When thinking about frequent flyer programs for Star Alliance travel, many Australian-based travellers will naturally gravitate towards Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer as their program of choice.
This is understandable, given its large presence within Australia and its close relationship with Velocity Frequent Flyer.
While there are many Star Alliance alternatives — including those popular with many in the Point Hacks community such as United Airlines MileagePlus, Avianca LifeMiles, or Air New Zealand Airpoints — this guide takes a look at the Thai Royal Orchid Plus program.
While Orchid Plus used to hold its own against others, a major devaluation in October 2019 severely impacted the program’s usefulness, with the miles needed for certain reward seats increasing by more than double.
COVID-19 DISCLAIMER: The situation regarding Covid-19 is constantly changing, and the impacts on travel remain quite fluid. We endeavour to keep our content as up to date as possible in this dynamic environment.
How do I join Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus?
Signing up to the Royal Orchid Plus program is free. You can sign up using this link.
- Go to the Royal Orchid Plus enrolment page and accept the T&Cs first
- Enter your name and other personal details
- Enter your contact details
- Create an account password and select your mailing preferences
- Review and complete your registration
How do I earn Royal Orchid Plus miles?
There are a few ways to earn Royal Orchid Plus miles from Australia, including through banking, air and hotel partners. Do note that miles usually have a hard expiry of 3 years after being earned.
Through credit cards
Whilst there is no dedicated Thai Airways card in Australia, Royal Orchid Plus miles can be earned through a number of schemes that count it as a transfer partner, including:
- American Express Membership Rewards, including the Platinum Edge Card, Platinum Card and Explorer Card.
- Citi Prestige Mastercard
- Diners Club
Whilst transfers from American Express to KrisFlyer can take up to three business days, transfers to Royal Orchid Plus can take up to five business days (but is usually 48 hours in practice).
Through flying
You could earn Royal Orchid Plus miles by adding your membership number to the booking on Thai Airways and partner airline flights, including those of United, Singapore Airlines and more.
Make sure to compare the potential earn rate through Thai Airways against other Star Alliance programs, as some programs could offer you more miles for the same flight than others.
Transfer Marriott Bonvoy points
Marriott Bonvoy points can be easily picked up through regular buy miles promotions or by transferring from American Express Membership Rewards.
You’ll get 1 Royal Orchid Plus mile for every 3 Marriott Bonvoy points transferred. They’ll also throw in 5,000 bonus miles for every 60,000 Marriott Points transferred.
For example, transferring 120,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to Royal Orchid Plus will net you a total of 50,000 miles including the bonus.
How do I use Royal Orchid Plus miles?
Thai Airways is also a member of the Star Alliance, which contains 26 member airlines. That means you can use your Royal Orchid Plus miles for partner travel, like Singapore Airlines Business Class.
COVID-19 update: At the time of writing, you are unable to use Royal Orchid Plus miles for flights and upgrade rewards with Star Alliance airlines. Consult the Thai Airways website for more information.
As we mentioned at the start, Royal Orchid Plus underwent a significant devaluation in late 2019 which seriously eroded the value from the program. You can still use miles for flights and upgrades, but with major increases over the previous rates.
Example Royal Orchid Plus award chart
| Royal Orchid Miles one-way travel from Sydney | Economy | Premium Economy | Business | First |
| to Europe (any carrier) | 65,000 | 90,000 | 140,000 | 195,000 |
| to Europe (Thai Airways only and no stopover) | 54,500 | 74,250 | 117,500 | 155,250 |
| to North America | 90,000 | 135,000 | 200,000 | 250,000 |
| to Bangkok (Thai Airways only) | 27,500 | – | 65,000 | 90,000 |
| to Asia Zone 4 (inc. Japan, South Korea) via Bangkok | 45,000 | 60,000 | 105,000 | 145,000 |
For example, an Australia-Europe return Business Class reward flight with any Star Alliance carrier used to be 170,000 miles return. It’s now 140,000 miles one-way, which is a serious loss of value!
Sweet spot: There really aren’t any, but if we had to choose, it’s taking Thai Airways between Australia (or NZ) and Europe. As long as you don’t have a stopover in Bangkok (a transfer under 24 hrs is fine), then you’ll enjoy slightly reduced rates including 117,500 miles in Business Class one-way.
Note that Thai Airways flights to/from Bangkok only are priced a bit lower than partner Star Alliance flights and Thai Airways flights that use Bangkok as an intermediate transit point.
One stopover and one open-jaw (land in one city and depart from another in the same country) are permitted on Thai and Star Alliance international reward bookings. Taxes and surcharges also apply to all bookings.
As an alternative to Royal Orchid Plus, consider using miles from United MileagePlus or Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, both of which have different sweet spots (for example, KrisFlyer is great for round-the-world bookings).
If you have a balance of Royal Orchid Miles, you could also:
- Access the Royal Silk Lounge in Bangkok for 6,500 miles per person
- Use your miles for excess baggage upgrades on Thai Airways
- Redeem hotel reward nights, such as Pullman Melbourne for 24,000 miles per night
- Upgrade on Thai Airways or Star Alliance partners
How do I search for and book an award seat with Royal Orchid Plus?
One annoying thing is that Thai Airways does not allow you to search for award flights unless you have the required miles in your account. That means that it is best to search on the United website and then phone THAI to confirm the seats are available for booking.
Then you can transfer the points over, but do be aware that you run the risk of someone else snapping up that seat in the meantime. It’s all part of the ‘points game’ that you’re taking part in.
Once the miles are in your account, you can book online or via phone. Some trips can’t be booked online when originating from several countries (including the US) due to currency restrictions. In this case, you’ll need to call up.
How do I earn Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus elite status?
Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus has three main status levels above the basic membership: Silver, Gold and Platinum.
These tiers are earned by flying a number of qualifying miles or eligible international sectors within a 12 or 24 month period. Each status tier then lasts for 24 months, during which you have the opportunity to retain that status again or upgrade further.
If you’re looking to gain status through flying eligible Thai Airways and Thai Smile international flights, note that booking classes G, V, W, L, T, K and S are not counted as eligible sectors.
Star Alliance Silver benefits apply to Royal Orchid Plus Silver tier, while Star Alliance Gold and lounge access perks come with Royal Orchid Gold and Platinum tiers.
Royal Orchid Plus Silver
Achieve/Maintain (12 months): 10,000 qualifying miles
Achieve/Maintain (24 months): 15,000 qualifying miles
Star Alliance equivalent: Silver
Some major benefits of Royal Orchid Plus Silver status include:
- Priority waitlist and standby on fully-booked flights
- 10kg extra baggage allowance
- Priority baggage handling
- 5% bonus miles on international Thai Airways flights
- 3,000 Royal Orchid Plus miles bonus for every time you attain or retain Silver status
Royal Orchid Plus Gold
Achieve/Maintain (12 months): 50,000 qualifying miles or 40 eligible sectors
Achieve/Maintain (24 months): 80,000 qualifying miles
Star Alliance equivalent: Gold
You’ll get some pretty neat perks with Gold including:
- Priority (Business Class) check-in, boarding and luggage with Thai Airways and Star Alliance partners
- 20kg extra baggage allowance
- Access to Royal Silk and Star Alliance partner lounges before Thai and Star Alliance flights
- 10% bonus miles on international Thai Airways flights
- Dedicated phone and email assistance
- 1x complimentary roundtrip one-class upgrade on Thai Airways and Thai Smile international routes, excluding discount Economy fares T, K, S, G, V, W and L.
- Complimentary yearly discount on a reward seat booking
- 5,000 Royal Orchid Plus miles bonus for every time you attain or retain Silver status
Royal Orchid Plus Platinum
Achieve/Maintain (24 months): 80,000 qualifying miles per year, for two consecutive years. Qualifying miles for Platinum can only be earned on Thai Airways paid Business and First Class flights.
Star Alliance equivalent: Gold
Royal Orchid Plus Platinum status has unusually strict entry rules, including needed to accumulate 80,000 qualifying miles from Thai Airways’ Business and First Class flights within 12 consecutive months, and over two consecutive periods (i.e. two years).
For all the effort, you’ll get these perks in addition to Gold status:
- Fast track immigration and security clearance at Bangkok
- 30kg extra baggage allowance
- Access to Royal First Class lounges where available
- 20% bonus miles on international Thai Airways flights
- Waived Royal Orchid Plus service fees
- Extra complimentary round-trip upgrades for every 50,000 qualifying miles earned on Thai Airways’ Business and First Class flights
- Your miles don’t expire
- Unlimited changes to your award nominee list, with five complimentary changes per membership year
How do I contact Royal Orchid Plus?
To get in touch with Royal Orchid Plus about a membership enquiry or flight redemption, try:
- calling +66 0 2356 1111 from Thailand/overseas or 1300 651 960 from Australia (charges may apply)
- sending them a direct message on Twitter or Facebook
While the call centre might be the quickest way to resolve your issue, try the social media channels if the line is busy or you’re not able to call overseas numbers.
Summing up
It is a shame that Thai Airways has made such negative changes to their Star Alliance and own-flight rewards. In most cases, you’re better off redeeming flights with other partners such as KrisFlyer, MileagePlus and Avianca LifeMiles.
Supplementary images courtesy Thai Airways. This article was originally written by Daniel Scibberas.
Thank you for your message. As Royal Orchid miles can be used for Star Alliance redemptions, you have a number of options at your disposal.
Without knowing exactly where you would like to travel and in what class, it is hard for me to give you an answer. However, the current award chart for Thai Airways and Star Alliance partner flights can be found <> and <>, so any location and class of travel that fits just under 110,000 miles would be the most optimal for you.
I can only speak from my experience, as there are 26 airlines in the alliance and haven’t had an opportunity to use the majority of them.
I have redeemed the following:
United miles flying on Turkish Airlines for intra-Europe flight in Business between Frankfurt and Malta in June. I found plenty of availability but again had to be flexible, as it was on Turkish Airlines transiting through Instanbul. Excellent Europe Business product for Europe though, I’d say the best in fact.
Avianca miles flying on Lufthansa again from Frankfurt but direct to Malta this time, in July. Again, plenty of availability in Business.
The above was my experience, which overall has been very good. I encourage others to share their experiences here as well!
I was thinking of booking return business tickets, for my partner and I, Vancouver to Toronto on Air Canada. I checked the Thai site for these flights but nothing appeared.
Is this a booking I must do via phone? Is there a way I can see how many Thai points this would cost/availability through any other site? (I checked United like in your post but I am not a member).
Cheers 🙂
Unfortunately, I don’t have experience redeeming for Air Canada flights using THAI Royal Orchid miles, but if it’s not coming online, it may be that the respective airlines IT systems don’t talk to each other and you may need to call. If they do try and charge you an assistance fee, bring up that the redemption couldn’t be done online, and they may waive the fee.
For instance, it seems like business to Europe or North America are now 175k and 200k one-way, respectively, which are increases (substantial for North America) over the old return rates.
I had been thinking of warehousing some points at Thai before the Amex devaluation but now that’s off the table.
Am I missing something or is it really that bad?
It appears you are not mistaken for flights that are operated by Star Alliance partners. It appears that these have actually doubled in cost. Redemptions for flights on THAI appear to have remained the same however.
I will look to update this guide in the coming days and republish. Thanks for bringing this to our attention!
How far in advance does the award calendar open up? If I’m looking for, say, an Air Canada award which they would book for revenue or through Aeroplan at ~355 days out, would I be able to book through ROP then or are they closer to the ~330 days of VA or the US carriers?
What are the surcharges like on, say, YVR-SYD (or MEL or BNE) and return, in J, on the AC nonstops? The points for a roundtrip booking are much better than the other Star option to which I can easily transfer points (SQ/KrisFlyer).
For calculating surcharges, I would recommend doing your search on the KrisFlyer website, as they add fuel surcharges to Star Alliance (but not their own Singapore Airlines) flights.
Great article about Thai Airways ROP.
However, I do not think you really highlighted the best perks of this program for frequent travelers! For example:
1) Gold status last 2 years AND you have more options for reaching/maintaining it than with most other programs;
2) Upon reaching or maintaining gold status, you are given a free round trip upgrade (economy-to-business or business-to-first) irrespective of distance traveled; and
3) Every year you hold gold status you get a birthday gift allowing you to redeem award flights at 50 % point use for yourself or an award nominee (85000 points return to Europe from SYD in business).
I travel a lot, but not enough to constantly maintain gold status and really take advantage of the Krysflyer program. Yet I get absolutely phenomenal value out of being Thai ROP gold member!
So, in my view the ROP program can be much more valuable than your article suggest 🙂
I was once Gold with Thai and there is a key notes that should be mentioned… When you achieve gold with Thai you get a free round trip upgrade to the next tier of service, I.e economy to business or business to first… for any 1x return flight on Thai, doesn’t matter if it’s just from Singapore to Bangkok, or Sydney to London, they upgrade the whole fare on a paid ticket for free, you have to call them and abide by the conditions but this is incredible value or perk for achieving gold an Airlines, That’s if you maximise the upgrade.
Also Gold is valid for 2 years, not just 1, like most other carriers. So that is another perk instead of trying hard to requalify for gold each year, thai gives it to you for 2 years.
Finally and unknown to most, Thai offers some promotions to gold card holders. Sometimes only on the website when you log in, I picked up 2 of these gold only promotions in the 2 years (1x per year) for 50% off any Thai award tickets return trip… this got me excellent/expensive Thai redemptions halved in cost for the use of my miles, note that was only on Thai operated flights but still was a great way to redeem the miles
Since I share my time equally between Australia and Thailand, I found Singapore’s scheduling better and am now KrisFlyer gold instead of Thai. But upon achieving this it is only valid for a year and no free round trip upgrade anywhere.
I went with KrisFlyer due to the ability to convert velocity points so I could redeem more flights, more often.
But I also learnt a key lesson out of this.
For now I’ll continue to fly SQ achieving gold in their program isn’t as rewarding as Thai, so next rollover year I’ll be crediting all my Star Alliance flights back to my Royal Orchid Plus account instead of KrisFlyer due to the above mentioned reasons
What about one-way redemptions ok THAI? Their award chart only seems to show miles for return.