In the reader-voted Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards 2015 the Thai airline was named in the top 10 of the three categories of World's Best Airline for Customer Service, World's Best Airline for Food and World's Best International Airline.
Announced in November by Travel + Leisure, THAI came fifth in the World's Best Airline for Customer Service category which followed October's announcement of the airline's seventh placing in World's Best Airline for Food.
In July it was announced that THAI had been named seventh best in the World's Best International Airline category. In addition, THAI has been given a Hall of Fame status for placing in the top 10 in this category for 10 consecutive years.
Meanwhile Airlineratings.com, a leading airline safety and product rating review website, ranked the Thai flag carrier as one of 10 airlines with the Best First Class Cabin and the Best Long Haul Economy Class cabin, resulting from a survey conducted among over 450 airlines.
THAI describes its Royal First Class experience as 'royal elegance', with the first class cabin itself featuring interiors drawn from the rich culture and heritage of Thailand, the cuisine that is served designed to be a gourmet culinary journey and the in-flight entertainment system boasting 23-inch flat screens showing a choice of some 130 films, 300 television programs, 500 music CDs and a variety of games and special features.
On THAI's Airbus A380s and newly remodeled Boeing 747s, Royal First Class passengers enjoy spacious semi-private suites nearly eight feet in length. Seat width on the new-model 747s is 23 inches and on the A380s, 27 inches. On additional 747s and A340s a luxury pod design offers 180-degree lie-flat beds and close to seven feet of private space between each seat.
In economy class on aircraft types such as the Airbus A380-800, Boeing 777-300ER and Boeing 787-8, THAI's passengers enjoy a seat pitch of 18 inches, a 122-degree seat recline and a personal video screen.
Earlier in 2015, Airlineratings.com gave the Thai airline a 9.5 out of 10 score for its Economy class on the 787 Dreamliner when site and editorial manager Sharon Petersen flew a six-and-a-half hour overnight trip from Bangkok to Perth.
THAI received even more recognition at the 2015 Business Traveller Asia-Pacific Awards in September, where it placed second for Best Economy Class and in the top three for Best Asia-Pacific Airline, Best Frequent-Flyer Programme (for its Royal Orchid Plus) and Best Airline Lounge in Asia-Pacific (at Suvarnabhumi Airport).
The following month saw the Thai flag carrier named 'Best South-East Asian Airline' at the 2015 TTG Travel Awards.
The Skytrax World Airline Awards 2015 recognized the excellence of the carrier's Royal Orchid Spa at Suvarnabhumi Airport, in placing the spa first in the 'World's Best Airline Lounges Spa Facility'. The spa offers a range of services and treatments which are just the thing ahead of a long haul flight from Bangkok to Copenhagen, a flight from Bangkok to London or one of the carrier's direct flights from Thailand to Australia, for example.
A founding member of the Star Alliance network, THAI's global route network sees it fly to over 60 destinations in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East from its headquarters in Bangkok. Together with subsidiary THAI Smile, THAI operates to 10 domestic points around Thailand.
Nguyen An Tra My
Martin Wynn
