Heard Rumor Thai Cancelling JFK-BKK Non Stop

[PigDogg]

Heard rumor starting July no more non-stop JFK-BKK.

It affects me cause I'm booked in Feb. Any ideas how I can work this to my advantage?

[manarak]

maybe you should check if the rumor is real?

JFK-BKK is probably one of the main routes for thai.

The following picture is a copy of the Thai Airlines schedule - the flight is still there.

[SukhumvitRoad]

Stories announcing TG's imminent cancellation of both the JFK and the LAX nonstops turn up in the Post every couple of months and it hasn't happened yet. The most recent version was that they would reroute both flights through stops in China. Still, the prior poster is correct. Whatever future date you put into the TG booking engine, it will tell you that both nonstops are operating.

Are they actually going to reroute or cancel them regardless of that? Since TG is managed by Thai dunderheads who don't ever do anything consistently or rationally, I have no doubt that TG will at some point monkey around with those flights and do so with little or no notice to booked passengers. Thais make decisions on whims, even major commercial ones. That's just the way they function. Even if someone could tell you with absolutely certainly that a secret decision to cancel the flights had indeed been made by TG already, the odds are 50-50 that the decision would get changed to something different before it was actually implemented.

You can't afford to lose any sleep over what TG might do in the future. The last time they announced they were canceling the JFK flight, two weeks later they changed their mind and announced they were increasing service on the route instead. Thus is it now with Thais, thus has it always been.

[Snick]

Its a rumor, it keeps popping up. Nothing you can do about it.

If things were rational I would expect them to cut service to 3 or 4 days a week instead of 7. But this is Thailand and rational has nothing to do with it.

[SamplerDoc]

(PigDogg @ Jun. 02 2008,02:16) Heard rumor starting July no more non-stop JFK-BKK.

It affects me cause I'm booked in Feb.  Any ideas how I can work this to my advantage?

Dude, I told you Last Night ...Aint No Frickin Way Thats True.  I bet my Tool on it

I will be takin Cash on it giving great odds....just PM me

[PigDogg]

(SamplerDoc @ Jun. 01 2008,19:36) I bet my Tool on it

As i recall you did that last football season.

So you either reneged on your bet or are walking around dickless.

[Snick]

I remember that bet !!!!!!!!!!

( and I had Giants by 3 )

[katoeylover]

(SamplerDoc @ Jun. 02 2008,03:36) I bet my Tool on it

I will be takin Cash on it giving great odds....just PM me

Have you paid your superbowl bet yet?

[SamplerDoc]

(PigDogg @ Jun. 02 2008,15:44)

(SamplerDoc @ Jun. 01 2008,19:36) I bet my Tool on it

As i recall you did that last football season.

So you either reneged on your bet or are walking around dickless.    

I said TOOL.....Meaning my Handy ScrewDriver

What in the world are you all thinking

[SukhumvitRoad]

American Express Travel called me yesterday to say that they, too, had heard that the JFK flight was gone and ask if I wanted to change some future TG bookings they made for me on that flight to another airline.

They didn't have any details, and repeated the same comments that other posters have made above about the utter unreliability of any advance plans TG claimed to be making, but it does seem more and more like something is likely to happen fairly soon with the New York flight. Still, there's not a damned thing any of us who use it can do but wait and see what, if anything, actually occurs.

[landslide48]

I believe the JFK-BKK non-stop makes its last flight July 5, 2008. LAX-BKK non-stop will continue for the near future. Supposedly the loads don't pay for the fuel used on this flight, now that crude is over $125 a barrel. By adding a stop, they can carry more passengers. Say goodbye to premium economy.

[SukhumvitRoad]

The Wall Street Journal carried the official announcement this morning. See here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1212...l?mod=djemTEW. Oddly, there's no mention at all of the announcement in any of the English-language press in Thailand.

From July 1, the New York nonstops on TG are cancelled altogether and the LAX flights are reduced to five days a week. Thai also said it was trying to sell the airplanes. If they do, the chances of the flights being restored the next time they change their minds would be zero since they won't have any aircraft capable of making the trip. Since they just started promoting 2-for-1 Royal Orchid tickets in the US good through September 15, they've again managed to find a way to piss off a whole bunch of folks.

Thai has just added service to India and Bangladesh. Now they reduce service to the US to a total of five flights a week in sad contrast to, for example, Singapore Airlines that has seven flight a day. It obvious where Thailand's priorities are as opposed to the priorities of other Southeast Asian countries like Singapore.

What a bunch of halfwitted clowns run things in this country.....

[rxpharm]

Article has now been published in The Nation as well:

Here is the link: Oil prices force Thai Airways to retrench

Oil price forces thai airways to retrench
By Suchat Sritama
The Nation
Published on June 7, 2008

10-year plan to be revised, with routes and aircraft procurement at risk
Skyrocketing oil prices have clipped Thai Airways International's wings, forcing the flag carrier to retrench on its 10-year business plan, including possibly paring routes and new aircraft procurement.

"The airline's revision will also include its revenue projection," THAI president Apinan Sumanseni said yesterday.

"THAI's revenue this year will fall short of the target of Bt210 billion," he said.

The new plan will be finalised by next month, but the airline has already decided to close its long haul Bangkok-New York route in July and cut frequencies to Los Angeles, London, New Zealand and Johannesburg due to higher jet fuel expenses, he said.

On July 1, the New York station will be closed down and flights to Los Angeles will be reduced from seven a week to five.

"The company has already lost Bt4 billion per year for the two long-distance routes to New York and London," he said.

The oil price is the key driver of the cost of operations.

The jet fuel price has jumped from US$270 per gallon last year to $400, which hits all airlines, he said.

The four A340-500s used to service the Bangkok-New York route will no longer be needed and sold off. The company bought the aircraft for $130 million (Bt4.3 billion) each.

The long-haul routes are struggling the most because they consume much more fuel.

The Bangkok-New York flight was launched in May 2005. The airline is running an average load factor of 80 per cent on the daily flights, but the return is still poor due to fewer premium seats.

Major rivals including Singapore Airlines still operate the route but have transformed all seating to business class, which gets higher rates.

THAI is studying reducing frequencies to London, Johannesburg and other destinations.

The airline will also revise its route from Bangkok to Oakland, New Zealand, by adding stopovers in Sydney or Melbourne. The plan is set to start in October.

However, traffic to India is picking up so it will increase flights to New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

Sounds like they will also delay the delivery of their new planes like the Airbus A380 which would have had the range for the non-stop flights.

Unfortunately "TIT" and the current lot of PPP appointees and the asylum running the gov't are demonstrating it IS possible to do worse than the previous military coup gov't.

PD, now this is official, I would suggest you contact TG right away to negotiate how they will get you back to NY for the return portion of your ticket.

[rxpharm]

(SamplerDoc @ Jun. 02 2008,08:36) Dude, I told you Last Night ...Aint No Frickin Way Thats True. I bet my Tool on it

I will be takin Cash on it giving great odds....just PM me

samplerdoc, where is that screwdriver? Good thing these aren't horses, or you would be out of cash by now!

[SamplerDoc]

Yep, RX I see the writing on the walls and offered PD a screwdriver the other night but he instead wanted a chang