Your guide to Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus: Fly business class to Bangkok and beyond

Thai Airways’ flights can be booked using a multitude of different frequent flyer points. But have you looked into Thai Airways’ own loyalty program, Royal Orchid Plus? 

Also known as ROP, members of Royal Orchid Plus have the best access to premium cabin reward seats on Thai Airways, including business class from Australia to Bangkok and beyond. You can also redeem ROP Miles on flights across Star Alliance – and there’s some great value to be had, if you know where to look… 

Converting your PayRewards Points into Miles with Thai Royal Orchid Plus 

Thai Airways’ flights can be booked using a multitude of different frequent flyer points. But have you looked into Thai Airways’ own loyalty program, Royal Orchid Plus?

Also known as ROP, members of Royal Orchid Plus have the best access to premium cabin reward seats on Thai Airways, including business class from Australia to Bangkok and beyond. You can also redeem ROP Miles on flights across Star Alliance – and there’s some great value to be had, if you know where to look…

Converting your PayRewards Points into Miles with Thai Royal Orchid Plus

You can transform your PayRewards Points into Royal Orchid Plus Miles at a 3:1 conversion rate. This means, for every 3 PayRewards Points transferred, you’ll pocket 1 Mile with Thai Airways.

Once Miles are credited to your Royal Orchid Plus account, you can put them to good use. Flatbed, anyone? You could enjoy one round-trip to Bangkok for 130,000 ROP Miles, converted from 390,000 PayRewards Points.

Reserving reward flights via Thai Royal Orchid Plus

There are many ways you could spend Royal Orchid Plus Miles. But, in our book, two options stand out:

• Reward flights on Thai Airways. The airline offers direct flight to its Bangkok hub from Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. From there, you can travel onwards to 61 other Thai domestic and international destinations, including 11 cities across Europe.
• Use Miles to fly across the Star Alliance. From Air China to Singapore Airlines and EVA Air to Air India, your Miles can take you to interesting destinations across the globe. This includes many direct flights from Australia, without venturing to or through Thailand.

As for how many Miles you’ll need, it varies based on the airline flown, the cabin booked, and the route. Royal Orchid Plus pleasingly adopts fixed reward seat pricing across the board. These rates are divided into three categories, as below.

• Thai Airways flights to or from Bangkok. Because you’re only booking one flight, these tend to be the best-priced reward seats.
• Thai Airways flights linking international cities with Thai domestic destinations, via Bangkok. For instance, Sydney to Phuket via Bangkok, or vice versa.
• All other Thai Airways flights and all partner airline flights. This table applies when taking ‘international to international’ connections on Thai Airways, like Melbourne to London via Bangkok. It also covers all Star Alliance partner airline flights.

In practice, the journey you’re booking only has one applicable reward rate, but knowing this information helps later on. That’s because you’ll need to select the correct option when searching online for reward seats. Now, let’s set those Miles free!

Fly Thai Airways to Bangkok and Thailand with Royal Orchid Plus Miles

Let’s look at how many Royal Orchid Plus Miles you’ll need for a one-way journey between Australia and Thailand.

These reward rates are very reasonable, particularly given the length of travel from Australia. For instance, Melbourne-Bangkok is 9.5 hours from gate to gate. That’s less than 7,000 Miles per hour to stretch out in business class. Yes please!

Reward seats are plentiful in economy. As for business class, there’s a reasonable amount of availability. You’ll often find more seats within a few weeks of departure, and when searching more than six months in advance.

Also be mindful that Thai Airways releases more reward seats for Royal Orchid Plus members than for those booking through other Star Alliance frequent flyer programs. Therefore, you may find dates where Thai Airways business class is bookable using ROP Miles, where the same seat isn’t open for booking via other Star Alliance points.

Venture beyond Thailand with Thai Airways and Star Alliance partners

Royal Orchid Plus isn’t just about flying to Thailand – there’s much more to it. This versatile program can take you to other points across Asia, Europe, the Pacific and more.

For these global bookings, you can find ROP’s Star Alliance redemption chart here. Yes, it’s detailed – in fact, there are literally 587 different redemption rates just in this one chart. But that’s why you’re here, isn’t it? We’ve already done the hard yards to dig through and find the best uses of Royal Orchid Plus Miles. (You’re welcome! Now, where’s my latte…)

Here are a few routes that stand out from the rest. Reward rates shown are for one-way travel.

* While listed in the chart, Thai Airways’ website doesn’t reflect this pricing, pictured below. You may need to call to ensure you pay the correct rate.
^ Europe and North Africa includes destinations such as Morocco, Russia, Turkey and United Kingdom, along with the countries you’d typically expect.
~ North America includes not only Canada and the US, but also Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and more.

**SCREENSHOT HERE SHOWING AUSTRALIA-EUROPE**

Other than Australia-Europe, the most interesting rate from Down Under is Australia to Tahiti. You could book this aboard Thai Airways’ partner Air New Zealand, which links multiple ports across Australia with its Auckland hub. From there, you can connect onwards to Tahiti. Air New Zealand doesn’t offer a great number of reward seats to partners, but if you can find them, jump on it!

You can also book round-the-world trips through Royal Orchid Plus. However, these bookings aren’t quite as competitive as found through some other competing frequent flyer programs. For instance, round-the-world in business class costs 725,000 ROP Miles.

Other Thai Royal Orchid Plus tips and tricks

Beyond the basics, these handy hints can help you make the most of Royal Orchid Plus.

• Miles have a hard expiry of three years
  This is processed once per quarter. For instance, Miles earned in July 2025 expire at the end of September 2028.
• You can redeem Miles for yourself and five ‘Award Nominees’
  These can be anybody at all – but once you’ve nominated your original five, you’ll pay a fee for each change. Currently, that fee is 15,000 ROP Miles (online) or either ฿5,700 or US$190 in person (varies by Thai Airways office location).
• Search for reward flights with a free account
  You’ll need to be a Royal Orchid Plus member to check flight availability, but the program is free to join and you don’t need any Miles in your account to browse your options. Just note, you’ll need to tick the ‘Star Alliance’ button if you plan to fly through Thailand, or not to Thailand at all. Otherwise, select ‘Thai Airways’ for flights to or from Bangkok only.
• The ticketing process can vary
  In the fine print, ROP suggests that where bookings on partner airlines have travel commencing outside of Bangkok, these can only be ticketed via the contact centre. However, recent improvements to the Thai Airways website have added many of these international partner flights to the online booking tool.
• Help is at hand
  If you can’t book your desired reward seats online – whether it’s because you can’t search for the particular airport, can’t see a certain partner airline or just need assistance – give the Royal Orchid Plus team a call. Within Australia, phone 1300 651 960, or dial +61 2 9844 0900. You can email rop@thaiairways.com.au as well.
• Need extra Royal Orchid Plus Miles?
  In Australia, you can also transfer points to ROP from American Express Membership Rewards (2:1 rate) and Star Alliance Rewards (1.25:1 rate).

Written by Chris Chamberlin

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About the author

Chris enjoys making the most of frequent flyer points, which have taken him around the world – usually, at the front of the plane. He’s travelled around 1.5 million miles sampling the best in Business Class and First Class. That’s further than three return trips to the moon!