Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus has just sent out another email to members informing them that the program will extend upcoming expiring miles until December 31, 2023.
This policy affects all expiring miles in any quarter of 2021 and 2022 which will now be valid for award redemption until 31 December 2023.
THAI continues to operate under a very limited schedule as Thailand is still largely cut off from the rest of the world due to their strict border / quarantine regime and the reorganization of Thai Airways International in a Bangkok Bankruptcy Court.
The email reads as follows:
Dear Member
Royal Orchid Plus would like to keep you updated and informed regarding
- Expiring Royal Orchid Plus Miles Extension
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted air travel worldwide. This in turn has affected your choices to redeem your mileage. We understand your concerns during this situation. Therefore, THAI has now extended expiring miles in any quarter of 2021 and 2022 to be valid for award redemption until 31 December 2023. This is an automatic process and no further action is required from you.
…
This is the entire email that came in today:
You can access Thai’s page for mileage expiry extension here and their program / award changes page here.
I’m not quite sure why THAI ROP has sent out this renewed email as a similar one has already been circulated in late May. I guess better double than never.
Passengers holding both revenue and mileage tickets are still waiting for Billions of Baht in cash refunds for these tickets, so far THAI has been unable to make any refunds while being in Bankruptcy Court and it’s unclear if they even have the funds to make such refunds in the future.
Many friends I have here in Bangkok stopped using their Thai Royal Orchid credit cards on my advise as continuing to collect ROP mileage currency in these accounts is futile at the moment. Best to use UOB Privimiles or another of the numerous credit card options in Thailand.
Conclusion
With Thailand slowly opening up again at least in terms of the Phuket Sandbox and certain “special flights” to/from Bangkok those holding Thai Airways vouchers could now be using those. It’s probably wise to use any TG voucher rather sooner than later.
As far as Royal Orchid Plus is concerned members could use their miles for redemptions on both these TG flights as well as for Star Alliance flights overseas. The same principle applies – I’d sleep much better without a large mileage balance on my ROP account.
