BANGKOK, 8 April 2019: Thai Airways International will boost privileges for Royal Orchid Plus members to accrue more miles and bonus miles based on membership status, with award charts used for travel with THAI and the Star Alliance network effective 1 October.
THAI executive vice president, commercial, Wiwat Piyawiroj said that THAI Royal Orchid Plus members would be able to take advantage of more privileges.
The amount of miles that a member earns will depend on the passenger’s booking class and the paid fare. The higher the price paid for passenger tickets, the more miles the passenger will receive.
Actual miles combined with class of service miles result in qualifying miles that determine Royal Orchid Plus tier status, with changes as follows:
Members traveling in Royal First Class:
For those in F booking class, current mileage accrual will increase from 150% to the new mileage accrual 250%.
For those in A and P booking classes, current mileage accrual will increase from 150% to the new mileage accrual 200%.
Members traveling in Royal Silk Class:
For those in C and D booking classes, current mileage accrual will increase from 125% to the new mileage accrual 150%.
Members traveling in Economy Class:
For those in Y and B booking classes, current mileage accrual will increase from 100% to the new mileage accrual 110%.
THAI Royal Orchid Plus members will also receive Tier Status Bonus Miles when they travel on international flights with THAI. Those with Platinum Tier Status will receive an additional 20% of flown miles, Gold Tier Status will receive an additional 10% of flown miles, and Silver Tier Status will receive an additional 5% of flown miles.
Bonus miles are based on member status and are special miles that members receive in addition to actual miles and booking class miles. The bonus miles cannot be calculated as qualifying miles that are used towards membership status.
The airline’s statement said it was “necessary make this award chart adjustment, which has not been changed for 25 years, to be in line with other airlines’ frequent flyer programmes.”
The amount of miles used to redeem award tickets on certain routes will be increased on an average of 24%.
For example, an award ticket from Bangkok-Tokyo-Bangkok in Royal First Class, originally required 110,000 miles but will require 135,000 miles based on the new award chart.
Some routes and passenger classes still use the same amount of miles to redeem award tickets, such as destinations in the Indochina region, Philippines, Indonesia, in all passenger classes and destinations in India, Japan, Korea in Economy Class.
With the new award chart, members may now redeem one-way award tickets, using 50% of a roundtrip award ticket instead of the previously required 68%.
Members may also redeem one-way tickets and can issue reward tickets with mixed passenger classes of service and tickets that depart and return from different destinations but within the same zone.
For example, depart on the route Bangkok-Sydney and return from Perth-Bangkok or depart from Bangkok-Tokyo and return from Seoul-Bangkok.
Members may redeem miles based on the current award chart by making reservations and issuing tickets by 30 September.
THAI has communicated the changes in mileage accrual and new award chart to Royal Orchid Plus members who have subscribed to member news by e-mail.
In addition, details have been uploaded to thaiairways.com/rop 23 March 2019.
THAI Royal Orchid Plus members can obtain further information and the New Award Chart on thaiairways.com/rop.
