Here’s The New Thai Airways First And Business Class Cabins [Roundup]

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • ‘AA Party’ was a lighting preset on the Boeing 777-300ER, but it wasn’t like this…

  • Austin airport has been pleading for more security screeners and customers staff and even to keep the screeners that they have. International arrivals will by up 167% versus pre-pandemic without any increase in CBP staff.

  • Thai Airways will take delivery of 3 new Boeing 777s with first class, the only planes left in the fleet equipped with a first class cabin, supposedly for the convenience of Thailand’s king who spends much of his time in Munich with his royal consort.

    I’m glad to see this selfishly, in hopes that Thai Airways continues to offer a first class product, because their first class ground experience in Bangkok was just that good. I’ve flown Thai Airways first class many times, including alone in the cabin, and always enjoyed first class longer treatments in their airport spa.

  • Southwest Airlines doesn’t have enough instructors to work with new pilot hires

  • FAA concludes denser cabins still meet evacuation standards

  • Frontier Airlines is working with Denver airport to stop using jet bridges and start boarding and deplaning via stairs customers don’t like it, but Frontier’s model isn’t about customer experience it’s a bet that customers will accept it for low costs. (HT: @randomsegments)

    Denver-based Frontier, which now operates mostly out of nine traditional A gates with jet bridges, would get exclusive use and branding for all 14 gates in the expanded ground-load facility. Its move by early 2024 would open up more gates for other airlines, allowing DIA more flexibility to shuffle gate assignments.

    While the move to ground loading would save Frontier money in the long run, its executives say the decision was more about efficiency. The new gates would allow quicker turnaround times between flights — cutting the time by nearly half in some cases — because the airline could load and unload passengers at two airplane doors simultaneously, via a switch-backing ramp at the front and a stairway at the back. Each gate would be able to process more planes per day.

    …One downside for passengers is the long trek between the new gates and the center of Concourse A, with its connections to DIA’s terminal. They also will be more exposed to the elements while boarding.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Sounds great, until the first snow storm hits Denver. The clowns running Frontier have no brains.

  3. I’m sure that the poor Thai farmers who subsidize the trips of rich Scandinavians and Germans through the vehicle called Thai Airways will appreciate the extra privacy offered by those doors when they try to keep their families fed amidst the poverty imposed by two years of Covid lockdowns. Long past time to recognize the immorality of Thai citizens being forced to underwrite the vacations of Norwegians, Danes, etc., as well as funding Thai Generals and their cronies “employed” by Thai, to keep this parasitic airline, and those who immorally benefit from its existence, afloat.

  4. “load and unload passengers at two airplane doors simultaneously”

    So what they’re saying is they don’t clean their airplanes.
    No thanks Frontier.

  6. @RF They didn’t mean passengers would enter by the front while people left from the rear, but that arriving passengers could depart from both the front and rear, and after everyone is off, there could be a cleaning crew, and then allow departing passengers to enter from both doors. Interesting that one will be a ramp, perhaps that allows wheelchairs to at least get to the door.

  7. Americans pontificating on financial and social morality in Nth Europe and SE Asia is about the funniest thing I’ve read in a long while. Meanwhile Thailand has one of the leading public healthcare systems in the world. How’s the US going? Still on par with Ecuador?

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