Transcript of the above video: 

Pretty big news. I have been talking about this; this has come up a couple of times in the last year. They have been talking about this but yeah, it looks like they are resuming direct Thai to US flights, Thai-American flights beginning this month, October 2025. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Direct flights to US resume October 26 after decade-long absence. Quoting directly: "Direct flights between Thailand and the United States will resume on October 26 after being terminated a decade ago over US Aviation Regulator's safety concerns." I actually did some videos, well no, it wasn't video, I actually think I was still doing actual written blogging and covered that at the time. That said, it kind of happened; it was kind of in the process and the aftermath of it sort of occurred when we were getting this channel started some 9 odd years ago. It's really odd it's been that long, but that is how long it has been. 

That said, quoting further: "United Airlines has announced the return of daily flights between Bangkok and Los Angeles from October 26 - making it the first carrier from either country to offer a direct connection since 2015. The downgrade of Thailand's aviation safety from category 1 to category 2 in 2015 by the US Federal Aviation Administration banned direct flights. Hopes for a resumption grew after the US aviation regulator reinstated Thailand to the top category in April this year." Quoting further: "United said direct flights between the Thai capital and the US West Coast will stop over in Hong Kong. The airline will operate a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on the route." Now interesting to point out, when I read this, I said what does that mean, "stopover in Hong Kong?" Is it going to be one of those where you stop and if you got on a Bangkok, you just stay on the plane and then other people get on, some disembark and other people get on. If that's the case, to my mind that is what you could call a direct flight. Again in theory you can still call it a direct flight, but I don't really love the notion, because I might avail myself of this flight. It's just would be nice to just not have to worry once you just get on the plane on the Thailand side, and you just go direct into the US and then you worry about your domestic flights from the US. That said, again, how exactly this works out as a practical matter remains to be seen. Again, are you going to be pulled off the flight, brought back around through Immigration in Hong Kong, only to be put back on the same plane? Or is it truly a stopover; I've done it both ways by the way. 

That said, presumably based on the language of this article, and I urge those who are watching this video, to go check out that article in detail, it does look like that indeed this is going to be what we would think of as a direct flight. I think stopover means, and again this is some level of speculation but from my experience and based on reading the totality of the article, it looks like yeah, it's going to have an element of people may be added to the plane roster if you will and then on it goes to the United States. It doesn't sound like it is a thing where you have to get off and it's a layover type of deal; so that is what it looks like to me. That being said, it remains to be seen exactly how this is going to play out. This is definitely something I’ll keep a sharp eye on because of my American background and my presence here in Thailand and all of that. So again, for American expats I think it's pretty key news to know whether or not there is a direct flight between the US and here in Thailand; we haven't had one for a long period of time. As noted, it has been about a decade going back to 2015 since we have had a direct flight, and there has been some back and forth this year as to whether it would resume; it now looks like we are assuming. United is going to start flying a direct route between Thailand and the United States, again with a stopover in Hong Kong apparently. That being said, exactly what that means remains to be seen so we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.