Thai Airways cuts Sydney-Bangkok flights: your options explained

Passengers travelling from Sydney on Star Alliance airline Thai Airways from next month should check their tickets: the carrier is cutting one daily flight from its Sydney-Bangkok schedule.

Flights TG477/TG472 will be dropped from 1 August, two months earlier than the previously-announced October cancellation for this service.

The remaining daily flights from Sydney are:

• TG476 departing Sydney at 1000, arriving in Bangkok at 1630
• TG478 departing Sydney at 1525, arriving in Bangkok at 2155

In reverse, the two daily Bangkok-Sydney flights are:

• TG471 departing Bangkok at 0755, arriving in Sydney at 2000
• TG475 departing Bangkok at 1915, arriving in Sydney at 0720 the next morning

Both remaining flight pairs are on Airbus A340-600s, the stretched version of the long-range Airbus plane.

(Flying in business class on Thai's flights from Sydney? We've got the best seats to pick on the A340-600 on the route.) 

What to do if you were on one of the now-cancelled flights

If your plans had you on TG472 or TG477, the airline should contact you to let you know and to allocate you to a new flight. But we recommend calling them immediately to get ahead of everyone else trying to rebook. Thai's Australian number is 1300 651 960.

You do have options if the new flight isn't convenient, though, especially if you're connecting via Bangkok and the flight will leave you with an irritatingly extended layover.

First talk to the airline to see what other options are available: with the remaining two flights a day we've outlined above, you can push to be moved onto the other flight if it's more convenient.

If you're still stuck with an inconvenient schedule, ask to be passed on to a supervisor who has authority to move you to another airline. 

This is where global alliance networks (Thai is a member of the Star Alliance) come in useful: partner airlines can present more schedule options.

For example, if you were heading to Frankfurt on Thai, you may be able to get the airline to reroute you onto its Star Alliance partner Lufthansa's flights instead.

Global schedule websites and apps like Skyscanner and even Google's Flight Search function (just type in, say, "Bangkok-Frankfurt flights") can come in useful -- "Oh, the late night Thai flight is full? I see there's a Lufthansa flight departing at 2345, and I'd like to be moved to that, please."

(A tip of our natty 'flight schedule change' fedora hat to the ever-detailed airlineroute.net)

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.