site logo

Using my Star Alliance Gold status, I was able to pay a quick visit to the Thai Royal Orchid Prestige Lounge when flying out of Bangkok International Airport (BKK). This is Thai Airways' flagship lounge, so I was pretty excited to see what they had to offer. While you can’t access this lounge using something like Priority Pass, if you have access to it, it’s a pretty solid lounge overall.

Learn more
How I Accessed This Lounge

A few weeks ago, I did a status match with Turkish Airlines using my American Airlines Platinum Pro (Oneworld Emerald) status. With my newfound Turkish Airlines Elite status, I get Star Alliance Gold, which lets me get access to certain Star Alliance lounges around the world.

According to the Star Alliance website, access criteria is as follows:
  • You present your boarding pass of a Star Alliance member airline operated flight which departs at the same day as your visit or latest by 05:00 AM the next morning
  • If your boarding pass does not carry the Star Alliance Gold indicator, you will need to also show your valid Star Alliance Gold card
  • The lounge displays the Star Alliance Gold logo at the entrance
In my case, I saw the Star Alliance Gold symbol, so I knew I could access this lounge. I simply checked in at the front desk with me and my girlfriend’s passport and boarding passes and quickly got into the lounge.

You can also access this lounge by other means, such as:

  • THAI Royal First Class passengers/Star Alliance First Class passengers (max 1 guest on same flight)
  • THAI Royal Silk Class passengers/ Star Alliance Business Class Passengers (no guests)
  • Royal Orchid Plus Platinum/Royal Orchid Plus Gold status members (max 1 guest on same flght)
  • Thai Smile Airways’ Smile Plus passengers
  • Star Alliance Paid Lounge membership cards (Air Canada Maple Leaf Club – Worldwide and United Airlines United Club) departing on any THAI/Star Alliance flights

You can read the qualification criteria in detail here.

The Royal Orchid Prestige Lounge Location

There are several Thai Airways lounges located at Bangkok Airport. This particular lounge is located in Concourse D, next to gates D1-4. BKK airport is pretty large, so expect to need to walk for a while if you need to get from Concourse D to other terminals.

The Royal Orchid Prestige Lounge Hours

This lounge is basically open all day, starting from 5 am to 2 am, meaning it is only closed for 3 hours per day.

The Royal Orchid Prestige Lounge: Absolutely Massive With A Wide Variety Of Options

To put it simply, this lounge was absolutely enormous. According to the website, this lounge covers 2,088 square feet and can accommodate space for up to 463 passengers. If you took a left, there was a dedicated bar area, but if you took a right, the lounge was extremely long... almost endless. There was a ridiculous amount of seating available all throughout this impressively large lounge, clearly designed to accommodate an extensive number of passengers through and through.

Once you walk a bit down right side of the lobby/hallway, you’ll come across the food stations. Since it was pretty early in the morning, they were still serving breakfast. Given the number of people in this lounge, the food area was a bit busy, but it was also very diverse with significant variety in foods. There were Western and Asian cuisines alongside some salad bars and desserts.
There was also a drinks station, which included a wide variety of coffees and teas. Unfortunately, the tea they were serving was only Lipton tea, which wasn’t particularly exciting. However, the refrigerator was filled with some awesome drinks, including cold waters, juices, sodas, and popular Asian beers.
Something I found cool about this lounge was that the hot food section also had a made-to-order egg station where you could get all types of eggs (e.g. scrambled, poached, over easy etc). My scrambled eggs were actually quite delicious.
I did not capture photos of everything in the lounge, but on the topic of bathrooms and other amenities, I found the facilities to be clean and up to date. The showers were opened and available for booking as well, which is a notable lounge amenity.

My Overall Rating Of The Thai Royal Orchid Prestige Lounge: 7/10

I rate lounges based on a few general criteria:
  • Food Quality & Variety: 7/10
  • Cleanliness: 8/10
  • Interior Design: 7/10
  • Unique Amenities: 6/10
As a buffet, there’s a pretty decent food spread, even for breakfast. The made-to-order eggs and congee is definitely a noticeable and welcome addition to the lounge that helps brings up the food ratings a bit. Cleanliness is pretty good, despite how large the lounge actually is as well. I found the interior design to also be quite nice (loved the large model plane at the entrance) and found the amenity spread to be pretty good as well (showers, made-to-order food).

Additionally, for first/business class & Thai Airways Plus Platinum status members, there are private rooms, which is a nice to have, especially for such a big lounge.

Learn more