Thai Changes Schedule-May affect LM redemptions

[kpc]

...and ask for a buggy service to help with the short transit time in Bkk, and I will be also informing the purser on my inbound flight to Bkk about the short transit time and requesting assistance!

FWIW, I emailed TG reservations in Sydney about seats, and also put in a request for a buggy in BKK due to the very short transit time....request has been added to my booking, altho. subject to availability of course

 

[Rallo]

sadly ive called the 1300# and have been told in no uncertain terms that if i want to amend my flight to an earlier departure i would need to initiate the change via Avianca. they also mentioned that i'm booked in "O" class which is award inventory and would be wait listed with no guarantee to travel on the elected date.

so it looks like im screwed, i need 3 F tickets SYD>LHR and there appears to be none available - what a nightmare.

I had to call Thai Sydney office today and was told the same, previous operator obviously wasn't aware it was a Lifemiles booking , I need to call Avianca does anyone know what the best number and time to call them on?

 

[RB]

I had to call Thai Sydney office today and was told the same, previous operator obviously wasn't aware it was a Lifemiles booking , I need to call Avianca does anyone know what the best number and time to call them on?

I called the US number on Skype. 1800 284 2622 then press 2 for English & then 1 for reservations area. I called around 9.30am Syd time & had no worries getting 2 people (Phillip & Jason) who spoke good English (held for about 7 min & listened to their ability to safely transport flowers!). I had already touched base with Thai in Syd prior to ringing Avianca & I could also see online that Lifemiles was showing award availability for the new flight I was angling for.
We are now leaving Syd in the AM have 7.5hrs in BKK & then onto FRA & eventually OPO

 

[Rallo]

I called the US number on Skype. 1800 284 2622 then press 2 for English & then 1 for reservations area. I called around 9.30am Syd time & had no worries getting 2 people (Phillip & Jason) who spoke good English (held for about 7 min & listened to their ability to safely transport flowers!). I had already touched base with Thai in Syd prior to ringing Avianca & I could also see online that Lifemiles was showing award availability for the new flight I was angling for.
We are now leaving Syd in the AM have 7.5hrs in BKK & then onto FRA & eventually OPO

Thanks, I have spoken to Thai who have said if I don't have luck with LM issuing another ticket then they will ask for Thai office in Bangkok to organise tickets , problem we have is we have two separate bookings affected by the change and the new flight has no inventory left.
Fingers crossed

 

[Rallo]

sadly ive called the 1300# and have been told in no uncertain terms that if i want to amend my flight to an earlier departure i would need to initiate the change via Avianca. they also mentioned that i'm booked in "O" class which is award inventory and would be wait listed with no guarantee to travel on the elected date.

so it looks like im screwed, i need 3 F tickets SYD>LHR and there appears to be none available - what a nightmare.

Dave I have called Thai again and they have advised they automatically moved me to the next flight which is confirmed even though booked through Lifemiles due to being an involuntary change a schedule change.
I am in the same boat I lose a day of my holiday but a massage in the First Lounge will make up for it

 

[mushypeas]

That's great news mate.

Unfortunately I haven't had the same luck, I am fuming to say the least. Thai and Avianca seem to be blaming each other, it's apparently with the reservation manager in Sydney whom is negotiating with Bangkok... apparently I then need to jerk around calling Avianca again to reticket.

Good lord, LM is great when it works... nightmare when there are changes.... lol

 

[mushypeas]

so it's been a stressful week or so but it seems to finally have come to fruition... i have noticed however my eticket has changed from a 202-xx_x numbers to 134-xx_x

will this make a difference, i dont want to show up at the airport and Thai turn around and say its not one of their tickets?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

so it's been a stressful week or so but it seems to finally have come to fruition... i have noticed however my eticket has changed from a 202-xx_x numbers to 134-xx_x

will this make a difference, i dont want to show up at the airport and Thai turn around and say its not one of their tickets?

when LM is issuing a ticket it will be on their ticket stock - not that of Thai airways.

In this particular case your ticket stock has changed from TACA to Avianca.

It will never be a TG ticket stock (in the same way that when QF issues an award for travel on EK or CX or anyone else it will be on 081 stock and not that of the operating carrier).

 

[mushypeas]

Thanks mate, great pickup on taca to avianca, youve put me at ease, thank you appreciate the response

 

[Stephen65]

We were booked on TG472 in late June leaving SYD at 3.55pm arriving at BKK 10.15pm and then connecting after a 15 hour stopover with a flight to MUC the next afternoon.

Now we are leaving at 8.45pm and arriving in BKK at 03.05am. So our stopover has shortened by 5 hours and as a result I won't bother with a hotel room but the critical question now is what time in the morning does the F lounge open?

Surely Thai aren't going to leave F transit passengers languishing lounge-less at 0305?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

We were booked on TG472 in late June leaving SYD at 3.55pm arriving at BKK 10.15pm and then connecting after a 15 hour stopover with a flight to MUC the next afternoon.

Now we are leaving at 8.45pm and arriving in BKK at 03.05am. So our stopover has shortened by 5 hours and as a result I won't bother with a hotel room but the critical question now is what time in the morning does the F lounge open?

Surely Thai aren't going to leave F transit passengers languishing lounge-less at 0305?

the lounge opens at 5am (and the spa at 6).

Thai had a similar schedule a couple years ago with the SYD or MEL flight arriving at something like 4 am. Initially there was no lounge available for conecting premium passengers but this was remedied after after a few weeks and they opened one of the lounges to handle both business and first passengers for the hour or so until the main lounges opened.

I would expect them to (hopefully) have learned from past experience and offer something similar this time around.

 

[kpc]

...

For my return, Dme-Bkk-Syd, my connection time in Bkk has been redued from 90 mins to an unbelievable 55 mins which I gather is the miniumm connection time at Bangkok (see FT thread below) alto. this makes me a little nervous. I can book this itinerary on the Thai website and Expert Flyer now and it shows it to be a valid routing but I guess I'll be protected as it is all on one PNR. The next flight from Bkk-Syd is the evening flight meaning I will have a 13 hour transit at Bkk!!

Do you think practically I can make the 55 minute transit at Bkk? I'll be in J so should be first off the plane.

After all that angst,TG have retimed their flight to Syd ex Bkk back to the original departure time, meaning I'm now back to the original 90 minutes transit...so may have time even for a quick shower at Bkk!!

 

[quokka77]

what date and time are you travelling kpc, if you don't mind me asking? My in-laws were bumped from an 8am flight to a 7:20pm flight, when their 8am BKK-SYD service was cancelled. I'm now wondering whether I can get them back onto the 8am flight, if it is re-scheduled? Cheers.

 

[quokka77]

Just answered my own question. The 8am flight is again listed on Thai's Australian website, and a dummy booking shows seat availability in revenue J at least. I'll call them up and ask them to change the ticket back to the original booked timing. They were quite happy to bump my in-laws to the evening plane when it suited them, so now that they have re-instated the earlier service, I will be trying to get them to honour the original booking. Any idea whether this will require them to re-ticket, or whether it can be done entirely by TG? Certainly the original re-schedule (when they claimed to have cancelled the earlier flight) was done without Avianca's involvement (and there was no notification either, just happened to come across it here).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Just answered my own question. The 8am flight is again listed on Thai's Australian website, and a dummy booking shows seat availability in revenue J at least. I'll call them up and ask them to change the ticket back to the original booked timing. They were quite happy to bump my in-laws to the evening plane when it suited them, so now that they have re-instated the earlier service, I will be trying to get them to honour the original booking. Any idea whether this will require them to re-ticket, or whether it can be done entirely by TG? Certainly the original re-schedule (when they claimed to have cancelled the earlier flight) was done without Avianca's involvement (and there was no notification either, just happened to come across it here).

the ticket will have been revalidated by Avianca.

it will require the same thing again here.

When an airline revalidates a ticket they don't necessarily have to get the pax involved.

 

[quokka77]

Thanks for the advice MT, should also say I'm grateful for the knowledge of you and others on the main Avianca thread, has given me the confidence to pursue such tickets for myself and my family (just back from a SYD-ICN-LAX return trip booked through Avianca, all went off without a hitch). Will post back to let others know how I go with getting back onto the earlier flight.