With no official announcement from Thai Airways yet, travelers in Bangkok have been passing a Thai Airways website link via e-mail today which notifies passengers that, as of May 1st, 2012, Thai Airways will no longer be running its non-stop direct flight from Bangkok (BKK) to Los Angeles (LAX). The airline is also cutting the days it flies that route from the now-six to just Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, and those flights will now have a stop-over in Seoul, South Korea.
In other words, Thai Airways is going back to what it was doing three years ago, running its normal one-stop flights from Bangkok to LAX -- but this time going via Seoul.
In July, 2008 the airline also canceled its non-stop service from Bangkok to New York, so with this latest cancellation it now leaves Thai Airways with no non-stop flights to the US. Some passengers however may just be saying "No great loss".
Since the Bangkok to Los Angeles non-stop flight originated three years ago, there have been complaints from would-be passengers in Thailand who didn't like that the flight left Bangkok so early in the morning, and arrived in LA so late at night.
For Thai passengers, that often meant the addition of two nights in a hotel (one at each end), and thus an added cost to the price of a ticket.
Ticket prices too were higher for the non-stop flight than the one-stop option most other airlines offer, although there hasn't been any indication from Thai Airways if low-passenger rates had anything to do with their decision to cancel the non-stop option.
All we know is, as of May 1st, if you need to travel non-stop to the United States, you won't be doing it from Bangkok.
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