Thai Airways - Smooth As Silk?
We caught the first flight to Bangkok out of Hong Kong. The aircraft used on this flight arrives the previous evening and is positioned overnight. The Airbus A330, Royal Silk configuration is 6 rows of seats in a 2-2-2 layout, with seats set out in the traditional manner.
The Royal Silk lounge in Hong Kong airport was quiet first thing, offering breakfast type food, juices, pastries and of course tea and coffee. Boarding was completed well ahead of departure time, with royal Silk passengers called forward first, and boarded separately via the front passenger door on the aircraft.
On board both Jane and I were addressed by name and offered drinks and the menu choice for the flight. We had a wide variety of a choice of movies, Tv and Music, which made the flight pass very quickly. The crew handed out Thailand immigration cards just after take-off. Meals and refreshments were served quickly after take-off with it being such a relatively short flight (2 hours, 30 minutes). We arrived a few minutes early and within minutes were completing immigration and had a short wait for our priority checked baggage.
Thankfully Thai operate such a wide variety of aircraft types on their local routes around Asia, originally scheduled to be operated by Boeing B777, our return flight was changed to Airbus A350. Jane was non plussed by this change, though it excited me, I have now flown on A350's operated by Singapore, Cathay and Qatar, and was now going to experience Thai’s service, on this new generation aircraft, which is rapidly overhauling the A380 as my favourite aircraft on which to fly.
Thai Royal Silk check in at Bangkok, is quick and easy. One is met by staff at the head of the check in aisle and directed to seats in front of the desks. Bags were quickly weighed and tagged and passed on to the aircraft. Fast track security and immigration was also available, which if you have ever travelled though Bangkok airport, you'll know was more than worth the money paid. There were no queues at either desk and we made our way to the Royal silk lounge, seconds after leaving check in.
The Royal Silk lounge runs the full length of the terminal, one floor below the main concourse. It was spacious and many seats were available. Both hot and cold food was offered with a very large selection of drinks, though there was only one bar serving alcohol which was right at one end of the hall, meaning it was a bit of a walk for a glass of wine or beer.
We left the lounge around 45 minutes before take-off for the 10-minute walk to the gate. Thankfully we had access to the lounge as, on this particularly hot day, the air conditioning at Bangkok airport being vastly overworked. When arriving at the gate we didn't have long to wait for the flight to be called, again we boarded first and quickly found our pod seats.
The A350 is laid out in a 1-2-1 configuration, I had plumped for 2 seats in the centre section. The purser introduced herself and offered drinks, which kept on being served until take off. I was a little disappointed over the food offered, which was a selection of afternoon tea items, of either western or Asian varieties. I was expecting a little more than finger food, though having said that, it was tasty and there was enough of it. We settled down, put the seats to the lie flat position, and even though the flight time was a very short 2 hours we managed to watch a film, and there is always time for a couple of more glasses of fizz. Upon Arrival into Hong Kong, by the time we passed through immigration, we only waited 10 minutes or so for the first bags to arrive. Very efficient
All in all, an experience well worth paying the little extra for. Good value alone for the fast track security and immigration at Bangkok airport.
We will no doubt use Thai Royal Silk Service again.