birthday action for Thai Airways ROP Gold

Hello everybody.

Thai Airways has changed its Birthday action for its Frequent Flyers Gold members. Instead of an upgrade, now you can redeem miles for International travel at half the normal rate for travel starting in the month of your birthday and the month before and after.

This means that for the same amount of miles you can fly Royal First instead of Economy, or even if you donтАЩt have a lot of miles, book economy and you just need half the normal amount. This is only applicable to Thai operated flights.

I would presume quite a few of the board members come to Thailand often and thus are at Gold Level with ThaiтАЩs FFP. Personally I am a big fan of ThaiтАЩs Royal Orchid Plus. ItтАЩs really amazing how easily you can get exactly what you want when it comes to free flights or upgrades. Try this with any US-based company!

Anyway it might be useful to know this new policy just to plan ahead.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by henk

I would presume quite a few of the board members come to Thailand often and thus are at Gold Level with ThaiтАЩs FFP

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How often? Gold requires 50K miles, which according to me is once every other month from Australia, 5 times a year from Europe and 3 or so times a year from the US. I would be surprised if "quite a few" board members reach Gold based purely on their travel to Thailand

Quote:

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Originally Posted by homintern

[How often? Gold requires 50K miles, which according to me is once every other month from Australia, 5 times a year from Europe and 3 or so times a year from the US. I would be surprised if "quite a few" board members reach Gold based purely on their travel to Thailand

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Not so often. If I fly 4 times from where I live in Europe itтАЩs sufficient, even if I would always fly Economy.
Indeed you require 50.000 miles in one year or 80.000 over two consecutive years for ROP Gold. But all your other travel with Star-Alliance partners (like Singapore Airlines, BMI, SAS, ANA, United ...) counts as well. I fly a lot with Lufthansa and even with United if there is no alternative. Last year I have been to Thailand only 4 times (we live there part-time), but I had more than 80.000 qualifying miles in my Thai account alone from some of my other travel and the extras from other classes than Economy.

It seems that the cost of flights on Thai from the the UK to Thailand has jumped since the New Year, both on their website and on discounted sites. Does anyone know if these new rates are with us for the year, or were announced anywhere?

Apart from the usual price fluctuations (airfares tend to be higher in December and January), all airlines are dealing with the much higher fuel costs and industry analysts predict that good deals on airfare will probably be a bit harder to find for the time being. I've seen flights on American Airlines from the US east coast to Thailand for as low as around $900, which is quite a good deal for AA, but Thai Air is running a bit higher than usual. The nonstops from JFK and LAX are very popular and carry healthy passenger loads, but from what I've read Thai Air still loses money on each of those flights.

... henk for confirming precisely what I said originally - few Board members would reach Gold based on their trips to Thailand alone - which was the original assertion

Thanks Henk for the news. I have got a few questions.

Regards Gold Birthday promotion,

1) Can members redeem a free ticket for themselves only, or is it also possible to redeem a free ticket for anyone at half price ?.

2) Can members redeem only one ticket, or as many tickets as they want in one booking? For instance, can I make a booking for 2 tickets ( one for myself and one for a friend who will travel with me ), both at half price ?

3) It seems you must travel in the month of your birthday, and the month before and after. But when can you actually start to make a reservation ? For instance, my birthday is in November. Can I make a reservation now using my Gold Birthday discount for travelling in November, or do I have to wait till October to make a reservation ?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Chuckwow, from my understanding, the answer to your questions are:

1) You can redeem one half-points ticket for yourself, or anyone else.
2) You only get one ticket at half-points!
3) You can book anytime in advance, but travel must be in your birthday month or during the month before or after.

It's not as good a deal as last year's free upgrade, but still a nice gesture from Thai ROP.