I’m really going to miss Thai Airways First Class, one of the most well-rounded and aspirationally achievable first class products.
Thai Airways Cuts 747-400 + A380 – The End Of First Class?
This week, Thai announced that it will retire its fleet of feet of Airbus A330, Airbus A380, and Boeing 747-400 aircraft. Thai Airways has faced immense hardship during the pandemic, with the Kingdom of Thailand closed to tourism (except for those with a lot of time and money). Already in trouble before the pandemic, Thai Airways is now trying to simplify its fleet, which actually makes a lot of sense.
But in retiring its A380 and 747 fleets, it is retiring its last two aircraft types featuring first class. That’s truly a shame because Thai offered an amazing first class product that was also fairly easily bookable with miles.
While warm service in the air made for tremendous flights in Thai First, what really set Thai Airways apart was the excellent ground service at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport. First class passengers were transported from lounge to gate on golf carts and a luxurious first class spa offered departing passengers hour-long full body massages. Across the concourse, the first class lounge featured a large selection of a la carte meals and a great coffee + cocktail bar.
While Thai Airways seems to be the cat with nine lives (despite longterm poor performance, it always finds a way to survive), I’m not sure first class will survive…even though the royal family loves it for journeys between Thailand and Switzerland.
If you’re not familiar with Thai Airways First Class, you can view a trio of past reports below:
- Vintage Review: Thai Airways 747-400 First Class Bangkok To Beijing
- Review: Thai Airways 747-400 First Class Tokyo To Bangkok
- Review: Thai Airways A380 First Class Osaka To Bangkok
CONCLUSION
Thai Airways is cutting its A380 and 747 and therefore highly likely to cut first class altogether. I’ll always be grateful for the wonderful memories over the years in Thai First and at least can look forward to returning to Thailand one day, even if it is not in first class…
Switzerland? I’m sure that happened too, but as far as I can tell the King and his entourage loves staying in his hotel and villa in South Germany (Bavaria). Although that might change due to the student protests in Bangkok in the last months questioning the Kings long stays in Germany…
That was also one of the reasons TG kept the 747 for so long on the MUC route since the King had a licence for this type.
Pity the will retire the A380‘s. Actually thought before Corona they found a useful schedule for them in a mix of Europe and East Asia.
Very curious if they will keep First Class. Few years back a friend shuttled between FRA and BKK as a consultant and usually the LH J fare was almost identically to the TG F fare….
Was I wrong to expect Sarah McLachlan to start playing when I opened this post?
I think people will probably miss the first class lounge and the service on board the most. Meanwhile, the seats in first class were ok, while the food and IFE were sub-par for first class.
Just a heads up: Thai Airways hasn’t offered F to ZRH since a very long time, if not ever. The route was flown by A346 and alter B77W exclusively.
And as much as I dislike the doings of said royal family, they do not actually stay in Switzerland, but in Southern Germany. Usually they use their privet jets for this and do sometimes use ZRH.
They did have a press photographer arrested at the airport in Switzerland once though (they claimed he was a terrorist) who was taking pictures of their arrival for a newspaper. For bringing their (mal)treatment of rules and press freedom to where I live I’m not the biggest fan of said family.
Thai J is perfectly adequate, other than the fact they try to charge a significant premium over the competition ; very few people pay it, preferring points redemption options…ie the same as F ( and the reason it became unviable).
For a brief period Thai was an overwhelmingly 747 airline ( post DC10 era), albeit with a few A300. They ‘lost the plot’ via insane diversification of fleet: 6 or 7 types at one point in the last decade.
They need to go back to their roots and start over.
I flew their 747 in First Class to Sydney on my first-ever award ticket, after graduating University. That was June 2017! It’ll always have a special place in my heart and memory.
So sad. It was never cutting edge but was always memorable. And, even better, often empty!
I had a VERY memorable first-class flight with my lady friend a few years ago. I’ll never forget…
My wife and I got to fly Thai 1st class from MUC-BKK a couple of time. It was always a lovely flight. Ground service and lounge was great as well. We never got to experience the full 1 hour massage as we were always connecting to business class and only got the 30 min massage (not that it’s anything to complain about.)
Had a unique experience of my companion and I being the only passengers in F on a 747-400 from LHR – BKK back in 2016.
Tremendous food (pre-ordered entree) and service was impeccable. We’ll never forget it!