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Review: Thai Airways A330 Business Class (HKG-BKK)

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Review Overview
THE ALVIATOR'S VERDICT

Thai Airways is a good reminder of how insanely crowded the intra-Asia business class market is, as these otherwise impressive short-haul business class seats don't stack up to the competition. I enjoyed my flight, though.

4.0

Boarding hadn’t started yet, so I promptly stayed close to the gate area, since I wanted to be first onboard.

I spotted the Air India 787 from Delhi pulling into the gate next to us, which would be operating its thrice-weekly fifth-freedom flight to Osaka.

a plane on the runway
Air India Boeing 787 Hong Kong Airport

I was glad to see an empty priority lane, though was rather surprised that the lane included Royal First customers (in my experience, most airlines choose to board their first class customers separately). Obviously this was a moot point in this case, as we were flying an A330 where business class serves as the top cabin.

a sign in a building
Thai Airways Boarding Signs Hong Kong Airport

I love Thai’s livery – it’s simple, yet colourful and gorgeous at the same time.

an airplane at an airport
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Hong Kong Airport

While boarding was scheduled for 7:05 AM, it wasn’t until 7:25 AM when they actually started boarding the aircraft. Thai Airways isn’t great at boarding planes on time, but nevertheless I was excited to check out what was waiting for us onboard.

THAI Flight 603
Saturday, September 30, 2017
Origin: Hong Kong (HKG) Gate: 44 Dep: 07:45 (07:50)
Destination: Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (BKK) Gate: D4 Arr: 09:25
(09:40)
Duration: 2 hr 40 min (2 hr 50 min)
Aircraft: Airbus A330-300 Reg: HS-TER
Seat: 17K (Business Class)

I was excited to be back onboard the Thai Airways A330. Thai Airways’ A330 features six rows of angled lie-flat seats arranged in a 2-2-2 configuration, for a total of 30 seats.

a row of seats on an airplane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class

I wasn’t too fond of the cabin’s colour tones back when Thai Airways used to have pillows the same colour as their headrests covers in business class. Thai Airways features pink headrest covers in business class on some of their aircraft, and light purple headrest covers on others. As much as I’m a fan of a splash of brighter colour, I far prefer the light purple headrest covers.

That said, Thai Airways invested in different pillow covers, which are now purple. With the new purple pillow covers, the business class cabin colours felt a lot more mature, as the splashes of colour were restrained. While pink and purple still isn’t my favourite colour combination, the cabin looked rather nice to me.

a woman standing in a row of seats
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Cabin

Thai Airways’ angled lie-flat business class seat actually shares the same “bones” as a lot of other airlines’ older business class products. Asiana and Tunisair come to mind, though I’m sure there are others.

a group of people in an airplane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Cabin

I was escorted to my seat, and my boarding pass was placed on the seat console. The flight attendant originally thought I had missed my seat as I went to take a photo of the economy cabin, though I told her that I’d like to check it out, which she agreed to.

Thai Airways has a multitude of economy class configurations on the A330, and unfortunately, this aircraft features one of Thai Airways’ worst economy products, with low-quality PTV screens and no USB ports.

rows of colorful seats on an airplane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Economy Class

I do like the cabin colours Thai Airways uses in economy class though. They’re bright and refreshing, though some of Thai Airways’ newer A330s feature only red and purple seats (no yellow seats), which I’m equally as fine with. Ultimately Thai Airways’ new economy class product on their A350, 777 and 787 looks much better, so I look forward to testing it out someday.

rows of colorful seats on an airplane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Economy Class Cabin

The business class cabin was decked out in two colours – light and dark purple. The seats I assigned for my mother and Hailey were upholstered in a pretty nice dark purple. The seats I assigned for my father and myself were light purple.

a seat on a plane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Seats 16J and 16K

I had assigned myself seat 17K, which is the right window seat in the last row of business class on Thai’s A330. That’s my preference, though it’s not like there were many other window seats available at our time of booking anyway.

a seat on an airplane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Seats 17J and 17K

The seats are amply wide and perfect for a quick two-hour hop.

a seat with purple pillows and a pink pillow on it
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Seats

The seatbacks are interesting – while they’re rounded for the most part, there’s a recess at the top of each seatback. I’m not sure what the recess was there for (it certainly didn’t act as a handle), though I placed my phone on the ledge inflight whenever I wasn’t bothered to put it back in my pocket. That’s some wasted potential storage space, especially for a seat with so little storage to start with.

a large screen on an airplane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Seats

Seats 17E and 17F are reserved for crew rest seats on longer flights, though in this case they were open for selection. The passengers sitting here didn’t seem to know each other, though I wonder if they’d be allowed to use the curtain if they did.

a seat on a plane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Seats 17E and 17F

It was time to explore my seat. The seat had an ample amount of legroom, though it was made clear that nothing could be stowed under the seat in front.

a person's legs in a seat
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Legroom

Located to my right were the seat controls, which were intuitive, and featured lumbar support controls.

a close up of a button
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Seat Controls

Located in front was the TV screen, which was so retro – it couldn’t have been anywhere over 360p in quality, and the moving map was dated.

a screen on a plane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Seatback

Between the seats was a small storage area, though I didn’t end up having a need for it.

a close-up of a latch
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Storage Compartment

Also on the seatback in front was a cupholder for each seat.

a close up of a cup holder
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Cup Holders

There was a 110V universal power port and a two-pronged headphone jack, though the absence of a USB port was soon evident.

a close up of an outlet
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Power Port

I didn’t have a need for the headphone jack anytime during the flight, though it’s worth mentioning that it was broken.

a close up of a device
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Headphone Jack

The tray tables could be pulled out from the console located between the two seats. I initially thought my tray table was stuck, though once I managed to pull it out it was big enough and sturdy as ever.

a wooden object on a plane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Side Table

The seat itself featured a pillow, though I can’t help but feel like I was handed a better pillow in economy on a Thai Airways flight last year. The blanket itself was great, though – it was quilted, felt fine on the skin and I wouldn’t have issues using the blanket on a longhaul flight.

a purple pillow on a chair
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Pillow

a pillow on a bed
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Blanket

Thai Airways had also upgraded their headphones since the last time I flew them in business class. My dad said his headphones were good, though I didn’t get to try them out firsthand since my audio jack was broken.

a pair of headphones on a table
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Headphones

Overall, the seat was more than enough for two hours, though it was worn as ever. That’s a shame, as the aircraft had only been around for eight years, and featured the “new” Airbus passenger service units (which should signify that the aircraft is new, and therefore in good shape – apparently not).

a sign on the ceiling of a plane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Passenger Service Units

It’s also worth noting that after lots of flying on aircraft such as the A380, 777, A350 and 787, the A330 felt rather cramped in comparison. The windows felt small and the cabin ceilings felt rather low. Obviously the problem doesn’t lie with Thai Airways – it lies in the fact that I’m jaded. The A330 used to basically define travel for me (I remember back in 2014-15 when I flew and reviewed eleven A330 flights in a row), so it was interesting to see how it’s starting to lag behind the curve compared to some more modern aircraft that I’ve now been accustomed to.

The cabin filled up quickly, notably by a family of four which seemed to consist of two guys, their mother (who seemed to be holding a probing cane) and an elderly grandmother on a wheelchair.

a group of people sitting in an airplane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Cabin

Around five minutes after boarding I was presented with a hot towel, as well as a welcome drink. I was presented a tray with water, orange juice, apple juice and champagne, where I picked apple juice.

a white towel on a wood surface
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Hot Towel

a glass of yellow liquid on a table
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Apple Juice

It was a rainy day outside, though my eyes were transfixed upon a beautiful Air India 787, which I hope to fly someday.

an airplane at an airport
Air India Boeing 787-8 Hong Kong Airport

The cabin filled up within fifteen minutes, and by 7:40 AM the cabin was good to go.

a group of people sitting in an airplane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Cabin

At around 7:45 AM the crew played the safety video, which was pretty cool.

Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Safety Video

a screen on an airplane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Safety Video

a screen on a plane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Safety Video

The captain then came on the PA to announce our flight time of 2 hours and 25 minutes. He repeated every single thing that he said twice sentence by sentence, which was slightly irritating.

In the meantime, the crew came around and took meal orders (menus were located in the seat pocket in front). The crew were indifferent, though smiled upon interaction.

We pushed back shortly after 7:50 AM, and started making our way towards the runway. I saw a beautiful Cathay Pacific A330 in the new livery during the process.

a large white airplane at an airport
Cathay Pacific Airbus A330 Hong Kong Airport

However, it was a rainy day at Hong Kong Airport, so I couldn’t really get good photos of any sort.

a window with rain drops on it
Rainy Day Hong Kong Airport

I managed a decent photo of an Orient Thai 747, which seemed to be the Orient Thai aircraft featuring ex-Cathay Pacific interiors. That’s one of the only airplanes that still features Cathay Pacific’s herringbone business class product, since the airline didn’t bother updating the interiors after they acquired the aircraft from Cathay Pacific.

a large white airplane in a hangar
Orient Thai Boeing 747 Hong Kong Airport

We took off on runway 07R, which offered great views of Hong Kong upon our climbout.

a city with buildings and mountains in the background
Views upon Climbout Hong Kong Airport

a city with a body of water and mountains
Views upon Climbout Hong Kong Airport

a city next to a body of water
Views upon Climbout Hong Kong Airport

Ultimately the weather cleared up as we rose above the clouds, and up in the air it was a beautiful day as always.

clouds and clouds from an airplane
Views upon Climbout Hong Kong Airport

a plane with seats and monitors
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Business Class Cabin Upon Takeoff

Around 10 minutes after takeoff, the captain came on the PA to announce a few more details of our flight.

The seatbelt sign was switched off around 15 minutes after takeoff, where I took one more look at the economy class cabin. Unfortunately the seatbacks are thick and clunky, without a lot of features. Thai Airways has a few aircraft featuring a gorgeous economy class hard product, though this aircraft clearly wasn’t one of them.

a group of people sitting in an airplane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Economy Class Cabin

Back at my seat, I checked out the entertainment selection. The selection of movies was okay, though the selection of music was disappointingly lacking (not that it mattered, since my headphone jack was broken anyway).

a screen with a movie menu
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Entertainment Selection

a screen with a screen on it
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Entertainment Selection

a screen with a screen on it
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Entertainment Selection

a screen with a screen showing a variety of movies
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Entertainment Selection

a screen with a screen on it
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Entertainment Selection

a screen with a blue background
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Entertainment Selection

a screen with a picture of people
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Entertainment Selection

a screen with a black frame
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Entertainment Selection

a screen with a picture of people
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Entertainment Selection

a screen with music on it
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Entertainment Selection

a screen with music on it
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Entertainment Selection

Around 15 minutes after takeoff, the crew started preparing for meal service. The menu read as follows:

a menu of a restaurant
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Menu

The separate wine and beverage menu read as follows:

a menu of wine in a book
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Beverage List

a menu with text and words
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Beverage List

The appetiser was passed out around 25 minutes into the flight. Meal service was done by trolleys on this flight.

a tray with food on it
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Appetiser Setup

I really liked the salt and pepper shakers, which were shaped like an onion.

a white object on a table
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Salt and Pepper Shakers

The appetiser itself was just fresh fruit cut up. The strawberries were okay, the mango was okay, and the kiwi was okay. I didn’t touch the papaya or the grapefruit – overall, an acceptable, though boring appetiser to begin the meal.

a plate of fruit on a table
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Appetiser – Fresh Fruits

We were offered a bread basket with two types of bread on offer. I selected a croissant, which was fine.

a croissant on a plate
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Croissant

A drinks trolley soon rolled around, and I decided to go for lychee juice, which the flight attendant said would be “very nice”. It was okay – it was poured out of a carton, so I wasn’t expecting much.

a glass of liquid on a tray
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Lychee Juice

Around 15 minutes after the appetiser was presented, the crew came around with the main courses. This was how my assorted dim sum meal was presented:

a plate of food on a table
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Main Course – Assorted Dim Sum

This is what the meal looked like without the piece of cabbage on top:

a plate of food on a table
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Main Course – Assorted Dim Sum

It’s honestly such a shame, since the dish without the overcooked, disgusting, bland cabbage leaf looked so pretty in itself. It’s not like they’re trying to retain moisture or anything, but the cabbage leaf just felt like lipstick on a pig to me. All of the four dim sum items were really nice – they were flavour bombs, and I wouldn’t have problems receiving the dish at a restaurant. I was also handed a packet of chili sauce that enhanced the flavour of the dim sum.

My dad ordered the braised rice vermicelli, which happened to be the short end of the stick, as the noodles were mediocre at best. It’s funny since this dish was meticulously described on the menu, while my assorted dim sum dish didn’t get much of an explanation at all.

a plate of food on a table
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Main Course – Braised Rice Vermicelli with Shiitake, Bean Sprout, Yellow Chive, Carrot, Japanese Pork Potsticker, Shrimp Shao Mai, Choy Sum with Garlic Oil

The meal service was pretty efficient, and our plates were cleared 15 minutes after the main meal was served. Kudos to Thai Airways for serving a meal so quickly and efficiently.

Service was rushed, which I get, since I value efficiency more than personability for a meal service on a two-hour flight. The flight attendants smiled when they handed us our meals, though that was about it.

Shortly after the meal service I visited the lavatory, which was standard for a newer A330. I do like the fact that Thai Airways offers “towel dispensers” on their A330s (in place of tissues, they have towels), though I doubt those towels are reused (since “used towels” are instructed to go in the trash), so they could potentially be a waste.

a toilet with a seat open
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Lavatory

a sink in an airplane
Thai Airways Airbus A330 Business Class Lavatory

I reclined my seat and napped for around an hour before I was instructed to put my seat back into the upright position and open window shades. It’s impressive that I managed to get an hour of sleep on a two-hour flight, and I slept well due to the insanely early departure time. I like how Thai Airways’ business class bed doesn’t unfold into a flat surface, instead allowing a “platform” preventing your butt from sliding down. I didn’t get a picture of the flat bed position on this flight, though I got one on the return, so I’ll share the picture then.

We started our descent into Bangkok at 9:15 AM local time, where the views were beautiful.

aerial view of a landscape from an airplane
Views upon Initial Descent Bangkok Airport

aerial view of a city from the sky
Views upon Initial Descent Bangkok Airport

aerial view of a city and clouds
Views upon Initial Descent Bangkok Airport

an aerial view of a city
Views upon Descent Bangkok Airport

Our views were exciting when we entered final approach into Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, as the airport was located on the right side of the plane.

a city with roads and buildings
Views upon Descent Bangkok Airport

an airport with airplanes parked on the ground
Views upon Final Approach Bangkok Airport

an airport with planes on the runway
Views upon Final Approach Bangkok Airport

a large airport with a large building and grass
Views upon Landing Bangkok Airport

a runway with grass and buildings in the background
Views upon Landing Bangkok Airport

I’m a sucker for a wide variety of traffic, which Bangkok Airport definitely provides. Upon our taxi I spotted a variety of Thai Airways aircraft.

a large airplane on the tarmac
Thai Airways Boeing 777-200 Bangkok Airport

a large white and purple airplane on a runway
Thai Airways Boeing 787 Bangkok Airport

a large white airplane on a runway
Thai Airways Boeing 747 Bangkok Airport

I was also able to spot some other aircraft, including an ANA 787, an Etihad 787, and most excitingly, a Wamos Air Boeing 747 and a JetAsia 767.

a large airplane on a runway
ANA Boeing 787-9 Bangkok Airport

a plane parked on the tarmac
Etihad Boeing 787 Bangkok Airport

I’m dying to find out what the Wamos Air aircraft looks like from inside. This picture on JetPhotos.com was taken right inside the aircraft pictured below. Can someone explain Wamos Air’s 747 cabin layout to me please? Not mentioned is that Wamos Air doesn’t even fly to Bangkok – this aircraft was operating El Al flights between Tel Aviv and Bangkok. Fascinating!

a large white airplane on a tarmac
Wamos Air Boeing 747 Bangkok Airport

I hadn’t heard of JetAsia before, but it seems to be an airline headquartered in Bangkok that operates mostly charter flights nowadays. This promotional video really makes the JetAsia experience seem reminiscient of how flying was like back in the “good old days”.

a white airplane on a runway
JetAsia Boeing 767-200 Bangkok Airport

In addition to that I also spotted a Lao Airlines ATR 72.

a group of airplanes at an airport
Lao Airlines ATR 72 Bangkok Airport

We finally parked next to an Aeroflot A330 at gate D4, where we alighted in no time and made our way past immigration quickly.

an airplane parked at an airport
Aeroflot Airbus A330 Bangkok Airport

Bangkok Airport wasn’t opened too long ago, but it already feels like such a dated airport. The Cathay Pacific flight our friends were on arrived rather late, so we waited for them for a while, before waiting for the driver that would take us to the Park Hyatt Bangkok.

people in an airport terminal
Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport Terminal

people in a building with people waiting for their flight
Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport Terminal

Bottom Line: Thai Airways’ A330 Business Class

Thai Airways’ A330 business class is exactly what the airline promises – a fully functional, largely no-frills product given at affordable prices. I didn’t expect much more of Thai Airways, and got exactly what I expected – I love an airline that commits fully to a solid brand, and Thai Airways did exactly that. I also liked the subtle improvements, including a better pillow, better headphones, etc.. I also really liked the food on this flight, though it seemed to be a one-off, since no one else in my family really enjoyed their meal options.

Ultimately Thai Airways’ fleet is aging faster than usual, which is my biggest complaint about Thai Airways’ A330 business class. Bangkok is a high-competition, low-yield route, and Thai Airways certainly doesn’t offer the best hard product between Hong Kong and Bangkok, as only one of their daily flights offer fully-flat beds on the route (every other airline operating between Hong Kong and Bangkok offers fully flat beds on at least a majority of the flights they operate on the route). However, a majority of these flights are fifth-freedom routes, so it would be unfair to stack them up against Thai Airways’ point-to-point product on the route.

Overall, under a similar price point, I wouldn’t hesitate to fly Thai Airways again on the route, though I’d love to be able to try their A380 next time.

Read more from this trip:

1 comment

  1. Great report. I am flying THAI from Oman to BKK and on to HKG. Unfortunately, they switched my plane from the 747, which I quite like, to this A330 series. I don’t think they are that great, but I always like THAI service. Flights are managed well and quiet. Also didn’t know THAI had any 787s, so it was cool to see that.
    I agree on BKK flight traffic. That airport and Singapore have a lot of variety and many different airlines.

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