Nice very informative, even keeled review there mate, I flew them only a few months back between Penang and Bangkok, the flight itself was really pleasant and enjoyable pity it was let down by poor and lacking communication when there was a significant delay to it though!
Nice video Matt on an interesting part of the world! I had exactly the same experience with Bangkok Airways re: camera recording. I think this is a Thai regulation but it does seem odd…
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!?
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.
Thanks! I did see that boarding sign at the gate, but the same sign was outside the lounge! And I was in Thailand! Hard to get too upset about anything when you're in paradise!
Great review with good graphics. Seem to recall that Phuket airport's food openings were pricey. P.S. Always impressed by passengers who can swing their bag straight up into the bin and immediately take their seat.
Thanks! I decided to wait until Bangkok to eat so didn't test out the food options... All pricing is relative though! Perfected the bag routine over many years!
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.
did the same flight from BKK to HKT in March. As Thai smile is a Star Alliance connecting partner you only get your benefits when connecting (officially). But you always get: Priority Check in (just do online checkin before, your frequent flyer no. is printed on your wallet boarding pass (without *G which doesn't matter). You get priority baggage and you get priority boarding. Therefor you go into the priority line and just show your *G Card (for example in the wallte of the phone) to the boarding gate agent. it's easy but you have to know it. So even it is not official you get all benefits but the lounge. And therefore you can use your priority pass etc. Next year I think it's over because Thai is taking Thai smile back into the main brand and so your *G will work all the time also officially
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
Thanks Bridget! Lots of airlines in my part of the world spread their operations around various subsidiaries with everything feeling the same for the passenger... But Thai Smile was a very good experience even without the status frills!
I tried to pitch this video as "it was great even though this happened" - I hope that comes though! I could have gone a lot cheaper if I'd travelled the following day too!
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.
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
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.
Thanks Matt👍. Did you earn miles via Star Alliance for this flight followingcthe switcheroo🤔. Noticed on the lounge sign that my good old Dinersclub would have worked is my Voyager Gold did not🤣🇿🇦😎
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.
Enjoyable video as usual Matt. You ought to be aware that Thai Smile and Thai Airways are set to merge this 2023. Reported in Bangkok Post. In 2022 Thai Smile lost baht 4.24 billion. Cumulative losses are around baht 20 billion. As for the flight number differences I suppose that as it's a domestic service Thai Smile can do as it wishes. No IATA control. Years ago I remember I found code-share confusion regarding TG on its website. There was a BKK to Shanghai flight which, at that time, was operated by a China airline (China Southern I believe) but TG's website booking pages made no mention of this and, although it was a code-share flight, it was displayed only as a Thai Airways flight with a TG flight number. I find TG to be rather a chaotic airline ... but as bad as Garuda ... but TG has a Thai way of conducting its business !
I've done my share of flying but others have done more... Really can't think of a time previously when the flight number I booked didn't appear on the departure boards of the airport I travelled through... Sounds like its not unusual for Thai though....
Shame about the lounge! I was in the coral lounge just across from the Thai a few days ago and it wasn’t bad at all. Also spotted the seat reserved for the monks 😂
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.
Qatar does occasionally make up its own rules... Should have got access to the status lounge with BA silver - presumably it was still a OneWorld flight number?
@@MattsPlanet QR flight numbers for all flights but Indigo not oneworld so because I was transferring to Indigo on the outbound, no access. Coming back transferring from Indigo to QR was allowed. A case of the status of the passenger not counting. Apparently if it had been QR metal, I would have been allowed in.
Situation Normalfor TG sneakers post so-called "restructure " a nicer carrier is EVA AIR I use a the Viena to BKK route then to Taipa cheap except in school holidays but the service, safety, and training of both tech and cabin crew are outstanding. Oh, and the food even in cattle class is better than some biz class airlines, Give them a try when you get a chance. They even eat QANTAS and Air NZ in many aspects HTH
My destination videos never do well... And I wasn't there long enough to cover the places I'd want to feature in any depth... But I will make a video about the overall trip which will show the destinations and the places I stayed.
There is a reason! It allows the airline to move the curtain back and forth according to demand. So if there's no-one booked in that cabin they can open the middle seats again and fill them with economy bums!
@@MattsPlanet we’ve had ours for nearly a year. 60k sign up bonus, so it was a no brainier. The priority pass covers our family of 4 so gets well used. I can imagine that for a solo traveller with decent status, it’s not quite such a straightforward decision.
@@MattsPlanet Regarding the Amex Platinum - much depends on if you'd actually use what they offer. For example, the meal credits for UK restaurants and the Harvey Nichols credits.
Years ago internal and short range flights were always on Silk Air. Basically the same as Thai Smile. For all I know they might be the same. Thai is not reliable.
I was quite surprised when Silk air got cancelled - I always enjoyed flying on them and they had a fun network. I'm sure Singapore Air knows what its doing though!
Oh I know about both of those things and this was neither.... When you buy a Thai ticket with a thai flight number from the thai website, you kind of expect to receive the thai experience.... Have you ever flown on a service where the flight number you booked didn't actually exist on the flight?
@@MattsPlanet it always says "operated by ..." if it is not operated by the "main" airline.. I can understand that you may feel disappointed by Thai's choice of partners, but you could have looked it up. I see it as another case of "i though I purchased..." instead of "I know what I bought, because I spent a couple of minutes looking into it"
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.
Thanks Craig. BA were worried once about the camera falling off and injuring someone - it was my economy day flight from JFK and the window was half behind me and could theoretically have fallen on the pax behind but I assured them it was safe and carried on. Oddly my suction cup won't stick onto an emergency exit row window as its a different material so that issue has never some up - I can understand why they might not be happy with a camera on an exit door....
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
Thanks Lyny! That pie's deliciousness was matched only by its unexpectedness! I gather Thai has struggled more than most through the you-know-what so perhaps a bit of penny-pinching isn't a shock...
Very nicely edited and presented. There is The Coral Lounge at HKT Airport but it's expensive to join and poor value (unless the airport is packed as it has been recently). SUBSCRIBED!
I lived in Myanmar for a period and so had to make an early decision on where to lie my allegiances. Bangkok Airways won without question. Incredible service, lovely lounges for all customers and everything always ran to time. An airline that should definitely get more coverage!
Thanks Stewart - only flight I've ever missed was Yangon to Bangkok on Bangkok Airways... The traffic was astonishing and we just missed it! Bangkok Air did look after us though and all was good. Excellent airline! Myanmar must have been amazing....
@@MattsPlanet That final leg of the Pyay Road in Yangon is quite something, but I am glad the airline was supportive. I actually spent the majority of my time in NPT, which, as you know, is a very different city. I really hope I have the chance to go back at some point; it would hopefully come at a slightly more positive time for the country. Thanks for the awesome content - I always look forward to watching :)
Luv the humour and a little cheeky 2
Thanks!
Nice very informative, even keeled review there mate, I flew them only a few months back between Penang and Bangkok, the flight itself was really pleasant and enjoyable pity it was let down by poor and lacking communication when there was a significant delay to it though!
It was still a good experience, even with a small annoyance!
Nice video Matt on an interesting part of the world! I had exactly the same experience with Bangkok Airways re: camera recording. I think this is a Thai regulation but it does seem odd…
Good to know Callum... Think the key is to glob the camera onto the window once the crew is seated....
I believe you get lounge access if you get a premium seat on Thai Smile.
Good to know!
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!?
This is what I do! It's not a brilliant living, and I am lucky that my other expenses are very low, but its what I call my job these days!
@@MattsPlanet That's really quite inspiring. Your videos are very unique and incredibly enjoyable. i ALWAYS like, having never done that before.
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.
Thanks! I did see that boarding sign at the gate, but the same sign was outside the lounge! And I was in Thailand! Hard to get too upset about anything when you're in paradise!
Great review with good graphics. Seem to recall that Phuket airport's food openings were pricey.
P.S. Always impressed by passengers who can swing their bag straight up into the bin and immediately take their seat.
Thanks! I decided to wait until Bangkok to eat so didn't test out the food options... All pricing is relative though! Perfected the bag routine over many years!
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.
Thanks - word is that they're collapsing Smile back into Thai which should make things simpler... But as I say in the video - fly Bangkok Airways!
did the same flight from BKK to HKT in March. As Thai smile is a Star Alliance connecting partner you only get your benefits when connecting (officially). But you always get: Priority Check in (just do online checkin before, your frequent flyer no. is printed on your wallet boarding pass (without *G which doesn't matter). You get priority baggage and you get priority boarding. Therefor you go into the priority line and just show your *G Card (for example in the wallte of the phone) to the boarding gate agent. it's easy but you have to know it. So even it is not official you get all benefits but the lounge. And therefore you can use your priority pass etc. Next year I think it's over because Thai is taking Thai smile back into the main brand and so your *G will work all the time also officially
Thanks Jan. It was still a good experience! But I believe you're right that Thai Smile is getting gobbled back up soon...
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
Thanks Bridget! Lots of airlines in my part of the world spread their operations around various subsidiaries with everything feeling the same for the passenger... But Thai Smile was a very good experience even without the status frills!
For £50 ... mustn't grumble too much... very informative again...
I tried to pitch this video as "it was great even though this happened" - I hope that comes though! I could have gone a lot cheaper if I'd travelled the following day too!
Yes status can be hard earned and when you /we think a ticket should come with extras and it doesn't..can be somewhat annoying!!!
Definitely Bangkok airways - free Wi-Fi in the lounge with food and drink on a reasonable economy fare.
Next time!
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.
I'd been relying on lounge access to get a bite to eat but you're right - its not a massive loss!
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
Indeed... Sneaky Thai!
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.
It's suggested Thai and Thai Smile are getting smooshed back together soon which hopefully will smooth some of this...
Thanks Matt👍. Did you earn miles via Star Alliance for this flight followingcthe switcheroo🤔. Noticed on the lounge sign that my good old Dinersclub would have worked is my Voyager Gold did not🤣🇿🇦😎
No miles... Would have been a skinny hail anyhow... Diners would have worked! No individual diners club cards issue in the UK these days...
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.
Thanks Christopher. It was by no means a disaster! And others have mentioned that Thai Smile doesn't seem to have thrived as a standalone entity!
Enjoyable video as usual Matt. You ought to be aware that Thai Smile and Thai Airways are set to merge this 2023. Reported in Bangkok Post. In 2022 Thai Smile lost baht 4.24 billion. Cumulative losses are around baht 20 billion. As for the flight number differences I suppose that as it's a domestic service Thai Smile can do as it wishes. No IATA control. Years ago I remember I found code-share confusion regarding TG on its website. There was a BKK to Shanghai flight which, at that time, was operated by a China airline (China Southern I believe) but TG's website booking pages made no mention of this and, although it was a code-share flight, it was displayed only as a Thai Airways flight with a TG flight number. I find TG to be rather a chaotic airline ... but as bad as Garuda ... but TG has a Thai way of conducting its business !
I've done my share of flying but others have done more... Really can't think of a time previously when the flight number I booked didn't appear on the departure boards of the airport I travelled through... Sounds like its not unusual for Thai though....
Shame about the lounge! I was in the coral lounge just across from the Thai a few days ago and it wasn’t bad at all. Also spotted the seat reserved for the monks 😂
Not a big deal - a nice airport to transit. Even for non-monks!
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.
Qatar does occasionally make up its own rules... Should have got access to the status lounge with BA silver - presumably it was still a OneWorld flight number?
@@MattsPlanet QR flight numbers for all flights but Indigo not oneworld so because I was transferring to Indigo on the outbound, no access. Coming back transferring from Indigo to QR was allowed. A case of the status of the passenger not counting. Apparently if it had been QR metal, I would have been allowed in.
Situation Normalfor TG sneakers post so-called "restructure " a nicer carrier is EVA AIR I use a the Viena to BKK route then to Taipa cheap except in school holidays but the service, safety, and training of both tech and cabin crew are outstanding. Oh, and the food even in cattle class is better than some biz class airlines, Give them a try when you get a chance. They even eat QANTAS and Air NZ in many aspects HTH
Thanks Phil - I flew Premium Economy on EVA LHR-BKK years back and they were really good - on the list of airlines I want to get aboard! Cheers
@@MattsPlanet Wait yntil you try Starlux all reports even better than EVA will let you know by Nov
@@philcleaver2703 they do look good! Expensive though!
Are we going to see you get to Thailand ? In total agreement with you about Bangkok airways.
My destination videos never do well... And I wasn't there long enough to cover the places I'd want to feature in any depth... But I will make a video about the overall trip which will show the destinations and the places I stayed.
5:01 why do the even have a middle seat if it’s always blocked off?
There is a reason! It allows the airline to move the curtain back and forth according to demand. So if there's no-one booked in that cabin they can open the middle seats again and fill them with economy bums!
Do you not have priority pass through a credit card of some description?
I don't... Thinking about the Amex Platinum but I'm not sure the value is there....
@@MattsPlanet we’ve had ours for nearly a year. 60k sign up bonus, so it was a no brainier. The priority pass covers our family of 4 so gets well used. I can imagine that for a solo traveller with decent status, it’s not quite such a straightforward decision.
@@MattsPlanet Regarding the Amex Platinum - much depends on if you'd actually use what they offer. For example, the meal credits for UK restaurants and the Harvey Nichols credits.
Years ago internal and short range flights were always on Silk Air. Basically the same as Thai Smile. For all I know they might be the same. Thai is not reliable.
I was quite surprised when Silk air got cancelled - I always enjoyed flying on them and they had a fun network. I'm sure Singapore Air knows what its doing though!
7:58 I laughed so much. I’m glad you ware not told to turn your pacemaker off 😂😂😂😂
Indeed. I asked very respectfully!
Almost a thousand flights and You do not know about codeshares / wet lease ...? O_o
Oh I know about both of those things and this was neither.... When you buy a Thai ticket with a thai flight number from the thai website, you kind of expect to receive the thai experience.... Have you ever flown on a service where the flight number you booked didn't actually exist on the flight?
@@MattsPlanet it always says "operated by ..." if it is not operated by the "main" airline..
I can understand that you may feel disappointed by Thai's choice of partners, but you could have looked it up. I see it as another case of "i though I purchased..." instead of "I know what I bought, because I spent a couple of minutes looking into it"
2:11 Happended to me too. On my TG410 ticket, It said both TG410 And WE5410.
Very confusing!
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.
Thanks Craig. BA were worried once about the camera falling off and injuring someone - it was my economy day flight from JFK and the window was half behind me and could theoretically have fallen on the pax behind but I assured them it was safe and carried on. Oddly my suction cup won't stick onto an emergency exit row window as its a different material so that issue has never some up - I can understand why they might not be happy with a camera on an exit door....
There is nothing worse than looking forward to the Lounge... and you can't get in! (especially when you have status)
The annoyance quickly passed! As I mentioned in the video - I wasn't sure there even was one so at the end of the day I was no worse off!
Brilliant video Matt, thanks for sharing! I reckon you could have got away with being the Monk!
Thanks! I need to practise the lotus position....
I love the British serenity when faceing inconveniences. I could learn from that. :)
Stiff upper lip, old chap! There was a war, don't you know!!!
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
Thanks Lyny! That pie's deliciousness was matched only by its unexpectedness! I gather Thai has struggled more than most through the you-know-what so perhaps a bit of penny-pinching isn't a shock...
Very nicely edited and presented. There is The Coral Lounge at HKT Airport but it's expensive to join and poor value (unless the airport is packed as it has been recently). SUBSCRIBED!
Thanks Ian. Pay for a lounge???
I can´t believe you don´t own orange robes. "When in Rome!!" 🙃😊
Normally! But I was travelling light...
I flew them a few years ago in 2015/16 and they were amazing!
Great value too...
Another great review. Hope you had a nice Easter Matt
Thanks Alex. Easter isn't a big deal in the Jones household but having a good weekend nevertheless!
I lived in Myanmar for a period and so had to make an early decision on where to lie my allegiances. Bangkok Airways won without question. Incredible service, lovely lounges for all customers and everything always ran to time. An airline that should definitely get more coverage!
Thanks Stewart - only flight I've ever missed was Yangon to Bangkok on Bangkok Airways... The traffic was astonishing and we just missed it! Bangkok Air did look after us though and all was good. Excellent airline! Myanmar must have been amazing....
@@MattsPlanet That final leg of the Pyay Road in Yangon is quite something, but I am glad the airline was supportive. I actually spent the majority of my time in NPT, which, as you know, is a very different city. I really hope I have the chance to go back at some point; it would hopefully come at a slightly more positive time for the country. Thanks for the awesome content - I always look forward to watching :)