Thai Airways staff took the time fix our kids' glitchy entertainment consoles. Photo / Supplied
Kate Watson flies Thai Airways from Auckland to London Heathrow via Bangkok
The planes: Auckland to Bangkok: Boeing 787-9, Bangkok to London: Airbus Industrie A380.
Class: Economy.
How full: No spare seats spotted.
Fellow passengers: The usual mix, all well-behaved bar one person whose phone alarm went off every few minutes on the night flight to London. Mate!
Baggage Allowance: A respectable 30kg per person checked in plus 7kg per person carry-on.
Price: $7427.64 for two adults and two children aged 12 and 10 (sourced after several weeks' searching).
Service: Perfunctorily pleasant, however the busy staff did take the time to bring out a special tool to disengage our kids' glitchy entertainment consoles shortly after take-off. Phew!
Meals: Tasty and ample. Extra salt and pepper wouldn't go amiss but good on Thai Airways for recognising the probable waste factor unused sachets entail.
Toilets: Clean.
Overall experience: Let's be frank, two 12-hour flights with a four-hour stopover isn't for the faint-hearted. There was some definite hallucinatory fatigue happening by the time we boarded our second flight and Economy seating isn't made for a comfortable night's sleep.
Advice: Hydrate well and set your body clock to your destination time zone as soon as you board. For me, that meant catching a nap around 2pm NZ time so that I could endure the gruelling wait in Bangkok Airport before our second flight. We also took No-Jet-Lag pills every few hours when not asleep, and didn't feel too bad on arrival.
Would I fly again: Yes, but I think all airlines need to step up their spaciousness in Economy.
Now is the perfect time to visit the tropical island paradise of Boracay.