Buy US$10,000 (THB 350,000) Worth Of Thai Airways Credits & Receive Two Years Royal Orchid Plus Gold Status

Thai Airways has just published an interesting new promotion called “Time For Gold” offering two years of Royal Orchid Plus Gold status to those customers who are willing to purchase a 350,000 Baht credit package with the airline by July 31, 2022.

Once purchased, the THAI Air Ticket Cash Credit is valid until December 31, 2023 and it’s not transferable, however redeeming tickets for other persons is possible via a THAI Contact Center or THAI ticketing offices worldwide.

There have been other carriers in the past who had a similar campaign, for example, I remember American Airlines offering packages like this through their AAirpass program.

You can find this offer on Thai Airways website (access here).

The Fastest Way to Enjoy Gold Status!

‘TIME TO GOLD’ package includes an Air Ticket Cash Credit Voucher valued at THB 350,000 (or equivalent in your local currency), plus a complimentary Royal Orchid Plus 2-year Gold membership status, which will let you experience the magical journey of leisure with THAI through the unrivaled privileges and benefits.

Sales Period :  25 May – 31 July 2022

The voucher in combination with the Gold membership can be purchased both by an individual or in the name of a company with a nominated individual.

This isn’t a bad offer at all especially if you’re planning to travel with THAI frequently either by yourself or with friends/partner/family and that travel volume will get close to or exceed 350,000 Thai Baht which is roughly US$10,000. Such an amount is easily reached especially if your intention is to travel Business Class.

There is also a referral system for existing Gold/Platinum members:

Current Royal Orchid Plus Platinum and Gold member can purchase Time To Gold package as a gift for other persons. In the event that the package purchaser is Royal Orchid Plus Platinum or Gold member, the purchaser will receive a complimentary of 6,200 Royal Orchid Plus bonus miles. The bonus miles are valid for one time during this promotion and will be credited to eligible Royal Orchid Plus member account by August 31, 2022

What are the general conditions of this credit?

• Air Ticket Cash Credit is valid until December 31, 2023.
• Air Ticket Cash Credit Voucher can be redeemed to issue revenue ticket inclusive of taxes and fuel surcharges for traveling on THAI flights (TG 3 digits) and THAI Smile (TG 4 digits) applicable to all revenue fares available at the time of redeeming ticket
• Air Ticket Cash Credit Voucher cannot be used in conjunction with any other additional fees, ticket taxes and surcharges of Royal Orchid Plus, fees associated with revenue tickets, or any other THAI products and services.
• Air Ticket Cash Credit can be redeemed for new booking and ticket issuing during May 25, 2022 until December 31, 2023 by making reservation and ticketing via THAI website, THAI Contact Center or THAI ticketing offices worldwide. In case of redeeming tickets for other persons via THAI Contact Center or THAI ticketing offices worldwide, TIME TO GOLD package owner’s consent document (valid passport/official ID card with authorized signature) is required.
• Air Ticket Cash Credit Voucher is non-transferable, but can be used to issue tickets for assigned travelers at the package owner’s discretion through THAI website access www.thaiairways.com using Royal Orchid Plus membership number and PIN. If you don’t have PIN or forgot your PIN
• Air Ticket Cash Credit Voucher can’t be used with Royal Orchid Plus Award tickets.
• Air Ticket Cash Credit Voucher can’t be used to issue child or infant tickets when booking via thaiairways.com
• In the event that the value of Air Ticket Cash Credit is insufficient for payment, the residual amount can be paid in cash or credit card through any of the available payment channels.
• Air Ticket Cash Credit Voucher can be redeemed to issue air tickets within available credit amount. The local currency rate applies in relation to point of travel commencement. In case of different currency payment between Air Ticket Cash Credit Voucher and the redeemed ticket, a different currency exchange rate may affect the value of cash credit amount. THAI reserves the right to refer the organization’s exchange rate at own discretion.
• Once Air Ticket Cash Credit Voucher is redeemed for ticket, Ticket terms and conditions apply.
• In case of ticket refund with ticket conditions applied, cash credit will be returned to Air Ticket Cash Credit Voucher’s owner, within Air Ticket Cash Credit Voucher validity. If you redeem the ticket by using Air ticket Cash Credit Voucher plus cash, you can receive the cash refund only the cash payment portion.

After going through the conditions of the voucher I didn’t find anything that would be difficult or unfair for the user to utilize the funds once purchased. If you can afford to part with the cash and especially if you have trips planned for which a ticket purchase is imminent I consider this a very decent deal.

The only thing is that this doesn’t seem to apply to codeshare flights and ROP award tickets (taxes and fees). I’d assume purchasing Round The World tickets is also excluded based on these rules.

Conclusion

THAI Royal Orchid Plus members who are willing to purchase a THB 350,000 credit voucher from the airline until the end of July (which will then be valid until the end of 2023) will receive complimentary two-year Gold status with the ROP frequent flyer program.

On the face of it, this isn’t a bad deal at all especially if you’re already planning travel with THAI and/or have several people to travel with and purchase tickets for.

Let’s keep in mind however that THAI is still very much cash strapped which was probably their motivator for this offer. There are still thousands of people who never got any cash back for tickets purchased from THAI prior to their reorganization filing and likely never will receive any refund for this other than a voucher as they are now creditors of the “old” Thai Airways pre-filing. So a word of warning here, while $10,000 isn’t a fortune in the grand scheme of things we’re still talking about THAI so this isn’t exactly a watertight investment.

These are the full Terms & Conditions for this promotion: