Thai Airways? Never again!

Hello Singapore!!! Ok so technically we'll have been home a week tomorrow but it's taken me 6 whole days to finally get back into the routine of things. I have so much to talk about! What with a traditional English wedding near the end of summer, which by the way is what I call a fake summer. I brought shorts and skirts I never got the chance to wear, even indoors, cos it was still freezing cold to me!! The only difference between summer and winter gear (for me at least) is a lighter autumn coat rather than the thick heavy fur-lined ones for winter. Oh boy.

We had the most horrible flight experience with Thai Airways, which by the way was the first and now definitely the last time we flew with them. We wanted to fly direct to London via Singapore Airlines on the new A380 but flights were fully booked for the longest time which was a pain. Other airlines like Emirates were more expensive with the need for transit so we ended up with Thai instead. The seats weren't the most comfy, the food was honestly not great plus you didn't have your own TV screens. For a long haul flight we had expected more but oh well, I guess we could live with all these minor inconveniences for the price we paid.

The true nightmare began when we reached Heathrow. We waited forever for one of our 2 baggages until the luggage belt had stopped and the airport staff were removing the remaining baggage off the belt. Alarmed, we approached one of the staff who told us to enquire at what I think is the Star Alliance baggage counter. They checked our baggage tag and informed us that our luggage was not on the same flight but would come in early next day on a later flight. It was what they called "mishandled". When we overheard a colleague of the lady serving us asking her "how many pieces was it this time" and replying with a "oh that's really good" when the answer was just this one piece, we were like, what? Does this happen all the time?!!

Alright so maybe screw ups do happen inevitably from time to time, so when they said our missing baggage would be delivered to us the next day, we were more or less appeased. After all it was a wise thing that we had packed a mixture of both our clothes in the 2 bags so we still had a change of clothes. The next day we went into London as planned to visit the antique markets at Portobello and Angel, and met up with the insanely beautiful and hilarious Rikije at our favourite Lebanese joint. It was a totally delightful day exploring the markets and enjoying a day of what I felt to be more of a summer.

When we got back to Reading in the evening, we had expected our bag to have been delivered since the lady at the baggage counter had said it was arriving at 7am in the morning and it was nearly 8pm when we got in. But no, no bag. Rang the helpline only to get an answering machine. Finally when we had called all the numbers we could call and was checking online for some other way to reach the right Thai airways department, there was a knock on the door and Whoopee! Our prodigal luggage was finally here.

Imagine our horror when we discovered that the lock had been pried open with the contents all messed up inside. Pouches and small bags had been opened and left unzipped. Our camera, some of my jewellery and a pair of ruby earrings I made for mummy challenger were missing. It was a total nightmare! Obviously something had happened when it was either left behind/snitched away during transit at the Bangkok airport. The greatest irony was that it had a sticker on it saying it had been "security screened" whereas the one that arrived safely didn't. What did that mean?!! Of cos Thai Airways denied responsibility saying the airport handlers were not their employees and the only thing they could do was to give us a letter stating that our bag had been broken into.

Unfortunately for us we had been in a hurry prior to flying and missed on buying travel insurance. We naively thought it would be alright this one time since we had flown back to UK many times before without a hitch. It was a painful lesson. The only consolation was that the stolen camera was a prize I won in a lucky draw last Christmas so technically I didn't pay anything for it. But the loss of such an excellent camera did shoot an arrow through my heart. I was greatly distressed when all this happened, and the stress of having your trust in an airline betrayed really got to me for a few days. But there were bigger things at hand, namely the wedding, so I got over it.

I was already dreading having to fly through Bangkok again when it was time to fly home, so imagine the double whammy when on the morning of our flight, a state of emergency was declared in Bangkok. We checked the web for travel advice, only to learn that there was a call for strike from the Thai Airways union on the day we were due to reach Bangkok. Nevertheless it was not confirmed at the time of the report so we still got onto the flight from Heathrow. We had a sign of foreboding when we were not issued boarding passes at the TG counter for the Bangkok-Singapore leg.

6am, 3 Sept 2008. We went to the Thai Airways transfer desk for our Singapore-bound boarding passes only to find it heaving with people all flustered and bothered as we were. After queueing for an hour, we were told our flight had been cancelled but they would put us on a later flight and issue us breakfast coupons. There was nothing we could do but to wait another 5 hours. Pissed as we were, we were relieved simply to get a flight back on the same day. Unfortunately there were not enough seats in the airport for all the disgruntled passengers waiting to get onto some flight or another and I was sick of waiting at fast food joints so we were like, forget it, we're checking into a day room at the airport transit hotel. It was not cheap but at least we got to shower and have a lie down for a few hours.

All in all, it was truly a horrendous experience and much as I wish I didn't have to, I'd have to advise my friends against flying with this airline, or at least avoid flying long haul with them. As for us, this will definitely be the last time we're flying with them. I don't think we could ever go through the same mental distress again. And oh, always always buy travel insurance. You never know when you'll need it.

Lesson learnt.