Flashback Flying: Thai Airways First Class HKG-BKK

I have not been paid by any entity in any way (financially, benefits) to write the following post. This is from a trip that occurred May 2017. Any airline, lounge, and/or loyalty program policies may have changed since then.

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Airline: Thai Airways
Flight: TG 607
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Route: Hong Kong (HKG) – Bangkok (BKK)

First Class is never a bad way to travel, is it?

Flying from Hong Kong to Houston and then my hometown of McAllen in First Class would be expensive, right? Logically speaking, of course. But defying all logic, this one-way ticket cost $67.36 USD! How? Using MileagePlus miles, I redeemed a MileagePlus Saver Award ticket (when they were the norm at the time) in First Class for 130K miles. Using United’s Award system, I found First Class space on Thai Airways and ANA to get back to Houston in First Class. Let’s get started.

Hong Kong Star Alliance Lounges

Having gotten to the airport with PLENTY of hours in advanced (to say a final goodbye to friends I had made on an international study program in China), I took advantage of my time to try out the Thai Airways Royal Orchid Lounge and the United Global First Lounge, located within the United Club HKG.

After having a nice chair massage in the Thai Lounge, I eventually made my way to the gate for my late night flight with Thai Airways to Bangkok. I was excited, as this was my first flight ever with Thai, and my first time ever flying to Bangkok!

For this flight, I was escorted and seated in 1A, one of the two furthest seats in the cabin, and today I was sharing my Thai First experience with an older gentleman, making us a grand total of two in First, having a dedicated team of 3 flight attendants for us both. That’s a 2:3 ratio, and quite frankly I was very excited to fly.

After sitting my very excited butt into that very lovely seat, I was immediately asked if I’d like any champagne and was handed the menu. On such an occasion like this, I couldn’t not pass up on champagne.

As with all things, the good stuff is reserved for the skies. So after having the bubbly poured, I set everything up for a very photogenic photo, taken by yours truly with his most humble opinion.

I was also given some headphones but I couldn’t tell you what they were like because I had my recently purchased, very much amazing Bose QuietComfort, which I most definitely impulsively bought at LAX. Moving past my poor financial decisions or great investments, depending on the health status of your bank account, I also had some nice chocolate truffle accompany the pre-departure scenery, topped with an orchid.

Our flight had been delayed in Hong Kong because of thunderstorms in and around the area, so when we boarded we were a few minutes behind schedule. By the time we took off, I could see why were delayed. That storm shook this massive B747 like it was paper. I may be over-exaggerating, but I do not kid when I say this storm was unpleasant.

Once in the sky, the meal service began. I had some lovely red wine poured, along with ginger ale, water, and macadamia nuts as I sat back in the comforts of 1A.

The menu reads as follows:

The canapes included caviar and a roll of something I cannot remember right now. Perhaps if you know what it is, you can leave it in the comments or email me! Or leave me wondering for the rest of my days what mystery I had eaten…

Now I am not a fan of smoked fish or papaya, so the first course was a miss for my palette, but that didn’t stop me from taking a good photo and then force feeding myself the food because it was made with love and care, and it is, I assume, part of the $7000 dollar experience. Oh and there was a lovely bread basket!

Next up was my favorite part, the Main Course. Now, I don’t eat duck for personal reasons (I think they’re cute, also they taste too gamey for me). So that leaves me with either steak or fish. Being the king of being unhealthy, I decided to go with the steak which was just as well seasoned as I could’ve ever dreamed.

Kudos to Thai Airways and their caterers in Hong Kong for getting this delicious steak to the skies. Restaurant quality in my opinion!

To end, there was a fruit and cheese plate followed by dessert with a caramel tart and rice pudding cake.

Could’ve been more fruit and cheese, but after having that steak I was not complaining.

This dessert was perfect for me. I am not a fan of the overly sweet, and the rice pudding cake just hit home phenomenally.

After this culinary experience, I dozed off for the remaining 2 hours of flight time, and was awoken to prepare for landing and got a personal thank you and goodbye from the crew. Before I knew it, I was looking down at the lights of Bangkok on our final approach.

After landing, myself and my trustful companion were collected by Thai’s First Class ground agents and processed through immigration and security. I was then taken to the Thai Royal Orchid Lounge, however I was denied access to the First Class Lounge because I was connecting on ANA in Business Class. 🙁

Verdict

Thai Airways First was phenomenal. The crew was attentive, the food was great, the experience was seamless, and the seat was a true first class suite. My only regret is not taking more pictures and any videos, but I was and continue to be a blogger-in-learning. Shout out to the Thai crew and staff, I hope they’re all doing well, especially the crew of three that executed the service in First Class. They deserved raises and promotions to the top!

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comment section below! Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it, follow us on our social media accounts located in the sidebar, and please share share share! 

As always, remember to keep living life one trip at a time!

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Carlo

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