Following the elimination of the Thai Smile brand, flights operated by Airbus A320 have been absorbed into by mainline THAI ops all while the seating onboard these flights wasn’t yet up to scratch – this is about to change.
While Thai Smile operated on an all domestic configuration with Premium Economy being the “European Style” with only a blocked middle seat, THAI has now equipped these A320 aircraft with club chairs to be sold as Business Class.
The style of the new seats is akin to U.S. domestic First Class seats and considering these A320 are only being used for domestic and regional flights this is more than sufficient to provide extra comfort on a short hop.
Thai Airways advertises their new seating options on it’s website, social media as well as on the video displays at BTS Train stations throughout Bangkok:
Elevate your travel experience with the new Royal Silk Class on THAI’s A320
Designed for your comfort and convenience, our Royal Silk Class offers:Spacious Comfort: 38-inch seat pitch and 5-inch recline, ensuring a more relaxing journey.
Launching January 2025 on selected routes, it’s time to upgrade the way you travel.
Mind you this reads “selected routes” so I wonder what they will offer on those other routes when booking Royal Silk business class?
Here is the full flyer:
This seating style is in line with regional competitors such as single aisle aircraft operated by Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines where a similar seating design is offered.
I have seen these A320’s being used for flights to international destinations such as Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and even Taipei. I think for a few (2-3) hours it’s doable. After all, I’ve flown much longer routes in similar seats before.
As we reported earlier this year, Thai Airways got into trouble for selling the A320 Economy configuration as Business class:
Thai Airways Under CAAT Investigation For Selling A320 Economy Class Seats As Business Class
After this situation, THAI offered refunds to passengers with a confirmed Royal Silk booking sold as Business Class rather than the previously booked Premium Economy service under Thai Smile.
All of these A320 planes have now been repainted with the mainline THAI livery and were integrated into the fleet. It was a bit of a hiccup with crew training and integrating the cabin crew into the vast TG network, especially the cabin managers to be taken over as purser in some (not all) cases.
It caused quite a bit of discontent among legacy THAI crew as many felt they were being skipped over for promotions in favor of these A320 (Thai Smile) pursers as it was relatively easy to reach that rank with Thai Smile while with Thai mainline it takes a very long time to climb up the seniority ladder.
Conclusion
Thai Airways has announced that the A320 fleet will soon (starting January 2025) feature new Royal Silk seats for short-haul services.
The new seats are club chair designs with adequate legroom and recline, similar to what we know from regional competitors as well as U.S. domestic premium cabins.
It’s been quite a long time that these short-haul Thai Airways routes were operated with substandard seating and most importantly, they couldn’t be booked with miles as a connection flight which was really annoying for award redemptions. This is now being corrected.
