FeuilladeTravel: Airline review: THAI A380-800 first class, London Heathrow to Bangkok

Smooth as silk - my review of THAI A380-800 royal first class, London (LHR) to Bangkok (BKK)
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01. Trip report introduction
02. SAS A320 business class, Stockholm to London
03. SilverKris Lounge, Heathrow
04. Thai Airways A380 Royal First class, London to Bangkok
05. Thai Airways Royal First Lounge, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi
06. Thai Airways A330 Royal Silk (business class), Bangkok to Taipei
07. Pacific Business Hotel, Taipei
08. Photo Essay: Taipei
09. The Infinity Lounge by EVA Air, Taoyuan Airport
10. EVA Air B777-300ER Royal Laurel (business class), Taipei to Amsterdam (via Bangkok), part 1
11. EVA Air B777-300ER Royal Laurel (business class), Taipei to Amsterdam (via Bangkok), part 2
12. Steigenberger Airport Hotel, Amsterdam
13. SAS A320 business class, Amsterdam to Stockholm
14. Trip summary
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London (LHR) to Bangkok (BKK)

Date: 2018-10-04
Flight number: TG911
Aircraft: Airbus A380
Registration: HS-TUB
Age of aircraft: 6 years
Duration of flight: 11:14 (pushback to touchdown - I didn't note the time we stopped at the gate, but we might have taxied at BKK for some 15 minutes or so...)
Seat: 2A (first class)

Seat map of the upper deck with my seat (2A) in red. Courtesy of Seatguru.com

This was actually a record breaking flight. My record for most flights in one year was last year, when I had 28 flights. This was flight #29 this year, thus breaking that record. My record for miles flown in one year was also from last year, when I flew 35,317 miles. With this flight, I reached 38,980 miles in 2018, thus breaking that record as well. And my longest flight ever was also from last year, when my wife and I flew from Frankfurt (FRA) to San Francisco (SFO), a flight of 5,691 miles. This flight is 5,958 miles, and therefore yet another record was broken through this flight. So it had to be a kind of spectacular flight in order to break all those records, right? How to do it? My first intercontinental first class flight ever, upstairs on an A380. Pretty spectacular, if you ask me.

Now, Thai Airways are notorious for equipment changes, so I was nervous about this flight. Worst case scenario? Getting down gauged to a triple seven that doesn't even have a first class cabin on board... But when the day finally came, it was a double decker that was parked at our gate and ready to take us to Bangkok!

This whole trip, as explained in the trip report introduction, was paid for by my SAS Eurobonus miles, but this flight alone would have cost over €2900 in cash, and was the most expensive of my flights on this trip (with the EVA Air flight between Taipei and Amsterdam coming in second at roughly €2300...)

After spending a little time in the Singapore Airlines SilverKris lounge, it was time to head to the gate, where boarding soon commenced.

It's a little hard to tell from this picture, but this jetbridge is going up - we boarded directly on the upper deck

Here we are! The first class cabin on THAI A380 - only three rows with a total of 12 seats

2A - my seat for this 11 hour flight to Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK)

My first impressions of the cabin were absolutely great. My expectations were high (after having seen photos and videos of the cabin), but I've got to say that being in the cabin myself exceeded expectations. We were nine first class passengers on this flight, and before pushback, the crew came around to introduce themselves, tell us about the flight and offer pre departure drinks. I was addressed as Mr. Feuillade.

Apart from being extremely spacious, the cabin is also fairly private. Sure, you can see other passengers when you or they stand up, but when you're sitting in your "cubicle", you don't really see anyone else.

View of the rest of the cabin when sitting in my seat - the privacy is really good

Extremely spacious!

Hot towel, and a glass ready for a pre departure drink

Dom Pérignon Vintage 2009 champagne was offered - definitely tasty!

Menus were also distributed, and they had a lot of food and drinks for us on this flight! The first service started pretty soon after take off, and then there was a second service closer to landing. If you got hungry between those two services, you could order noodles or quiche anytime you wanted. I was too full after the first service to be able to eat anything else before breakfast, but I'm sure the noodles and quiches were great as well...

Fancypants menus were distributed before we took off

Instead of 37 photos of all the pages in the menu, you'll have to do with this one...

Water bottles were also placed at every seat (and promptly replaced when empty)

We pushed back a few minutes late, and since this was Heathrow, we taxied for 22 minutes before taking off. I didn't complain, however, since I was sitting in a great seat and had three windows to myself - there are so many different airlines and aircraft at Heathrow that it is easily one of my favourite airports for plane spotting.

Two Air Canada and one Icelandair aircraft parked next to us

The old British Airways Concorde parked at Heathrow

More planes!

There was a tail fin camera which could be viewed on the IFE instead of the moving flight map

Once airborne, I took some more time to discover all the nooks and crannies of the seat, and discovered the noise cancelling headphones and the Rimowa amenity kit. I didn't use the headphones much, though, as the inflight entertainment was surprisingly poor. The selection of both movies, TV shows and music was so-so, and I ended up not using the IFE at all, apart from the moving map. Good thing I brought a book, and that I'm not easily bored on airplanes...

Above the clouds

The depth of the A380 windows can be seen here - that's probably my biggest issue with this otherwise spectacular aircraft - it's hard to take good photographs through these windows!

The seat controls were easy to use, and the seats turn into fully flat beds

Noise cancelling headphones

YES! Rimowa hard case amenity kits. These are collectors' items, and for a good reason - they are super cute IMO!

Enjoying the view while waiting for the meal service - you might say that it is possible to take good photos through the A380 windows when you see this picture - but consider the fact that there's another just as big Rolls Royce engine on that wing that I wasn't able to capture... ;)

Meal service started pretty soon after take-off, and lasted for quite some time as well, as there were so many different courses. Most of it was really tasty, and the caviar and the main course (grilled beaf steak with creamy peppercorn sauce) in particular were delicious.

Salted macadamia nuts

Canapés - one of them had ~~soap~~ coriander on it, but other than that, this was a good way to start the meal service. With it, I had a glass of ice tea.

Oscietra caviar with the traditional condiments

First time eating this delicacy - it was great!

Ice cold Stolichnaya vodka to accompany the caviar (after this, I only had water, ice tea and Coke in order to stay hydrated)

Aubergine and prawn salad - the least tasty food during this meal service (but the prawn was good)

Main course - the grilled beef steak

Yum! Almost as good as a really good steak on terra firma

Cheese and fruit plate - great way to end this meal service!

On a flight between the UK and Thailand, what are the odds of getting a Germany branded can of Coke? Not complaining (die Mannschaft is my favourite sports team), just curious...

At this moment, I really thought that the meal service was over, not remembering that the menu had mentioned something about "Thai sweets", chocolate tart and ice cream. I tried to decline, but the flight attendant said "great for pictures" - so here are two pictures of the dessert. I managed two spoonfuls (but it was way too sweet after the cheese and fruit plate), and just ate the ice cream instead - since there's always room for ice cream.

THAI sweets

Chocolate and chili salted caramel tart and ice cream

After the meal service, the crew handed out free wi-fi vouchers, which was very convenient. I was able to text my wife and my dad to report that I was currently flying over Georgia (prior to this trip the furthest that I had been away from home without my wife). I didn't use the wi-fi for anything other than texting, but for that it worked perfectly fine.

Wi-fi voucher

After that, i decided to switch to the pyjamas that were handed out. There is one lavatory in the front of the first class cabin, and it was absolutely huge. With only nine passengers (and I think there was another lavatory just behind our cabin), it was almost always free as well, and kept in a spotless condition by the crew.

Small seat with a mirror

The seat in the picture above is to the left in this picture, and the door to the lavatory is behind me. The toilet is still a couple of metres away from me...

All set!

On this side of the stairs this time...

On the other side of the stairs, there was a small lounge area that I doubt was ever used - why sit here instead of at your seat?

Sleep eluded me, but I had a book to read and a moving map to watch :)

I didn't sleep well. Half an hour, tops. First of all, this was a daytime flight for me, and second, the cabin was way too hot for my liking. And there weren't any individual air nozzles by the seats. I've heard this before about Asian carriers in particular, and now I got to experience it firsthand. And I'm not a fan. I'm basically always warm, so the air nozzle by my seat is usually on full blast. Well, I guess you can't have it all...

A couple of hours before landing, the second meal service began. I wasn't that hungry, but it was still good to get something small. A Bircher muesli (the second on this trip), some fruit, and a small plate with cold cuts hit the spot. After that, we soon started our descent into Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport. The crew made rounds through the cabin to thank every passenger in person for flying THAI and ask us what we thought of the flight. Well, this had been a great flight (despite the lack of air nozzles), and now it was only a "short" hop left until I was in Taipei!