Review: THAI A320 Business Chiang Mai-Bangkok + Bangkok trip report
- Alan Harlow
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Introduction
I'm going to start this review off first of all by saying that I'm a very big fan of Mariah Carey. So back in March of this year, when she announced that she would be coming to Bangkok in October for a concert, I jumped at the opportunity to get tickets. This meant that I had to fly from my home town of Chiang Mai to Bangkok. Using this as an opportunity to finally give the new THAI A320 Business Class a try, as I had some Royal Orchid Plus miles to spare. This would be my first time in nearly 6 years flying TG Domestic Business, the last time I did this, they were still using 777s on this route. So I'll give my review and impressions of the current domestic Business product, and a little trip report of my 4 days in Bangkok at the end as well.
Route: Chiang Mai (CNX) - Bangkok (BKK)
Flight: TG105
Seat: 14A
Aircraft: Airbus A320-200 (HS-TXG)
Date: 9th October 2025
Flight Time: 57 minutes
Price paid: 10,000 ROP Miles + 850 Baht (the ticket would've cost 6,500 baht if I had paid fully cash)
The airport, check-in + the lounge
I started the morning off at home, with a 12.20 departure time, I was aiming for arriving at the airport at around 10.30am, which would give me enough time to grab an iced coffee and a quick bite in the lounge. I wanted to give myself some time as Business Class passengers do not get any priority security at Chiang Mai, and at certain times of the day, the airport can get quite hectic.
My Dad drove me to the airport, as I live quite far out of town and getting taxis or grabs can sometimes be a bit of an ordeal, I didn't want to risk being late. After around a 30 minute drive, I arrived at CNX and headed straight for the TG Business Check-In, only to find out that they had not bothered to open it yet, even though this was now around 1 Hour 50 Mins before the flight.......
Fortunately, it was only around a 5 minute wait before a member of staff showed up and started checking us in. Then it was a quick stop for coffee and off to the lounge. The lounge was absolutely packed, despite being the only TG departure for hours, and only 12 pax in Business, almost every seat was full so I did not manage to get any pics. TG has now made their CNX Domestic lounge a priority pass lounge as well as giving customers with certain credit cards entry privileges. I guess this makes sense as the lounge was designed for the days when TG would use 777-300ERs with 40+ Business seats on this route, so its a major capacity drop to only have 12 seats per flight now. So I quickly sat down, grabbed some fried dough (a TG lounge signature) and TG's signature tamarind soda, what I came to the lounge for.
Boarding and the seat
After about an hour in the lounge, I headed to the gate for boarding. Business passengers were called first to board and I made my way onboard, being the 2nd person on the plane. A very warm greeting by the purser started the flight off on a good note. It was clear that this crew, were TG legacy crew, rather than crew that moved over from Thai Smile after the merger, you can tell just how much more polished their service is.
I settled down into my seat where there was a plush pillow, the same ones they use on international flights. There was also a bottle of water and a refreshing towel set between the two seats. On these domestic sectors, these flights can have as short as a 30 minute turnaround time, so the crew usually does not have time to serve a proper pre-departure drink.
Soon after I sat down, the absolutely delightful purser approached me and my seat mate, welcomed us both onboard by name. I also noted that she had memorised our names, as she had no notes or anything on her. She returned shortly to ask if we wanted to have lunch and what drinks we would like after departure. On domestic flights TG offers only 1 meal choice in Business, and it does not serve alcoholic drinks, not that this matters too much as most of TG's domestic flights do not exceed 1 hour.
Boarding was completed very quickly, despite being a full flight. Soon a manual safety demonstration was performed and we pushed back on time, had a short taxi and took off for Bangkok.
The meal and service
As this is such a short flight, with a flight time of 57 minutes today, the seatbelt signed was turned off 5 minutes after take off and the crew quickly sprung into action. There were 2 crew in Business today, one handling the galley and one out in the cabin. Within 5 minutes of the seatbelt sign turning off, my meal arrived, followed shortly by my drink. On today's flight the meal was stir fried noodles with chicken, fruits and a vanilla tart. I have to admit that it was an excellent meal.
After the meal, I had a drink top up and the crew came by offering tea and coffee. I also had a quick chance to take a look at the streaming IFE available onboard, while the content was great, its plagued by the lack of any power in the seats, so on longer flights this plane operates such as to DPS, BOM or DEL, you could end up using up your battery as THAI does not allow for the usage of power banks onboard.
With a little bit of time left before descent, I reclined the seat and tested out the comfort a little. Overall, it wasn't too bad for a short flight like this but I can understand that some passengers may not find it the most comfortable on overnight flights coming back from India that can be 4+ hours.
The descent and arrival
We soon started the very bumpy approach into Bangkok and had a rather rough landing, around 15 minutes ahead of schedule. A quick taxi to the gate and the crew ensured that all business pax disembarked first. With a priority tag, my bag was out very quickly and it was off into Bangkok!
Conclusion
Overall, I enjoyed the flight, the seat was comfortable enough but as Korad has mentioned in his previous review of the seats, the lack of power is just not okay for a seat that was fitted to the plane in 2025. On a short flight its fine but I can imagine passengers will struggle with this on the longer legs.
However, the crew absolutely made this flight, they were excellent from start to finish, topped off with an excellent meal which equals to a great short flight. However, I must add, if I didn't have the miles, I would not have paid the 6,500 baht a full fare on this flight would've cost, considering that the same flight in Economy would've cost less than 2,000 baht and Economy also gets a snack and drink service.
BONUS! Bangkok trip report
The main purpose of this trip was to see Mariah Carey with my friends in Bangkok but I managed to get some extra sightseeing (mainly eating) done in Bangkok also, so I'll give a little bonus photo report of what I got up to for my long weekend in Bangkok.
