Saturday, May 12, 2007

Thai Airways vs. Singapore Airlines

While traveling from Bangalore to Beijing this time I got Thai airways tickets instead of Singapore airlines from the travel department of my company. Though I love Singapore (I have been on the airport only, bt I still love it), I still thought its good I get to try another airlines and their services. Well here is a small summary from my side comparing the two.

Thai does not starts serving a hot towel to clean hands and face. If you are starting from Bangalore it is a must because of the dust and pollution that you have to fight on the way to the airport.

Now if the flight is 4 or more hours and you are traveling international you expect your personalized TV because it can be boring to travel that long without anything to do and one big LCD some 15 feet away makes no sense.

The Flight was delayed by 1 hour. Well I doubt it was those air traffic jam reason because the Singapore airlines plane standing on my right side scheduled to depart 1 hour after us departed before we even moved. Though it might not be a regular affair but it was in this case.

There is no menu for the meals giving information about what one can choose to eat and know beforehand what all is available onboard. There is no glass holder on the front seat tray.

I did not find the food good enough either (though this could vary from individual to individual).

The airhostess/airhost are a little slow to react to your needs.
The magazine really does not contain good content to go through(and this despite there being no TV to watch your desired movie)

For the connecting passengers Thai airways does not boarding pass for the second flight from the original city as is the case with SQ (Sing air). So one has to stand in the queue again to get the next boarding pass. There were only 8-10 counters for issuing boarding passes. This is a small number for the number of passengers who were transiting even at 4AM. Unfortunately the queue in which I stood was so slow (of course all of them were so long as well that I did not dare to quit my line and join another after I realized mine was much slower than the other). I had to stand for 1 hour 20 minutes in the queue to collect my boarding pass (one can call it as a time pass). This is quite ridiculous that the next boarding pass is not issued despite flying by the same airlines. On top of this the Bangkok airport is not full of shops or any entertainment facilities(like Singapore airport).

Now having cribbed enough about the poor chaps some of the good things that I came across were the better legroom on Thai (both flights, Bangalore - Bangkok and Bangkok - Beijing). One of the onboard music channels offered Hindi music. And the seats were more stretchable.

So if you have a choice between these two on your travel route then my suggestion would be Singapore Airlines. Especially if you have a connecting flight and your break is for more than 4 hours.

There is a possibility that because I have not been disappointed by Singapore airlines' service even once of the 8 times I have boarded it, my expectations have increased.

But then obviously Thai Airways is cheaper than Singapore Airlines.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

thats not true
Thai airways always deliver the best service
they give steaming towels at the beggining and in the morning
respect both airlines equally

Anonymous said...

i think both airlines are good because they know how and when to apply the marketting strategy. from this customers can travel or attract for travelling in the flight.