Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport

At 5:20 in the morning my pre arranged taxi for the airport arrived at the Hilton and since traffic was not that busy, I arrived at the airport a few minutes prior to 6:00. Check in was done at the designated Business Class area of Thai Airways. The counters were quite busy given the early morning, but waiting time was not too long.

My luggage was checked in, my boarding pass printed and without any need to wait longer than necessary I headed to immigration, where only one person was ahead of me and also at the following security checkpoint. Again, shoes off, laptop out of the case and belt on the belt and I could pass security and took the elevator down to the Royal Silk Lounge, which was not too busy. I really appreciate that the security check is now done before entering the terminal and especially and not on the way to the gates.
As my flight was departing from gate C 6 I decided to head over to the lounge at this part of BKK. This lounge is smaller and especially in the morning hours quite busy, nevertheless I had no problem to find a seat. But the lounge became quite busy in the next hour and the lounge took an example at the famous SEN lounge at gate A 26 in FRA.

I grabbed some fresh fruit from the buffet offerings and a cup of coffee and wrote some e-mails and waited for boarding time to arrive.

A few miutes prior to boarding time, I left the lounge and walked the few steps to gate C 6. The agents had already announced boarding for passengers flying in Business Class and holding Star Gold Status and as I reached the gate area, boarding had just started.

04 May 2011
BKK – CGK
[Bangkok Suvarnabhumi – Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta]
TG 433 (Thai Airways); Airbus A 330-300 (HS-TEG / 'Lam Plai Mat')
Gate C 6
08:00 – 11:25 [effective 08:00 – 11:26]
Business Class
Seat 12 A

I was the second person in Business Class and stored my trolley in the overhead compartments and my bag under the seat in front of me. A flight attendant came around with a bottle of champagne and asked me if I would like to have a glass. He showed me the bottle and then filled the glass. This is new for Thai, I have never experienced that the bottle was shown to me, neither on longhaul nor on shorthaul. Later he offered orange juice and water as well and did a few rounds through the cabin for the passengers, who boarded later, offering Champagne as well.

Another flight attendant offered one guest to hang his jacket, but overlooked me. She saw my jacket lying on the seat and it was obvious that I would like to have it hang in the closet. Contrary to the first good impression during pre-departure drink service, that was more the service level expected. Meanwhile the Business Class Cabin filled with people and the aisle seat was taken. It seems that the most people in the Business Class Cabin were flying to the ASEAN meeting in Jakarta. However, the cabin was not full, especially in the rear part were a few free seats. The first row was taken by a high ranked Thai government official with his assistant and he received some sort of special treatment, i.e. offered more refills and a superior service.

As a crew member asked the Australian passenger sitting at the aisle seat next to me, if she should hang his jacket, I used this opportunity to ask her to hang my jacket as well.

As usually, pillows were lying on the seats, while blankets had to be requested.

The short safety video was shown and the crew collected the glasses from the per departure drink service. We were pushed back in time and taxied for the runway and were number four for take off. Around 08:18 the captain powered the Pratt Whitney PW4164 engines and we accelerated and finally climbed into the partly cloudy sky.

This Airbus joined the Thai Airways fleet right from Airbus factories as new plane back in October 1995 and was equipped with 42 seats in the Royal Orchid Business Class and 26 seats in Economy Class. Seat Pitch was round about 50’’ and the seats recline 138°, which is not that bad and for a day flight more than adequate, but if you flight longer distance in Asia such as BKK – NRT in the night you would prefer a seat with a bigger recline. But on this shorter flight it was everything I needed. It seems, as Thai will not retrofit this planes with the newer seats used in some of the 747-400. No real surprise, as the Airbus are more used on short flights within Asia, but given the distances in the region, this could equal the distance LHR – BOS or in other word transatlantic flights from some cities in Europe to east coast cities in the US are sometimes even shorter.

The first minutes were a bit bumpy, but later it became a calmer flight and seat belt signs were switched off for the passengers as well, the crew already got up and prepared the meal and beverage service.

Menus were distributed later airborne after a hot towel was offered.

Time to finally read the printed menu and the wine list (click on the menu / opens new window)

First a beverage round was done and the crew started at the last row in the cabin and worked from the back to the front. I asked for a coffee, which had to be prepared and the flight attendant promised me, to bring it, while she has served the first row. Well, this never happened, she must have forgotten it.

Later on the first course was delivered. As usual flying Thai the first course came on the tray together with the cutlery and again it was done from the back to the front of the cabin.

Starter
Fresh Fruit and Yoghurt

Main Course
Stir fried Hokkien Noodles with Vegetables and Chicken

There was no choice for the first course, it were fresh fruit with a joghurt. Nicely presented on the tray I had a coffee with the fruit. It seems no alcohol was available on this flight, although the menu featured a wine list. I am sure, if someone had asked, wine would have been available, but it seems nobody asked. And for me, it was too early for a glass of wine.

Refills of coffee and tea were done every now and then, but without any method. One had to ask the passing flight attendant walking with the coffee and tea through the cabin, it looked as she showed the cabon to the tea and coffeepot and did not offer a refill rather than have a look if the cups are empty, she just walked through the cabin. I did not really call this service.

Anyway, plates were collected and the main course was offered. Again the crew was starting with the cart in the back of the cabin towards the first rows. I opted for the Hokkien Noodles, which were quite good. The taste was good and I still think food on Thai is in the most cases superior to this of Lufthansa, especially in Economy Class. In Business Class the quality however is sometimes on Thai lower. You are usually safe, if you use Asian dishes and have a flight within Asia.

Later the trays were collected and I asked for another cup of coffee which this time was delivered.

The crew was not very attentive and they just did their job. Not really smiling and sometimes it even seems that not everybody knew about their position and places during service.

I used the remaining flight time to put some time in my project work and trying to finish a few reports to reread them while in the hotel and mail them to my office.

The crew was not seen for the remaining flight time, which was not that long, since the meal service lasted app. 90 minutes. Soon enough the captain gave us an update of the flight time and expected an arrival ahead of schedule.

The crew began to prepare the cabin for the arrival in Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta Airport. While we approached the airport, the skyline of Jakarta was visible through the dust.

We touched down at 11:19 and the airport looks somehow cozy with the small building, probably not like the airport of the capital of a 220 million people country. We taxied to our gate, where we arrived at 11:26 nearly ten minutes ahead of schedule.

De-Boarding was possible through the first door and quite a number of people waited in the jetbridge with name boards for ASEAN delegates for the ASEAN conference in Jakarta. I was not awaited and hurried up to immigration counters. I had 25 USD ready for the Visa on arrival service and the lines were quite short. I think quite a number of people were escorted through the lines for holders of diplomatic passport and special desk for ASEAN delegates.





Immigration took not long and I walked to the belt for our luggage. Priority Stickers did somehow work, but ASEAN Stickers topped them. But soon later I was on my way to one of the Silverbird taxis. I took a Silverbird, as no Bluedbird Taxi was available right now.

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