We flew Thai Airways for the short one-hour flight from Bangkok, Thailand to Siem Reap Cambodia. The on-board experience was excellent, the ground less so.
Prior to entering Cambodia you need to apply for a visa: https://www.evisagov.co/official/en/application.php and then up to seven days before arrival complete an arrival card: https://arrival.gov.kh/
The result is that you can’t obtain an electronic boarding pass – Thai Airways want you to check in and show them your visa. Luckily, we have a Gold Star Alliance card, so were able to use the business check in. It was 5.45am in morning and the lady at check in hadn’t her coffee – in a country where everyone is really polite, she was rude, even by Western standards. She also neglected to warn us about the lack of lounges near our gate.
We passed security and headed to Concourse S, passing some lovely Thai Airways Royal Orchid lounges en route that we would have been able to use. Concourse S is via an underground train, then there is a security check.
Concourse S is huge.
But there are no Star Alliance lounges there. Getting back would have been difficult and so we found ourselves having the worst McDonald’s breakfast ever! This was even more painful, as we’d skipped what would have been an excellent breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Bangkok Airport in anticipation of a lounge breakfast.
Once on-board, we found our reasonably comfortable seats.
After takeoff, we were served an absolutely delicious Thai chicken wrap.
Arrival in Siem Reap was smooth and we cleared immigration quite quickly – contrast that with an arrival into Bangkok, which a badly-organised mess, with hour-long waits for immigration.
We’d fly Thai Airways again, but be really careful about the lounges next time.
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