Flying BKK-NRT: Thai Airbus 380 Royal First Class - Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo, Japan
I enjoyed one of the most amazing flights ever today, being pampered in Royal First Class on a Thai Airways Airbus 380 from Bangkok to Tokyo. The service, both on the ground and in the air, was beyond spectacular.
My only gripe is how early in the morning the flight departed, and how short it was! I had to wake up at 4:39 a.m. in my Bangkok apartment hotel to head downstairs at 5 a.m. to check out and get a taxi called. The driver tried to get me to agree to a flat rate of 500 baht ($16.36) to the airport, but I'm wiser than that. I told him to turn on the meter. The trip to Suvarnabhumi Airport took 32 minutes and covered 35.1 km (21.8 miles). The meter fare was 225 baht ($7.36) plus 70 baht ($2.29) in freeway tolls for a total of 295 baht ($9.65).
The taxi dropped me off at 5:34 a.m. at BKK Entrance 1 for Thai Royal First Class. After walking in the terminal, I entered the exclusive Royal First Class check-in area, which is located behind partitions. Upon stepping inside the private check-in zone, I was immediately greeted by a male customer-service agent and a female server. They both introduced themselves and asked me to take a seat on a plush black leather sofa chair. The woman presented me with a cold purple wash towel and a bottle of water while the man asked for my passport so he could check me in behind the nearby counter.
After a couple minutes, the male agent returned my passport and handed me my boarding pass for Royal First Class Suite 3A on the 7:35 a.m. flight to Tokyo Narita. He then escorted me a short 20 yards or so to the exclusive Royal First Class security checkpoint and immigration station. After whizzing through those two procedures, the male agent showed me down an escalator into a Royal Silk Lounge. (Royal Silk Class is Thai’s name for business class.)
Upon our arrival into the Royal Silk Lounge, the agent introduced me to another male agent, who greeted me and placed my suitcase and backpack in the rear of a golf cart-like vehicle with purple seats and the words "ROYAL FIRST" emblazoned in yellow in the divider between the driver’s seat and the passenger seats. My check-in agent told me his colleague will drive me to the Royal First Class Lounge. He thanked me for flying Thai and wished me a pleasant flight.
I felt quite special as the ROYAL FIRST-mobile drove me through the Royal Silk Class Lounge and along a hallway to the nearby Royal First Class Lounge. My chauffeur walked me into the lounge, where another male/female pair promptly welcomed me and said, “Let’s find you a seat Mr. Wall.”
There were only a few passengers in the lounge at this bright-and-early hour, so it didn’t take long to find a comfy place to sit down. The female server then presented me a glass of juice, another cold purple washcloth, and an iPad with a 76-page breakfast and cocktail menu! Wow. I’ve never seen anything like this before.
My watch beeped 6:00 a.m. as I scrolled through the lengthy electronic menu. For breakfast, I ordered an omelet with ham, bacon, and sausage; shrimp cakes; and a selection of breads. To drink, I ordered orange juice and a Penacarada – rum, coconut rum, coconut milk, pineapple juice, lemon juice, and syrup. Normally I would never drink a cocktail at 6 a.m. – but this is a special occasion!
Servers delivered my humongous breakfast and beverages to my seat – the first time I’ve ever experienced tableside service in an airline lounge! (Normally food is available buffet-style and you have to get up to go help yourself.) I began secretly hoping my flight would be delayed by six hours. Nah, 12 hours would be better! Due to the early hour of my departure, I sadly would not have time to enjoy the Royal Orchid Spa, where Royal First Class customers may select from a complimentary menu of treatments such as an hour-long full-body massage!
After finishing my breakfast, I got up to take a look around the lounge. There are several slumber rooms where you can lie down for a nap in peace and quiet, a dining room for those who prefer sitting at a table to eat, and several family rooms, where a group traveling together can relax and close the door! The private rooms include a flat-panel television, several lounge chairs, and a computer workstation. There’s also a small buffet area if you prefer a light snack, and refrigerators full of sodas, beer, and yogurt.
This lounge is an absolute paradise for a frequent flyer! It’s a shame my flight wasn’t leaving at 10 p.m. – I would have come here early in the morning and spent the entire day!
My hour in the lounge went by way too rapidly. After the clock struck 7:00, I gathered my things and walked toward the exit. My flight to Tokyo was supposed to depart at 7:35 and I hadn’t heard an announcement that it was boarding. But when I reached the front counter, the male agent scurried over to say, “Mr. Wall, I’m sorry, we’re not ready to board your flight yet. Please have a seat. Don’t worry; we will drive you to the gate. Would you like something to drink while you wait?” Well sure, if you insist – bring me another cocktail!
At 7:13 a.m., he returned and told me they are now ready to take me to the gate. Outside the lounge, another young Royal First Class passenger heading to Tokyo and myself were loaded onto the golf cart and driven a long way through the terminal. It was, of course, fun to breeze by dozens of regular passengers walking with their luggage.
We took what the driver described as a “short cut” to Concourses E, but somehow this meant having to go through another security checkpoint. Fortunately there was no line there and the golf cart picked us up on the other side and drove us the rest of the way to Gate E8.
The boarding lounge was empty. I quickly deduced they had already loaded all the Economy Class and Royal Silk Class passengers and were now waiting only for the four Royal First Class passengers to come on board. Brilliant! This strategy means First passengers can maximize their time in the lounge before boarding the aircraft at the last minute. Very impressive.
I grabbed a few photos of the Thai Airbus 380, then boarded the super-jumbo at 7:30 a.m. – only five minutes prior to scheduled departure! The upper-deck jetway had already been retracted, so we boarded onto the front of the lower deck, where a flight attendant pointed the way upstairs.
Upon reaching the upper level, the service manager, Tony, greeted me and showed me to my suite on the left windows. He then introduced Isradee, the Royal First Class flight attendant – dressed in a beautiful purple silk uniform. They presented me a glass of Dom Perignon champagne and a delicious purple-colored juice, as well as a hot towel.
A flight time of 5 hours 40 minutes was announced. I frowned. Somehow I was hoping the captain would say, “We’re taking the long way around to Tokyo today, so our flight time will be about 40 hours.”
Thai Flight 676 departed eight minutes late at 7:43 a.m. and took off at 7:54. The time change to Tokyo is two hours forward, so it’s now 9:54 a.m. JST.
The Royal First Class cabin has 12 suites, but only four are occupied today. In addition to myself, there are passengers in Suites 1A, 1K, and 3K. All six center suites are empty in addition to the window suites in Row 2. Ah, this is like being aboard a private jet!
One of the first things I noticed about my suite is the tray table slides all the way forward so you can get up to use the lavatory while eating. Nice!
The Royal First Class amenity kit is produced by Rimowa, a German luggage manufacturer. It’s the first hard-shell amenity kit I’ve ever received aboard a plane – it looks like a miniature hard-sided suitcase.
“Welcome to our Royal First Class service. Thai Airways International is pleased to offer the following items for your comfort during the journey,” states a card inside the amenity kit. The 10 items are: eau de cologne, body lotion, lip balm, comb and brush, comfort socks, earplugs, eyeshade, toothbrush, toothpaste, and mouthwash.
“Thai Airways is pleased to announce that our Thai Royal First RIMOWA Kit has been honored two awards by 'TravelPlus Airline Amenity Bag Awards 2011:’ TravelPlus Readers Award for Most Innovative Bag Design – Gold and Best First Class Unisex Amenity Bag/Kit – Silver,” states the reverse side of the card.
My suite is quite spacious. There’s three side storage bins on the left side and a stowage hole on the right side. Noise-canceling headphones are available, along with a cleaning wiper.
Breakfast service began at 10:17 with a basket of rolls, butter, and jams. Then came a fruit plate and more of the delicious purple juice, which Isradee described as lemon juice with butterfly-pea, a blue/purple flower often used in to color food in Southeast Asia. This plant is native to tropical equatorial Asia.
For the main course, I selected “Boiled rice soup with Chilean sea bass” from the printed menu. Condiments placed on my tray were ginger, fermented radish, fish sauce, and a packet marked “Hot Chilli.” The soup was unfortunately bland, which is why I suppose the condiments were served alongside it. Not exactly something I’d expect for breakfast!
As I ate my second breakfast of the day, the flight indicator on my large TV screen showed we’re now 400 miles from Bangkok and 10,849 miles away from Washington, DC! I caught my first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean (South China Sea) at 10:57 as we passed over near Da Nang, Vietnam.
After breakfast, I was presented with a bottle of water. I got up to start walking around the Airbus 380, the world’s largest commercial airplane. Thai Airways became the ninth carrier to launch the Airbus 380 when the carrier took delivery of its first super-jumbo in September 2012. Thai currently has four Airbus 380s.
This is my second flight on a 380. I had the pleasure of flying in First Class on a Lufthansa 380 last year. The First Class cabin is a bit larger on this plane with 12 suites; the Lufthansa 380 is configured with only eight suites. Another difference is that Lufthansa has two huge First Class lavatories at the front, but here on Thai there is one lav on the left side whereas the right side is an onboard First Class lounge with seating for four people and a small bar (which was not used during my flight due to the morning time; apparently it’s only used on evening and night flights). The onboard lounge seems pointless to me. The suites are so spacious, it’s not like you need to get up to stretch out in another location! I have a hard time envisioning it being well utilized.
Next I explored the rest of the plane, walking through the Royal Silk Class cabin on the upper deck behind the Royal First Class galley. This cabin features 60 purple seats in a comfortable 1-2-1 configuration. These seats look much nicer than the Lufthansa 2-2-2 blue-seat configuration on the 380, which amazingly feature beds that do not lie flat! I believe Lufthansa will be ripping out those seats in coming years and replacing them with its new gray flat-bed Business Class seats.
At the far rear of the upper deck, there’s a small Economy Class cabin of eight rows in a 2-4-2 configuration. Downstairs there are a lot more purple-and-pink Economy Class seats in a 3-4-3 configuration. The Economy cabins total 435 seats.
With 12 Royal First Class suites, 60 Royal Silk Class seats, and 435 Economy Class seats, the Thai Airbus 380 can carry up to 507 passengers. It’s a pretty light load today in all three cabins, however. I spot numerous empty seats as I walk throughout the aircraft.
I returned to my suite and purchased a model Thai Airbus 380 plane for $40 from the in-flight shopping catalogue. A wonderful souvenir to remember this great experience! I’ll add this to my model-plane collection, which includes a United Boeing 787, United Boeing 747-400, Lufthansa Boeing 747-8, and Lufthansa Airbus 380 – all of which I’ve flown on in the past year.
Next I relaxed, checking out the in-flight entertainment system, including watching several videos on Thailand, one of my absolute favorite countries. Isradee came by with a mid-flight snack at 1:08 p.m. – a bowl of nuts and some more of that delicious purple juice!
I reclined my suite into flat-bed mode at 1:46 and laid down for a much-too-short nap until 2:39, when it was time for lunch. I ordered pork yaki soba noodles.
Tony and Isradee came by at 3:11 to thank me for flying Thai today and wishing me a smooth journey onward to Washington. I thanked them for their fantastic service. This experience definitely raises the bar! They went around to each Royal First Class passenger to personally thank them for their business. A nice touch to wrap up the flight.
We landed on NRT Runway 34L at 3:44 and taxied into Gate 46, arriving nine minutes late at 3:54 p.m.