In recent days there has been some huffing and puffing following a claim by a Puea Thai parliamentarian that Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij had demanded upgrades and extra baggage allowances from Thai Airways. This may be a storm in a teacup, but PPT thinks there is a comment on the nature of Thai society in it.
This claim follows on the heels of an earlier press interest in a Thai Airways executive who was targeted with claims of huge amounts of free excess baggage. PPT made some comments here.
On 27 December, Korn’s family showed up at the local police station to file a 30 million baht defamation action against the parliamentarian, claiming that they had never, ever done such a thing when travelling privately (Bangkok Post, 28 December 2009). Korn’s spouse, Vorakorn claimed that she would only get upgrades when economy class was overbooked and that she “did not travel first class on every trip…”. When she did get upgrades, she claimed to have used gift upgrades she received as a Gold frequent flyer from Thai Airways.
But PPT has to say that it all sounds a bit odd. Gold card holders do get two upgrade certificates but they are remarkably difficult to use. In any case, two issues come to mind.
First, getting upgraded on Thai Airways has long been subject to “connections.” Thai Airways states that it normally doesn’t upgrade Gold card holders, except when a flight is overbooked. However, the airline has been plagued by royals, politicians and military sources who have connections that allow multiple demands for acquaintances to be upgraded. For example, it is very well-known that connected government officials are regularly able to manipulate upgrades for international flights.
Second, could it really be true that anyone in Korn’s family ever books to fly economy class? Back in the Bangkok Post of 13 February 2009, Korn was reported to be the richest member of the cabinet. He and his spouse together had net assets worth 807.6 million baht.
This case is likely to be just another example of how the wealthy and well-connected can game the system that they have collectively constructed for themselves. This system operated long before Korn became a cabinet minister and before there were red and yellow shirts. This may be a storm in a teacup but it is a small illustration of the way that privilege has been operating in Thailand.
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