Introduction: Spending The Calm Before The Storm In Bangkok

~ Alvin ~ 1 Comment

Introduction: Spending The Calm Before The Storm In Bangkok
Thai Airways 777 Business Class Hong Kong to Bangkok
Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok – Premier Twin Room
Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok – Duplex Cabana
Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok – Grounds and Facilities
Thai Airways Royal Orchid Lounge Bangkok Concourse E
Thai Airways A330 Business Class Bangkok to Hong Kong

First of all, as the trip report suggests, my few days of quasi-relaxation in Bangkok were meant as a break before my final push to get through the IB. Well, now is the time that I’m pushing through my final days of the IB, so I’m going to struggle even posting one installment per week. The idea is that I’ll try to get one installment out every Friday up until around the beginning of May, and after May 23rd (my last exam) I’ll write up the last three installments at once. Writing is therapeutic for me, and I can’t wait to tell you guys about this trip, so stay tuned!

Welcome to my next trip report, where I’ll be sharing details of my five day trip in Bangkok regarding my flights and hotels – specifically, two Thai Airways business class products, a lounge that I hadn’t visited yet during my lounge hop in 2017, and the Siam Kempinski Hotel in Bangkok.

Bangkok, Thailand

The thought process of going to Bangkok was simple: we wanted to go somewhere cheap and close by during Chinese New Years’, and my parents didn’t want to go to Singapore, my favourite city. We were all enthralled by the prospect of going to Bangkok again, since none of us really got to know the city the first time around, so we organised another trip there.

This installment will cover how we booked the flights and hotels, and the thought process behind the choices we made.

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Another A380 Leaves Hong Kong: Lufthansa Switches Munich-Hong Kong Flight To A350

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I’m sure every single airline operating the A380 has operated it to Hong Kong at some point. Many airlines such as Korean Air, Malaysia Airlines, Air France, China Southern and Qantas operated A380s to Hong Kong at one point, and no longer do. That being said, more than half of the current A380 operators still operate flights to Hong Kong, and Lufthansa is currently no exception.

I flew Lufthansa’s A380 business class from Frankfurt to Hong Kong in 2017. The Frankfurt to Hong Kong flight is no longer operated by an A380, as Lufthansa switched the A380 over to the Munich-Hong Kong route due to conflicts with Frankfurt Airport. As of April 2019, Lufthansa still operates the A380 from Munich Airport to Hong Kong.

img_5487Lufthansa Airbus A380 Business Class Cabin

Unfortunately as of January 1, 2020, this is about to change, as Lufthansa will switch back to operating the A350 from Munich Airport.

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BOOKED: JAL Business Class, Cathay Pacific First Class

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There are many good uses of miles. One thing I like is to buy miles during a promotion, when you can score a flight in a cabin that otherwise would’ve cost you double. Another way I like to use miles is to maximise them – for example, flying from Hong Kong to Perth for 65,000 KrisFlyer miles roundtrip, when Hong Kong to Taipei costs 40,000 KrisFlyer miles (actually…)

But there’s no better way than to fly from point A to point B with purpose and redeeming miles for an amazing product when you realise your miles are about to expire in the coming month.


Japan Airlines Boeing 777 Business Class

This is what happened to my mom late last week, so we spent some time securing a couple of flights for myself and her, and I’m so excited…

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FINALLY: British Airways Reveals Industry-Leading Business Class Product

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I love the trend that airlines are moving towards higher-end, more space-efficient, more private business class seats. A few years ago I took my first flight in a reverse herringbone seat, and was in awe at how much space the seat provided. Nowadays, reverse herringbone seats are more or less middle-of-the-road, as more airlines have come up with superior seats. I’ve ranked all of the “original” ones here, though will need to try the QSuite (in August) as well as China Eastern and Delta’s A350s.

Cathay Pacific Boeing 777 Business Class 

The above list is what I thought I had to try prior to today, but as of today I need to add one more to the list – British Airways’ new Club Suite.

Here’s a video of the new suite:

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Qatar Airways’ New Economy Class Looks A Bit Familiar…

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As you’d expect for a 17-year-old traveller critiquing premium travel, pretentiousness and I go hand in hand. As a result of that, one airline I really love is Qatar Airways. They’re pretentious as hell, but they are perfectionists. They’ve had a couple slip-ups here and there over the past few years, though even when doing so they end up somewhere around the top 10 premium products out there.

Qatar Airways Boeing 787 Business Class

Qatar Airways touted a brand new business class product up until 2017, the year they revealed their QSuite. I’d say the hype was well-deserved, since the product has almost received unanimous praise from everyone I’ve heard from so far. I’m slated to try the product out later this year (assuming there aren’t any equipment swaps), so I’m excited about that.

That being said, Qatar Airways has always said that their economy class has been “like other airlines’ premium economy”. I’m not sure how credible that is given they have a 3-4-3 configuration on their 777s and a 3-3-3 configuration on their 787s, making their seats one of the narrowest economy seats out there. But I haven’t actually taken their economy product before, so I’ll take Akbar Al Baker’s word for it. 😉

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Air Belgium Wants To Lose More Money, Restarts Flights To Hong Kong

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While I love when new airlines add flights to Hong Kong (since it gives me more choices personally), Air Belgium’s flight from Brussels-Charleroi to Hong Kong has always been a bit of a joke. They started flights from Brussels Charleroi to Hong Kong last year, and cut them off after a while. I thought that was the end of them at the time.

I wrote about them shortly before they ended flights to Hong Kong, and expressed my bewilderment at their business structure. Sure enough, their flights to Hong Kong didn’t last much longer.

Fortunately Air Belgium has found some luck in wet-leasing their two A340s to other airlines with an aircraft shortage, such as British Airways. That’s good news, since I thought they had a decent cabin product, despite the actual hardware (A340) being outdated.

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Hong Kong Airlines Ends Subpar Auckland Service

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Hong Kong Airlines has long been investing in their hard product, and they’ve been getting better and better. I had the chance to fly them around Easter last year, and thought they were solid, if not fantastic. Hong Kong Airlines has also been expanding rather nicely over the past couple of years, and now flies to destinations on the West Coast such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver. Rumour is that they’ll start flying to New York soon, which I’d really look forward to.

Hong Kong Airlines Airbus A330 Business Class Cabin

While most of Hong Kong Airlines’ routes afford a quite comfortable product, there’s one route that features a product that has, unfortunately, fallen behind the times. Hong Kong Airlines currently runs one of their oldest planes to Auckland, New Zealand, and they had no plans to upgrade their product on the route, which made me quite curious.

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The New Turkish Airlines Lounge In Bangkok

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Thai Airways has a massive hub in Bangkok, and their ground services are definitely unique. They have an amazing spa service which they offer to first and business class passengers flying on their metal, which I took advantage of flying yesterday. Unfortunately, apart from that, their ground services are rather dismal — they have 6 lounges for business class passengers, none of which are particularly impressive.

If you’re flying a Star Alliance airline out of Bangkok in business class (other than Thai Airways, or if you’re not looking for a massage), I’d actually suggest you use the EVA Air lounge instead, which has better seating, better showers, and a more appealing food spread.

That’s why I was particularly excited when I stumbled upon a Turkish Airlines lounge when I was walking around Bangkok Airport. I didn’t know they had a lounge in Bangkok, so I was curious to check it out.

Turkish Airlines Lounge Bangkok Airport

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What Is Thai Airways’ 777 Business Class Like? (Hint: I Wasn’t Expecting It To Be So Bad)

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Hello from Bangkok! I’m here for a quick getaway after lots of senior year work. While I’m certainly not off the hook (my to-do list has its own to-do list), I always enjoy when I manage to be productive abroad, so I’ll work on that over the next few nights.

On the aviation front, we didn’t really have much of a choice of airline. Emirates was pricing over the roof, and I didn’t like the timings of all the other airlines that flew to Bangkok – so we were stuck with Thai Airways and Cathay Pacific again. Out of a split decision I decided to go with Thai Airways, as it didn’t cross my mind at the time that I haven’t flown Cathay Pacific’s regional business class product in a while. Oh well.

While I’ve flown Thai Airways countless times before, this itinerary left me with a new product – their 777. I’ve flown their angled flat seat more times than I can remember, though I’ve never tried their new staggered seat, until today. So I thought I’d share my first impressions, as I usually do when I fly new configurations (also, due to my workload, the review’s probably not coming out for a while).

Thai Airways Boeing 777 Hong Kong Airport

While the seat itself was an improvement over their angled flat seats, I left the flight quite underwhelmed by the product as a whole. Here’s why.

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Review: EVA Air 787 Business Class Taipei to Hong Kong

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Introduction: 5 Stars ForEVA
Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge Hong Kong Airport
EVA Air A330 Business Class Hong Kong to Taipei
EVA Air The Infinity Lounge Taipei Airport
Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge Taipei Airport
EVA Air 787 Business Class Taipei to Hong Kong

I made it to the gate area at around 5:35 PM in anticipation of boarding at 5:40 PM. There was a partial view of our stunning 787 outside the window. Unfortunately, Terminal 1 at Taipei Airport seems to be built for the purposes of obstructing direct plane views, so I didn’t see the EVA Air 787 in its full glory.

EVA Air Boeing 787 Taipei Airport

Literally right after I arrived, the gate crew announced a boarding delay of 15 minutes, due to late aircraft arrival. I hung around in the priority lane while this happened.

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