Eva Air or Thai Air?

[seamus]

TT Chang put me on to a good web site for flights west/east travel. Now they have flights for just over £600 for both Eva & Thai air, Eva is a tad cheaper £36 or so.So tell Me guys Eva or Thai ?

Cheers

Seamus

[seamus]

Dont worry guys just booked with eva for £486 flying out on October the 8th, bring it on LOL

[PigDogg]

Flight is booked but I'll respond generally.

If one's going to be flying a few times a year the frequent flyer program is important.  

From New York, I'm convinced that the United Mileage Plus program is best.  I hardly ever fly United but if I pay for a Star Alliance flight, I put the miles in my United account.  I can reedem my miles on any Star Alliance carrier.  

Easy to fly to Asia using the 60K "saver" miles from United.  I've heard it's difficult to redeem Northworst "saver" miles.

When redeemiing miles you can often add a second destination for free.  I think adding Bali is an excellent use of miles.

[seamus]

Nice one pigDogg, will have to look into this, as I am going to java during this trip.

Seamus

[PigDogg]

Seamus, With most airlines you're permitted one stop over when reedeming FF flyer miles. So you could go to Jakarta with a stopover in Bangkok using no extra miles.

And a stopover doesn't have to be quick. I just booked a flight with a 9 month stop over in Bangkok.

[69billy]

EVA Air...Is the one...Thai's entertainment sucks.. Plus if you are a smooker you can buy your cigis on board for $14..

[Road Runner]

It's about time that Thai airways got some new planes - as you say Billy their entertainment systems have been left well behind by most of the opposition.

I'm just wondering if they are going to get some of the new A380s to replace the 747s.

RR.

[rxpharm]

Thai airways does have a few A380's on order, but they are not doing well financially - might be a delay for getting them into service. They are getting a few new planes. In Dec. I took my companion of choice to Singapore for a 3 night visit. We flew on one of the newer Boeing 777's and it had the in-seat flight entertainment system - but not as many channels as Qatar Airways or Emirates. A step up from their older planes though!

[Tomcat]

For Economy id go Thai every time. EVA get all the late booking slots now at LHR... the last six flights were delayed 2 hours...coming back was 7 hour delay this week

EVA is getting fucked up

[seamus]

Cheers guys but booked through west/east travel for £483 with eva, so we will see how it goes !

[thaibound]

i've flown eva six times lax-bkk and have no complaints. this latest (current) trip is free from the miles i earned on the first 5.
i just flew thai air for the first time from bkk-bali. the flight over was good. on a new 777 (i think it was) w/in-seat entertainment, multiple movies from which to choose, and good service and good food.
the return, however was on one of the old shitty planes with a single movie playing on the practically invisibly distant overhead system. the food however was still good and the free booze in economy was a nice touch. love a free brandy even if i don't feel like getting moww on a bunch of free singha like the lady in the seat next to me.
btw, add thai air to the list of airlines where you'd be a fool not to order a 'special' meal. i don't care if you order hindu, vegetarian, or lactose-free -- if you order a 'special meal' they serve you first. you'll be practically finished by the time they finish serving the rest of the flight. excellent.
finally, there's now a non-stop lax-bkk, so i'm *probably* going to switch to thai air next round-trip, though *only* if they are flying their new 777's and not their old dc's.

[PigDogg]

(thaibound @ Apr. 02 2008,09:58) w/in-seat entertainment, multiple movies from which to choose, and good service and good food.
the return, however was on one of the old shitty planes

finally, there's now a non-stop lax-bkk, so i'm *probably* going to switch to thai air next round-trip, though *only* if they are flying their new 777's and not their old dc's.

The non-stop from New York uses new planes (i think Airbus 345) with excellent in-flight entertainment. My guess is that the LAX non-stop is same same.

60 different movies, old TV shows, documentaries, Berlitz language lessons, it will keep you occupied.

Do whatever you can to score Row 44, assuming the same configuration as the NYC flight.

United Mileage Plus is a much better frequent flyer program than Thai Royal Orchid Plus so I *strongly* suggest that anytime you fly on Thai that you deposit your FF miles into United Mileage Plus, not Thai.

If you work it right every other flight can be free.

[seamus]

Gonna have to look into this cheers PigDogg

[PigDogg]

Most of this info works best for Americans like my homey Thaibound.  Not sure if it applies to everyone.

I know 60K FF miles on Thai won't get you a free trip    to    while United will.

For example by simply getting the United Mileage Plus Credit card you get 21K miles which is one third of a free trip from the states.

Easy Way To Get Lots of Miles (maybe for Americans only)

But there sis a time lag between the day you apply and when you get your mileage deposited so act now for a summer trip.

[rxpharm]

Redemption mileage varies between frequent flyer programs. Air Canada charges 75,000 for a free return ticket between Canada and Asia, better than the Royal Orchid Plus from Thai Air.

Shop around between the various Star Alliance airlines if you are angling to tickets from one of the frequent flyer programs. Apply for the one that gives you the best advatanges. If you fly enough you also get Gold status which gives you access to the business class lounges, extra luggage allowance, priority boarding (handy to get that overhead bin!), and priority wait list.

Good thing with Star Alliance is they have the most member airlines (I think 16 at this point with a couple more coming on board).