Thai Lion Air SL104 is the afternoon flight from Bangkok Don Mueang to Singapore. I was quite looking forward to this flight as I was aiming to get the brand new Airbus A330-900neo which Thai Lion Air swapped out for an Airbus A330-300 on my onward flight from Singapore. This time, I got the actual Airbus A330-900neo with no aircraft swaps, though it turned out to be absolutely memorable in a ridiculous way.
Heading to Row 8 to check in for my Thai Lion Air SL104 flight.
All Thai Lion Air international flights are at the centralised check-in counters at Row 8.
My boarding pass for my Thai Lion Air SL104 flight from Bangkok Don Mueang to Singapore.
My small Thai Lion Air cabin bag of 40x30x20cm.
My bag is tagged at the check-in row after checking the weight of it – 7.0kg.
Heading to departure immigration. Thankfully, there’s no queues at immigration and security, unlike what Don Mueang is famous for.
After security, there is just an easy single short path to the gates. A reason why I prefer flying from Don Mueang than from Suvarnabhumi (but of course they both have their pros and cons).
There are just 3 sections you need to think about – Gates 1 to 7 if you’re unfortunately taking a bus to the plane, Gates 11 to 15 on the straight pier, and Gates 21 to 26 on the only finger pier in the international Terminal 1.
AirAsia’s first Airbus A320neo in Don Mueang.
The main junction where the 3 sections of gates split. Gate 15 is up ahead, however, I headed to the finger pier first to get some side shots of my Airbus A330neo.
HS-LAL will be taking me from Don Mueang to Singapore – my very first Airbus A330neo flight on this 3-week-old aircraft.
Heading on to Gate 15.
Taking the travellator to speed up the walk.
The Sharklet wingtip of the Airbus A330neo.
Passengers to Singapore are already waiting outside Gate 15.
A queue was also formed before the gate hold room door.
The entrance to the Gate 15 gate hold room.
HS-LAL at Gate 15.
The Airbus A330-900neo uses the same fuselage as the existing Airbus A330-300.
The Airbus A330-900neo wears the new cockpit “sunglasses” too.
Once the crew enters the gate hold room, the doors are opened for everyone to enter.
The departure screen outside Gate 15 for my SL105 flight.
Boarding passes are checked at the counter before entering the seating area.
The ramp down to the gate hold room.
HS-LAL as seen from the gate hold room.
The entrance to the gate, blocked off by a queue pole.
I took a seat in the gate hold room first while waiting for the gate to open.
A silent undoing of the queue pole, and the crowds swarm into the gate. Announcements are made for boarding only after I would say 100 people have already entered the gate.
Heading through the aerobridge. Despite seating 436 people, only 1 aerobridge is used for this widebody aircraft.
Heading to board my first ever Airbus A330-900neo flight.
The new Sharklet style on the Airbus A330-900neo.
Boarding the Airbus A330-900neo.
The Thai Lion Air Airbus A330-900neo is arranged in a 9-abreast 3-3-3 configuration unlike the usual standard of an 8-abreast 2-4-2 configuration for the A330. With this tight config
The boarding door has a nice light motif on the ceiling.
Passing through the middle cabin to my seat all the way at the back.
The typical legroom on board the Thai Lion Air Airbus A330-900neo.
Heading through the aft cabin.
The window columns between Rows 47 to 54 taper to a 2-3-2 configuration at the rear as the aircraft fuselage tapers inwards. These are the only pair seats on board the aircraft, in case you are planning to purchase your seats.
And at the last row, lies the most coveted pair of seats for those in the know – Seats 53H and 53K. My self-declared Super Economy™.
The prized seats on board this 436-seater plane is found all the way at the back of the aircraft.
The pair of seats in front of Row 53, Seats 51H and 51K, have also slightly more legroom than usual.
The difference in legroom for Seats 51H and 51K as compared with the other rows.
The regular legroom in all other rows.
Heading to take my seat on my self-declared Super Economy™.
Probably due to the immense legroom, floor storage is not available at my seat.
The view down the aircraft from my seat.
The amount of space I get on this self-declared Super Economy™ crew rest seat.
More Indonesian words on this Thai Lion Air aircraft.
Unlike pretty much all other Economy Class seats, there are two buttons by the side.
One is for the usual recline, and the other is for the calf rest.
No problems about propping up your legs with the calf rest with the immense legroom available at my self-declared Super Economy™ Seats 53H and 53K.
Adjustable headrests are also available at Seats 53H and 53K, which is not available on every other seat on board the aircraft.
As the overhead compartment above my seat is used to store emergency equipment, I placed my bag on the opposite overhead compartment.
The middle overhead compartment fits a regular cabin bag well (How did you bypass the check-in desk checks?), but the ones on the window side are noticeably shorter, hence probably the reason for the smaller cabin bag restriction.
The immense legroom I get on my self-declared Super Economy™, this crew rest seat. Totally worth the additional seat fee I paid.
Seats 51H, 51K, 53H and 53K are also the only seats with individual air-conditioning vents.
More Indonesian words on board this brand new Thai Lion Air aircraft.
On my self-declared Super Economy™, I have 2 windows to myself in the upright position.
Passengers still boarding the aircraft, which has a higher seating capacity of 436 passengers than Singapore Airlines’ Airbus A380-800 (Version 2) at 379 passengers.
At this point of time, the cabin crew in charge of my side of the aircraft came around to ask me:
Cabin Crew: Excuse me, where is your seat sir?
Me: Here.
Cabin Crew: Here? Can I see your boarding pass?
Me: Sure. *hands him my boarding pass*
Cabin Crew: *takes a hard unbelieving look at my seat number and hands it back* Ok.
Great, I’ve been checked that I am at my actual seat. Looks good. Or so I thought.
As refuelling was going on, the fasten seat belt signs are switched off. Notice that the window columns of seats have only 2 reading lights installed despite having 3 seats in a row.
Likewise, the middle column has 4 reading lights installed even though there’s only 3 seats in a row. Seems like an oversight on the customer’s part to keep the usual Airbus’ configuration of 2-4-2 for the reading lights.
The brand new safety card for the Thai Lion Air Airbus A330-900neo.
With the missing Row 52, I have a wide view of the other regular seats from my seat.
The view from out of one of my windows.
The new Sharklet on the wing of the Thai Lion Air Airbus A330-900neo.
Just for fun, I decided to flip out the tray table far away from me on the seat back in front of me.
The tray table is a simple fold-down, with the bar holding up the table clearly showing how little recline the regular seat offers.
Still loading up the last container of bags when almost everyone has boarded.
With all passengers on board and the door shut, the cabin crew begins the safety demonstration.
[This image has been removed pending investigation by Thai Lion Air.]
Two cabin crew perform the safety demonstration in each cabin.
[This image has been removed pending investigation by Thai Lion Air.]
[This image has been removed pending investigation by Thai Lion Air.]
You may notice a face that is not blurred out here. More on her shortly – she’s the reason for this article’s headline.
After the last bags were loaded, the pushback was delayed due to heavy traffic around the airport.
Finally pushing back after departure timing.
Heading out of the apron.
Flying to Singapore together, eh?
Taxiing to the runway with a view of the Royal Thai Air Force base.
Taking off from Runway 21R.
Goodbye Don Mueang.
Banking right.
The 8 tracks of the new Don Mueang Railway Station as seen from above.
A rather straightforward ascend, though the seat belt signs seem to take longer than usual to turn off due to some turbulence on the ascend.
Once the seat belt signs were switched off, I propped up my calf rest to relax on this 2-hour-ish flight.
During this time, the cabin crew in charge of my side of the plane came along with a senior crew, and she asked:
Senior Cabin Crew: Can I see your boarding pass?
Me: Sure. *hands her my boarding pass*
Senior Cabin Crew: *takes a hard unbelieving look at my seat number and hands it back*
Without mentioning anything. At this point of time, I felt like as if I’m unwanted on Thai Lion Air for my sitting in Seat 53K to be escalated to the senior cabin crew. More on this later on how I knew she was the senior.
As the table on the seat back in front is obviously too far to be rendered useable, there is a folding side table stowed in the armrest. There is a cup holder area on the half-folded part of the table.
Once the table folds out, however, there is no cup holder space.
I reclined my crew rest seat all the way just to feel the stretch I can get, and it was amazing. When fully reclined, I have 3 windows to myself, which is the same windows as you’ll get on Singapore Airlines’ Suites. Easily the best Economy Class seat I have been on in my life. I think I can fly this self-declared Super Economy™ to London even without any in-flight entertainment.
While there are no personal in-flight entertainment screens on board the Thai Lion Air Airbus A330-900neo, an announcement was made that in-flight WiFi for streaming entertainment was available, so I went to check it out.
However, at the welcome screen, despite scrolling through the whole list of terms and conditions, the button to agree or cancel were missing and did not work, even though I’ve tried clicking it multiple times.
Even after scrolling up and clicking it faster, it only made my screen zoom in like a double-tap rather than having the button do anything aside from changing colour.
I tried using another browser, and it was the same issue.
The zooming happened again despite using another browser.
Oh well, no in-flight entertainment for me then. Wasn’t a problem since this is a short flight anyway.
Another cabin crew from the mid or forward cabin came up to me to request for my boarding pass for my pre-booked meal, and served me shortly after.
My pre-booked meal for this flight.
I ordered a Chicken Panaeng Curry for S$6.80 for this flight. The pre-booked meals come with a small bottle of mineral water.
The Chicken Panaeng Curry tasted pretty good, though the portion felt rather small. The rice was a little crusty at the side but I guess that’s normal for an in-flight meal from a foil box. The serving was also rather flat, about half-full and fluffed, rather than AirAsia’s style of packing it to the brim.
To supplement my meal, I purchased an additional Thai Green Curry Fried Rice from the sales trolley as it came by. This instant meal costs 90 Baht.
Upon payment at the cart, a steward went to the galley to mix the ingredients with hot water, and returned me the packet, telling me to wait for 7 minutes for the Mama Handi Rice Instant Fried Rice Thai Green Curry With Fish Meat to cook before eating it. The instant fried rice amount was pretty substantial, with a good green curry taste, and made me more than full. Perhaps next time I’ll stick with the buy-on-board menu instead (if there is even a next time).
Heading to the toilet, someone before me has left some gifts on the floor.
The toilet has a rather slim design, similar to the Airbus A320neo. The mirror is above the toilet bowl rather than the sink.
The compact sink area in the toilet.
A speaker is placed above the sink. Thai Lion Air plays ambient music throughout the duration of the flight.
Paper towels are provided, a plus point for Thai Lion Air.
Heading back to relax in my seat.
During this time, another person made his way to take up Seat 51H since it was vacant.
The senior cabin crew came by swiftly and told him:
Senior Cabin Crew: Return to your seat please.
Him and his group of friends (tl;dr version because I can’t remember what exactly was said): We asked another cabin crew and she said it’s okay.
Senior Cabin Crew: Okay but I am the senior crew here. Next time this is not allowed because this seat is crew area. He made a mistake *points to me in my seat* so we just let him sit there. *walks off rudely*
Well excuse me, I paid for this specific seat. And it’s not very pleasant to suddenly be involved in someone’s tensed conversation without warning.
I decided that if she walks past again, I would let her know that it’s not a mistake at all.
Starting the descend near Tenggaroh.
Flying past Changi Airport and East Coast.
The lit Sharklet at night.
Cabin lights were switched off for landing.
Flying over Batam – over it’s parents’ homeland.
Changi Airport as seen from over Batam.
Banking sharp right towards Changi Airport.
Descending over the ships parked off East Coast.
Flying past the ECP intersection for Xilin Avenue and Tanah Merah Coast Road.
Flying over the PIE.
Looks like all the Silkair Boeing 737 MAX 8 are gone to storage in Alice Springs.
Touched down at 7.34pm – 4 minutes delayed from schedule.
Taxiing back to Terminal 3.
It was a surprising short taxi to the gate.
An unexpected short taxi and view, since I thought Lion Group usually uses Gates A15 to A21, rather than any B gates.
Parked at Gate B6.
Here’s where the “fun” starts.
A lady came to pick her stuff from the overhead bin in front of my row of seats but couldn’t reach it, so she asked the cabin crew taking care of my section for help to bring down the bag.
Instead of him responding to the request, this senior cabin crew came instead to just pull the bag just to the front of the overhead bin and then said:
Senior Cabin Crew: There.
*without pausing for a reaction from anyone*
Senior Cabin Crew: Oh you mean you want me to bring it down for you? Next time 7kg only ya miss?
Now if she had waited for the woman to actually say that first, I would have been on her side since cabin crew are not covered by insurance if they injure yourself when helping you, neither is lifting your own bag part of their job scope. But the fact that she came up with her sarcastic comment so quickly means she might have planned this script, which is why she came forward instead of letting the male cabin crew just attend to the woman, after all, the woman did ask the male cabin crew for help and not her.
Since I saw her then, I decided to tell her about my non-mistake of sitting in Seat 53K.
Me: Excuse me, I just wanted to tell you that this isn’t a mistake that I’m sitting here.
Senior Cabin Crew: Ya it’s not your mistake, it’s the airline’s mistake.
Me: No it’s not. It’s nobody’s mistake. I paid for this seat.
Senior Cabin Crew: You paid for the crew seat?
Me: Yes, I paid extra for this crew seat. I know it’s a crew seat, but Thai Lion sells this for a short haul flight because I think it’s only a crew seat when the flight is longer than 8 hours.
I had half my mind to talk about their chasing off the guy in Seat 51H as well as it may not be a crew seat but a stretcher seat, since it has curtains but not any crew rest functions, but decided to let it go since the ground crew was rushing to turn around the flight.
Then the woman came along and started yelling at the Senior Cabin Crew for being so rude and that she didn’t call her for help in the first place since she was a lady which is why she called the gentleman crew to help, and then told her that it’s the worst service she ever had with Thai Lion Air despite flying with them once a month for the past 5 years between Bangkok and Singapore – and that her cabin bag was only 5kg but she’s weak, to which I’m now stuck in the middle because I was still in my seat and the two of them weren’t giving any leeway to one another. The Senior Cabin Crew even tried to twist the story to “Shall I just put your bag up again and get that guy to come and help you bring it down instead? Is that what you want?” which just pissed the woman off even more and demanded for her name and rank (which she did not give).
Unfortunately I did not bring my GoPro with me, if not, I might have the next worldwide viral video.
Once another passenger came along to help diffuse the situation and split the two of them apart, the woman demanded to get the two of their (crew) names, which I would have loved to stay on to get it too because the Senior Cabin Crew was unbelievably snobbish and does not reflect pretty much every other Thai out there. I’ve only met 2 rude Thai people in my life, both who are based in Singapore (I guess that’s where they picked up their rudeness from ¯\_(ツ)_/¯), but this Senior Cabin Crew brings it to the next level I have never seen among Thai people.
By this time when asking for names, the woman walked to the front cabin at the coaxing of another passenger, and the Senior Cabin Crew asked me:
Senior Cabin Crew: Are the both of you together?
Me: No… No way. These are two separate issues.
And she proceeded to just walk back to the galley, never to be seen again.
While picking up my bag, I told the guy cabin crew taking care of my section, repeating that it’s not a mistake.
Me: Can you just help me tell her that as this is a short-haul flight, there’s no crew seats? I paid extra for this, you saw my boarding pass right?
Cabin Crew: Yes, yes. Maybe she doesn’t know.
And I was instructed to disembark from the aircraft by the crew and ground staff since they needed to turn around the plane back to Don Mueang.
Notice even at the end of the bullying by Thai Lion Air and me clarifying that it’s not a mistake and I even paid for my seat assignment, NOT ONCE did I get an apology from anyone on that flight even though my seat issue has been in discussion before take off and after landing, from Don Mueang to Changi. That’s even longer than the actual flight time.
Looking back at the rear cabin with the two cabin crew (the male one is in charge of my section), who are looking out to see what’s going on with the woman continuing to shout in front in the middle cabin.
[This image has been removed pending investigation by Thai Lion Air.]
I used the other aisle to disembark as the woman is taking up the right aisle, now speaking to another cabin crew who is taking care of the middle section, together with the Senior Cabin Crew (unblurred face) standing at the side.
Heading to the exit, which is in Thai instead of Indonesian. The lighted mosaic clearly marks the location of the exit door.
The other mosaic on the other aisle side.
Quite understandably, the crew at the door gave me a hurried “Thank You” telling me to quickly disembark rather than a polite goodbye, since they were a few minutes late for the turnaround already.
Heading up the aerobridge with the woman continuing to complain about the Senior Cabin Crew to me and the other passenger coaxing her to leave the aircraft.
Looking back at HS-LAL.
Thanks for my first Airbus A330-900neo flight – it was indeed very memorable.
Taking the travellator to arrival immigration.
Heading down to arrival immigration.
As I had no check-in bags with just my small carry-on bag, I simply headed out of the baggage reclaim area.
Despite the commotion and being the third last passenger to disembark, baggage was still coming out for those who checked in their bags. I guess check-in baggage must be really popular since not many people can achieve the small and restrictive baggage allowance of Thai Lion Air.
From here, I headed to the MRT station to catch the train back home.
Overall, the crew seat of 53K was amazing, but everything else in the Thai Lion Air experience fell unbelievably short of any minimal expectations I got. I was fine with no service, but to demean me by consistently asking for my boarding pass and escalating the non-existent situation to a senior cabin crew, and suddenly accusing me of making a mistake during another passengers’ commotion mid-flight, made me feel like a peasant on Thai Lion Air who doesn’t belong to a plane. The refugee-layout of 436 on board this aircraft, which has a higher passenger count than some Airbus A380s, further complemented this experience as passengers in the rear of the aircraft were treated as swine especially by the senior cabin crew.
It’s very disappointing to get this experience on board this flight as the onward flight crew when I was going to Bangkok were amazing – on par with Thai Airways International’s standards in terms of how they smile and serve meals. Furthermore, it was my first Airbus A330-900neo flight ever on this brand new plane, and Thai Lion Air has set my experience on this flight to such a negative one. The small baggage allowance is also a key concern, especially for a trip to Bangkok when I’m restricted to just 1 small bag if I don’t pre-pay the per-kg rates for check-in baggage.
If Thai Lion Air is so insistent that the area is a crew rest, why not just block it out for sale? It’s not like I changed my seat like playing musical chairs, or even requested for a free upgrade, I clearly paid extra for it. Don’t take my money then accuse me of making a mistake by sitting in a crew seat when you sold me my seat assignment.
[This image has been removed pending investigation by Thai Lion Air.]
[This image has been removed pending investigation by Thai Lion Air.]
[This information has been removed pending investigation by Thai Lion Air.]
To this Senior Cabin Crew, congratulations for making me reconsider my airline options when flying to Bangkok again. Clearly I won’t be wanting to fly an airline which treats me like a peasant, despite the onward flight being pleasant. Two flights a day by Thai Lion Air between Singapore and Bangkok with a chance of flying with you doesn’t really impact me on my schedule when there are flights almost every half an hour between Singapore and Bangkok.
When did you select your 53H/53K seat? It seems that Thai Lion Air has started to block out these seats on their flights – these seats are not available for selection when purchasing a ticket.
I selected them after purchasing my ticket.
I see. Figured this would be the case, and that the seats would become available either during check-in, or as a subsequent post-purchase add-on.
Very cool though. Given that the soft product on Thai Lion Air seems so variable, it’s good to know that it’s possible to get an excellent hard product depending on the aircraft. After all, hard products are constant.
Oh . So you the photographer. And is also the writer. Your writing about the flight incident is really unfair to them. Every new plane need reasonable times to adjust their service to the passengers demand. Nevertheless you have good write up of the new Airplane with marvelous facilities and good services. I saw the whole incident as I was the passenger in red T-shirt and blue track pant who pacify both party.. Infact the lady crew was quite polite to the unreasonable woman. She must know that her initial request from the male crew was not able to acceed because the whole passage was blocked by the standing passengers. Why she cannot take the luggage herself or ask the other passengers to help her same as every passengers. Must come and need extra service from the crew staff to carry her bag down and if not available then complain the service is no good. She is the only one to demand out of 380 passenfer. If she tell other airline crew and see what happen to her. Typical passenger think spend money and want to complain and complain only. I still enjoy my smooth flight with the LionAir excellent services throughout my flight from Don Muang to Singapore. Cheers🤗❤
Hi, this article is not mainly about that lady, but rather, having to explain why I have that seat 53K even before the flight, during the flight, and after the flight, and being wrongly accused of making a mistake and having my situation even escalated to the senior cabin crew. As I mentioned, I would have been on the cabin crew’s side as they are not covered by insurance when they help, and I was referring to her attitude.
Oh. I see. I believe is a genuine admin mistake of not informing the operation crew. If I am incharge I also need to check why you are sitting there. Is the crew SOP. As for this, the crew checking is their duty to do so. Your word attitude means repeated checking or chasing you out. For me the crew are very tolerated and polite also same like you a very polite and very undertanding person. They do not raise their voice to you I believe . They also did not asked you to give up the sit. Just move on. Every services got new unforeseen circumstances to solve. Cheers😛🤗
May I know under which law did you post a person’s photo without blurring her face and especially only 1 person? Please explain.
I don’t think there’s a specific law covering the blurring of faces in flight. Besides, there are tonnes of websites and videos posting faces of literally everyone on board the plane including the crew and passengers alike. I think RailTravel Station is the only Singapore (and Malaysia) website which actively blurs out people’s faces in all photos.
If you are able to show me the law, please do, and I will gladly abide by it with no questions asked.
I am also coñfused because you blurred everyone’s faces except that specific cabin crew. Just wondering. If your website is one of the sites that blurrs everyone face, why did you leave her.
Um, if you had read the article you would know why.
I did read the article but I just feel its unfair for that cabin crew after reading the comment from above passenger who was in the flight.
His comment was referring to the lady passenger, not my experience.
My commend was referring to you, Mr railtravelstation for destroying the good Airline product and their crew career and services with your pen on the untrue negative commends on the service staff and putting her photo in your article. You are not a professional person. I can be their witness if you need go to her office to clarify.. I think you should also put up your own photo here for the public to appreciate your good article here🙁
I can assure you that it is a true recount and not a good airline product of how the senior crew treated her passengers. You were not seated in my area, hence you did not see the commotion since the beginning of the flight. Since you are the person who helped separate the lady and the crew, perhaps you could also tell me how “untrue” you claim my recount of the incident is.
Also, knowing Thai Lion Air, I highly doubt that the crew’s career will be affected, so you don’t have to worry about that.
Oh I see. You are still a confuse person that cannot differentiate the genuine admin mistake than the operational requirement on the ground. I don’t see the crews shouting or treathen you.Yet you take it as life and death matter. As far I am concern the whole episode dosen’t need you to kill people ricebowl. Also by stating that the Company will not take action in this matter is insulting to their management credibility. You need to retract and apologise for your sweeping statement. You understand. 🤨