Flight details

• Flight: TG413 Bangkok Suvarnabhumi to Singapore
• Class: Business
• Seat: 15J
• Aircraft Type: Airbus A321neo
• Aircraft Registration: HS-TOA
• Aircraft Age: 0.4 years
• Departure / Arrival: 11:15 / 14:30
• Flight Time: 2h 15m

There’s a fixed bulkhead separating the Business Class cabin from the Economy Class cabin, with a curtain in the aisle which remains open for takeoff and landing.

The Thompson Aero Vantage seat

Far from being a new design, the Thompson Aero Vantage was the first seat conceived by United Kingdom-based Thompson Aero Seating around 20 years ago, and its launch customer was the now-defunct British carrier bmi, which fitted the seat to its Airbus A321s in 2009, becoming the first airline in the world to offer fully flat beds in Business Class on a single-aisle aircraft.

Nonetheless the design, which offers a staggered 2-2, 1-1 layout at alternate rows, is still being installed by airlines today, since it maximises Business Class cabin density while also offering a fully flat bed for longer flights.

US carriers like Delta and JetBlue were early adopters, cementing the Vantage as a mainstay on both sides of the Atlantic.

More recently Singapore Airlines has installed the seat on its Boeing 737-8 MAX fleet, allowing the airline to offer flat beds in Business Class on all flights since October 2025, even on the shortest regional flights.

Thai Airways calls its Business Class cabin “Royal Silk”, and the seat features are:

• Pitch: 45 in / 114 cm
• Seat width: 21.4 in / 54 cm (pair seats slightly narrower)
• Seat recline: 180°
• Bed length: 76 in / 6 ft 4 in / 193 cm
• IFE screen: 17.3in 4K UHD touch screen with Bluetooth connectivity
• Power sockets: 1 x 110V universal AC, 1 x USB-A, 1 x USB-C

The only additional benefits the airline could have potentially provided are wireless charging – now common in the latest Business Class seats – and closing privacy doors at the throne seat positions, an option for the baseline Vantage seats that, to our knowledge, only JetBlue ever selected.

Seat selection

There are 16 seats in the Thai Airways Airbus A321neo Business Class, across five rows in the alternating 2-2, 1-1 layout, as shown below.

Solo travellers will definitely want to target the four “throne” seat options at:

• 12B
• 12J
• 15B
• 15J

Couples have a choice to make here. Two throne seats across the aisle from one another means both of you enjoy the extra space and storage, at the cost of sitting apart, while the pair seats offer a far more sociable experience.

Note that the downside of this layout is that only 10 seats in total (63%) have direct aisle access, all four throne seats plus the aisle seats at the ‘C’ and ‘H’ positions.

I booked this flight about five weeks in advance, and was lucky to find that there was still a ‘throne’ seat option at 15J available for selection, which was a no-brainer to go for when travelling alone, given the extra real estate and privacy this option provides compared to the paired seats.

Check-in

Online check-in opened 24 hours before departure, allowing me to confirm my seat selection and download a mobile boarding pass in advance.

At Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, finding the Royal Silk Business Class check-in desks for Thai Airways is not entirely intuitive. I initially headed to the airline’s main check-in area at Rows H, J and K, which is where the bulk of Thai’s Economy Class counters are located, but there was no dedicated Business Class line to be found there.

It was only after asking a member of staff that I was directed to Zone A, at the far end of the departures hall, where a separate set of Royal Silk check-in counters awaits, complete with orchid displays and comfortable seating cubes while you wait.

The area was notably quiet compared to the main check-in hall, and the process itself was swift. There’s also a Fast Track immigration lane at this end of the terminal, which deposits you almost directly at the Thai Airways lounges, a convenient setup that makes the detour to Zone A well worth it.

Lounge

After clearing Fast Track immigration, it was a short walk to the Thai Airways Royal Orchid Prestige Lounge, which serves as one of the airline’s Business Class lounges at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi.

The lounge was refreshed relatively recently and makes a good first impression, with a warm colour scheme of dark wood finishes, gold accents and plenty of greenery throughout that contrasts nicely against Thai’s signature purple furnishings.

It’s a comfortable and spacious space to spend some time before your flight.

The food offering is decent, with a buffet spread featuring a mix of Thai and international options served from an attractively presented station. I opted for a Thai curry with rice, which was flavourful enough as a decent pre-flight bite.

Drinks are served from a manned bar, where Piper-Heidsieck champagne is available alongside a full range of other beverages, a cut above the Business Class lounges that simply leave bottles out for self-service.

One notable absence is the Royal Orchid Spa, which was once one of the most famous perks in aviation, offering complimentary massages to Business and First Class passengers before their flights.

Sadly, the spa has remained shuttered since the pandemic and shows no signs of returning. It was the kind of signature experience that set Thai Airways apart, and its continued closure is a real missed opportunity.

For those flying this route in reverse (Singapore to Bangkok) it’s worth noting that Thai Airways’ own lounge at Changi has permanently closed, not that it was much to write home about. The airline has also moved its Singapore operations to Terminal 2, where it directs passengers to the SATS Premier Lounge.

However, since Thai is a Star Alliance member, you can also access the& Singapore Airlines SilverKris or KrisFlyer Gold lounges in Terminal 2. SQ’s Terminal 3 lounges are another option if you prefer, you’ll just need to take the SkyTrain back to T2 for boarding.

Boarding

Boarding was called by group, with Business Class passengers invited first, though with a single-aisle aircraft, that head start doesn’t last long before Economy passengers begin filing through.

First impressions? Very purple! Thai’s signature colour dominates the cabin, from the seat cushion accents and pillow wraps to the carpet stripe running down the aisle. It’s unmistakably Thai Airways, and the brand-new cabin looks and smells the part.

That said, Thai has scaled back the purple somewhat from earlier aircraft types, with more muted greys and creams used alongside, especially notable when you compare with other models like the Boeing 777-300ER.

The A321neo features the Airbus Airspace cabin, with enlarged overhead luggage compartments and individual air nozzles at every seat.

Waiting at each seat was a small bottle of water, a wrapped blanket and pillow, and a pair of headphones. A printed menu was tucked into the literature pocket, with a nicely designed cover featuring Thai’s orchid motif.

There’s no amenity kit on this route, nor slippers or pyjamas, though that’s entirely expected on a sector of this length. You’ll need to fly Thai’s long-haul network for those.

The crew came through shortly after boarding to take meal orders, a nice touch that helps speed up the service on a short sector.

That said, the process was a bit chaotic, with Economy passengers still streaming past in the narrow aisle while the crew tried to work the cabin. It’s one of the unavoidable realities of a single-aisle Business Class with a shared forward boarding door.

One disappointment was the lack of welcome drinks.

This isn’t the case on Thai’s wide-body flights on this same route. I flew Business Class on a Boeing 777-300ER to Singapore just a few weeks earlier, and champagne was offered on boarding.

The omission here is almost certainly down to the practicalities of a narrow-body aircraft, but it’s still a shame. Interestingly, Singapore Airlines does manage to offer welcome drinks in Business Class on its Boeing 737-8 MAX flights, though it’s noticeably awkward for the crew to pull off while all other passengers are still boarding.

The seat itself features a three-point seatbelt, not a personal favourite but a requirement with certain seat designs like this one, and at least you only need to wear the shoulder harness for takeoff and landing itself.

Settling into one of the window throne seats at 15J, the immediate impression is the sheer amount of space on offer compared to the paired centre seats. It feels really expansive, with a wide side console and a generous footwell ahead.

We were soon on our way and took off from a beautiful sunny Bangkok towards Singapore.

Wi-Fi

Thai Airways chose the Airbus HBCplus Wi-Fi option on its A321neos, a Ka-band system that uses a hybrid mix of Geostationary (GEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites to deliver higher speeds, lower latency, and more consistent global coverage than traditional single-orbit solutions.

You can think of it as a kind of halfway house between the older GEO systems and the latest LEO products, like Starlink.

I was looking forward to checking it out on this flight, but sadly the system has not yet been activated on these aircraft, and no Wi-Fi connectivity was available.

In-flight entertainment

The A321neo is fitted with a 17.3-inch 4K UHD touchscreen display at each seat, and the screen quality is really impressive. It’s remarkably sharp and vibrant, ranking among the best I’ve seen on any airline.

Entertainment content is available gate-to-gate, so you can start watching as soon as you settle in.

The system also features a slick 3D interactive flight map, which on a route like Bangkok to Singapore makes for pleasant viewing as you track your progress over the Gulf of Thailand. A ‘World Explorer’ mode and destination guides add a bit of extra depth for those who enjoy a good moving map, and I’m definitely one of them.

A remote control is housed in the aisle-side armrest, featuring basic playback functions and a cabin crew call button. In practice, though, the touchscreen is far easier to use for everything (even the attendant call). The remote feels like a backup and I think you’ll rarely reach for it.

AKG-branded noise-cancelling headphones are provided, and they’re decent quality, a step above the generic unbranded sets you’ll find on some carriers.

The system also supports Bluetooth connectivity, allowing you to pair your own headphones if you prefer, an increasingly expected feature that’s good to see included here.

One omission worth noting is the lack of external cameras. No tail cam, no belly cam, and no forward-facing view. It’s a shame, as these are a feature I always enjoy when available, and they’re becoming more common on new-build aircraft, even in the narrow-body segment.

Seat controls

Seat controls are provided at the aisle side of the console and are relatively basic, allowing you to quickly move the seat to the fully upright position or bed mode position, though you can release the button and stop at any setting in between.

There is also an independent leg-rest control and an overhead lighting switch here.

Table

The tray table deploys from the side console and features a bi-fold design, extending to a generous full-size surface when both leaves are open, more than enough to accommodate the single-tray meal service with room to spare.

One practical consideration, however, is that with the table fully deployed in front of you, you’re effectively trapped in your seat for the duration of the meal. This isn’t an issue in the aisle seats, which have a retractable armrest allowing you to slide out, but in every other seat, including the throne seats, you’re stuck until the tray is cleared.

The good news is that the table offers a half-leaf configuration, where only the one section is folded out. In this position, the table can be slid back towards you, and for most passengers that creates enough clearance ahead to get in and out of the seat without too much difficulty, or risk of spilling your champagne.

In the throne seats there’s also the option to temporarily move your meal tray onto the large side console by the window and retract the table entirely if you need to get out mid-service, at least one advantage over the window seats at the paired configurations, where no such workaround exists.

Storage options

Storage is one of the real strengths of this seat, that is at least if you’re in one of the throne seats!

The extended side console by the window provides a generous flat surface that doubles as a work area, easily accommodating a full-size laptop alongside your headphones and a drink. It’s the kind of space you’d associate with a wide-body Business Class product, and it’s impressive to find it on a narrow-body aircraft.

At the console between the seat and the aisle sits a large enclosed storage compartment with a closing door. This one is spacious enough for your laptop, tablet or anything else you’d want to stow securely during the flight. A 3.2 kg maximum weight label is posted inside, but the space itself is generous.

The inside of the compartment door houses a vanity mirror, a small but appreciated touch.

And here’s a nice irony: while the seat doesn’t feature a closing suite door, leaving this storage door open during the flight with the mirror facing outwards actually provides a bit of extra privacy from the aisle. An unintended benefit, perhaps, but a welcome one.

Alongside the seat there’s also a storage area marked for soft products like magazines, but actually I found it an ideal place to store my phone.

On the window side, below the large side console, there are two large open storage areas, ideal for your shoes and other items you want to keep within reach.

There’s also a soft expandable pocket directly ahead, below the IFE screen, handy for smaller items like a passport or earbuds.

The big takeaway here, though, is that much of this storage is exclusive to the throne seats.

The paired centre seats have considerably less personal stowage space by comparison, and since those pairs make up the majority of the cabin, it’s an important distinction to be aware of when selecting your seat.

Power sockets

Keeping devices topped up is well catered for, with two separate charging locations at each seat.

A 110V universal AC power socket is located at the side console at table height – easy to reach and compatible with plug types from around the world. No need to dig around in your bag for an adapter here.

Over by the aisle-side armrest, there’s a USB-A port alongside a 60W USB-C port, the latter being a welcome inclusion that will comfortably fast-charge most modern laptops and smartphones. Both are also relatively easy to access without too much fumbling around.

One notable omission, however, is wireless charging – something that’s becoming an increasingly common feature in new Business Class products and would have been a useful addition here. For a cabin that’s fresh out of the box in 2026, it’s a slightly surprising miss.

Food and drink

Shortly after takeoff, the crew came through the cabin with a drinks service. I opted for a glass of the Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée champagne, which arrived well chilled alongside a small bowl of mixed nuts and freeze-dried fruits in a branded Thai Royal Silk dish – a pleasant enough start to proceedings.

Printed menus were distributed, and the lunch offering for this afternoon flight looked promising on paper, with three main course options including a Thai, a Western and a seafood choice, plus a starter, cheese plate and dessert.

Everything was served together on a single tray, standard practice for a short regional flight like this, and not something I’d hold against any airline on a two-hour sector.

The starter was a grilled Hokkaido scallop with red capsicum sauce, accompanied by a Thai-style eggplant salad. The scallop was tender with an interesting combination of flavours from the vibrant red sauce and the tobiko (fish roe) garnish, making for an enjoyable and well-composed appetiser.

For the main I chose the sous vide beef short rib with Massaman sauce, served with Thai jasmine rice and sautéed mixed vegetables with garlic.

The rice was nicely cooked, light and fresh, and the vegetables were well prepared, with a good mix of shimeji and king oyster mushrooms, carrots and peppers.

Unfortunately the beef itself was a little disappointing. The meat didn’t seem to be of particularly great quality, coming across as average at best, and was noticeably fatty in places. The Massaman sauce helped to mask some of this, but on balance it was the weakest element of the meal.

Where the main course fell slightly short, the cheese plate more than compensated.

A nicely presented selection of international cheeses was served with dried fruits and nuts, a welcome touch that you wouldn’t necessarily expect on such a short regional flight.

Desserts are never my thing personally, and these were distinctly Thai.

A beautifully presented mung bean flour and coconut milk creation topped with a purple flower sat alongside a colourful fruit tart with dragonfruit, kiwi, mandarin and raspberry.

Both were visually appealing and enjoyable to eat, even for me, and it’s exactly the kind of local flair that you’d expect from Thai Airways.

The bread selection was also good, a pretzel roll and a herb loaf, and the flower-shaped butter was a charming detail.

Here’s how the full champagne and wine selection on this flight stacks up on our favourite comparison website Vivino, out of 5.

Champagne
	Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée Brut Champagne N.V.	4.1 stars
White Wine
	Millebuis Bourgogne Côte Chalonnaise Chardonnay 2018	4.0 stars
	Domaine Masson-Blondelet Les Angelots Pouilly-Fumé 2018	4.0 stars
Red Wine
	Pierre Jean Larraqué Château Vernous Médoc 2020	3.9 stars
	Labouré-Roi Bourgogne Gamay Noir 2021	3.6 stars

This is a good selection in general, with decent ratings on the whole, but it would be nice to see something other than French wine on the white and red menu for the new-world fans.

Bed mode

The seat reclines into a 180° fully-flat bed, which extends to a length of 76 in / 6 ft 4 in / 193 cm.

I found the bed to be comfortable, even without a mattress topper, but the footwell does narrow somewhat at the foot end, so taller passengers may find this area restrictive, depending on their preferred sleeping position.

Footwells are slightly more spacious at the pair seats (A, C, H and K), rather than at these throne seats (B and J), but the tradeoff then becomes space, privacy and direct aisle access, so personally we would still aim for the throne seats.

Toilets

Thai’s Airbus A321neo has only one toilet for Business Class passengers at the front of the cabin on the left side, which is something of a downside given that a full cabin has 16 passengers all sharing the same facility.

A 16:1 passenger-to-toilet ratio in Business Class is relatively poor when compared to Singapore Airlines on the 737-8 MAX (10:1) and Thai’s wide-body alternatives like the Boeing 787-9 (10:1) and Airbus A350 (11:1).

Service

Service on Thai Airways has always been one of the airline’s strong suits, and this flight was no exception. The crew were warm and hospitable throughout – attentive without being overbearing, and delivering the kind of natural, genuine hospitality that Thai tends to do so well.

Meal orders were taken promptly on boarding, the food service itself ran smoothly once airborne, and the crew maintained a friendly and professional demeanour from start to finish.

I did have to press the call button for a champagne top-up once the meal service had wrapped up, but it was attended to quickly and without any fuss. That’s perfectly reasonable on a short sector where the crew have limited time between services to proactively circulate the cabin.

Which Singapore flights have these seats?

Thai Airways is currently operating two of its five daily Singapore – Bangkok flights using the Airbus A321neo between now and the end of the northern summer season on 24th October 2026.

• SIN-BKK: TG414 (15:55 – 17:15)
• SIN-BKK: TG408 (18:15 – 19:35)
• BKK-SIN: TG413 (11:15 – 14:30)
• BKK-SIN: TG407 (13:50 – 17:05)

Be careful that some of the airline’s daily flights on this route also use a narrow-body Airbus A320 aircraft, and these aircraft do not have the latest Thompson Vantage Business Class, instead featuring 12 recliner seats in a 2-2 configuration. Only the A321neos have the new product.

While the fleet is currently small, at just six aircraft, Thai Airways is taking delivery of a further 26 Airbus A321neos in total over the coming years, for a total fleet of 32, so you can expect this new product to become a common sight on the carrier’s regional network.

Aside from Singapore, Thai is also operating the new type on selected Delhi, Manila, Mumbai and Yangon services from its Bangkok hub, among others.

How to redeem

I redeemed this Bangkok to Singapore flight for 20,000 Air Canada Aeroplan points + CA$73 (~S$66) in taxes and fees, a solid deal for a short-haul Business Class hop on a brand new product.

KrisFlyer is also an option, since Thai Airways is a fellow Star Alliance member, though it’s notably more expensive on both fronts – requiring 26,500 miles + S$135 in taxes. That’s a 33% premium on the miles side and more than double the cash outlay, so it’s really only worth considering as a fallback if you don’t have an Aeroplan balance to draw on.

Thai’s own Royal Orchid Plus programme comes in at 20,000 miles + ~S$135, matching the Aeroplan points requirement but with the same higher taxes as KrisFlyer.

Thai Airways Business Class Award Bangkok – Singapore
FFP	Miles	Taxes
Aeroplan	20,000	S$66
Royal Orchid Plus	20,000	S$135
KrisFlyer	26,500	S$135

Of course, most of our readers targeting this route will likely stick with their usual Singapore Airlines redemption at 25,000 KrisFlyer miles + S$46 for a Saver Business award, or 20,000 Aeroplan miles + S$82.

A Thai Airways redemption on this route is most likely to appeal as a fallback option, for times when a better departure time suits your schedule, or when SIA’s Saver Business awards have dried up and you’d rather not stomach the next step up.

SIA’s Advantage tier comes in at an eye-watering 46,000 KrisFlyer miles one-way on this sector, making a Thai Business Class award at 26,500 miles look considerably more palatable by comparison in these situations.

Thai Airways’ new A321neo Business Class is an impressive product for a regional narrow-body aircraft, and arguably one of the best single-aisle Business Class experiences you can have in the region right now.

The throne seats are the undisputed highlight, offering a level of space, privacy and storage that rivals what you’d find on many wide-body products.

The 4K IFE screen is among the sharpest I’ve seen on any airline, the catering features some lovely Thai touches, and the crew delivered the kind of warm, natural service that Thai Airways has always done well.

That said, it’s not without its shortcomings.

The ;beef main course was underwhelming, welcome drinks were absent on the narrow-body service, and the lack of wireless charging and external cameras feel like missed opportunities on a brand-new aircraft.

The fact that Wi-Fi hasn’t been activated yet is also disappointing, though this should presumably be addressed in time.

It’s also important to note that the experience varies significantly depending on your seat. The pair seats, which make up the majority of the cabin, offer notably less storage, no side console, and no direct aisle access at the window positions.

If you can’t secure a throne seat, the product is still solid, but it loses most of its wow factor.

For many Singapore-based readers, this will remain a fallback option rather than a first choice on the Bangkok route. SIA’s Saver Business awards are cheaper and easier to come by, and their products are better, especially if you can’t score a throne seat on the Thai A321neo.

But when SIA awards dry up, or when the timing works better on a Thai flight, it’s a very respectable alternative at 20,000 Aeroplan points, and probably worth experiencing at least once.

Review Summary

4 / 5 among regional Business Class seats

Thai Airways A321neo Business Class Thai Airways’ new A321neo Business Class is arguably one of the region’s best narrow-body products, with the throne seats a genuine wide-body rival. Just don’t expect the same wow factor from the pair seats.

Flew: April 2026

(Cover Photo: MainlyMiles)