Thai Airways - Kuwait, (KWI) to Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) - First Class Flight TG 520

Bombastic Flight from Kuwait to Bangkok

Flight Information: Thai Airways - Kuwait, (KWI) to Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) - First Class Flight TG 520

Thai Airways is the national air carrier of Thailand and one of my favorite airlines because of its consistent first-class service and updated facilities. A founding member of the Star Alliance Network, Thai Airways has received countless of awards; its lounge at Suvarabhumi Airport was recently awarded as the 2009 "World's Best First Class Lounge" by Skytrax. Thai Airways also received an award from the World Health Organization for its excellent standards in in-flight hygiene and maintenance. (Click here to read our Kuwait hotel and restaurant reviews and click here to read our Bangkok hotel and restaurant reviews.)

For this flight, we flew from Kuwait to Bangkok, first class.

Check-In: Thai Airways has a dedicated First Class check-in counter at the Kuwait Airport so we were able to walk right up to the counter without having to wait in long lines. The actual check-in process was a bit slow and cumbersome but it was still much faster than any of the other lines. After a bit of waiting, we were on our way through immigration and on to the lounge.

The Lounge: The Thai Airways Lounge in Kuwait is called the Dasman Lounge. It is about as good as you could hope for in Kuwait, small and spartan, but at least it was clean and quiet and some food and refreshments were offered (no alcohol, of course). There was also a Costa Coffee counter. We relaxed there for about thirty minutes before boarding was announced.

First Impressions: Dasman Lounge is just about a five minute walk to the gate. They don't have a separate line for First Class/Business passengers and Economy; as a result the boarding process was chaotic and migraine-inducing with everyone crowding together to get in. This situation was simply not bombastic.

Once we did get in the plane, however, the headache and stress soon disappeared as the flight attendants welcomed us warmly and immediately showed attentiveness. They even took the time to assist us in finding our seats even though the seats were not so hard to find considering we were in the first row. They also graciously helped us store our luggage in the bulk heads.

The Cabin: The cabin carried the traditional Thai colors of purple, dark maroon, and gold accents. The seat configuration was 1x2x1 of two rows; spacious enough to stretch out, lie comfortably and get a good nap. Each seat was equipped with its own state-of-the-art entertainment system, telephone, and laptop power outlet.

The plane, while not new, was still bright and open feeling, and with the sharply uniformed and friendly crew, I was anxious to begin our flight! (especially since I had high expectations of enjoyment based on previous Thai Airways experiences).

The Flight (Service/Food/Drink): Once we were comfortably settled in, the flight attendants came around and took our drink orders, delivered the dinner menus and headsets, offered magazines and newspapers, and some wet cloths to refresh ourselves with. They also gave us the customary Thai airways bright purple lounge wear and amenity bags that included top-branded toiletries such as Evian Natural Mineral spray, lip balm, socks, toothbrush set, comb and eye shade.

While our flight only had three passengers, I am sure that the staff would have been just as efficient and customer oriented had the full eight first class seats been full.

Before we took off, I decided to change into the loungewear so I could be comfortable for the duration of the 7 1/2 hour flight. The attendant walked me to the bathroom and provided a hanger for my clothes. When I came out she promptly took my clothes and hung them in the closet.

Soon after take-off they served Bollinger 1999 La Grand Annee Champagne and macadamia nuts.

Come dinner time, we had the attendants set up my travel companion's table for the two of us while I took the seat on his foot stool and was ready to enjoy a five-star dinner at 30,000 feet. There is simply nothing like it!

The menu included:

Hors D'oeuvre - Marinated Lobster and Prawns Satay with Peanut Satay Sauce
Main Course - Slowly Braised Lamb Shank, Kafta Kebab (Rolled Minced Beef with Lemon Brown Sauce), Stir-fried US Scallop with Yee Heong Sauce and Egg Noodle with mixed vegetables, and Chicken with eggplant in Thai green curry "Kiew-wan"

I had the lamb brown sauce and fresh herb celeriac puree scented with truffle oil and paradelle noodles. It was astonishingly good; tender, and oh-so juicy, better than what I've had in some five-star restaurants. The noodles were quite plain but the lamb more than made up for this. My travel companion had the Green Curry with chicken. While he found it very spicy, it was great tasting none the less.

After dinner we were served assorted cheese and fresh fruits (pineapple, grapes and apples) followed by dessert consisting of a Blueberry tartlet, and assorted Thai sweet desserts of egg-yolk cake and a coconut treat.

They also had a modestly good selection of wines and alcoholic beverages:

White Wines - Chateau De Cruzeau, Pessac-Leognan 2003 and Santenay 1er Cru, Beaurepaire 2003

Red Wines - Chateau Haut-Sarpe Grand Cru Classe St. Emilion 2004 and Pommard 2002

Beers - Heineken, Chang Beer and Singha Beer

Cognac - Otard 1795 Extra Cognac

Besides a fabulous dinner, entertainment options included a wide selection of films and TV shows on their video-on-demand entertainment service. There wasn’t much that caught my attention however, which was just as well since after the big meal, I was ready for bed. I reclined my seat to convert it to a flat bed and with the plush duvet and pillow, I drifted off to sleep.

About an hour before landing I awoke and was offered a small breakfast of Salmon Quiche. I tried it but it failed to impress. This did nothing to dampen my spirits; after the impressive dinner, I was set for a few more hours.

Arrival: Just before we landed in Bangkok, our flight attendant made her rounds in the cabin, kneeling next to each person and giving a small courteous bow, thanking them for flying Thai Air. This was the perfect end to a bombastic flight!

We arrived on time. After deplaning, we were met by a Thai Airways agent who escorted us to a waiting buggy that whisked us straight to immigration. She then handed us over to a waiting baggage man who escorted us to the luggage carousel. Upon retrieving our bags about 20 minutes later, he accompanied us through customs and turned us over to the staff of the Mandarin Orienatl Hotel Bangkok that had arranged to meet us at the airport.

Overall Impression Amazing, Beautiful, Bombastic. At almost every step of the way, we were more than impressed with Thai Airways. The service on the plane was impeccable, the food was amazing, the drinks were great, the seats were comfortable and the service after we landed was impressive. This flight from Kuwait to Bangkok, Thailand easily gets an airline review rating of Bombastic!

Additional Information:
Flight Time from Kuwait to Bangkok: 7 Hours, 35 Minutes

Airline Partners:: Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, BMI, Egyptair, Lot Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, SAS, South African Airways, Spainair, Swiss Air, TAP Portugal, Turkish Airlines, United, US Airways, Air China, Shanghai Airlines. Other Airline Partners: Delta, Mexicana, SilkAir, Virgin

Airport Codes:
Kuwait - KWI
Bangkok - BKK

Be sure to read our Kuwait hotel and restaurant reviews and our Bangkok hotel and restaurant reviews.

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