Thai (Die) Airways

Here’s another rant about an airline – it’s becoming a favourite past time of mine. But, having built up an expanding list of airlines that I flew with, I think I know the difference between a decent one and a crap one.

So, what’s my problem with Die Airways? Despite having a modern fleet (747-400) serving the popular London-Bangkok route, a travelling time of 11 to 14 hours depending on the direction and which way the wind blows.

It proudly boasts that it has been in operation for 48 years. You’d be quite sane in thinking they’d know a thing or two about looking after customers. Unfortunately, it’s not the case at all.

I’m a regular flyer, doing my bit to impose my size-11 carbon footprint on the world, and I’ve never had these problems before:

1) The seats are so backbreaking, I’d sell them to CIA as torture equipment. No sitting position or posture will find you your comfort spot. I find myself folding my arms for 14 hours, and lean to the side slightly. As a result, I’ve a utterly sore backside, which 2 days after the flight, show no sign of abating. Particularly troublesome is my shoulders are aching and preventing me from sleeping well. My elbows are punishing me for folding them for such long periods.

2) The staff, enthusiastic at first, become lazy and hide in their wee kitchens for hours on end. If you want water, you get out of your seat and hunt the lazy sods down. Then, they will grudgingly pour you some water – but not a full glass. Oh no, that would be too much. Half-empty.

3) Movies/videos/screen – using DLP projectors is getting old, and really bad epilepsy-inducing colour-wheel artifacts are prevalent on all of the screens. If that wasn’t enough, the movies kept stopping and restarting. Then, I presume a computer detected something has gone wrong and attempts to rewind/forward to the right position, but by such time, you’ve lost interest or forgotten what had happened as you figgetted so much in the chair to find that sweet comfort spot.

4) Their time management skills leave a lot to be desired – it was over an hour late in departing their home flagship airport in Bangkok, and reasons varied from birds on the runway to people late coming on board to the pilot’s in the toilet. Sure, I’d let this go, but when querying them about arrival time at Heathrow, answers were as varied, if not colourful as the first attempts: We will be on time, we will be early, we will be 15 minutes late. We will be there when we will be there. We landed 1.45hrs late. Fortunately I still managed to catch my connection flight. My colleague who flew with me didn’t.

The only good thing about the airline was the food. But, then again, Thai food is great, so it’s to be expected rather than a surprise.

My British Airways connection was a breeze, even using Terminal 5 – though I didn’t have any hold luggage – and the seats were soooo comfortable – I instantly slept, slept through the take off and landing.

So for now, British Arseways is my friend and have booked an alternative airline for my return to Cambodia – Malaysia Airlines.

Now time to nurse my shoulders.