Thai Airlines a disappointment

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