Thai Airlines a disappointment

I have flown almost 60,000 miles on Thai Airlines this year alone. I hold a gold card and I always fly business class, but I have become increasingly disenchanted and angry at the level of attention and respect given to passengers.

On Oct. 12, I was about to board TG 431 to Bali from Bangkok on the return leg of my trip when my wife called me from Jakarta to tell me about the bombing in Kuta. The Thai Airways lounge knew nothing but I called the assistant GM of one of the star- rated hotels I use in Bali and he told me not to come to Bali.

I then asked the staff if they would re-route my ticket to Jakarta, but they were not able to do this so I had to buy a new one-way business class ticket to Jakarta with the understanding I would get a refund in Jakarta.

Back home in Jakarta I tried for three days to establish contact with the Jakarta Thai Airways office to no avail. I asked my wife to go in person to the office in Jakarta.

A staff member told my wife in a decidedly rude fashion that because I had purchased an economy ticket with a US$125 upgrade to business I would not be able to get a refund other than a $5 tax refund and that was that. I then contacted the airline president's office in Bangkok and was asked to send my two tickets. I did via DHL and they offered me the mileage for the Bangkok-Denpasar leg. I accepted that but because they only had a copy of the Bali ticket, they were not able to do anything, they said.

Eventually the Jakarta office sent me a letter of halfhearted apology (attached) and a leather agenda for all my troubles. What I needed was to have a decent flight, not an agenda. In Copenhagen, I bought a business class ticket for a colleague coming back to Jakarta with me, at full fare from a travel agent, at almost $4,000.

When we checked in at the airport in Copenhagen we were given two seats apart, not together, and the woman at the counter, in response to my complaint about this, told me that we had no choice. I then asked if they could upgrade us to first. No way, I was told, as if I was just trying to get a freebie or something. That was the salt on the cut that they just gave me.

Because of the restricted leg room in the configuration of this particular aircraft the passenger behind me was not able to bring his table up to eat so they woke me up. Now, remember that this is business class. What a joke.

MIKE POULOS, Jakarta