General Reports

[BKKguru]

I have seen hostesses ask guys to change seats to facilitate others.
<snip>
If people wish to sit together, they can pay the premium to do that.

"If people wish to sit together, they can pay the premium to do that. ".

You are missing the point. Three years ago, there was NO fee to select a seat in Economy Class.
It does NOT cost the Airline any extra Dollars to assign seats in advance. This is a ploy to grab more Dollars from the Economy Class passenger.

To be clear, I am only talking about full fare airlines, not Budget Airlines like Air Asia, Ryan Air etc.

As you point out, this does put an additional burden on the Cabin staff.
This excludes United Airlines, where Economy Class Passengers have the same status as garbage.

BKKguru

[PedroMorales]

I do not see why you have to pay a premium to sit families together? If they increased the fares to incorporate grouped seating I wouldn't notice an increase of $20 in $5000 worth of fares.

As far as protecting my family I will go "Rambo". You do not know my family dynamic's and I will not explain them here so I do take offence that you are quick to judge me and imply that I have some reason to hate Arabs? I actually think Aussies, my nationality are noisier on planes and can't get my earphones on fast enough!

The other passengers did gladly change seats but I do not see that as their responsibility because the airline does have a duty of care and I am sure that extends to more then just taking off, flying properly and landing safely.

In regards to giving others a bad name I haven't had an experience of a mid air punch up so maybe I am not such a big ass hole as you imply.

If you decide to start your own family revisit this situation and tell me you would allow your child to sit next to a total stranger on an overnight flight with the airline telling you to suck it up.

Most airlines allow you to buy seats together for a premium. If your seats are not allocated together, too bad as you did not pay extra to get them together. Although children, the old or the infirm are reasons to sit together, people always try to bend the rules so the airline has to be rigid. Some crew are ruder than others. Most are fed up of a minority of passengers bending the rules in ways big or small. My last flight, crew were complaining out loud of the huge size of the carry on luggage of the usual parasitical suspects. The future of airlines is budget and pay for every and all extras. Penny pinchers are making the same complaint about them (paying extra to be seated together) as you are here.

I was assaulted on a plane. Luckily I had one of the crew as witness and got the scum bag arrested (pushed over and then had my face squeezed when passing him). I have changed my MO and fly less often as I find those with entitlement issues to be pains both in the airports and on the planes.

The only upside, as I say, is I get to bone a few crew. And wonder why they put up with all the BS of their horrible job.

[Rob Jones]

I am bonking two airline hostesses on a P4P basis. Our pillow talk consists of stuff like the above. The airline sells you getting from A to be safely. All others are incidental they tell me. That includes seats. If there are children involved, most people would gladly change seats. I have done it several times and seen it done many times more. I have seen hostesses ask guys to change seats to facilitate others.

You, on the other hand, want to go all Rambo straight out of the traps. You sound like one of those guys who object to Arabs or others speaking Arabic on flights and definitely the type of guy who starts trouble and gives mongers a bad name.

If people wish to sit together, they can pay the premium to do that. I've had to sit beside grossly obese people who are so disgustingly fat one seat belt is not enough for them. I've been in punch ups on flights. All the airlinbe wants to do is move passengers from A to be and land in one piece. It is a crap job dealing with ass holes. It's only upside is I get good bonks at a cut price rate out of it.

I do not see why you have to pay a premium to sit families together? If they increased the fares to incorporate grouped seating I wouldn't notice an increase of $20 in $5000 worth of fares.

As far as protecting my family I will go "Rambo". You do not know my family dynamic's and I will not explain them here so I do take offence that you are quick to judge me and imply that I have some reason to hate Arabs? I actually think Aussies, my nationality are noisier on planes and can't get my earphones on fast enough!

The other passengers did gladly change seats but I do not see that as their responsibility because the airline does have a duty of care and I am sure that extends to more then just taking off, flying properly and landing safely.

In regards to giving others a bad name I haven't had an experience of a mid air punch up so maybe I am not such a big ass hole as you imply.

If you decide to start your own family revisit this situation and tell me you would allow your child to sit next to a total stranger on an overnight flight with the airline telling you to suck it up.

[Banana Boi]

I still fly KLM because there are the odd flights KLM has that are dirt cheap. One example is Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta in business class with lay flat seats for 3600 baht. Jakarta to KL is slightly more at 4000 baht. Includes 2 free check in and 1 carry on bag. Economy is 1215 baht but with only 1 check in bag and a carry on. Pretty impressive price for a 2+ hour flight.

If other airlines offer true business class at these rates please let me know.

[Smoothy]

My company once booked me on KLM to USA as was supposedly cheaper. Unfortunately as I was a long time away from home, I had significantly more than the standard luggage allowance and maybe got charged 200 euros for extra luggage, making it not cheap at all.

Funny, that's the exact same reason I haven't flown KLM in 20 years. They charged me a bullshit 84 euros for a tiny carry on bag that I have never had to check with any other airline ever. I bring it with me everywhere even to this day. I told them at the time that if they wanted to do that, I would never fly KLM again. They didn't seem concerned, so I have not flown them again and hopefully never will.

[Syzygies]

Just like baggage fees, this is fast becoming standard practice.

Lufthansa charges a fee for advance seat assignment (Economy Class only).
There is NO fee if you select the seat 23 hours before departure.

For airlines, this is another revenue opportunity, although much less than the Baggage fee lottery.

~BKKguru

I have found once on entering an aircraft, that my seat assignment had been changed even after I had checked in without my permission, but maybe related to trying to seat families together. Sometimes a flight is changed to a different smaller aircraft too.

My company once booked me on KLM to USA as was supposedly cheaper. Unfortunately as I was a long time away from home, I had significantly more than the standard luggage allowance and maybe got charged 200 euros for extra luggage, making it not cheap at all. These days I prefer to book flights or hotels myself, or at least specify them, based on my special criteria which is not purely the price, but also flexibility to change, luggage allowance, etc.

For Hotels, proximity to work location and transport is very important. I hate wasting time travelling too much every day.

[PedroMorales]

Experienced this with Qatar and KLM recently while travelling with my family. I have no problem if I don't get to sit next to the wife or friends when flying but both airlines where separating kids from their parents. We managed to get my wife and daughter seated next to each other but I witnessed other families, on different flight's, not being so lucky. I asked the guys at Qatar, who were the hardest to convince that young girls shouldn't be seated away from their parents on an overnight flight, do I tell them or contact the police upon landing if my daughter was molested in any way? When I said I would take a photo of the person seated beside her and ask to see their passport and explain what I would do if I felt that any discretions occurred did they make an effort to find a solution.

This practice has a lawsuit waiting to happen at the best outcome and a disaster at worst if a child is harmed.

I am bonking two airline hostesses on a P4P basis. Our pillow talk consists of stuff like the above. The airline sells you getting from A to be safely. All others are incidental they tell me. That includes seats. If there are children involved, most people would gladly change seats. I have done it several times and seen it done many times more. I have seen hostesses ask guys to change seats to facilitate others.

You, on the other hand, want to go all Rambo straight out of the traps. You sound like one of those guys who object to Arabs or others speaking Arabic on flights and definitely the type of guy who starts trouble and gives mongers a bad name.

If people wish to sit together, they can pay the premium to do that. I've had to sit beside grossly obese people who are so disgustingly fat one seat belt is not enough for them. I've been in punch ups on flights. All the airlinbe wants to do is move passengers from A to be and land in one piece. It is a crap job dealing with ass holes. It's only upside is I get good bonks at a cut price rate out of it.

[Rob Jones]

Just like baggage fees, this is fast becoming standard practice.

Lufthansa charges a fee for advance seat assignment (Economy Class only).
There is NO fee if you select the seat 23 hours before departure.

For airlines, this is another revenue opportunity, although much less than the Baggage fee lottery.

~BKKguru

Experienced this with Qatar and KLM recently while travelling with my family. I have no problem if I don't get to sit next to the wife or friends when flying but both airlines where separating kids from their parents. We managed to get my wife and daughter seated next to each other but I witnessed other families, on different flight's, not being so lucky. I asked the guys at Qatar, who were the hardest to convince that young girls shouldn't be seated away from their parents on an overnight flight, do I tell them or contact the police upon landing if my daughter was molested in any way? When I said I would take a photo of the person seated beside her and ask to see their passport and explain what I would do if I felt that any discretions occurred did they make an effort to find a solution.

This practice has a lawsuit waiting to happen at the best outcome and a disaster at worst if a child is harmed.

[Wimble]

Singapore Airlines is really hard to beat. I love their lounge in Singapore. But I can't always use them. Though I was fortunate enough to use some of the ladies.

I actually like Eva the few times I have flown them. Their prices are great the ladies are not too bad. Years ago, when I tried them, I hooked up with 2 of the ladies. They were unattached so they were able to show me around town.

[MakeItOrBreak]

I'm spending 11 days in Thailand and wondering how I should break it up between Bangkok and Pattaya. From what I've read here Pattaya is a little cheaper, less crowded but the woman aren't as attractive. Does anyone have advice on how many days I should spend where?

I am fairly inexperienced for both but I would personally opt to spend more time in Pattaya since it is easier layout for you to get the hang of in such a short time. If you have read up on Bangkok and prepared I think both works.

I been to Pattaya off season and saw plenty of pretty ladies so that shouldn't be a worry. Hopefully someone with more experience in both locations can provide more guidance.

[D Cups]

My two really big hates are babies screaming or young children jumping around uncontrolled by parents, and if get unlucky to be close to a really stinky passenger.

Ya, babies you almost have to put up with but screaming kids who are uncontrolled by their stupid parents no excuse for. On my last flight cross country to Atlanta on Delta the broad next to me was so fat her blubber actually pinned me against the side of the airplane for five hours. She was ugly, too, and had no tits. It was all blubber. Airlines should force obese passengers to pay for two seats or upgrade to first class. Sheesh.

[BKKguru]

Unfortunately EVA is now charging a fee if you want to select a seat more than 48 hours before departure. Within 48 hours it's still possible to select a standard seat for free.

https://www.evaair.com/en-us/booking-and-travel-planning/fare-family/introduction-of-fare-family/#seat (click on 'Charges')

Just like baggage fees, this is fast becoming standard practice.

Lufthansa charges a fee for advance seat assignment (Economy Class only).
There is NO fee if you select the seat 23 hours before departure.

For airlines, this is another revenue opportunity, although much less than the Baggage fee lottery.

BKKguru

[Smoothy]

My favorite airline is Lufthansa. For an Asian airline Cathay is the best although EVA is generally much cheaper and offers great flexibility in date changes and free seat selection.

Lufthansa? Haha. I haven't flown it in about 10 years, so maybe it has improved, but I have flown it about 10 times and I think that's one of the worst airlines Internationally. They have the smallest distance between economy class seats of any airline I have flown on International routes. I'm short, and my knees touch the seat in front of me on that airline. That's crazy. I can handle it for shorter flights like Jakarta to Bangkok, but I flew Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Buenos Aires once, 16 hour flight. I had the window seat and the guy seated next to me in the middle seat was around 6 foot 6. His knees had to be spread into both my seat area and the seat area of the guy in the aisle due to lack of space. Miserable flight, miserable airline. They did used to have the cheapest flight from Jakarta to Bangkok for only $200 usd roundtrip about 15 years ago so I would take that flight once in a while, but had it not been far cheaper than the other airlines I would not have taken it. I equate Lufthansa with the US carriers. Crap. When I fly business class on it, it's fine, but business class is fine on almost any airline other than Egypt Air or Air India.

Cathay is about equivalent to Singapore airlines (although Singapore Airlines has hotter stewardesses and is a bit better overall in my opinion, also I like the Singapore airport better than Hong Kong). Eva is good and a favorite of mine since it is cheap as well as good. The bread rolls on Eva are the best on any airline, not that that matters much. I like ANA too, but I don't like the Japanese food they serve. Korean air is also not bad. It does seem I prefer the Asian airlines, but Qatar Air, Emirates, and Etihad are all quite good as well.

All of the US carriers are crap as far as service, leg room, and amenities. I also don't like many of the European airlines. I avoid pretty much all of them including Lufthansa, KLM, British Airways and Air France. The best I have flown out of the European airlines was Swiss air. There are some good airlines in Australia, but the stewardesses are rarely ever attractive. All of the African carriers are crap. Even South African Airways is nothing special. Kenya airways is supposedly one the best in Africa other than South African Airways, but they always lose my luggage. I hear good things about Ethiopian Air, but I have never flown it. I haven't found a South American carrier that I would say is great, but there are some decent ones. When I'm down there, I just pretty much roll the dice and fly whatever has the best flight times.

Of course, all of us probably have a different opinion on the airlines based on personal experiences.

[Syzygies]

You forgot to mention the large guy that sits next to you and snores loudly. Even with headphones on it is very disturbing. I gave up on economy seating, it's all business class now. At my age I'm not putting up with all the bullshit in economy. Premier econ is a little better but the seats are to small, not long enough to get real comfortable.

I had a not so fat German guy right next to me in Business class. I wanted to sleep. He kept ringing the bell for service, loud ding again and again, order another drink, noisy packets of nuts or crisps or whatever. Eventually after all those drinks he fell asleep, and then the snoring started. Was hopeless for me to sleep.

Snoring is bad but not one of the top most frequent big problems. You can try to stuff your ears with noise blocker (but only semi effective). Noise cancellers don't work for snoring I think. Wrong frequencies.

I eventually decided it is better to fly mainly in daytime so does not matter if did not get a good sleep. Hardly ever skip a fuck on first day / night in Thailand. I generally don't do extra long haul. 12 hour max flights for me these days. London to BKK is about my worst.

[Robert Long]

Lufthansa is not my favourite, although the airline itself and the staff are not the problem. It's the passengers that are the problem.

It is very hard to get a seat getting up towards Christmas, when you need to change flight dates. So I prefer to be on Thai Inter. Lufthansa flights get a bit too full, for my liking. Plus older German passengers have little regard for others. They don't care if they are over weight and encroaching seriously into my seat space. They always lean very heavily on the back of my seat, causing "earthquakes", they don't care if crash into you while walking down the isle. Americans maybe loud, but are far more polite. Generalising, but many Germans act like they are kings of the world, and do as they please. Personal liberties. Just if they had a bit more consideration for others, but they are not really brought up that way. I think the younger generation are better.

Still they are probably low of the scale of passengers who stink (under arm BO), so some blessings. Being seated next to a stinky is the worst luck you can have I guess, or having drinks spilt on you by passengers standing with drinks.

My two really big hates are babies screaming or young children jumping around uncontrolled by parents, and if get unlucky to be close to a really stinky passenger. The airline with the worst staff maybe British Airways. Bad attitude. E. g. I asked for a tomato juice. They served it dark brown, with loads of Worchestershire sauce added and not sure what else. I simply said sorry but I ordered a plain tomato juice. They refused to give me a new one. That was just one thing. I was entering a plane doing something with mobile. The stewardess said I can't do that. Fine. She then started with a great lecture holding up those entering the aircraft. I said simply I know very well, I have turned it off, I don't need a lecture. She then started about she could have me thrown off the airline.

At one time I liked sitting behind a door for extra leg room, but this brings its own problem, If you have extra leg room, other passengers will start to insist on standing in your leg space, and naturally crash into you preventing sleep possibilities. If seated behind a bulkhead, many passengers will try to cross to the other side over your legs. Very irritating.

My conclusion. There are lots of thoughtless passengers on flights and certain nationalities are worse than others, generalising.

You forgot to mention the large guy that sits next to you and snores loudly. Even with headphones on it is very disturbing. I gave up on economy seating, it's all business class now. At my age I'm not putting up with all the bullshit in economy. Premier econ is a little better but the seats are to small, not long enough to get real comfortable.

And above all never book a flight on the mainland Chinese carriers, it will be the worst experience ever. The Chinese are new to travel and they are young with children that cry constantly. China Airlines is ok, Taiwan owned so more sophisticated, as is EVA.

If your spending 18-23 hours getting to BKK, give yourself the pleasure of business class, you will arrive rested, well fed and get the fast pass thru immigration. A little more money but your on your way to the big Asian money pit.

RL.