Thai Smile Joins Star Alliance (kind of)

[Explorer8939]

Apparently, you can now get mileage credit on Thai Smile if you are Star Alliance - if you book via Thai Airways. This is actually a cleanup of the mess created when Thai Airways started marketing Thai Smile flights without disclosing that Thai Smile was the operator. So, you booked Thai Airways, but got no mileage credit.

I am not sure how tightly knit Thai Smile will be with Star Alliance otherwise - will you get Lounge Access for international flights? Will there be Priority baggage handling? Don't know.

[Explorer8939]

Thai Smile still shows up as Q class when you book on the Thai Airlines site. I will be flying on Thai Smile in the Premium Economy Section, which is fare class “U”, ie 100 percent mileage accumulation.

[semi-retired member]

Thai Smile matches TG's 20kg-limit on hold-luggage, on their cheaper tickets, in case anyone hadn't yet heard !

But it still beats trying to get everything into a carry-on + a personal-bag, IMO. 

[Explorer8939]

I am flying domestic on Thai Smile on their Premium Economy fare.

They gave me a pass to the Thai Royal Silk lounge, not sure why. Does PE get you into the lounge, or is it my Star Alliance Gold status? I bought the ticket via the Thai Airways web site, so that could be the reason.

Thai Smile PE puts you in the front of the plane, but the seats are the same as Economy. They do block the middle seat, though, and you board first.

They plan to give me a shrimp burger on the one hour flight.

 

I am flying PE mostly because I needed to check 2 bags. It was cheaper to go PE than pay for the second bag in Economy.

Edited June 30, 2019 by Explorer8939

[thinkingallowed]

9 hours ago, Explorer8939 said:

I am flying domestic on Thai Smile on their Premium Economy fare.

They gave me a pass to the Thai Royal Silk lounge, not sure why. Does PE get you into the lounge, or is it my Star Alliance Gold status? I bought the ticket via the Thai Airways web site, so that could be the reason.

Thai Smile PE puts you in the front of the plane, but the seats are the same as Economy. They do block the middle seat, though, and you board first.

They plan to give me a shrimp burger on the one hour flight.

 

I am flying PE mostly because I needed to check 2 bags. It was cheaper to go PE than pay for the second bag in Economy.

Seats up front on Thai Smile get lounge access.

[cbmgolfer]

They seriously ruined Thai Airways when they created Smile ... hasn’t been the same since IMO.  They ruined their website and Smile service is crap compared to TG.  There’s no way to book contiguous Thai and Smile flights so you have a single itinerary.  Before Smile that was seamless.

Ive been Gold in recent years ... I get miles on domestic flights in Thailand ... not sure why cause I pick the cheapest fares if possible.

Edited July 4, 2019 by cbmgolfer

[Explorer8939]

I have booked a continuous itinerary on Thai Smile and Thai, you do it on the Thai Airways website.

As far as mileage credit for Star Alliance, the fine print says this will be implemented sometime in the future. So, I probably won’t get mileage credit for my Thai Smile flight from BKK to Khon Kaen.

oops.

[cbmgolfer]

If you booked a continuous itinerary on Thai that is a new development ... hasn’t worked that way in years.

glad to hear it ... I’ve been complaining to them for years.

[Explorer8939]

On 05/07/2019 at 05:27, cbmgolfer said:

If you booked a continuous itinerary on Thai that is a new development ... hasn’t worked that way in years.

glad to hear it ... I’ve been complaining to them for years.

I did it last year, I booked a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Moscow, via Bangkok.  My luggage was automatically transferred, no need to go through immigration in Bangkok.

The reason I bought the ticket is that it was cheaper to fly KL to Moscow than it was BKK to Moscow. I could fly from UTP to KL, spend the night and then fly to Moscow for less than the cost of a taxi to BKK and the flight from BKK.

The down side was that Thai Smile had no Star Alliance benefits, so no special handling for my baggage.

[cbmgolfer]

17 hours ago, Explorer8939 said:

I did it last year, I booked a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Moscow, via Bangkok.  My luggage was automatically transferred, no need to go through immigration in Bangkok.

The reason I bought the ticket is that it was cheaper to fly KL to Moscow than it was BKK to Moscow. I could fly from UTP to KL, spend the night and then fly to Moscow for less than the cost of a taxi to BKK and the flight from BKK.

The down side was that Thai Smile had no Star Alliance benefits, so no special handling for my baggage.

Not an issue on Thai flights, what I was talking about was mixing Thai and Smile flights.  Sorry for th confusion.

[Explorer8939]

3 hours ago, cbmgolfer said:

Not an issue on Thai flights, what I was talking about was mixing Thai and Smile flights.  Sorry for th confusion.

Oops, maybe I wasn’t clear that my KL to BKK flight was Thai Smile, and my BKK to Moscow flight was Thai.

[cbmgolfer]

21 minutes ago, Explorer8939 said:

Oops, maybe I wasn’t clear that my KL to BKK flight was Thai Smile, and my BKK to Moscow flight was Thai.

Well, great if it’s changed .., I lived in KL pre 2014 after Smile was formed, and you could not book KL-BKK-KKC ... and after that I lived in Brisbane 2014-2016 and you could not book BNE-BKK-KKC.

[Explorer8939]

1 minute ago, cbmgolfer said:

Well, great if it’s changed .., I lived in KL pre 2014 after Smile was formed, and you could not book KL-BKK-KKC ... and after that I lived in Brisbane 2014-2016 and you could not book BNE-BKK-KKC.

The flights with KKC as the destination may still be problematic, due to the lack of Immigration services there. This would have nothing to do with Thai Smile.

[cbmgolfer]

I think domestic Thailand flights on Smile are different than international.

[Explorer8939]

10 hours ago, cbmgolfer said:

I think domestic Thailand flights on Smile are different than international.

In what sense?

[Explorer8939]

I usually don’t get UA mileage credit for Thai Smile flights, the fare class results in 0% credit. But Thai Smile Premium Economy gives me 75% credit. Unfortunately, it costs at least 50% more than standard Economy, and is basically just a seat in the front of the plane.

[mikeonabike]

Could be helpful to get them to show up in 3rd party flight searches.