ◀
✉️ Business Enquiries: planet @ ttamsenoj . com ✉️
▶ Please don’t forget to subscribe to my channel! And click the notification bell 🔔! ◀
⏰ Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro
0:50 – Phuket Airport
4:28 – The flight
8:21 – Bangkok Airport
DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you. This video may not be copied or reproduced without written permission.
23 Comments
After jumping through numerous hoops to attain a certain status you then have to roll around on the floor with some airlines to get them to actually honour it
my feeling is that if they can get out of it then they probably will
7:58 I laughed so much. I’m glad you ware not told to turn your pacemaker off 😂😂😂😂
Thai and Thai Smile codeshare is a bit of mystery. My QR flight from Doha to Yangon had been cancelled and QR booked me on DOH-BKK and BKK-RGN on TG instead. Then TG flight was changed from the main line operation to WE. My booking was still confirmed with new TG flight number operated by WE. When I checked-in QR at the airport, QR was not able to check me and interline the luggage from BKK, QR put me on Bangkok Airways eventually.
I’d pay £50 for that mango pie, never mind the flight. It looked epic.
In my mind Thai are grouped with those four to five star Asian airlines, but devious behaviour like that evidenced here on your booking and that the minimal cost of giving lounge access to status holding pax makes me think they’re probably more run of the mill mediocre market now. Worth it for a good price but don’t rely on a good experience kind of airline.
Happy Easter Matt. Lyny x
The domestic lounges in Thailand are never anything to write home about, so there's that.
Maybe it's a situation where if you were gold with TG, they'd have admitted you.
Nice, balanced review. I flew between Bangkok and Krabi on Thai back in 2018 so perhaps not a useful comparison but I remember noticing at time of booking that some flights were operated by Thai Smile. The flights I took were on a Thai A330 and the leg room wasn’t anywhere near as good as the Thai Smile flight in your review but the inflight service was identical to your experience. I think the Thai flight had 30kg baggage allowance whereas those operated by Thai Smile were restricted to 20kg, although that might be me misremembering that particular detail.
There is nothing worse than looking forward to the Lounge… and you can't get in! (especially when you have status)
Brilliant video Matt, thanks for sharing! I reckon you could have got away with being the Monk!
Do you not have priority pass through a credit card of some description?
5:01 why do the even have a middle seat if it’s always blocked off?
Yes many trips to Phuket and Kata beach . You’ll get this bureaucracy stuff there because rule books are always followed to the letter . Not much independent thought . It’s only when you’ve clearly paid for something that you are not receiving that you will be informed “Same same”😙
Definitely Bangkok airways – free Wi-Fi in the lounge with food and drink on a reasonable economy fare.
For £50 … mustn't grumble too much… very informative again…
I flew them a few years ago in 2015/16 and they were amazing!
I'd agree that it seems like Thai are playing fast and loose with the *A membership benefit rules when using one of their own subsidiaries. Prrtty poor to be denied access given the route to purchase the ticket. The window filming bit at the end also seems weird – I had this once (part way through a flight) on an AA transcon – you've no choice but to remove (in my case it was some comment about the camera weakening the structure of the window……) but compliance with crew instructions isn't open to discussion these days. Another great video and really cracking views.
Interesting what happened to you trying to get lounge access. I had similar at Doha when I had a Qatar booking Heathrow Doha Hyderabad. The Doha Hyderabad flight turned out to be on Indigo so even though I'm BA Silver, no Qatar lounge access at Doha. Incidentally, on the return journey because I was connecting from Indigo onto a Qatar service for Doha Heathrow, lounge access was allowed.
The bait and switch is frustrating. They do allow you to board early with your Gold status and you can use the Gold check-in queue and get priority bag tags, so not all is lost.
I have also read they are thinking to fold THAI Smile back into the mainline operations.
I flew the same route earlier this year and agree with everything you said.
You would have been able to use priority boarding with *A Gold. (I even took a picture of the sign stating that)
The thai lounge isn’t great but the Coral Lounge (also priority pass) is! They even had free massages!
I did read that Thai will be merging Thai Smile to Thai at some point, so you won’t have those annoyances again.
Luv the humour and a little cheeky 2
Thai smile is a subsidiary of TG and its common to book thru TG website and end up on Thai Smile flight (when they say operated by Thai Smile). I thought it’s common elsewhere too but now that I watch ur vdo it apparently isnt😅😅 but for locals, Thai Smile is regarded as a nice airline, it’s full service (already comes with luggage allowance + snacks) not low cost😃😃
Also u didn’t miss anything, TG lounge in Phuket is always PACKED🙅🏻♀️
Hope u enjoy my home country Matt!❤
P.S. i didn’t know u couldn’t use the lounge with status if ure flying on thai smile instead of TG! Becoz they’re so synonymous here
Brilliant video, thanks! Thailand is high on my destinations. When you say, you travel for your living – you don't mean making these absolutely wonderful videos – is your actual living – do you? If so, that would top my list of complete dream jobs!?
Are we going to see you get to Thailand ? In total agreement with you about Bangkok airways.
A fair and balanced review. I can imagine being somewhat put off by the denied lounge access, particularly as a status holder. Since watching your video, I've had a look at Thai's website as I was interested in the language used. I have been unable to see where, specifically, Smile flights are not allowed access. If there is a Ts & Cs restriction, I've not found it explicitly stated. Lounge access not withstanding though, seems like it was a decent experience.