Thai Airways from Australia | Bangkok, the Service and the Fare

The airline people are fond of

There is a small group of carriers that passengers speak about with actual affection rather than approval, and Thai is one of them.

That is worth examining, because on paper it should not be. The fleet is mixed and the hard product varies from very good to merely fine. The airline has been through a well-documented and lengthy commercial restructure. It is not winning any awards for the newest seat.

And clients keep asking for it by name.

The reason is the service, which has a particular quality that has survived every reorganisation the company has been through. It is not the drilled precision of Singapore Airlines or the polish of Cathay. It is warmth, and on a nine-hour flight warmth is worth more than a design award. Ask us to price Thai Airways.

The non-stop, and the honest cabin question

Thai is the established non-stop between Australia and Bangkok, at roughly nine to nine and a half hours from the east coast.

That length puts this route in the awkward middle, and we say so on our business class Sydney to Bangkok page at some length. Nine and a half hours clears the line where a flat bed starts to matter, but not by the margin that makes it obvious.

The useful rule is about direction rather than airline. Northbound is usually a daytime flight arriving in the evening, so the cabin buys you comfort rather than time. Southbound is commonly the overnight, landing you in Australia in the morning, and that is where sleeping horizontally decides whether you have a Monday.

So if the budget stretches to one flat bed, buy the one coming home. That construction, premium economy or economy up and business back, is one of our most-booked patterns on this route, it is awkward on airline websites, and it is routine for us. Our is business class worth it guide sets out where the line honestly falls.

Bangkok as a hub, and the two-airport trap

Look at a map: Bangkok sits between Australia and India, and between Australia and much of Asia. Unlike the Gulf hubs, which are west of India and therefore an overshoot, a Bangkok routing keeps you pointed roughly where you are going. Our Qatar Airways and Etihad pages are candid about that geography problem.

Suvarnabhumi, the main airport, is a large building with long concourses. It works well, and it deserves more connection time than the minimum on the screen, because the walk is real.

The trap is the other airport. Bangkok has Don Mueang as well, which is the low-cost base, and it is a long way from Suvarnabhumi. If your trip continues to Phuket, Krabi, Chiang Mai or Koh Samui, there is a genuine chance the onward flight departs from the other airport, and getting between them is a cross-town journey through Bangkok traffic. A flight search will happily sell you that pair on separate tickets and take no responsibility for it.

Two fixes and we build both. Ticket the whole journey together where the fares allow, so the airline owns the connection and the bags stay checked through. Where they do not, build serious buffer. Our flights to Thailand page covers the corridor and our Phuket guide is honest about the airport-to-beach distances at the far end.

Star Alliance, and why it matters here

Thai is a founding member of Star Alliance.

For Australians this connects it to Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand and, usefully, Air India. If you hold Star Alliance status, it works on Thai metal: lounge access, priority boarding, priority baggage. Points and status credits earn across the alliance.

That matters most for anyone who has been building status through Singapore Airlines or Air India and wants it to carry onto a cheaper or more convenient routing. It is the mirror image of the Qantas-Oneworld argument we make on the Cathay Pacific and Malaysia Airlines pages.

Tell us your programme and number when you request a quote and we will keep it working, and check that the specific fare class earns what you think it does. The cheapest ones frequently do not.

The fleet variance, stated plainly

This is the honest caveat and we would rather say it than have you discover it.

Thai runs a mixed fleet, and the gap between the best and the oldest aircraft in it is wider than at Singapore Airlines or Qantas. The same flight number on different dates can be a genuinely good modern cabin or a distinctly older one.

That turns booking Thai into an equipment question, and equipment questions are agent questions. When we quote Thai we check what is rostered for your dates and tell you plainly what you will actually board. It is the same thing we do on Air India for the same reason, and it is a sentence no booking site will ever send you.

If the newest hardware is what you are buying, there are better answers on this corridor and we will name them. If the crew and the fare are what you are buying, Thai is frequently excellent value.

Bangkok as a stopover, which is the real argument

Here is the best use of this airline for a lot of travellers: do not fly to Bangkok. Fly through it, and stop.

Two or three days on a through fare to Europe, India or elsewhere in Asia often costs little or nothing extra, and it turns one punishing journey into two reasonable ones with one of the world's great cities in the middle. In a premium cabin the case gets stronger, because the sector after Bangkok is the long one and arriving at it rested is worth more than arriving at Bangkok rested.

And Bangkok is an outstanding place to break a trip. The food alone justifies it: the best street eating on earth, at a price that is barely a price. Our Bangkok guide covers the city and our things to do in Bangkok page covers what is worth booking.

Booking sites are structurally bad at this, because they price an origin and a destination while you are trying to shape a trip. Tell us where you are really going and we will price Bangkok both ways, as the destination and as the stop.

When we recommend Thai, and when we do not

We recommend it when Bangkok or Thailand is the destination, when the stopover is the plan, when you hold Star Alliance status, and when the fare and the crew matter more than the newest seat.

We do not recommend it when total time to India is the priority, because Air India's non-stop wins. We do not recommend it when the aircraft rostered for your dates is one of the older ones and you are paying a premium fare. And we will tell you when Malaysia Airlines or Singapore Airlines has simply priced better on your particular week, which happens.

Send us your dates and let us price Thai against everything else on the corridor, side by side, in Australian dollars, with the aircraft named. Get a free Thai Airways quote.