Royal Silk is the name Thai Airways (TG) gives to its business class. But aircraft, seats and service on regional services are not as up to date as what Thai offers on long haul Royal Silk flights. I had only previously experienced the product and services offered by Thai in its Royal Silk class flights once before; in December 2017 between Katmandu and Bangkok (BKK).  I liked what I’d seen and thought the onboard product was perfectly good for a shortish flight – certainly it was much better than the business class products offered on major European airlines’ intra-Europe services of up to four hours.  The total fare for 2 pax flying London (LHR)-BKK in First and BKK-Kuala Lumpur (KUL)-LHR in Royal Silk was £11,300.

We had to be bussed to the aircraft operating flight TG415 between BKK and KUL. The plane wasn’t parked just off stand – we were bussed all the way to Thai’s maintenance area, past old planes with missing engines, which was a bit weird!  At 08:40 we boarded the 23 year old B777-200 registered HS-TJB and took our seats in the 2-2-2 configured business cabin. We pushed back 5 minutes ahead of schedule at 08:55, and following a short taxi to runway 19L we took off at 09:11.

At that time of the morning I wasn’t sure what type of meal would be served (breakfast, brunch or lunch) but it turned out to be lunch.  Everything was served on one tray, including the Thai cocktail I chose.  Everything was generally OK and tasted authentically Thai (spicy hot). But a fruit plate was meagre and the dessert cakes looked artificial and unhealthy, so I didn’t sample them.  Garlic bread, which is popular with Far Eastern carriers (and me) was pale. 6/10

My seat 14A was in only the 3rd row. They seem to start at row 11 and they avoid a row 13 for superstitious reasons!  The seat was a bit hard but it had loads of legroom and a setback screen in front of me. But I’m glad I didn’t need to sleep, because these old angled flat seats are really not conducive to sleeping!  But they were fine for a 2 hour daylight flight. Also because it was ‘just’ a regional flight, there were no amenity bags, slippers, socks or PJs given out.  I had no problem with that.

We landed on KUL’s runway 32L at 11:56 and were on stand in the Satellite terminal 9 minutes behind schedule at 12:04.  KUL’s air traffic control appears to slow down inbound and taxiing aircraft and this is what turned an early departure into a late arrival.

I was surprised to discover, on the return journey, that TG has its own lounge in KUL’s Satellite terminal. The we arrived it was empty and we had a full choice of where to sit.  I grabbed a spot by the large windows, connected to the wifi and sat back.  The lounge had a modest buffet food offering and a very small drinks offer – but it did include alcohol, which is usually hard to come by at KUL for religious reasons.  It was definitely better than the Plaza Premium lounge next door, and, surprisingly, it was a good deal better than the Singapore Airlines lounge a few doors down, despite Singapore having more flights into KUL and despite its reputation for high service standards.  But for your information, the best lounge at KUL by far is Malaysia Airlines’ flagship Golden Lounge in the Satellite terminal.

Flight TG418 was scheduled to depart at 21:05 and at 20:50 we boarded the 20 year old B777-300 registered HS-TKD.  This version of the 777 had a 2-3-2 layout of angle-flat seats, which were uncomfortable in both the seating and sleeping positions; but thankfully this was just a 2 hour flight again.  And once again no amenity bags, slippers or PJs were handed out. But we did get a glass of Heidsieck Essentiel nv Champagne before take-off, which is quite rare at KUL because of its Islamic restrictions.

We pushed back 14 minutes late at 21:19 and had a queue before taking off from runway 32R at 21:45, which I once again put down to poor aircraft management by KUL air traffic control.

Shortly after lift off our dinner was served, but it was very disappointing – actually quite horrible!  Some large chunks of fruit, a very fatty cold duck breast, corn and potato salad, and then a chicken breast stuffed with a king prawn, gnocchi, and courgette, with a “lobster bisque” sauce.  The chicken was too dry and tough for me to eat, the gnocchi were very dry, the courgette was watery and the lobster sauce was flavourless.  Once again I avoided the dessert cakes because they looked too artificial (one was blue).  Water or wine were not offered once during meal service, which is very poor service for business class. 1/10

For the rest of the flight I just watched the ‘moving map’ display on the screen in front of me, eager for us to get to BKK and to end this less than great flight. But to my dismay we had to circle over the sea for a while before being allowed to land. We finally touched down at 22:45 on runway 09R and made it to our stand C2 at 22:55, some 45 minutes behind schedule.

Overall I enjoyed my first sector, but was unhappy with the 2nd. Maybe I was excited about going on holiday outbound, and grumpily enduring a long flight to a cold London on the return flight.  But overall, in spite of my negative comments I will reiterate that Thai Royal Silk regional is a damn site better than equivalent business class flights within Europe, so I won’t moan too much!  6.5/10