Chris Brown flies from Auckland to Bangkok aboard Thai Airways TG492
The plane: Waiting to whisk me away from the grey, dreary July skies above Auckland was a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, HS-TWA. Not having yet celebrated its second birthday, the plane looked and felt just as brand new as the day it flew away from Seattle.
Airport experience: The two of us checking in with a couple of suitcases took less than five minutes. SmartGate had me through in no time and despite being frisked by security, there was ample time to enjoy a coffee and peruse the usual stores. Having usually departed at night, the airport felt quite civilised during the day.
Class and seat: Seated at 59K, I was in Economy. Along with most of the aircraft I might add, with 268 of the 298 seats packed in at the back. Bonus points must be awarded to Thai, who allowed me to preselect seats online without any charge, a rarity these days. I’ve always been an avid window-watcher type, and though the Dreamliner has large windows, the crew had them dimmed for almost the entire flight. Disappointing. However, I was comfortable, the tray table accommodated my 14” notebook and the in-seat display was reasonably sized. USB and AC charging was also available.
How full: Definitely one of the quieter flights I’ve been on in a while. About two-thirds of the plane was full, plenty of couples with three seats to themselves.
Fellow passengers: The usual smorgasbord of travellers. A few suits taking advantage of their priority boarding, backpacker types returning home, a mother and daughter face-timing dad in Bangkok before departure and the quintessential Austrian family I felt sure would be on my connecting flight to Vienna. They were.
Entertainment: The usual inflight entertainment goodies — enough films and TV series to entertain young and old. I settled in with a dose of Wes Anderson to accompany my lunch and later watched
MARS: Inside SpaceX, a documentary about Elon Musk’s rocketing ambitions. Wi-Fi was available but prices were a bit steep and I was happy to be without newsfeeds for a few hours anyway.
Food and drink: Curried pork with rice or braised chicken for lunch. I opted for the chicken and washed it down with a Heineken and a cuppa. The food hit the spot and didn’t leave me feeling hungry at all. For dinner, the solitary seafood option wasn’t to my taste, so I was offered the earlier options and got to try the pork after all.
The flight: For the most part, everything was “smooth as silk”, as per the company slogan. We left on time, and total flight time was just a touch over 10 hours. Toilets were kept clean and pleasantly scented with a Thai branded eau de Cologne available for passengers to use. Crew were polite, friendly and always happy to help.
The verdict: Flying long haul can be a bore, especially when you have two in a row. But this was a civilised and pleasant way to spend the first hop to Europe, perhaps next time it’ll just be for a getaway to Thailand instead.