It used to hurt, but my wife told me to stop complaining. Now life is good. We do round trip from near Chicago to BKK. To Thailand in mid-October and return after Songkran. We fly premium plus for about $3000 each. I found premium plus is more comfortable for me than business class.
I believe one last step to what Brandon explained so precisely is that you need to get a re-entry stamp so your visa is not voided upon departing Thailand. I made that mistake.
my Thai wife has a bank account and we can transfer money to the account from the US using MoneyGram. Haven’t needed that for a few years. More importantly, my wife has the bank account app on her phone and uses the scan-to-pay feature. We do that all over Thailand and it is free, no fees. Brilliant. We never use or need ATM or bank debit card.