Thai Thinking About Scrapping A320 Business: Becoming Economy Plus. Eh?

Intro

Throughout the past year, Thai Airways finally became an airline that offers a business class product fleetwide. Previously, we had seen 20 Airbus A320s that only offered economy plus, but Thai Airways knew that to gain connecting competition, they would have to offer a J product all the way through. Now, while we saw TG reconfigure these jets with business class, things are now about to change...

The Details

Thanks to Alan for flagging this, and nothing is confirmed as of yet, but recent talks have been in discussion for Thai Airways to rebrand their A320 business class back into economy plus. This means that after spending millions of dollars in refurbishments on these A320s, Thai Airways has most likely decided to go back to "economy plus".

Thai Airways A320 Business Class

Now, while Economy Plus is going to feature the business class hard product, as well as the onboard service and lounge access, it seems that the only thing going away will be the name. And I have to say, I find this extremely odd. Sure, there is set to be a small reduction in price, but to offer the same seat and not call it business class?

Eh...

TG Cut Corners And It Came Out

When I took my first flight on the A320 in Business Class back in April of this year, I had some words to say. To recap what I said, it was a rushed renovation, with no charging ports (or USB), and combining that with the tight legroom onboard, it's the opposite of what TG is attempting to become: a rebranded and reimagined airline.

The other small aspect that does my brain in happens to be the small champagne flutes, which are also going to be featured on the 321s

So, on the one hand, Thai Airways did mess up by trying to cut corners quickly on this refurbishment, but on the other hand, I appreciate that the airline is taking accountability here. Clearly, the airline has been given some pretty strong feedback, much like with their A330s, and has opted to do something about it.

Not many airlines have followed suit and listened to their customers in the same way that TG has been doing, and while none of this is confirmed as of yet, I wouldn't be surprised if this came to fruition.

Final Thoughts

Thai Airways is contemplating renaming its business class product on their A320 to Economy Plus/Premium Economy. While this is certainly coming on the heels of many complaints about the hard product onboard, it's nice to see Thai Airways doing something about it here. Many airlines wouldn't, but TG seems customer-focused in this generation.

Another thing to note: I also have to wonder if this has anything to do with the ex-Thai Smile crew. Some of them are still on contract, and the Smile crew is generally vastly different from the TG crew, as I recently experienced on my flight to Bangkok from Laos...