[Anonymous]

[TominScotland]

This Vientiane – Bangkok transfer to catch my London onward flight was a real let down, not because there was anything wrong with the journey but because of somewhat strange change of aircraft.

QV414 was scheduled to be operated by one of Lao Airlines’ two A320s – big deal, you may think as umteen other airlines offer service on this aircraft.

But the Lao A320s have legendary status as aircraft originally intended for Colonel Gadaffi’s personal use in Libya. By all accounts, the cabin interior is bright green and the cabin lights change from blue to green during take off and landing. And I missed out on that…….

I arrived at the airport in Vientiane early and check in was fast in the International Terminal. My luggage was checked through to London but I declined the option to have it sent further to Edinburgh as I prefer to trust myself to transfer luggage from T3 to T5 rather than the airline handling agents. My luggage was not tagged Priority even though my London connection was in C.

Strangely, two Bangkok flights were called within 10 minutes of each other over a poor PA system. Most passengers, including all the falang (foreigners) went for the first, only to be turned away.

Maybe 10 passengers were accepted for this flight and they boarded a waiting A320. We were then called forward and walked to our ATR-72 parked slightly away from the terminal. A real let-down……

Service on the full ATR was fine – an acceptable breakfast box and drinks. We landed in Bangkok on time and parked up – next to the earlier A320 – talk about salt in wounds…..

The good news is that I am back in Lao in June so maybe I’ll get to fly the elusive A320 then!

[Author]

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