Thai Royal Orchid Plus major devaluation

[MEL_Traveller]

Yes. I suppose that is true. I will be interested to see if the current situation with pretty much NO business availability in Thai Business to and from Melbourne after about the month of June will continue. Looking very grim at the moment. I keep reading about great uses of LifeMiles from USA but it seems Australia does not experience the same sweet spots! I am struggling to find uses for business flights from Australia using Lifemiles. Any suggestions?? I am holding ALOT.

As mattg says TG availability has been all over the place recently. Not as bad as CX after their program change last year though (thankfully).

LM can still be good value, but with more than a few 2nd and 3rd tier airlines on the AU-Europe market now it can often be cheaper, easier, and more convenient to buy business class outright than try and find the dates you need via awards. If you are willing to buy a connecting flight to Asia, Lufthansa F class is often available via LM, but only within a 14 day window before departure.

 

[Tash Melbourne]

Thank you for your responses/reassurance....... I will watch with anticipation.

 

[chianshuin]

have anyone able to book direct flight from mel or sydney to europe transit bkk. i can find seats when searching seperately aus-bkk and bkk-paris. however, cannot find any seats when i search it as aus to europe return. i find it is quite hard to use and now regret having transfer to this program....

 

[fantasy86dj]

What actually happens to a program when its gotten to a point where its so ridiculous that people just dont bother

Airpoints

 

[Duffa]

Thanks Matt, for your special rapporteur on Air India using Thai Orchid Plus
Just booked a return J for me and Mrs D later in the year MEL - Delhi
Did panic a bit when the first operator couldn't see the availability which I knew was there, using United rewards website. Especially since I had bunged a quarter of a million points into it 4 days before Amex went cough/half. I thanked her, hung up and called back immediately.
2nd operator couldn't see the availability either, until she "tried something else"!! It worked.
Point of story - Don't waste time with first operator asking them to speak to manager or try another avenue or look again - if they knew how to do it, they would.
That is something I have learned here and thank you AFF!!
HUACA

 

[Buzzard]

Things change all the time in this game, e.g. Turkish Airlines might launch a direct flight from Sydney to Istanbul next month with tons of availability.

Now that would be nice.

 

[RichieKaen]

After reading what Thai is doing to their FF program I think I need to change to KrisFlyer membership. I'm a long time ROP member flying out of Perth and with Gold status which doesn't expire until 4 Dec. 2020.
Looking at the Singapore Airlines schedules, flying PER to BKK isn't so bad and the short stopover to break up the trip is fine.
I currently have 175k ROP miles following transfer of Amex Rewards points before 15 April deadline (unfortunately hadn't paid enough attention to Thai's announcement).
As well as having an Amex Explorer card, I've recently gotten an Amex Express Gold Business card which enables me to pay a lot of business expenses via Amex each month and I can also transfer these to Singapore Airlines.
Not being too au fait with the frequent flyer strategies, can anyone please suggest the best way to transition to KrisFlyer membership?

 

[Mattg]

After reading what Thai is doing to their FF program I think I need to change to KrisFlyer membership. I'm a long time ROP member flying out of Perth and with Gold status which doesn't expire until 4 Dec. 2020.
Looking at the Singapore Airlines schedules, flying PER to BKK isn't so bad and the short stopover to break up the trip is fine.
I currently have 175k ROP miles following transfer of Amex Rewards points before 15 April deadline (unfortunately hadn't paid enough attention to Thai's announcement).
As well as having an Amex Explorer card, I've recently gotten an Amex Express Gold Business card which enables me to pay a lot of business expenses via Amex each month and I can also transfer these to Singapore Airlines.
Not being too au fait with the frequent flyer strategies, can anyone please suggest the best way to transition to KrisFlyer membership?

KrisFlyer is not a bad option, especially for good value redemptions. It's also easy enough to transfer points from Amex to SQ.

Keep in mind that you can still fly Thai Airways but earn points/miles and status with a different Star Alliance frequent flyer program. No need to fly SQ just because you're a KrisFlyer member.

This article goes through the requirements to earn status in various different Star Alliance programs - The Best Programs to Earn Star Alliance Status

 

[RichieKaen]

Thanks for the quick reply Matt.
Also advice I can still fly Thai as a KrisFlyer member, although, haven't flown SQ for many years so would like to give them a try based on they seem to get a lot of favourable critiques.

 

[Frankonthemove]

Thanks Matt, for your special rapporteur on Air India using Thai Orchid Plus
Just booked a return J for me and Mrs D later in the year MEL - Delhi
Did panic a bit when the first operator couldn't see the availability which I knew was there, using United rewards website. Especially since I had bunged a quarter of a million points into it 4 days before Amex went cough/half. I thanked her, hung up and called back immediately.
2nd operator couldn't see the availability either, until she "tried something else"!! It worked.
Point of story - Don't waste time with first operator asking them to speak to manager or try another avenue or look again - if they knew how to do it, they would.
That is something I have learned here and thank you AFF!!
HUACA

Totally

 

[Frankonthemove]

Totally

I totally understand your frustration and it’s getting worse at Thai. The website is one of the worst in the industry and getting basic tasks done is mind numbing. I also tried redeeming miles for a ticket recently and was stonewalled many times. Info doesn’t exist on line and Thai gatekeepers keep saying the same thing, “no seats and waitlist closed”. My last phone call to BKK l asked firmly and stated that lve been platinum for 8 years and l know there are seats on “that” flight. Bang, l got the seats BUT for a hefty amount of miles. I recommend push then push harder. As for the mileage changes it’s pretty poor how Thai sneakily say very little about needing doublemiles post October 1st but come out with a fanfare of giving a few extra miles on flights. My Thai agent recommended complaining as they tried this a few years back and the ground swell of complaints stopped it, now l don’t disagree with a small increase but not double. As far as flying out of Sydney to Eu destinations it’s terrible. My next flight lve a transit of 20 hours. Very old 747 out of Sydney followed by an old 777 to Eu. Ive been loyal for lone enough. If the increase in points goes through lm gone.

 

[baggyred]

Not a FF question - but does anyone know if Thai unblock their seats like Qantas does a T-80?

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Yeah yeah I know - wrong thread - anyways Veuve served on TG J HKG-BKK last Sunday:

Sorry typo fixed

 

[clifford]

Yeah yeah I know - wrong thread - anyways Veuve served on TG J HKG-BLK last Sunday:

I didn't know that TG flew to Blackpool (that's where I'm from).

 

[Happy Trails]

Not a FF question - but does anyone know if Thai unblock their seats like Qantas does a T-80?

My experience of seat blocking is limited to 'J' on the 747 where T-80 doesn't apply - you need to ask at check-in.

 

[Lam]

Thanks for the quick reply Matt.
Also advice I can still fly Thai as a KrisFlyer member, although, haven't flown SQ for many years so would like to give them a try based on they seem to get a lot of favourable critiques.

You can fly Thai and clock your mileage to Krisflyer depending on the Booking class of your ticket. I do the reverse also depending on the booking class of my SQ tickets. Discounted tickets will usually give you a fraction of the mileage on the airlines own program but ZERO if trying to clock it to a partner’s program.

 

[Mattg]

There are now less than two weeks to go until the Royal Orchid Plus devaluation.

Is there anyone with a stack of TG miles they still need to burn?

 

[Frankonthemove]

Ive got a mountain of miles to burn, and have been booking award tickets like crazy but just a few days ago my Thai agent from one of the EU offices told me that Thai HQ have been inundated with complaints and have revised the new program. ie Australia to EU in business you would generally need approx. 170,000 miles return, with the proposed new mileage table it jumped to 320,000, but now (apparently) its 235,000. I haven't seen it advertised anywhere but heard it from a TG booking agent. Just my 2 cents worth!!

 

[Mattg]

Ive got a mountain of miles to burn, and have been booking award tickets like crazy but just a few days ago my Thai agent from one of the EU offices told me that Thai HQ have been inundated with complaints and have revised the new program. ie Australia to EU in business you would generally need approx. 170,000 miles return, with the proposed new mileage table it jumped to 320,000, but now (apparently) its 235,000. I haven't seen it advertised anywhere but heard it from a TG booking agent. Just my 2 cents worth!!

I can certainly see why they've had lots of complaints!

It would be good if true if they revised the changes, although the website still shows the much higher new rates.

 

[travelislife]

Ive got a mountain of miles to burn, and have been booking award tickets like crazy but just a few days ago my Thai agent from one of the EU offices told me that Thai HQ have been inundated with complaints and have revised the new program. ie Australia to EU in business you would generally need approx. 170,000 miles return, with the proposed new mileage table it jumped to 320,000, but now (apparently) its 235,000. I haven't seen it advertised anywhere but heard it from a TG booking agent. Just my 2 cents worth!!

The exact same thing happened last time! They are such a disorganised business with this stuff.