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**ycp81** · 23 February 2012, 10:55 PM

AirAsia behind. Surprisingly no other planes in the queue.

And off we go! Apparently Changi is now using both runways concurrently for takeoffs during peak periods to reduce congestion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYoIVPzVv6Y

Climbing.

Seat pocket stuff. No used tissues and snack crumbs in the seat pocket this time round, but not too sure by the end of the day.

Crew started the buy-on-board service. This set of crew was relatively friendly. However not many takers for snacks, drinks and duty free on this short flight.

The onboard food and drinks menu selection is amazingly similar to Jetstar's, down to main courses and beverages. You can check it out here:
http://www.tigerairways.com/coms/tra...ing_281111.pdf

Inflight entertainment = Staring out at the window.

Nothing but clouds and sea.

Very soon, we were starting our descent into Kuching.

Landing at Kuching Rwy25. Sorry regarding the fogged-up window.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwzKWVSP5OY

We parked at a gate with aerobridge, or so I thought till a flight of stairs moved to the door. Deplaning by stairs today.

The rather empty Kuching airport.

Budget to the max. Parked at gate with aerobridge but used stairs instead!

Final look at 9V-TAV.

A MASwings ATR72 arriving.

In summary, short, cheap and no frills but pleasant flight on Tiger. And thanks again for the Emex row!

**ycp81** · 23 February 2012, 11:10 PM

Scenes of Kuching

**ycp81** · 23 February 2012, 11:19 PM

More importantly, the local food!!

**calvinoeh** · 25 February 2012, 01:12 AM

Thanks for sharing. Hope you had fun in my hometown Kuching!

**ycp81** · 29 February 2012, 09:50 PM

A very short report on the flight back. Nothing much to note on this flight, just the standard Tiger no-frills service.

12 February 2012
Tiger Airways
TR 2495
Kuching (KCH) - Singapore (SIN)
A320
9V-TAF
Budget Class

The return flight was 100% full! Thus it was very surprising that I could get such cheap deals 2 weeks before the flight.

Kuching Airport departure hall. Not too busy at this time of the evening.

MH B734, one of the very few planes parked at the terminal.

The Tiger has arrived. Slightly late arrival which I guess was due to congestion again at Changi. This time, we had the use of the aerobridge. Probably aerobridge charges are cheaper in the evening?

Servicing the Tiger.

Boarding started very soon after the arriving passengers disembarked. The flight was packed to the max! 9V-TAF had the older clothed seats.

My seat had broken springs within the seat cushion which could be felt, making a very uncomfortable ride. Poor seat pitch at row 25 (avoid rows 25-30 on all budget airlines' A320s). No emex seat this time round...

View of the poor legroom again.

Silkair arrived almost half hour late, thus reinforcing that the delay was due to Changi's congestion.

Took off from Rwy25 for the 70min flight to Changi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoiZcEf4xQs

Onboard service started but not many takers. Cabin view inflight.

Soon we were approaching Singapore. Descending over Batam.

Landing on Rwy02C, about 15min late. We made up quite a lot of lost time enroute.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8tUWULiRt4

Taxied to Budget Terminal Gate 1! Parked just beside Nancy-Bird Walton, due to return back in service in a couple of months.

Disembarking via stairs. It was a very very long walk to immigration from Gate 1!

That's it for the Kuching short trip. Next installment would be a trip up to Bangkok again, but on TG this time round.

**ycp81** · 3 March 2012, 09:54 PM

Just barely 2 weeks after the short trip to Kuching, it was time for another weekend trip, this time to the Land of Smiles, Bangkok Thailand! As it was meant to be a weekend getaway, air-tickets around the weekend are more expensive than usual. The cheapest that we could get for a Friday evening departure and Monday evening return was actually on Thai, at S$280 return. AirAsia and Tiger flights around the same timings cost about the same while Jetstar was much more expensive! And with TG being a full-service carrier, it was definitely a no brainer.

24 February 2012
Thai Airways International
TG 410
Singapore (SIN) - Bangkok (BKK)
B777-300
HS-TKF
Economy Class

Thai operates from Terminal One at Changi and as usual, it was very crowded at T1 with all the weekend holiday makers. However the queues at TG check-in counters were not very long, surprising considering the flight was 100% full! According to the check-in agent, most pax had checked in as I only reached the airport 1.5hrs before the flight.

I had checked in online the day before and was issued the boarding pass with my pre-selected seat. Why row 69, the 4th row from the back? Because it offers one of the best seat pitch onboard TG's B773 at almost 35-36" and we would be one of the first to be served our meals.

Went through immigration using automated clearance without much of a wait and proceeded to the gate at C24 after wandering around the shops for a while. The plane had arrived early from Bangkok. HS-TKF would be flying us to Bangkok today.

Boarding had not started but the gate was fully packed! I was really chock-a-block! Security at the gate was quick and I grabbed another shot of TKF after passing security.

Shortly after entering the holding room, boarding was called for premium pax, *Gold and those needing assistance to board. It appeared that there were lots of status pax on this flight! Following that, boarding was announced by row starting from the rear and it was enforced very strictly. Those not seated at the rows announced for boarding were turned back at the entrance to the aerobridge. Overall, boarding was very orderly. Kudos to TG here!

Went down the aerobridge to the entrance where 2 pretty Thai stewardesses greeted us with "Sawadee Ka"s and a wai. Newspapers were also available on a trolley at the door. I was directed to the correct aisle and proceeded down the very long plane! Along the aisle, more crew were wai-ing and "Sawadee"-ing till I reached my seat. Talking about TG's economy seats, I simply love them! Not too flashy and with a touch of class. Beats many other airlines' earthy and boring tones (think SQ, EK).

Pre-set on each seat was a pillow. This B773 was retrofitted with TG's AVOD inflight entertainment system with touchscreen PTVs. The system was already on and movies could be watched ones you are seated. Entertainment choices were not as extensive as SQ/EK/QF etc but more than sufficient even for a long-haul flight. The seat-pitch at row 69 however, rocks! It felt just an emergency seat row on budget airlines and was about 36" i guess.

According to TG's seatmap, it was 35.75". TG's economy seats on this aircraft ranges from 32" to 35" pitch so it is necessary to choose the correct rows. Interestingly, as my ticket is a restricted-fare, I could not pre-select seats in the forward economy cabin with 34" pitch during internet booking.
http://www.thaiairways.com/thai-serv...F/B777-300.pdf

Parked at the gate. The crew also distributed earphones and we could start our movies immediately even though boarding was still underway.

Boarding in progress. 2 stewardesses were manning my aisle. There were 4 crew assigned to each economy cabin, making quite a high crew-pax ratio. Total there were 12 crew in economy class for 330 passengers, and another 3 or 4 in business class. Thai is really generous in their crewing.

Pillow and earphones. Earphones are for you to take home.

Boarding was completed just before 2100hrs and we pushed back. TG's really nice safety video was played and we had a very long taxi to Rwy02C, passing T3 and Budget Terminal.

Due to a number of departing aircraft ahead, we only took off at about 2125hrs. All this while, we were already enjoying our movies on the PTVs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzcLLsxkrtA

Shortly after takeoff.

Stuff in the seat-pocket.

After seat-belt signs were turned off, crew came around with arrival immigration forms followed by hot scented towels. The towels were the disposable type and not the thick cottons ones seen on SQ. About 30min after takeoff, the main event started, food! My experiences on TG regarding their meals had always been very favourable and this flight was no exception. On offer today was either Nasi Goreng (spicy fried rice) with curry chicken or Fish with rice and vegetables. We took a choice of each to sample both fishes.

Delicious thai food starts on Thai. On my meal tray, there was a starter, hot bun with butter, main course and cake.

**ycp81** · 3 March 2012, 10:35 PM

Starter was just a salad with crunchy vegetables, accompanied with salad dressing. Not too imaginative but at least TG bothered with a starter. SQ had removed theirs on BKK sectors.

Nasi Goreng with Curry Chicken. It was very good! And portion was big too!

Fish in thai sweet chilli sauce, rice and vegetables. Drew praises from my friend as one of the best fish he ever ate onboard a flight. I tried some and it was really good! Meals were all catered from BKK, thus explaining the high quality.

Dessert. I was hoping for some sort of Thai dessert but we got a cake which was rather dry. The only letdown of the meal.

Thai still serves their economy meals in ceramic casseroles, which added a touch of classiness. Wonder which airline still does that.

A full bar cart service was offered after distribution of meals with choices of liquors, wines, soft drinks and juices. I had a diet pepsi and was given the whole can. After the bar service, coffee/tea was then offered along with seconds of drinks. Thai crew members were generally friendly and really efficient. Meal service on the full flight was completed within 30min! Quite unbelievable for the frequent SQ flyers.

Stewardesses conducting beverage service after distributing meal trays.

After the second round of drinks offered, trays were collected. We still had almost an hour of flying left. I made the routine visit to the lavatory(which TG is also very generous with, having 10 lavatories in the economy cabin
). Not much amenities in it, only a cologne.

Continued watching my movie for the rest of the flight till descent when I turned to the map-view. Passengers are free to use the IFE all the way till landing and parked at the gate. No wonder many of us are so annoyed with SQ's policy of switching off the IFE early and prohibiting all use of IFE during takeoff/landing.

However I noticed that TG had discontinued giving out orchids to female pax prior to landing. Probably they still do that for long-haul flights? Had a very smooth landing into Rwy19R, accompanied with soothing landing music in the background.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UATceaU8314

We landed 5 minutes late, mainly due to the late departure from SIN. Disembarking of aircraft with crew wai-ing along the aisles again. The female crew had all changed to their ground uniforms.

My comfortable seat for the 2hrs flight.

As it was the late evening peak, queues at immigration was quite bad. However it moved fast and I was cleared in 20 minutes, just as the bags started coming out from the belts.

Again, it was a great flight on Thai. Of all airlines plying the SIN-BKK route, I guess TG is still the best choice, mainly due to their outstanding meals and beverages offerings. Service by the cabin crew is generally fine as with this flight and the type of IFE you get (AVOD or big screens) would depend on the flight that you choose. Seats are also excellent, if you know which rows to select. Overall, I think TG still offers a very reasonable economy product with competitive prices.

**ycp81** · 4 March 2012, 12:50 PM

The food!!

Airport express train to city cuz there were almost no taxis and massive queues at the taxi stands!

**ycp81** · 4 March 2012, 12:54 PM

More Food!!!

**ycp81** · 6 March 2012, 10:50 PM

Finally, the return and last sector. I had again checked in online and selected the same seats at row 69 again on the B773 aircraft.

TG check-in counters at BKK. No queues at all! All the thai airlines have "umbrellas" at the counters. Anyone knows what it signifies?

Boarding pass. We would be bussed to the plane today!

Departure hall.

C2a would be a bus gate.

Some plane spotting. SQ Star Alliance B772 9V-SRI (non-AVOD) going back to SIN as SQ977 just before us. Boy am I glad to be flying TG instead of this aircraft. TG B734 looked to tiny in comparison.

TG A346 towed into the gate after SQ has left.

Very soon, boarding was announced and again, the entire boarding procedure was very orderly. A number of buses were waiting the ferry the full B773 load of pax to the plane.

Our plane in sight!

27 February 2012
Thai Airways International
TG 409
Bangkok (BKK) - Singapore (SIN)
B777-300
HS-TKA
Economy Class

HS-TKA, TG's 1st B777-300, would be flying us back today. It had been a long time since I boarded a plane bigger than a A320 via stairs!

Mighty Rolls-Royce!

We were free to take photos on the tarmac! The ground staff just smiled at me without saying a word. TG's A345 just 2 bays away.

Finally "shooed" up the stairs when the bus load of passengers had cleared. Two beautiful stewardesses were at the door welcoming passengers.

**ycp81** · 6 March 2012, 11:36 PM

Nice seats again. Greeted by the crew on the aisles with lots of "Sawadees" and wai-ings as usual. This flight would turn out to be full again! TG is certainly doing very well on the SIN-BKK route even with all the budget airlines plying the route also.

One of the interesting planes at BKK. Nordwind B757.

All-white Orient Thai B743

We miss Swiss in SIN!!

LH B744 on a short hop to KUL.

When almost all pax had boarded the aircraft, the crew distributed earphones. Blankets were also given out to pax who required one.

TG earphones in a small bag, yours to keep. Behind is the IFE magazine, which apparently sported nearly the same cover as SQ's Krisworld IFE guide for the month!

Pushback was delayed for about 10min due to 3 no-shows, whose bags had to be offloaded. Finally doors were closed and the safety video was played. TG's safety video really set the standards in being classy and concise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2QOUleLdCc

Pushback, engine start-up and welcome announcement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpKRFwm8moE

SAS, you are also missed in SIN.

When will I get to fly on the A346?

Miss the B744? TG still has lots of them!

It's Thai land alright. Noticed the different shades of purple for the livery (metallic vs matt purple)?

Taxi to Rwy19L with music in background again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWW4iUXzSqk

Lift off!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0O4ha91bnA

No, there is no flooding. They are just padi fields.

**ycp81** · 7 March 2012, 11:27 PM

Shortly after takeoff, with the map-view on the IFE. Wonderful legroom again! Interestingly, only on-demand movies were not available on the IFE system while the plane was on the ground. According to TG's website, "The movies are not available on Bangkok-Singapore-Bangkok and Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok." However shortly after takeoff, the IFE system was reset and miraculously, the AVOD movies became available!

Climbing to 37,000ft.

The usual service procedure began with distribution of immigration forms, followed by piping hot towels. Flipped through the inflight magazine and saw this article on Ethiopian Airlines joining Star Alliance. As usual with past practices, there was a shot with all the Star Alliance cabin crew members. Hmmm, but where is the Singapore Girl?

Pilot announcement on the routing and altitude.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbgcp1EjE0s

Cruising at 37,000ft.

About 30min after takeoff, the aroma of green curry weaved through the cabin. Food!! True enough, the bar and meal carts were pushed towards the rear of the cabin and meal service started. Oh boy, just the smell of the food is making everyone hungry! 2 stewardesses were serving my aisle (there were 2 crew on each aisle) which made the service really fast. First, the meal trays were distributed, followed by the bar cart just behind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAmSjgRDz8U

Choices today were Fish in sweet & sour sauce with fried rice and vegetables, or Green curry chicken with fried egg and rice. We chose one of each. On the meal tray were also a tuna salad, warm roll and butter and a cake for dessert.

Tuna salad with vegetables. Simple starter.

Sweet and sour fish with fried rice and vegetables. Full of flavour and very nice! Also the casserole was filled to the brim with food!

Green curry chicken with fried egg and rice. Tasted very much better than it looks! Authentic thai-style green curry. Bangkok catering really produces the best thai/asian meals to suit our asian palettes!

Cream cake. Unfortunately not a thai-style dessert again. However the cake is rich enough to satisfy my sweet tooth.

The very friendly stewardess preparing our drinks on the bar cart. I ordered a gin&tonic and apple juice.

Gin and tonic in the skies. Note the retro-designed stirrer.

Drinks service in progress. Top-ups of wines were also offered. After the bar service, coffee/tea were offered along with a second round of drinks. As TG would practice, milk was poured from milk pots into the cups when requested to be added, ala business class style.

**ycp81** · 7 March 2012, 11:58 PM

Flying into bad weather towards the end of meal service while coffee/tea was served. Flight became quite bumpy for a while with further slight bumps, but seatbelt signs were never switched on and hot beverages were still served. Guess the pilots knew that the turbulence would not last long. However on certain airlines, the seatbelt signs would definitely be switched on and hot beverages suspended for the rest of the flight.

Meal trays were collected and we had nearly an hour to go. Weather was not too good for the rest of the flight with slight bumps now and then.

4 of the 6 lavatories at the rear of the cabin. There were another 4 in the middle of the Y cabin, making a grand total of 10 lavatories for 330 pax, a very generous ratio! You will never see a long queue forming for the toilets, even on a full flight.

Cabin view.

Not too long after, descent started. However pax were only required to return to their seats and have seatback upright halfway through the descent. Announcements were also shown on PTVs as well.

Overflying Batam before we start turn back to Changi.

Night view of Singapore city.

Lots of vessels in view. Approaching Rwy02L.

Landing at Changi Rwy02L, about 10min late, due to offloading of bags.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0qbd8zEPkQ

Parked at T1 beside a CX B773. Note the Air Berlin plane behind CX? Guess it was a seasonal charter.

Disembarking the plane. The female crew were still in their traditional thai uniform as they would be operating the flight back to BKK as TG410.

Just can't get enough of the colourful seats.

Final view of TKA, with AF B773ER parked beside.

Thai has shown again that they have provided a more than descent product in economy class. They do not market themselves as a 5-star airline but on the regional hops, their overall service is equivalent or even better than many of the "premier" airlines out there. Small touches like hot towels, ceramic casseroles, boarding/landing music added to the "charm" of travel and food/beverages remained excellent as ever. Service by the crew is generally good on the two flights. I would not hesitate to fly Thai again in the future to BKK if its prices remain competitive as TG really offers a value-for-money product.

Any comments are welcomed!

**SilverChris** · 8 March 2012, 05:37 AM

Seems like you got lucky with TG this time

Great report as usual

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Getaways to KCH & BKK on the 'T's (TR & TG)

Getaways to KCH & BKK on the 'T's (TR & TG)

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