On my recent European autumn trip, I flew Thai Airways business class to London to kick off the trip. I’ve flown Thai short haul business class, and First on a medium haul, and several economy class flights, but this was my first experience of their long haul business class, or Royal Silk. I always feel long haul business class is the best measure to compare airlines, so I was looking forward to this flight.
While the flight overall was pleasant enough, there were a few negatives mainly with the hard product and the service flow. Overall, Thai Airways Royal Silk business class is a competent product. It probably is just a little short of some of the best in Asia, but still a solid offering.
Read on for my full thoughts on this Thai Airways business class flight!
Booking
I booked this flight via Avianca Lifemiles. This business class redemption cost me 78,000 Lifemiles per person, plus USDXXX in taxes and fees.
Check-in
Thai Airways Royal Silk check-in for international flights is located at row A. This check-in area had seats for passengers to wait for check-in formalities to be completed. The Royal First check-in area was also located nearby.
Check-in was quick, and we were informed that the gate would be E7. There’s a fast track lane for security and immigration right beside the Thai Airways premium check-in area. Suvarnabhumi security and immigration can be a zoo at times, so the fast track was very welcome. Indeed, there was no queue at security and only a couple of passengers ahead at immigration.
Since we had just been to the SKL not long ago, me not being a fan of the BKK TK lounge, and expecting the BR lounge to be crowded given they had a couple of departures soon, we opted for the Royal Orchid Prestige.
Lounge & boarding
Given that we were departing at E7, this opened up pretty much all the Star Aliiance lounge options. The SQ SilverKris being at D7, EVA Air at F1 and Turkish at Dxxx. Of course, there were the various Thai lounges as well, namely the older Royal Silk lounges at D and E, and newer Royal Orchid Prestige lounge opposite D4.
Since we had just been to the SKL not long ago, me not being a fan of the BKK TK lounge, and expecting the BR lounge to be crowded given they had a couple of departures soon, we opted for the Royal Orchid Prestige. It would have been nice to do a lounge tour of the Star lounges, but we didn’t have time for that, unfortunately.
The Royal Orchid Prestige lounge is a vastly improved offering compared to the other Thai lounges in BKK. It still looks new, modern and bright. It’s also usually mostly empty every time I’ve been there. The food and beverage offerings are pretty decent too. Overall, the Royal Orchid Prestige Lounge is solid offering amidst the crowd of Star Alliance lounges in BKK.
You can read my full review of the Royal Orchid Prestige lounge here.
Boarding
Boarding was stated to commence at 12.40pm so we left the lounge at around 12.50pm. When we got to E7 10min later, the gate area had already emptied out. We boarded immediately and took our seats in the second business class cabin.
Our flight today would be operated by HS-TKL. It was the same aircraft which had taken us to Bangkok from Singapore the night before, with over an hour delay due to a technical fault. Having parked at a remote bay on arrival the previous night, I knew it was a possibility we’d be seeing the same aircraft today. It turned out to be accurate, though I can’t say I was particularly thrilled to be boarding HS-TKL once again.
Onboard
Despite seemingly boarding being complete, our departure time of 1.20pm came and went. It was only shortly after that the Captain came on to announce we were waiting for some connecting passengers from a late Phuket flight. We were told it would around a 17min delay, but the passengers ended up boarding only after around 25min.
Seat & amenities
HS-TKL being one of the older 777-300ERs in Thai’s flight, it was fitted with an early-gen Stelia Solstys, launched before Stelia Aerospace was formed by the merger of SOGERMA (original producer of the Solstys) and Aerolia. TG917 is one of two daily flights Thai operates between Bangkok and London. The other flight – TG911 – is instead operated by Thai’s latest tranche of 777-300ERs with a 3-class configuration. These newer aircraft have the latest Stelia Solstys III product in Royal Silk. If you’re have the flexibility of timing and availability between the two flights, I reckon the newer product should be a substantial improvement.
Configuration in Royal Silk on the Thai 777-300ER is a staggered 1-2-1, with the middle seats alternating between being between the ‘honeymoon’ and ‘divorce’ positioning. On the older 2-class 77Ws, there’s 42 seats split across two cabins, with the larger section between door 1 and door 2. Since I was travelling with the girlfriend, we opted for a pair of ‘honeymoon’ seats in the smaller second cabin after door 2.
The original Solstys was one of the earliest types of staggered business class seats, and it clearly shows here in Thai Airways guise. The seat felt a little cramped compared to newer similar Stelia products and was sorely lacking in storage space.
As with most staggered seats, the footwell extends below the side console of the row in front. The IFE screen is fixed above the footwell, together with a couple of USB-A ports. There’s a little storage beneath the footwell, best used for shoes.
I don’t have particularly fat/muscular legs nor am I tall or have very large feet, but this felt tight. It also doesn’t help that the footwell narrows quite a bit at the end. I reckon taller passengers will find this footwell uncomfortable. The aisle seats have footwells that are partially exposed, thus may be more comfortable, but at the expense of privacy and risk of getting hit by anyone passing.
The single piece table is mounted on the back of the seat in front. To deploy, it has to be brought down and swivelled in place at one go. When deployed, it was a pretty solid and stable.
There’s a couple of places for literature, above the side console and down near floor level below the tray table. Also above the side console was the reading light, and a space to hold water bottles.
The seat controls and IFE remote were just below the side console. Nothing overly complicated here, and the preset seat positions were helpfully labelled. The IFE controller was the standard Panasonic ex2 version.
The only other storage space was below the armrest below the side console. This wasn’t very big, best used for the amenity kit or other small items. I’d also be wary of storing a phone here, given the proximity to the seat and its mechanisms.
The product may be aged, but it still does go full-fat. Thai also gives a sort of mattress pad to cover the seat which helps. The inside armrest lowers when the is in full-flat position, giving a couple of centimetres of extra shoulder width. However, the overall tightness of the seat just makes a little lacking in comfort. It was a daytime flight so sleep was a little difficult regardless.
Thai Airways gives out a soft case amenity in Royal Silk. The pouch is Jim Thompson branded, while the skin products are from Erb, a local Thai company. In the amenity kit was a hand cream, facial mist, lip balm and the other usual comfort items such as socks, eyeshade, toothbrush and toothpaste. Thai also provides slippers in business class.
As I stated at the start of this section, this hard product is just outdated. It’s just about good enough, but hardly competitive nowadays. It ticks the basic boxes such as aisle access for all seats and being fully flat, but that’s about it. The narrow footwell really makes sleeping a little harder. Lack of storage space is also a serious downside.
If I had to fly Thai in business class, I’d certainly be looking to get on one of the second tranche of 77Ws (HS-TTA/B/C) or the A350s with the newer Solstys or Super Diamond products. This older product is just too far past its prime.
Food & beverage
Meal service tends to be one of Thai’s stronger points, and I was keen to see if Covid had affected the quality and quantity. It was good to see papers menus for both food and beverages were present.
Service started on the ground with a welcome drink and towel. I’m not sure if it was all gone by the time the crew got to us, but I didn’t see any champagne on the tray of welcome drinks.
Meal orders were taken while we on the ground. It seemed the crew had already taken orders from the other passengers, since they only came to us and had already ran out of one option for the second meal. It was a little aggravating that orders had been taken prior to boarding completion and to then have reduced choices. This was the first of several minor service flow issues.
We were also asked for post-takeoff drink choices. The girlfriend had her food menu taken away by the crew once orders were taken, but I was quick to keep hold of mine. It annoys me when crew remove the menu immediately after taking orders.
Lunch service commenced soon after takeoff. Tablecloths were laid and mixed nuts were offered.
The amuse bouche of of Thai-style spicy prawn salad and dried prune with cream cheese and walnut was served. However, weirdly and annoyingly it took another 10mins for the post-takeoff drink to be served. I would think the whole point of post-takeoff drink would be to accompany the nuts and amuse bouche….
Once the nuts and amuse bouche were cleared away, the starter was served. This was Thai-style smoked duck salad, and seared tiger prawn salad with Thai-style dressing. Bread was also offered, and I opted for garlic bread.
I quite enjoyed the starter, particularly the smoked duck salad. The mains were next up. I chose the herb crusted lamb chops with rosemary sauce, while the girlfriend had the salmon stuffed with minced prawn in Chu Chee curry. I switched to the Medoc to accompany the lamb.
As expected, the Thai main course fared better than the Western one. The lamb was too gamey for my liking and the crust a tad mushy. The Thai main course was pretty good on the other hand, and the portion of fried rice was quite substantial.
Cheese was offered, and dessert after that. The cheese was decent, except for the crackers it was served with. Dessert was largely unremarkable.
The first meal service took 90min to complete, and was done about 2h after takeoff. That’s a reasonable pace for a long haul flight I felt. We were generally happy with the food on offer, and were thoroughly stuffed after. Service was slightly lacking to be honest. For example, refills of water was never offered (though oddly wine was), something I’m used to most other airlines. The lack of drink to accompany the nuts and amuse bouche for over 10min was another problem.
The real weirdness with service flow occurred with the second meal. For reasons I don’t understand, second meal service commenced around 6h before landing in London. This was around 5h after the first meal had been cleared away. Perhaps too many passengers had been requesting for the all day dining items by then? If anyone reading this has flown this flight before, do let me know if this is a normal service flow for this flight.
The second meal service went straight into the starter. This was Thai-style seared tuna salad with Thai herbs, and beef bresaola with honey roasted sweet potato, balsamic pearls and sour cream. Again, this was decent.
For the main course, we had wanted the tiger prawns and snapper in dried tom yum sauce, but this had run out by the time we had our orders taken after boarding. Thus, we both stuck with the Western options.
Both mains were not great, especially the chicken stew. The taste of the stew was odd, while the gnocchi was grainy. The meatballs and linguine was still edible, but not fantastic.
Dessert was vanilla panna cotta with chocolate mousse. Not the finest panna cotta I’ve had. For this meal service, I had actually wanted to try the Thai iced tea with grass jelly, but they had already run out, which was a disappointment.
Overall, the food was mostly positive. If one can stay stick to just the Thai main courses, the food is pretty good actually. The only really bad dish we had was the chicken stew in the second meal. My main issue with the meal service would probably be the timing of the meal, and the lack of drinks at the start of the first meal. If Thai can sort out these service flow issues, then it would make the overall experience a little better.
Service
Thailand is known for hospitality, but if I have to be honest, the service levels were somewhat lacking on this flight. Apart from the aforementioned complaints regarding meal ordering and water refills, there was a general lack of attentiveness. The crew-in-charge did come around to personally to introduce himself and greet every passenger in business class before departure, and thank each of us individually prior to landing. That was probably the only standout moment of service.
Don’t get me wrong, the crew on TG917 were generally friendly and well-meaning. However, there were several minor improvements to be had. For example, used glassware and empty bottles all went uncleared midflight. I had ordered a hot tea after the first meal service, and this was not cleared for several hours. My empty water bottles were not removed till prior to landing as well. At the second meal service, we were a little slower than the rest of the cabin, and our tables were not cleared for around 20min after we were done. Much as I whine about them a lot, Singapore Airlines is still ahead in this regard.
Inflight entertainment
The inflight entertainment choices weren’t particularly fantastic. I struggled to find anything to watch and mostly left it on the flight map. This older 77W was not equipped with inflight Wi-Fi.
Conclusion
My experience on this Thai Airways flight was generally solid, but lacking in some areas. The hard product was tolerable and food mostly good, but other aspects such as service could be improved. A bit more attentiveness would help, and changes to service flow would benefit the overall passenger experience.
At the end of the day, long haul business class on one of the world’s better airlines is still a good way to get from Asia to Europe. Thai Airways was a reasonably comfortable way to do it; it may not necessarily be one of the best, but it was a nice start to a holiday.
Extremely informative in all areas and therefore very helpful as we are looking to visit Thailand later this year. Clearly some issues but when comparing other business class prices, I think still good value for money.