Finally a non-stop flight from North America to Thailand

[Rocketboy]

12 hours ago, pattayaplayer said:

They teach geography in school in the US?  😀😀😀

Well they did back in the 60's when I was attending elementary/junior high school! 555

[The Blue-Eyed Sheikh]

18 hours ago, tptp76 said:

Could not agree more. I recently flew business from New York on a long haul flight and it was a terrible experience. Took forever to check in at the airport, terrible food on the flight, the lounge experience also quite underwhelming. Hopefully never again!

AC’s domestic/transborder business class is nothing special, but it does beat out a lot of better respected airlines on its long-haul business class; I used Aeroplan miles to fly BKK-GVA-YYZ-home in J on my last trip, and AC beats LX by a large margin. I’d also put it above LH. 

[JohnSmith]

AC long haul biz is fine.  Have flown out of YYZ and YUL countless times.  I've always found their on board service 'unsophisticated' but perfectly adequate and quite like their newish herringbone seats. No idea about service in eco though.

The food in the YUL biz lounge is now on par w some asian lounges i guess to compensate for lack of the Signature lounge. Hell they even had poutine last month in YUL.

[duke main]

21 hours ago, pattayaplayer said:

They teach geography in school in the US?  😀😀😀

Here's a helpful map.

[pattayaplayer]

3 hours ago, duke main said:

Here's a helpful map.

Here's a another helpful one:

Edited August 22, 2022 by pattayaplayer

[Whalley]

What a thing of beauty to get home 2 hours before I departed Thailand.

Bangkok to home in just over 13 hours!

Thank You Air Canada!

Too bad it is only a seasonal flight.

 

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Edited March 9, 2023 by Whalley

[hioctane]

I hate Air Canada! The only time I flew them, they delayed my fight to NRT so I would miss my connection to BKK. Then they swore up and down my bag would arrive with me. It didn’t.. It took a whole week to find it… even though I had an AirTag in it and told them where it was! 😡

[Luv2Phuket]

3 hours ago, hioctane said:

I hate Air Canada! The only time I flew them, they delayed my fight to NRT so I would miss my connection to BKK. Then they swore up and down my bag would arrive with me. It didn’t.. It took a whole week to find it… even though I had an AirTag in it and told them where it was! 😡

I travel with an AirTag in my bag, and that is my big fear

[Roadglide]

3 hours ago, hioctane said:

I hate Air Canada! The only time I flew them, they delayed my fight to NRT so I would miss my connection to BKK. Then they swore up and down my bag would arrive with me. It didn’t.. It took a whole week to find it… even though I had an AirTag in it and told them where it was! 😡

 

27 minutes ago, Luv2Phuket said:

I travel with an AirTag in my bag, and that is my big fear

After well over a dozen or more trips to Bangkok, I finally experienced the dreaded "where's my bag" situation.  On my flight from SAN/SFO/NRT/BKK one of my bags failed to make the flight out of the origin location.  I had purchased the tickets from JAL.  The first leg was on Alaska Airlines and they got one of two bags on the aircraft.

JAL managed to deliver my bag to my hotel in Bangkok within 36 hours of my original landing time.

These things do happen and I have always packed a change of cloths in my carry on bag.

[hioctane]

4 minutes ago, Roadglide said:

These things do happen and I have always packed a change of cloths in my carry on bag.

Lesson learned. I carry a change of clothes now too. That and never take more than one connecting flight!

[Greg_B]

I had an original booking for 13 Mar 2023 and then the changes began.

My return flight in April was changed from a direct flight and I was routed via NRT with Thai. The flight had about 5 hours added to it and I declined the change and bailed out on the idea. I was given a full refund.

I watched the flight YVR-BKK and it was starting to hit the 17 hour mark and that is a long time in a tube.

Maybe next year as I booked on UAL instead for May 2023

 

 

 

[little_me]

14 minutes ago, Roadglide said:

These things do happen and I have always packed a change of cloths in my carry on bag.

Returning from one trip, from BKK/NRT/PDX/SEA and my bag didn't show up on the carousel I went into the Alaska Airline baggage office to inquire and got some smug shit about how it could've been lost anywhere as he acted like he can just make excuses and do nothing about it....

Until I mentioned taking it though customs in PDX.

In 2019 I was on probably over 100 flights domestic and international and had bags delayed 2/3 times. One was almost predicable with flight into connecting airports arriving late and have doors closed immediately behind me after running between gates.  They always delivered it later, but sometimes next day (once two days later).

Having a change of clothes and a toothbrush works out for not only lost luggage but unexpected stays at a layover. (hotels usually have soap, shampoo, etc.)

[Whalley]

On 09/03/2023 at 05:22, hioctane said:

I hate Air Canada! The only time I flew them, they delayed my fight to NRT so I would miss my connection to BKK. Then they swore up and down my bag would arrive with me. It didn’t.. It took a whole week to find it… even though I had an AirTag in it and told them where it was! 😡

From a purely objective standpoint AC consistently wins Skytrax’s best North American airline based on customer surveys.  Winning the award in 8 of the past 10 years.

Aside from it’s business class product (lie flat seat), Air Canada is not all that great.  

I think that what it is really saying in winning year after year, is that the rest of the North American competition is absolute shit!

 

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[Kale]

On 21/08/2022 at 02:21, Whalley said:

 

And yet Air Canada is the only international network carrier in North America to receive a Four-Star ranking from Skytrax, which in 2021 gave Air Canada awards for the Best Airline Staff in North America, Best Airline Staff in Canada, Best Business Class Lounge in North America, and an excellence award for its management of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
 

Go figure?

 

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/air-canada-recognized-with-multiple-awards-for-people-and-products-as-it-rebuilds-global-network-and-welcomes-customers-back-810937656.html

 

https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/home/about/media/awards.html#/

I switched from Eva Air after they went to 10 across seating.  Air Canada still does 9 across and uses 787's, which I prefer to the 777. They seem to have more legroom as well.  I definitely notice those extra few inches of width on a long flight.  I would say their service and food is a notch above Eva Air.

I flew this direct flight a few months ago.  It didn't really save me much time but I still prefer it to transiting through Japan or Hong Kong.  Watched 4 movies and slept through the rest, so it seemed to go fairly quick.

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by Kale

[little_me]

Thinking about this one or five times over the last day, it really does seem like a bit of a failure that no US airline has direct flights into the most visited city in the world.

I'm not even sure any of them fly into it at all, except for "code share" flights anymore?

[Timon88]

On 09/03/2023 at 08:22, hioctane said:

I hate Air Canada! The only time I flew them, they delayed my fight to NRT so I would miss my connection to BKK. Then they swore up and down my bag would arrive with me. It didn’t.. It took a whole week to find it… even though I had an AirTag in it and told them where it was! 😡

Air Canada/Lufthansa is the reason I started flying with a carry on only. 

Lost my bag for almost the entire trip (10 days).  

I was in North Africa so it was not easy to buy clothes.

After they apologized and offered me 100 dollars. 

I told them to keep it, because they've lost a customer forever. 

Edited March 11, 2023 by Timon88

[hioctane]

1 hour ago, little_me said:

Thinking about this one or five times over the last day, it really does seem like a bit of a failure that no US airline has direct flights into the most visited city in the world.

I'm not even sure any of them fly into it at all, except for "code share" flights anymore?

The problem is that airlines target business hubs. Business travelers tend to buy business class and that is big money. Thailand is not really a business hub.

[Whalley]

On 11/03/2023 at 11:59, hioctane said:

The problem is that airlines target business hubs. Business travelers tend to buy business class and that is big money. Thailand is not really a business hub.

Thailand is a leisure market destination and few carriers show interest unless there is a larger business market to tap into.

In spite of this there have been very few seats available on this new (first and only) non-stop flight between North America and Thailand.

If it were not for FF points, I would have had to pay dearly for my business class seat.  
 

It truly was amazing, for the first time, not to have to transit through another country.  I sincerely  hope this flight becomes year round.

.

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by Whalley

[hioctane]

3 hours ago, Whalley said:

Thailand is a leisure market destination and few carriers show interest unless there is a larger business market to tap into.

In spite of this there have been very few seats available on this new (first and only) non-stop flight between North America and Thailand.

If it were not for FF points, I would have had to pay dearly for my business class seat.  
 

It truly was amazing, for the first time, not to have to transit through another country.  I sincerely  hope this flight becomes year round.

.

 

Was the business section full?

[e11bkk]

5 hours ago, Whalley said:

Thailand is a leisure market destination and few carriers show interest unless there is a larger business market to tap into.

In spite of this there have been very few seats available on this new (first and only) non-stop flight between North America and Thailand.

If it were not for FF points, I would have had to pay dearly for my business class seat.  
 

It truly was amazing, for the first time, not to have to transit through another country.  I sincerely  hope this flight becomes year round.

.

 

What kind of redemption did it cost? When I looked for a friend AC was charging outrageous prices vs oneworld with a layover.

[little_me]

6 hours ago, hioctane said:

Was the business section full?

Free upgrades to frequent fliers.

[Whalley]

8 hours ago, hioctane said:

Was the business section full?

 

6 hours ago, e11bkk said:

What kind of redemption did it cost? When I looked for a friend AC was charging outrageous prices vs oneworld with a layover.

 

1 hour ago, little_me said:

Free upgrades to frequent fliers.

Business Class was full.  I used Aeroplan points.

 

 

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by Whalley

[hioctane]

9 hours ago, little_me said:

Free upgrades to frequent fliers.

So no one was actually paying for it. Not a good sign. They make peanuts off of coach even if full. That is why those routes are not profitable for the airlines.

[little_me]

4 hours ago, hioctane said:

So no one was actually paying for it. Not a good sign. They make peanuts off of coach even if full. That is why those routes are not profitable for the airlines.

It's really kinda impossible to tell as just a passenger.  Sometimes it's obvious, getting upgrade notices days in advance vs. the surprise at the gate when double check the boarding pass on your phone. But you never really know how low in priority they are going (gold, maybe a few silver medallion, a few from a partner?).

I had the Delta platinum, and have been upgraded to business on rare occasions with that from the US to Seoul (almost always upgraded to comfort +).  Was also given lounge passes for Korean air in 2022 (but not upgraded).

But even keeping close attention to the waiting list at the predefined intervals, it's only giving you coincidental information about one flight on one day.

They're never going to fly with those seats empty. Even giving me a free upgrade, it's something I'd value enough that next time I was booked a business flight with someone else's money, it's on them. It might have all been lower fare US domestic travel, but there was a lot of it (across the country every other week, enough to make Delta platinum).  

The only time I ever saw first class seats empty was flying into Kansas City... 

I will spend my employer's travel budget on whoever I have the best chance of getting freebies from when I travel for vacation, as long as their overall service is reasonable.  And my boss really doesn't care, they actually just pass it though to the customers I visit, usually, I think...

[Whalley]

5 hours ago, hioctane said:

So no one was actually paying for it. Not a good sign. They make peanuts off of coach even if full. That is why those routes are not profitable for the airlines.

It was hard to find flights where e upgrades were available.

A work mate subscribes to expert flyer and pulled up all of the flights for me.  Most flights showed no seats available for e upgrades.  

I picked the best flights and was upgraded to Premium Economy there and was luck to get Business on the way home.  
 

Too many frequent flyers chasing too few unsold business seats.

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