Is It Time to Reconsider THAI Royal Orchid Plus?

Thai Airways had quite a competitive frequent flyer program until 2019. Its website wasn’t great, but the value you could get when redeeming Thai’s Royal Orchid Plus miles made up for that.

In October 2019, Thai Airways massively increased the number of Royal Orchid Plus miles you needed to book an award flight. Then, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it suspended Star Alliance awards – and didn’t restore them until several years later. As a result, I stopped paying much attention to the program.

But things have since changed, and I think Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus might now be worth a fresh look. Here’s why…

Royal Orchid Plus award pricing is no longer uncompetitive

While the 2019 increases were steep, Thai Airways hasn’t touched its award charts since then. In the meantime, other programs such as Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer have increased their award prices.

THAI’s Star Alliance round-the-world award pricing is still wildly uncompetitive. But simpler redemptions aren’t badly priced by 2025 standards.

Here are some examples of the number of Royal Orchid Plus miles you’d currently need for a one-way THAI flight between Australia and Thailand:

Royal Orchid Plus award charts & redemption rules

Royal Orchid Plus has three zone-based award charts:

• The “Direct Flights Awards” chart covers point-to-point flights to/from Bangkok on Thai Airways
• The “Between Thailand Domestic and International Destination” chart covers Thai Airways flights to/from other destinations in Thailand (via Bangkok)
• The “Beyond Bangkok THAI and Star Alliance Award Chart” covers Thai Airways flights between international destinations outside of Thailand (via Bangkok), as well as awards on Star Alliance partner airlines.

This is a bit confusing. In general, you’d use the first chart if you want to fly to/from Bangkok on Thai Airways. You’d use the third chart for most other things.

There are a few additional rules to be aware of when booking a “Beyond Bangkok THAI” or Star Alliance award:

• Maximum 4 sectors per itinerary
• One en-route stopover is permitted in each direction for a USD95 fee, but not in the country of origin or on domestic itineraries
• You can cancel long-haul award tickets for a USD190 fee
• Mixed-cabin awards are allowed, but you’ll pay the miles applicable for the higher cabin class
• In theory, you’ll pay fewer miles when redeeming for Thai Airways flights between Australia and Europe if you don’t stop over for more than 24 hours in Bangkok (but the THAI website doesn’t seem to honour this)

You can redeem Royal Orchid Plus miles to book flights for yourself and any Award Nominees on your account. Award Nominees work in a similar way to KrisFlyer’s redemption nominees.

Thai Airways has improved its website

In the past, the Thai Airways website was rather clunky. You could not actually view the available award flights or get a quote online, unless you already had sufficient Royal Orchid Plus miles in your account to make a booking. If you were considering transferring points from Amex Membership Rewards to book a Thai Airways redemption, for example, this meant you would need to first call Royal Orchid Plus to check award availability and pricing.

But Thai Airways recently upgraded its website. You can now view available award flights on Thai Airways without any miles in your Royal Orchid Plus account. In fact, you can easily see the exact number of available seats, in all cabin classes, on one screen.

Good award availability on THAI flights

The third reason I think it might be worth giving Royal Orchid Plus another go is that award availability – at least on Thai Airways flights, anyway – is actually pretty good.

I can quite easily find award seats on Thai Airways in both Economy and Business Class, on many dates throughout the next year. This includes some peak periods. In fact, I can see up to six Business Class seats per flight:

You can even find THAI Business Class award availability all the way through from Australia to Europe. Here’s an example that I found from Melbourne to Stockholm, with a four-night stopover in Bangkok along the way:

It does appear that Thai Airways is now making a lot more award seats available to book with Royal Orchid Plus miles than it’s releasing for bookings through Star Alliance partner airline programs.

For example, I found instances where both Economy and Business Class award seats were available from Perth to Bangkok on the Thai Airways website. But the LifeMiles website only showed Economy availability on the same flights. No award seats were showing at all for the same flights through Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, United MileagePlus, Air Canada Aeroplan or Aegean Miles+Bonus.

You might still need to call for some redemptions

While the new Thai Airways website seems to handle point-to-point bookings just fine, it’s still a bit temperamental. It doesn’t seem to handle multi-sector itineraries well, so you might still need to call for more complex bookings. There’s also a chance you might still need to call if the website doesn’t ticket your booking properly.

The good news is that the Thai Airways call centre staff are generally quite helpful – and quick to answer the phone.

Beware the 3-year expiration policy

Royal Orchid Plus miles expire three years after you earn them, regardless of the activity in your account. For that reason, it’s best just to transfer miles into your account as you need them, and then spend them straight away.

In Australia, you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Royal Orchid Plus at a 2:1 rate. You can also transfer in PayRewards points at a 3:1 rate.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to more than 100 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.