Bangkok International Airport

I walked to the Transfer Counter to check in for my next flight to Hong Kong, the first flight of my upcoming mileage run. Check in was a little bit confused about the routing, but printed my boarding pass and gave me a voucher for the lounge. So I headed for the Lounge between Pier 3 and Pier 4, where I took a refreshing shower. The shower of which are three available was spacious, but cooled down by air condition a little bit too much. After my refreshing shower, I settled down and relaxed a little bit and put some work in my report. I also checked Flyertalk on one of free but slow Internet Terminals. I noticed, the first floor of this lounge was full, but the second floor was not so full. It seems many passengers had not discovered the almost hidden staircase to the second floor near the restrooms. The selection of newspapers and magazines was okay. W-Lan was available in the lounge, too.

The food options were not that bad, pastry, spring rolls and sandwiches in addition to a good selection of different types of soft drinks, juices, wine and beer. As boarding was scheduled to start at 15:20 and I wanted to look for the prices of several duty free items, I left the lounge at 15:15.

I passed security a Pier 2 quickly at 15:30 but as I reached the Gate, boarding had not started yet. Boarding started at 15:40 with boarding for First and Business Class Passengers and Star Gold.

19 May 2006
BKK – HKG
[Bangkok – Hong Kong]
TG 606 (Thai Airways); Boeing 747 – 400
Gate 24
16:00 – 19:45 [effective 16:10 – 19:50]
Business Class
Seat 12 A

I was the third person to board the plane and on my way to the upper deck of the 747. My trolley was stored by one of the flight attendants in the storage room near the staircase.

I was shown my seat by another flight attendants. Headphones, blanket and cushion were placed on the seat. It was the old Business Class and it was not really in a good condition. Some parts of the seat were loose; also the cabin interior seems to be bit run down. If you have the impression of the new Business Class and this one, the difference is really big; though I still think the seat is not that bad. Especially the footrest, which is adjustable in the length, is something I have missed on my flights on Asiana later.

Pre Departure Drinks were offered (Champagne and Orange Juice) and also a hot towel service. I also got the written menu for the upcoming flight. We pushed back and had to queue for take off with five other planes before us. The captain informed us about this waiting time, but told us, that he expected to land in Hong Kong in time.
Finally wheels were up at 16:25 and we were on our 2 h 30 min flight to HKG.

Roughly 25 minutes after take off, the meal service began with nuts and a beverage round. The tables were laid with linen and glasses for wine were distributed. Meal service was done on a tray 20 minutes later. Your first course arrives with the tray and cutleries, napkin, etc.. After this the plate with the next course is replaced.

But here is the menu and the wine list .

The meal was excellent, as I had expected on Thai from my experiences in the past. From my experience, Thai Airways has a very high level of quality and quantity of food. There was no exception on this flight. I had opted for the chicken and the Bourgone. The flight attendants were friendly and attentive, so your glass was never empty and you had to tell them explicitly you do not want any more wine.

Dinner service last 45 minutes and I heard some music, but not all channels were available on this flight. To me nothing to worry about because there was not left much time before landing after this meal service.

The Upper deck was nearly full, I counted only on free seat and there was a lot to do for the flight attendants, but they had always a smile and were very polite and friendly.

After meal service my seat neighbour and I compared the actual products of the Asian Carriers. She rates Cathay Pacific’s Business Class as a very good product. We shared the opinion that Thai Airways was in a strong need to improve their F and C Cabin to be at least on the same level with the competitors. She had flewn Singapore Airlines in C and F. She mentioned the flight attendants on the long haul flights are sometimes a bit to robotic in their service, but from her experience this changed in the last 12 month a little bit. Doing a least once a month a trans pacific she flies most of the times Star Alliance but has also status with Oneworld and therefore flew sometimes Cathay. She highly recommends to fly CX out of HKG to be able to use their outstanding lounges in HKG.

We landed with a little delay at 19:45 and were at our gate five minutes later.

Again, Economy Passengers were not hold back, this time on both sides of the plane. From the view of a Business Class Passengers, this should not happen. First and Business should allowed to deplane before.

In the terminal I headed for the main terminal by the train, which became very crowded. Immigration was fast, as this time there were more Hong Kong residents queuing than visitors. But the men in front of me had some sort of diplomatic status. Not only he was in the wrong line, he also caused some trouble by the immigration officer, who phoned several times. So I had to wait several minutes, as the person guiding the people to the next available counter seems not able to relocate me. I wanted to change to another counter, but was not allowed to do so. This seems a bit stupid, but as I could not change it I prepared myself by searching for my octopus card for the Airport Express. After Immigration I changed money and headed to the airport train, which just left the station as I showed up. As I had an octopus card from a previous visit to Hong Kong there was not need to buy a ticket. Being later in the afternoon, I wanted to reach the hotel as soon as possible, I decided to take the Airport Express to Kowloon and then the free Shuttle to Jordan, as our hotel (Eaton Hotel) was located near Jordan Station.

The Airport ride is fast and at Kowloon Station I had only to wait three minutes before the shuttle bus left the station. Only three other passengers were in the bus and app. ten minutes later I was a Jordan and walked Nathan Road to my hotel, where I meet flyertalker cathaana, who arrived earlier the day form Singapore.

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