Home > Thai Airways International > 2006 > Review

Taken 9 October 2006 from Sydney, New South Wales (Kingsford Smith) - SYD to Vientiane (Wattay) - VTE

Thai Airways has good things and bad things. I'll start with what I think are the bad ones.

The flight we took between Sydney and Bangkok went via Melbourne, which is quite frustrating as you actually fly further away from your destination first. The flight left Sydney at around 9:20pm arriving in Melbourne around 10:30pm. The flight then doesn't leave Melbourne until about 00:15am - that is quite late. Therefore, dinner is served around 1am, lights are switched off around 2am - that is really late and makes you feel rather drowsy and even slightly sick.

The food is quite ordinary - I expected exceptionally nice food as this airline is meant to be one of the best ones of the world. The food was OK, but not extraordinary. Some things on the menu tasted rather interesting to westerners. Then again, the actual Thai dish was delicious. I just don't understand why airlines must put mushrooms in every dish, some people just don't like them and it really changes the flavour of the rest of the food.

Another negative one was the fact that Thai still doesn't have individual TV screens on their Boeing 747s. In my opinion that is quite pathetic for such a world-leading airline, especially because the ticket price is quite high. Exactly one movie was shown on the 9 hour flight between Melbourne and Bangkok.

Then on a good note, the main reason why I would fly this airline again, is because of the room you have in economy class. I have never had so much leg room before. You can literally stretch out almost completely which makes sleeping a bit easier. I had the impression that the chairs also reclined further than on other airlines - but maybe that was just my imagination.

The service on board is fine, but not exceptionally friendly. Unlike some other airlines, they don't come around with drinks very often, and if they do it was for some reason more often coke than water.

I would recommend this airline to others because of the leg room, I would not recommend it because of the flight going via Melbourne and the lack of individual TV screens.

Overall an OK experience, but I would not rank this airline higher than some of their competitors (Gulf Air, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas,...) even though Thai would like to think they are a better airline than the ones mentioned.