I have been eyeing this off peak ticket price SIN-BKK early this year.
With luck, I managed to get a long weekend off early this month and quickly booked this e-ticket. It was a good deal on a full service flight.

So, I was off to Bangkok. With everything getting expensive these days, Bangkok is still relatively affordable with fantastic street food and very friendly people.

SIN-BKK
SR 183 - A340
4 July 2008
STD 2100
STA 2200

Last call for boarding was at 2015. Almost everyone was at the gate by 2030 and boarding commenced. Last pax on board was about 2050. Off chox was slightly before 2100. That’s Swiss precision timing . . . No nonsense.

Cabin crew were very professional and friendly. They reminded me of NZ cabin crew. But NZ seem to be more breezy and informal. The Swiss crew were more formal but were friendly to all pax Caucasian or Asian. My experience with BA and QF FAs were unimpressive. Some of them were snooty and just doing the bare minimum of polite and efficient service.

Boarding the A340
Entered through BCL

Nice looking golden cover pillows and deep blue colored seats.


EY Cabin



Rear before pax came

EY pillow



Settling down in my seat



Pitch with knee covered with pillow






These were placed on pax seat with a forward journey to ZHR. Prob this is to inform pax joining in from BKK when the a/c is on transit.


A very friendly Swiss FA came distributing Thai arrival cards. If she was out of her uniform, I would not have guessed she was a FA. There were 2 Singapore and one Thai FAs too. Announcements were made in English, German, French, Thai and Mandarin. Italian was prerecorded. Their language skills were incredible!


IFE
The IFE handset. All programming were on-demand. It was good! However, the system can be quite daunting for people who aren’t comfortable with remote controls. There were some folks who could not to figure it out.




Safety demo. I never liked this cartoon version which many airlines are using now. Looks very childish for an extremely important information LX safety video can be seen on YouTube. Do have a look at AF’s and NZs . . . classy!



Meal Service
Knew that LX’s SIN-BKK offered no choice for their meal service. Departing from SIN and returning from BKK, these two airport caterers are good. Hence I ordered the AVML.

Meal started with a drink service.



Unlike other airlines who serve SPML first, LX served theirs together with the rest. No FA came to check on my SPML request prior. But when the cart arrive with all the meals next to my seat, the FA inquired my SPML and was given my veg meal.






When I saw the meal, knew it came from BKK. Tell tale signs were the water cup, dried mangoes and butter pat. SIN do not use these.
The meals were uplifted from BKK when the a/c made a transit stop from ZHR. Since the turn around time was relatively short in SIN, LX double uplifted the meals from BKK for its BKK-SIN and SIN-BKK leg. Well, this is a sign of cost cutting. It’s cheaper for them to pay in Thai Bhat than SIN$.

About the meal, I was hopping for some good Indian Veg curry but instead I got a Thai veg curry instead. Thai curry is best with meat, but with veg, nah . . . it didn’t make it. Consuming only half, I was looking forward for a plate phad thai (fried noodles) when I get to my hotel (Yes I got it alright at 1130pm! There was a whole group of street food sellers with their carts just outside the hotel lobby!)

The no choice normal meal was Thai green chicken curry.


After meals were collected, duty free sales started. A/C started descending into BKK. With Swiss precision, we land slightly before 2200! STA read 2200. Now beat that !!

Three days in Bangkok . . . lots of eating and spending. This was my first time that I had all my meals ala street food. Gosh, it was awesome! Freshly cooked and so so reasonable.

On the last day, we had 3 hours to kill before we had to go to the airport. Thought of just taking the water taxi and cruise along the Thai canals and let these take us to where ever (for about Bhat 30). When it came to the terminating jetty, we got out and a friendly Thai told us to take a tuk-tuk for a sight see for B100 flat till for about 3 hours. The tuk-tuk driver will bring us to the main tourist sights and temples. The only thing we must do is to visit 2 gem factories along the way. The tuk-tuk driver gets some coupons and commission for brining visitors there. Why not? We have the time. So we took a spin. The driver brought us to the standing Buddha temple and two other temples I can’t remember now. We went to the two gem factories which we spent less than 10 mins each just to use the loo. We ended at the Golden Mount. I don’t believe it! We paid B100 for about 3 hours! I felt really bad and gave the driver another B50 as tips. I might be spoiling the market, but it just was not right if I don’t. Anyone in Bangkok know about this too good to be true tuk-tuk service? Then again, could this be a scam? I can’t bring myself to believe it’s scam.






Anyways, it time to head back home for the return flight.

BKK-SIN
7 July 2008
LX 182 - A340
STD 1535
STA 1835
ATA 1850


Checkin was fast, but the waiting to get to the counters was awfully slow. There were only 2 counters opened


Then the crew came



Four different crew type. From left, Swiss senior looking FA, Thai male FA, Brunette and a crew cut blonde Butch looking one.


Station Manager (in light blue tie) chatting with the Captain


A340 Reg MM at gate D6 preparing its BKK-SIN leg
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Boarding was called kindda late at 1525 for a 1535 departure. Anyways, all pax were on board by 1540. Welcoming announcement and safety video shown, Capt came on the PA informing that due to the very heavy rain, we’ll wait for another 15 mins. This Capt made all his announcements in English, German and Thai whenever he came on the PA!

The rains decided to drench heavily.



While waiting for the rain to ease, I just snap all around the cabin.















This is the Thai FA assigned to my side of the asile


Pic of the very nice granny looking FA. She was warm and had smile to everyone she sees. Here she is giving out some kiddy toy and having some small talk with a little girl.


Seat fabric


Good seat pitch that I was able to cross my leg (just for the pic)



It was nice to see an SK a/c again. They have stopped services to SIN a few years already.


Getting ready for take off, first was a Thai 777


Behind LX was Thai 747. What a sight . . . Just love the 747 Jumbo. Sadly, we won’t see as many of this beauty in future as many airlines will retire them.



Finally, it was our turn to take off. Here the a/c is flying over the gulf of Thailand heading south


Route map showing the a/c intended flight path flying the east coast of peninsular Malaysia heading south to Singapore


Meal service begins.




The no choice meal of Singapore Fried Noodles. There’s no such dish in Singapore!

The noodles were a bit mushy (not al dante).

My Veg meal. Another disappointment as I was looking forward for an Indian Veg, but got a Thai sweet potato leaves curry dish. It was very very creamy! Tasted like western curry. No hint of spices or heat. Looks like Thai Catering and Gate Gourmet are much better caterers, in term of churning out yummy Thai and Asian food than LSG Sky Chefs ex BKK.



After the meal cart came the drinks. Wines were given in mini bottles. Pax were given the whole can for all soft drinks and beer.



Look at those white clouds, wings and engines against the blue sky. No IFE can beat this sight seeing the a/c’s wings flying through the clouds!


A/c starts to descend.


Deplaing in SIN. While walking out through BCL I asked for the menu from an FA. She said sure take it! The menu listed meals from ZHR-BKK and BKK-SIN.



Flight with LX was excellent. Very impressive service by warm and friendly crew that made you feel really welcomed. It showed it was their pleasure to have you onboard. No snobbery attitude at all and the FAs were always walking along the aisle to see if all pax were doing alright. Well, this might be because it was short flight and the FAs are really busy walking up and down? On the long haul, don’t know if they will do the disappearing act. Anyways, hope they do not! LX have good IFE. Cabin was very clean with good seat pitch. LX still maintains the highest quaility of Swissair. Overall, if MH and QR are Skytrax 5* airline, I don’t see why LX cannot be one too.