As I walked towards the Thai Royal Silk (business class) / Royal First check-in lanes, I was greeted by an employee who asked for my destination, then guided me towards one of the check-in counters. At the counter, there several square stools, and I was asked to take a seat while they pulled up my reservation. I thought this was a nice touch to make the process a little bit more comfortable, and while it wasn’t a big deal, I certainly appreciated it. There were also several couches and a table off to the side that people could use as they waited.
Once I had my bag checked and received my boarding pass, the check-in aisle had its own immigration line dedicated to it, which meant that there was no wait. Immediately after immigration was the Royal Orchid Lounge, which is probably the nicest lounge I have seen. It is expansive – very long in one direction – and while there is a lack of hot food options, the food was still quite good. In addition, the one thing I thought unusual and cool was that it had its own duty free store inside.
BKK Royal Orchid Lounge
BKK Royal Orchid Lounge with Duty Free shop
In addition, I found out that every business/first passenger is entitled to a complimentary massage – 30 minutes for business and 60 minutes for first. I had no idea these were available when I booked the tickets, but I was glad that I had spent the 10,000 extra miles for business class over economy. After having a few bites of food, I went over to the Royal Orchid Spa to get my massage.
Entrance to the Royal Orchid Spa
They took my boarding pass and jotted down my name, asking whether I wanted the foot massage or neck/shoulder massage. I opted for the neck and shoulder massage as I had been feeling tight there for awhile. I was then lead to a waiting room where they served some kind of juice. About half an hour later, it was finally my turn.
I was led to the back by massage therapist, where there were three comfortable chairs separated by panel walls. I was instructed to take off my shoes and sit into the empty chair, where I received my massage. After the hectic two days of sightseeing in Bangkok, it was nice to relax, and the massage felt good.
After the massage, I was lead back to the waiting room, where I was served hot tea and some coconut rolls. I sat in the room and enjoyed the snack for about 10 minutes, and then I decided to look for some gifts to buy in the terminal. I then went to another Royal Orchid Lounge closer to my gate until my flight was ready to board. This one was much smaller and had less food available, but it was still decent.
For dinner, I chose Veal Zurich Style with Champignon Mushroom, Tossed Linguine, Buttered Vegetables. The veal wasn’t that great though, and I wished I had gone for the Prawn Curry “Chu-Chee.” The red wine was much better than any I had had served on United – I wish I remembered what kind it was, but I do know it was very good. The appetizer was prawn, and the dessert was a nicely decorated log cake and ice cream with fruit pearls.
Appetizers
Main course
Dessert
On the ground at Singapore, I was surprised that priority tagged bags did not come out before the rest of the bags – although this isn’t consistent across airlines, I thought that at Singapore, and especially with Thai Airways, that priority bags would be unloaded first, but my bag ended up coming off very close to the end. I then had to wait at the taxi line, which took quite awhile, to get to my hotel near Orchard Road.
