Smile might be in the airline’s name, but will you have one after flying with them?
I suppose you’ll find out in a few minutes.
Hi there, my name is Kevin.
This channel came from a love of traveling, a love of the full process and the journey
itself.
I feature airline trip reports and high end hotel reviews from all over the world.
My reviews aren’t sponsored by airlines or hotels so you can be sure to get my unbiased
honest opinion.
Am I an expert?
You can decide.
Am I fair?
Yea, I am.
Let’s get into it, welcome to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.
If you’d like to know the exact fare that I paid for my flight or my next five videos
in queue, please check out the description below.
This is the second of three flights that will get me from Koh Samui to Nha Trang in Vietnam,
where my next two resort videos will be coming from.
I just went through a very quick transfer process, since I cleared immigration in Samui
before my last flight, so now I have a few hours to kill in one of the largest airports
on earth with a seemingly endless supply of lounges on offer- so this will surely be an
easy afternoon.
While the new satellite terminal still is not open- from what I’ve read, it’s completely
ready, but there’s just not yet a need for it as Thailand continues to recover from Covid-
the rest of the renovations in the airport, mostly around the central area shopping area
do seem to be completed.
After my last video from here, I had a few comments telling me the Miracle lounges were
no longer crappy like they used to be, so I decided to check the Concourse D lounge
out.
Since I didn’t have a gate assigned yet, Concourse D was the safer bet, right in the
middle of the airport.
Always make sure to plan enough time when here since it is over a mile between the furthest
two points in the terminal.
The Miracle lounge which I accessed with Priority Pass was in fact a lot better than I remember.
Plenty of seating areas, dining tables and food on offer.
So, today we are flying THAI Smile, which is wholly owned by THAI Airways and it was
announced in February of this year that THAI Smile will be folded into Thai in 2024 to
reduce losses, which is a bit ironic since THAI Smile was created to… reduce losses.
Established in 2011, THAI Smile was meant to be a leisure oriented regional airline
that was “lower-cost” but not low cost.
THAI created it with the intention of filling the market gap between LCCs and Full Service
Airlines- which begs the question, is there actually a gap there?
They currently have 20 aircraft in the fleet and fly to around 35 destinations.
Just before Covid, THAI Smile’s reach expanded as THAI sought to cut losses on less premium
routes by using THAI smile instead, such as to Saigon.
I should note that, the big THAI only has wide body planes in it’s fleet, and Thai
Smile only has narrow body planes, similar to how Singapore Airlines and Silk Air used
to operate together.
Anyway, I used to love flying THAI’s 747s and 777s between Bangkok and Saigon, so hopefully
the merger will bring widebodies back to the route more than once per week.
Time to head to the gate, which has already been changed a couple of times, luckily all
within the C concourse.
We’d be departing from gate C1A today which is a bus gate and the first time I’ve ever
boarded via stairs here.
This really is one of the best airports to have a drive around the tarmac.
So you already know how much I paid for my flight, but I need to say further that THAI
Airways didn’t invite me to fly today or compensate me in any way.
Not only were they unaware I’d be making a video, they have no idea who I am and that’s
how I like it.
Why?
Because content creators are recognized every day, on the street, on a flight, in a hotel
and instantly, the VVIP alarms start ringing in everyone’s ear pieces and suddenly their
experience is no longer typical.
When I’m making a review video, I don’t want special treatment, so I film anonymously.
That is more challenging than you’d think though- so that’s why every like, comment
and subscription really does mean a lot and helps the channel grow to keep this twice
weekly content flowing.
Thanks very much for watching today.
While we did board the buses on time, we then sat in this spot for a good 10-15 minutes,
which resulted in an overall delay for the flight.
And here she is, an 8 year old A320.
I didn’t find out until this day that that colorful ring around the engine was intentional.
I honestly always thought it was just mix and match painted parts like you very commonly
see with Vietnam Airlines.
While we did end up taking off a few minutes late, after our 62 minutes in the air we did
arrive into Saigon just one minute behind schedule.
On board, I do actually like the colors of the seat fabric and the seats themselves are
pretty comfortable, not being slimline and having an adjustable headrest.
Legroom was not all that generous though.
Have you flown with EVA lately?
Check out one of my videos from them that I recently published, linked above.
We pushed back and had a pretty quick taxi to the runway, lining up for a southerly take
off.
The spool up, take off and airport stats are coming up next.
By the way, I simply haven’t had time to work on them recently, but I will begin posting
again on my Roam Above channel linked in the description below, hopefully this summer.
Over there you can see all of my full take off and landing clips as well as some full
flights.
There are already plenty of videos there now, but I’ve got probably 50 in my backlog to
post there as well.
As we began our journey to the southeast, the meal service started.
Keep in mind, before Covid, THAI used to serve a full hot meal on this flight and Vietnam
Airlines still does.
Considering that, it was a little underwhelming.
A chicken pastry, a cup of water and a small slice of cake.
The sunset views made up for it though.
And I did appreciate they had a full hot drink service after the meal.
By the time trays were being collected we were already descending into Saigon and doing
the typical loop to land from the east.
Luckily tonight was beautiful
and clear.
And that is that.
Standard stuff really.
Comfortable enough, but if given the choice on the same route, I’d say Vietnam Airlines
are more comfortable along with an extra legroom seat on Vietjet or AirAsia, but that’s just
me.
I know Vietjet conjures nightmares for many of you out there.
I really hope you enjoyed this short video today.
If you did, please be sure to click that thumbs up button and subscribe with notifications
on so you don’t miss any of my content coming up.
The next weeks will bring resorts from Nha Trang, flights on Air Premia, Vietnam Airlines
and T’way and hotels in Seoul and Tokyo.
Thanks very much for watching ‘till the end.