Three A350s and a Dreamliner: Regional Flights in Asia with SQ, TG and CX

[yflyer]

After immigration, I headed landside, and booked an AOT Airport Limo to my hotel, the Marriott Bangkok Sukhumvit...

To be continued!

[Squeezer]

Can't say how much I've always enjoyed your write-ups. Especially the small details in the plane where most people don't really bother.

waiting to continue reading...

[zilchster]

Overall impressions of my flight? A very good flight on TG. Reservations about 9-abreast Y seating aside, I thought the overall cabin hard product was good, with excellent seat recline. The IFE was decent, although it did not look as refined or sophisticated as the very latest IFE systems, such as the one on the SQ regional A350 I flew on the SIN-JKT sector.

What really stood out for me on TG was the quality of the Y catering, which was superb, as well as as the warmth and care for passengers from the cabin crew. Perhaps this was traditional Thai hospitality and culture, but I felt very well looked after by the cabin crew, even in the Y cabin.

Thai Airways has one of the best economy class catering out there. Better than SQ nowadays.

[icn.sg]

What really stood out for me on TG was the quality of the Y catering, which was superb, as well as as the warmth and care for passengers from the cabin crew. Perhaps this was traditional Thai hospitality and culture, but I felt very well looked after by the cabin crew, even in the Y cabin.

TG is my preferred carrier whenever I am needed in BKK. The inflight meals out of SIN are usually catered ex-BKK,and these are consistently excellent.

The only TG meal that is catered from SATS is TG402 as the aircraft night-stops in SIN. Whenever I am on this flight, I make it a point to order a special meal because frankly, the standard meal from SATS is quite bad.

Service wise, TG crew are warm and friendly. I don't miss SQ whenever I fly TG. Even on the old 777-300, TG offers a whopping 33-34inch pitch in Y...making it very spacious and comfortable.

Does the 788 have tail-cam views similar to those on their A359s?

Looking forward to another excellent TR from you.

[SQ218]

After immigration, I headed landside, and booked an AOT Airport Limo to my hotel, the Marriott Bangkok Sukhumvit...


To be continued!

Look forward to your stay at this hotel. it's on one of my shortlist of hotels for my upcoming trip to BKK

[yflyer]

Can't say how much I've always enjoyed your write-ups. Especially the small details in the plane where most people don't really bother.

waiting to continue reading...

Thanks very much for reading, Squeezer! Next part later this week!

Thai Airways has one of the best economy class catering out there. Better than SQ nowadays.

I certainly enjoy the intense, spicy Thai flavours in the TG Y meals!

Look forward to your stay at this hotel. it's on one of my shortlist of hotels for my upcoming trip to BKK

Coming up very shortly!

[yflyer]

TG is my preferred carrier whenever I am needed in BKK. The inflight meals out of SIN are usually catered ex-BKK,and these are consistently excellent.

I am certainly now a fan of TG as well!

Service wise, TG crew are warm and friendly. I don't miss SQ whenever I fly TG. Even on the old 777-300, TG offers a whopping 33-34inch pitch in Y...making it very spacious and comfortable.

Wow, I didn't realize the seats on the 777s was 33-34 inch pitch!

Yes quite impressed with the service, both inflight and on the ground in BKK.

Does the 788 have tail-cam views similar to those on their A359s?

I didn't notice it on the 788...but I did get the tailcam view on the A359. I thought maybe I overlooked it on the 788 when I browsed the IFE, but maybe there wasn't a camera view there.

Looking forward to another excellent TR from you.

Thanks for reading, and also especially for sharing your own insights, icn.sg!

[yflyer]

Continuing with the TR...

My hotel in Bangkok was the Marriott Bangkok Sukhumvit.



This was a high-rise tower in a bustling part of Sukhumvit, very conveniently located among shops, restaurants, just steps away from Thonglor BTS station.

I stayed at the Marriott Sukhumvit on two different occasions last month, and will likely be there again in coming weeks. If the sign of a good hotel is a repeat customer, then this should speak volumes about the appeal of this property.



I checked in late in the evening for my first stay, having earlier checked in online on my Marriott Bonvoy iPhone app. The app is great in that it has a chat/messaging function that puts you in direct contact with the hotel. I used the Bonvoy app chat to inform them of my late night arrival, and requested that they hold the room for me. Much more convenient than calling the hotel and speaking to the staff.

My room was on a high floor, and was very stylishly decorated in white, red and dark brown tones...



This was not a particularly large room, but everything was brand new, and I found the overall design quite attractive...




Some very interesting local fruit, including rambutan and dragon fruit, on the fruit plate, considerately covered up as I was arriving very late at night...



Walk-in wardrome and luggage area by the entrance...



Curved glass work table...

[yflyer]

The bathroom was very impressive...





There was a shower area...



...and a stunning large circular bath tub...



I've stayed at some very nice hotel rooms with beautiful bath tubs over the years, but these inevitably end up on my "List of Bath Tubs Never Used"...

Fortunately on this stay, I had some free time in my schedule, so after a day of meetings, I found myself back in the hotel room having a relaxing soak...



There was, of course also a proper hotel pool...



...and large gym...

[yflyer]

The area around the Marriott Bangkok Sukhumvit was a very interesting area to explore, full of local colour...

This was a bustling part of Sukhumvit, close to the Thong Lor BTS station...



Restaurants, Thai massage outlets (Offering tradtional massage and foot reflexology at very reasonable prices) and street food...



I took several walks around the area...



Savouring the sights and smells...



Some fairly eye-popping dishes on offer...



There were noodle restaurants...



...and a large number of restaurants selling Japanese food, such as ramen or soba...



The Hotel Nikko was close by, which might explain the large number of Japanese restaurants in the area.



There was a 7-Eleven round the corner from the hotel, which made it very convenient to buy snacks, food, and beer/liquor...



Overall, a very pleasant area to explore...



The Marriott room service menu offered Thai classics such as Tom Yum Goong, where I had the choice of authentic Thai spiciness, or a less hot version toned down for visitors. The staff member taking my room service order took great pains to highlight how spicy the authentic version was, and it took a little persuading from me to convince her to let me order the authentic Thai-level spiciness (Which was extremely spicy) and not the watered down version...



Delicious, although I was very happy to have also ordered ice cold Singha beer to extinguish the flames dancing on my tongue...

Other room service selections included Pad Thai, although in retrospect, I should probably have just gone downstairs and outside, to order Pad Thai from one of the street-side restaurants, rather than settle for the hotel version, wnich was good, but not spectacular...

[yflyer]

There were different room categories and layouts at the Marriott Sukhumvit. On my second stay, I had a different room layout...







This time, the glass desk was along the wall...



The bathroom was different as well...



...with a large free-standing tub and panoramic views of the city...

[yflyer]

The best part of the Marriott Bangkok Sukhumvit was on the roof...

Fellow SQTalker Pinkfloyd recommended that I head up to the rooftop bar at sunset...



This was an amazing place to spend time, on the 49th floor of the Marriott...



From up here, you had a 360 degree view of Bangkok...



Bang Krachao, the "Green Lung" of Bangkok, was visible...



The happy hour menu offered a colourful selection of cocktails at half price from 5pm to 7pm...





After a long day at work, I enjoyed heading up there in the evening to enjoy a drink or two...



...and catch the spectacular Bangkok sunset...



This was a very popular place, where the views changed by the minute as the evening went on...



Bangkok rush hour traffic looked much less intimidating when viewed from up here...





...and it was quite magical as night descended, as the city lights across this sprawling Asian metropolis came on all around you...



Overall, I really enjoyed my two stays at the Marriott Bangkok Sukhumvit. The rooms were very good, and the staff were very helpful. The location was also convenient in terms of where I needed to be for my business meetings (An important consideration for Bangkok...).

There is no shortage of great hotels in Bangkok: the W Bangkok and the Grand Hyatt Erawan are another two of my favourites, with many other hotels I've yet to try. But I would definitely want to return to the Marriott Sukhumvit again, both for the local area attractions and for the wonderful rooftop bar.

[yflyer]

After the last meeting of the first of my two trips to Bangkok, I used the Grab app on my iPhone to book a Grab car to Suvarnabhumi airport. Grab is very popular in Bangkok. If you use Grab in Singapore, the Grab app works fine in Thailand, although you can't pay using your topped up Singapore dollar balance you have. I paid for my rides in local Thai Baht.



At the airport, I checked in at the priority counters reserved for Royal Orchid Plus and Star Alliance frequent flyers. Service at these counters was great: The warm and cheerful lady manning the check-in counter was able to change my flight to an earlier departure. As the earlier flight was boarding soon, she also marked my boarding pass as fast track eligible and directed me to the First/Business class security lane close by, allowing me to bypass the potentially long regular security lines.

I was through security and immigration in minutes, and headed straight to my gate.



The gate holding rooms at Suvarnabhumi were large, and located a level lower than the departure concourse, at the arrival level.



At the gate, Thai Airways A350-900 rego HS-THB, a 3 year old plane first flown in July 2016.



Boarding was called on time.

This was a two-class aircraft, with 32 business class seats and 289 economy class seats.

The J cabin was laid out in staggered 1-2-1 format, with fully flat seats in an alternating forward facing arrangement.



This arrangement meant that the seats were not particularly wide, since there were effectively 8 seats a row, but every seat had aisle access, with ample legroom and a long fully flat bed when fully reclined.

[yflyer]

The Y cabin was laid out in 9-abreast 3-3-3.



This felt spacious and open -- the wider A359 fuselage, compared to the 787, meant that the same 9-abreast layout felt a little more spacious in fact than the TG Dreamliner cabin, also laid out 9-abreast.

The bulkhead seats, with two full windows...



Middle bank of 3 bulkhead seats...



Large widescreen seatback touchscreen IFE. Decent seat pitch and no underseat obstructions...



Recline was very good...similar to the TG 787 Y seat recline. The seat base slides forward slightly when reclined.



Footrests, with large paddles.



This seat was clearly designed for long haul comfort, with the generous recline and footrests really helping pax find a comfortable resting angle.

Pillow and blanket at each seat, even for this 2+ hour sector.



Armrests could be fully raised. A button under the base of the aisle-side armrests also allowed those to be raised.



Overall, a very impressive Y seat product, with good seat comfort, width and recline.

[yflyer]

The widescreen touchscreen IFE was vivid and responsive...



The main IFE menu is a little plain looking compared to the latest systems on other airlines, but the entertainment, information and features available were quite comprehensive.



The supplied headsets were of the headband variety.



I left mine in the sealed bag, and instead used my own Shure earbuds.

USB and headphone socket, where plugging in your regular 3.5" miniplug into either socket would give you true stereo.



Universal A/C power socket under the seat...