Quirky Thai Airways Premium Economy Plus, With Flat Beds & Onboard Bar

"What’s interesting is that historically Thai Airways hasn’t offered any sort of a premium economy product"

Just a correction there, but they have many years ago in the mid '00s on their A345s. 2-3-2 along with 42" of pitch!

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Thai-Airways-International/Airbus-A340-541/986707/L

From my POV it's exactly like you guess:
I flew just this ex-Virgin plane from Chennai to BKK. Booked as C - still this config really doesn't feel like a proper Business Class anymore, and there is little premium demand on this route.
So this makes sense to me.

Thai actually used to sell Business class seats on some Scandinavian routes as Premium Economy.

That seat looks identical to those in Air NZ current business class which are bing retired. Is Thai refurbing them?

Those Thai A330s are secondhand aircraft from Virgin Atlantic and have retained the VA cabin which features the same seat as the ANZ business seats (Safran UCS3).

Thai are a scam airline with the customer service of some fly by night, Mumbai call center

Flew Virgin several times with this set up and I HATED it. It was by far the most bizzarre business class product I have flown in and never desire to again.

Didn't TG used to offer a premium economy product on their A340s to Copenhagen many years ago?

Yea the coffin class isn't that great. Cathay Pacific used to have it as well before reverse herringbone was a thing.

Yeah they are what Air NZ sell as Business Premier. Was definitely not a fan, but sold as PE would make acceptable

Totally incorrect about low demand on the Dhaka route. If you did some research you'd know that TG business class from Dhaka to Bangkok is almost always fully booked. Comparing it to the Kuwait route is nonsensical and ignorant of the customer base that's served in the two wildly different routes. Where Kuwait and other small ME carriers solely serve migrant worker transport, Bangkok is a holiday and health tourism destination from middle class to very wealthy Bangladeshis. Your statement reeks of elitism based on stereotypes.

And Air New Zealand has it - it’s awful - dormitory class

Nordic companies will not pay for business class tickets, so half the business class seats were sold as "premium economy" with meals to match economy but using business class seats. ARN-BKK also had the same.

If you say "what's going on here" one more time im going to puke. my goodness. use some different phrases!

I'll just say, I flew TG intra-Asia a few weeks ago, and was extremely impressed by their soft product especially. Outstanding service and probably the best short haul meal I've ever had in both directions. They really seem to be investing and leveling up their game.

AirNZ persevered with this sardine can seat for way too long, until they realized it was hated by nearly everyone, who would avoid those aircraft as much as humanly possible.
I guess they amortized the cost structure and decided to get into the 21st century with more mainstream seats, which, even if they're a bit hum-ho are a vast improvement on the sardine can ones.
I guess, subject to pricing, they will have a bit of novelty value to TG diehards.

I got this configuration with Thai last week from Cgk to Bkk and sold as business class that time with full cabin, just one seat left, my first time and quite strange seat but have to admit in sleeping configuration was really comfortable, but zero storage and still neck pain on trying figure out window.

@Lucky the reason is that there were so many complaints regarding the business class from customers that they had to make this a premium economy. Was confirmed in a press interview

But the good news is that upgrades will be cheap at check in to a lie flat seat so there’s that.

TG needs planes extremely badly and are taking anything they can at the moment with the Dreamliner leases set to expire (not all) next year. Heck, they are negotiating a deal right now to fly EX-AA A330s (7)

Additionally, going forward TG is going fully private which will be interesting. Gonna take some time though

Thai used offer premium economy on bkk-lax/jfk routes

Yes, as indicated in my initial post below, 2-3-2 with 42" of pitch.

So just to be clear, the ex-VS A330s will be utilized on the 5 aforementioned routes and business class will be sold as premium economy? Does that include F&B where everybody gets the same meal and drink? And I'm pretty sure that the ex-VS A330s will be used on other routes as well with business being sold as usual?

Did I get that right?

And what if an original TG A330 gets used in lieu of an ex-VS A330 on said routes in case the latter goes tech, how would that play out?

From what I gather, they are not going fully private as the government will still have have a 40% stake; while not a majority, it's still significant.

And just an FYI, Philippine Airlines would be the only fully private airline in the region with everybody else being majority owned by their respective governments if not completely state-owned.

Maybe they'll just upgrade actual premium economy passengers to this cabin and use premium economy as overflow seating. Just a thought

What's a' happening in this locale?
What's abrewin' in this instance?
What occurrence is goin down here?
What do be transpiring in this moment of the cosmic ballet in which we exist?

These are all short to medium haul routes. It might be hard to sell business class on these routes and if they call it premium economy they might still generate some additional revenue without reconfiguring the aircraft (which also flies longer routes).

Some markets charge significantly more in taxes and government fees on business class seats. I suspect that by selling these as economy plus seats, Thai maybe able to avoid those high fees.

They also used to sell Bussiness Class as Premium Economy on routes to Scandinavia.

Finally, an airline delivering actual Premium Economy! This product was an absolute lie as "business class" and to the extent is coded and priced as PE, will get a LOT of customers. I am very worried about the a321xxx's that are being touted with these and similar seats as business class, because they absolutely are not. Notice to airlines: Start coding these seats as PE or people won't fly them (unless they absolutely need to).

I actually thought of lie-flat seats for Premium Economy, but unfortunately that will cannibalize Business Class. The best thing you can do is increase the pitch and deepen the recline akin to what you would get with a La-Z-Boy recliner.

With CXs Regional Business Class, can you really call the seat itself Business Class? The only thing you would get for such a short flight would be the extra miles along with lounge access.

This could have been said in a nice way, without personal attacks. And it’s usually a welcome thing to include a citation for your statistics when calling out an author for not doing his or her research.

There was a huge complaint from the passengers about this Business class product. So they relegated it into the so called premium economy plus. So it’s your first reason that is actually the case.

"What's going on here" is a pretty normal thing to say. I don't understand why you'd get so worked up about it. It's not like it's an offensive or political phrase or anything of the sort. If you don't like it, don't read it.

I’m pretty sure there’s demand from Jakarta. Singapore Airlines flies 9 flights daily from Singapore and they are flying either the 777-300ER or the 350-900LH, both featuring premium-heavy configurations for this 1.5hour flight with over 40 J seats on each and the 777 even having F.

SQ isn’t even deploying their regional 350s on this route, let alone the 737.

Yes, the govt still has a 40% share but the current management seem to be doing everything they can in trying to convince the govt to give up this share to allow the airline to thrive.

They mention it in almost every interview that they've recently done. So hopefully the government actually listens to them.

On top of that, prior to the 747 retrofits. They used to sell First as Business and J as Premium on routes to ARN & CPH. This was on the 747 config with the older recliner seats in Business, until they were retrofitted in 2012.

Omg. Was that business class ?? No space at all....

Correct. TG has offered Premium economy in the past on their A340-500. TG had a couple of these for some time, which were meant to fly Ultra Long Haul but ended up on Nordic routes part of the schedule. I flew it once in 2011 between OSL-BKK. Premium eco was empty. TG eventually got rid of these planes.

It's a shocking business class seat and cabin layout. I suspect too many complaints.
Bangkok to Jakarta business class is nearly always full so demand is there but I for one will never choose to fly Business class and pay the premium in this configuration again.

They still sell these seats at the price of business class, and only difference is marking them as "premium economy plus" on the ticket page. They haven't reduced the price because of their renaming. I think it's just like a scam.

This is blatant cheating while marketing as business class and charging business class fare. This is malpractice and a scam

I just flew this very wierd "business class" seat that was called Premium Economy Plus. They seem to have these planes to destinations like HYD and MAA from BKK but they have the A350 to BLR. The price is exactly the same from MAA-BKK or BLR-BKK except the experience is very different. Why are they charging the same as Business Class when they are calling it Premium Economy Plus. This is a scam. The only good thing about it is that both the flight from BKK-MAA and MAA-BKK are very late so they turn it into a bed mode as soon after meal service and even put down the bedding. I have to say its quite comfortable in the bed mode. There is very little storage space. By the time you fall asleep the lights come on and its time to land so the whole thing is pointless.

it feels like a scam for sure...selling it for the same as Business Class. Even mileage redemption is a Business Class redemption. At least you can use the Business Class lounge.

Its currently priced the same as Business Class. So they call it Premium Economy plus but sell it at Business Class prices...for example the A350 from BLR-BKK is the same price for Business class as this from MAA-BKK.

Dhaka flights? Bangkok to Dhaka is barely 2 hours. Don't need it on a 2 hour flight.