We both have a bunch of United points saved up and we’ve been using them for many of the flights on this RTW trip on Star Alliance members. We decided a long time ago to do one splurge flight with points. Thai Airways first class from Europe to Bangkok was the route we chose for our splurge. After our month in the UK, we headed off to Asia and routed ourselves from London to Munich (overnight) and then onto Bangkok. We flew Lufthansa Business class from Heathrow to Munich. This flight is nothing special since Lufthansa doesn’t even have Business class seats on these short flights. They simply block out the middle seat and call that Business Class.
The flight wasn’t crowded, though, and the flight attendant was really nice. She wanted to know all about our year of travel. We landed on time in Munich and then waited for 40 minutes for luggage since the airport, in their infinite wisdom, posted one carousel for the luggage and then delivered it on another one! Susan finally went to ask Customer Service. Her reply “The luggage is in on Carousel 8”. We were all standing at 14!
After a night at the Novotel by the Munich airport, the next day was the fun flight on Thai Airways on an older 747 so no pods but super service. Only 6 people were flying 1st class and it seemed as if we each had own flight attendant.
Dom Perignon champagne was offered as soon as we got on the plane and we readily accepted!
Yes, this is what we drank!
No one else was drinking champagne. The flight attendant just put the bottle in the ice bucket and left it between our seats for us to help ourselves.
Everyone gets a pair of Thai Airways pajamas to wear during the flight and they are yours to keep. I changed into the top while I tried to sleep just because the top was so comfie. Not much sleep, though, because the flight leaves at 1 PM – not an ideal time for sleep. No pics of the pj’s.
Dinner starts with caviar, followed by whatever your special request was. We made the reservation so long ago – February, 2017 – and couldn’t remember what we’d ordered. Somehow the Thai reservation system let Mark order TWO entrees – steak and lobster – and the check-in people were quite confused. They had a special note for Mark to talk to the flight manager to clarify the mix-up.
Lobster for dinner with more champagne
Caviar was the first course in dinner.
We landed on time in Bangkok to a downpour. The plane was rocked by wind as we landed and we could hear thunder and see lightning while we taxied to the gate. At the gate, the crew was sort of prepared for the rain, grabbing towels and blankets before they opened the door. They, obviously, knew that the jetway door does not match up exactly with the 747 door and, sure enough, the rain was pouring in the space between the plane and the jetrway. They tried to use umbrellas to shield the passengers as we left the plane to not much avail!. My shirt sleeve got soaked!
Thai Airways has little electric carts meet these flights to transport the first class passengers to immigration. Sure enough, we saw the signs with our names on them. They took us to immigration and then had additional guys on the other side of immigration to go with us to get our luggage and transport it for us to whatever transport we used from the airport. Due to the rain, lightning, and thunder, the luggage was delayed but the helper guys hung out with us until it showed up. We took the Rail Link into the city and told the helper we didn’t need him when our suitcases finally came off!
The downpour and lightning caused a ground delay and we had to wait a bit for our luggage to show up.
Summary … the use of points was totally worth it to use an Asian airlines and fly first class! I’d never pay for the flight but use points? Sure! The U.S. airlines could take a few lessons in Customer Service.