Welcome to my first blog post for 2025!
My lounge review of Thai Airways Royal Orchid lounge (Concourse E) at BKK airport.
Welcome to Thai’s Royal Orchid Lounge!
Operating hours: 0500 - 0200 (next day)
Introduction
This was my 2nd time visiting Thai Airways lounge, my previous experience of Thai's Lounge was at the Royal Silk Lounge, visited in 2012. You can check out my experience over here.
As I was aware of the number of lounges this airline has at this airport, I decided to go for the one which I haven't visited before. I had 2 choices of the Royal Orchid Lounges and they are located at concourse D and concourse E, I went for the one at concourse E. My impression of the lounge is how outdated the interior is and while it has nothing exciting to about the lounge, at least there is a good number of seats and good variety of food at the buffet section. However, the tired looking lounge could certainly do with an upgrade. Even the lounge staff recommended me to visit Silverkris lounge since I was flying with SQ but after explaining to her of my intention, she understood and we had a bit of chat exploring the lounge.
Without further ado, let's begin this airport lounge review.
If you have a choice on which Thai lounge to use, I recommend you to check out the Royal Orchid Prestige Lounge and you can check out Milelion's excellent review over here.
Location
What does this lounge offer?
- Buffet
- Sleep rooms
- Bar
- WiFi
- Showers
- TV Screens
- Newspaper and Magazines
Who can access this lounge?
- Star Alliance Business and First Class passengers
- Star Alliance Gold members
- Credit Card holders (in partner with Thai Airways)
- Pay to access this lounge is possible
Photos of the lounge
This is the bar counter which offers a good variety of alcoholic drinks.
The interior of the lounge
I noticed the lack of charging ports in this lounge.
The lounge is divided to different sections which includes the buffet area (shown below).
The magazine and newspaper section
This is the resting area
Each resting area consists of a bed, pillow and a table with the lamp.
There is no sliding door to each of the resting area.
Another view of the lounge
Window view of the apron
What's inside the shower room?
Handwash
The shower room is available on a first come first serve basis.
Food and Beverages
A selection of cold and hot beverages is available.
Coffee machine
A good selection of cold and warm food
Warm snacks
Local dessert
Appetisers
For the hot food, local Thai food is available.
Refreshing drinks are available.
This is what I had at the lounge
I decided to try out some warm food to compare the quality with the other lounges.
A plate of dessert
The quality of the food didn't disappoint.
My ratings
Location of the lounge: 5/5
Staff Service: 5/5
Lounge interior: 2.5/5
Selection of Food and Beverages: 3/5
Wifi Connection: 5/5
Seats condition: 2.5/5
Facilities/Amenities: 3/5
Overall rating: 26/35
Percentage: 74%
Conclusion
While this lounge is not as glamorous as others, at least it has what most travallers need before departure and that is the ability to grab some food and beverages, get some rest if there is enough time and shower to wash up before the flight. However the lounge looks dated with some of the armchairs looking tired and the size of the lounge is quite small compared to others. Among the lounges I visited, this was my shortest stay but I find it to be adequate for a quick refreshing up and also an alternative to go to if the other lounges are crowded. Hopefully the airline should consider giving this lounge a facelift if it intends to continue operating it, after all this is the main hub for the airline and their lounges should be as good or better than the lounges of both the allies and competitors.
For my Silverkris Lounge at BKK review, click here
For my EVA Air Lounge review, click here
For my Turkish Airlines Lounge review, click here
Thanks for reading!
Charles
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