Its A Long Way to Bangkok

View of the planes from the lounge.
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Brian kindly helped us get most of the way to the airport using public transportation so that we didn't have to take a cab. We left his place and caught the subway to the AirTrain. With our lovely transportation karma we managed to sit on the subway for a good 5 min at one of the stations waiting to be able to leave. We finally made it to the AirTrain station, and Brian left us there. The AirTrain is a $5 flat fee per person to JFK. It is certainly made for those with luggage though, as you can actually wheel your luggage onto the train and not have to carry it over the gap. It stops at the car rental area, and then all the terminals. We hopped off at terminal four and headed for check in.

Jeff with our luggage at the AirTrain stop. We were proud of ourselves for how little me managed to take for three weeks!
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There was no line for check in, but we did have to wait to give our bags to the security screener. I miss the days of leaving one's bags at the check in counter! The terminal has been fairly newly remodeled and is quite pretty. There is lots of duty free shopping to keep you busy while you are waiting for your plane. The odd thing about the terminal though, is that almost everything is before you go through security. Most of the shops and restaurants are pre-security. The other really annoying thing is that the airline lounges are all pre security as well. Usually they are after security so that you can hang out there until right before you get on the plane.

The flight path we were supposed to take.
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We did head to the Swiss Air lounge for a little bit. They had a number of snack foods and some muffins. They did have a nice beverage assortment. Wireless high speed is available in the lounge and they have some computers for your use as well, if you don't have your own. There is a nice wall of windows that you can watch the places through. Our plane was on the other side of the concourse and not visible from the lounge. Half an hour before boarding we were advised to leave the lounge and head through security. This causes quite the line at security.

The upstairs of our room.
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Thai Airways flies their airbus A340-500 from both JFK and LAX nonstop to Bangkok. On these US configured planes, there is no first class. We were in business, or Royal Silk. The seating configuration is 2-2-2. There are two sections of Royal Silk Class. We were in the first section, which has 5 rows. It is worth noting that they start numbering their seats with row 11. I think that this is for standardization as they usually have 10 rows of first class. It is also worth noting that Thai has a wonderful economy and premium economy class with generous leg room and seat recline. The Royal Silk class seats do fold flat, but not level. I found that I kept sliding down in the seat and didn't keep it quite flat to help keep myself from being on the floor when I had it reclined. I have never seen this before on a plane, but even the lavatories have windows. The purpose of them isn't clear me, as your back is to them when you are using the lavatory, but they are there.

The rest of the upstairs
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Each seat was stocked with headphones, a toiletry kit (with a sleep mask), a decent size pillow, and a full size blanket. The cabin attendants quickly came around with hot towels, champagne, and menus. They take your order for all three meals before take off, so don't waste any time deciding what you want to eat!! The first meal was served quickly after takeoff and was as pretty as it was tasty. Between meals, they cabin lights were off, but there is a reading light built into your seat as well as the overhead light. Unlike any other airline that I have ever flown on, the cabin attendants are very firm that no window shades will be up during "sleep" time (which is anytime that they aren't feeding you). We flew over some beautiful scenery, but lifting the shade for more than a brief moment, brought a frantic attendant who insisted that the shade be down because people might be trying to sleep. The flight leaves NYC at noon and lands in Bangkok at 5pm, so it isn't technically an overnight flight. At no time were the majority of people sleeping either. The lack of being able to look out the window (when there was something to look at) is enough to keep me from having a desire to fly Thai Airways again.

Hi Jeff!
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The route that the plane usually takes involves flying over Greenland, the North Pole (hi Santa!) and Siberia. We had a major tailwind, so we flew much further south than usually and skirted the UK before flying over Europe and the middle east. For a period of time it looked like we would be able to see the Himalayas, but ended up flying south around them. We did fly over the mountains of Afghanistan, which were beautiful covered with some very thick snow. They were some serious mountains! The Himalayas must be amazing from the air. We did manage to get some pictures when the cabin attendant wasn't looking.

Had to sneak the shade up to get a picture when the cabin attendant wasn't looking!
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Entertainment for the flight is provided by your own screen and on demand movies. They had a nice selection of new movies, recent releases, and some older more popular movies (Titanic and Pretty Woman are two examples of these). You can also listen to on demand music and play video games. They have games that you can play alone or with other people on the plane. In Royal Silk class (I am not sure about in economy) they have power plugs for laptops built into the seat. They accepted the regular plug, so it wasn't necessary to have an airline power adaptor. With the exception of the whole window thing, it was a very enjoyable flight with good service.

We made it through immigration, got our bags, headed through customs and were pleased to find our transportation waiting to take us to our hotel, The Old Bangkok Inn. Our driver was very friendly and tried to teach us a few simple phrases in Thai, but I don't think that my tired brain absorbed much.

The staff was very welcoming with ice cold glasses of lemon tea waiting for us. Check in was done from the comfort of a coach while we sipped our tea and they carried all our bags upstairs to our room. Our room was quite nice and feels very authentically Thai. The provided soap and shower gel even smell Thai! There is an entry, bathroom, and closet in the entry and the bedroom is an upstairs loft. We quickly took showers and headed to bed.