What a disaster this airport is. Just shows what corruption, cronyism can do when let free, as is the norm in Thailand. Suvarnabhumi ranks with Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Incheon as an architecuturally superb building but the difference is Bangkok is run by idiots. We've all heard of the scandals that have already surfaced after its opening but most recently all exits from arrivals have been closed to the public except exit 3 but there is no indication to arriving passengers that they should exit there. Consequently passengers walk straight ahead after customs etc and may exit at exit 8. But their friends or the travel agent etc is no where to be seen. They're all waiting at Exit 3. I asked the security guard why they had closed all the other arrival exits to visitors, but of course he didnt know. Neither did the girls on the Airport Information desk.

Ever since the takeover of the airports in Bangkok in early December, security has been beefed up. What a joke. No where in the world would a group of political thugs be allowed to close down the city's airports. And, guess what. No one has been called to answer for it. At least not while supporters of the Government now in power were the main culprits.

Poor old Thailand.

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Incredible but not surprising. This after having to wait an hour or more in the immigration line, a 0% improvement over the equally long lines previously experienced at Don Muang (the old international airport).

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The arrival lobby was used to be open for everyone including friends, familiy members, legal overpriced taxi sales people, illegal overpriced taxi drivers, and so on. The only solution the airport authority came up to get rid of the illegal taxi drivers is to get everybody OUT. They only keep a few exits open and the arrival hall is off limit.

I was to pick up my friends arriving from Japan a few weeks ago. They do not read or speak Thai or English. It took us 2 extremely exhausting hours to find them just because they do not allow us to wait at the exit. The airport authorities may say this is for security purposes, but they should find a better solution. For some reason, in many cases, authorities in every field of this country tend to choose the worst solution.

BKK airport is just a joke. What I mentioned above is just one example. We could spend a whole night laughing about the airport and this country.

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BKK is heaven if you've experienced BOM !!

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Hey dude, look on the bright side BKK is improving, the toliets are cleaner and more equipt, a better x-ray chek system after passport control, so you could run for half kilometre to your gate right away, no having to tkae of your shoes. For the security purpose, I definitely agree. I traveled BKK-JFK alot and I can easily spot the exit. Dude! its only a left or right turn, walk for a few metres, and it is a effiecent security measure of not allowing tresspassers into baggage claim area. Imagine for DMK dude (its a thousands time smaller and have 100 times less gates, if all of the gates 1-11 are all opened ground, second and fourth floor, all of the money would be spent with security guards!!!)

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I am happy to provide a full and detailed arrival report omn Thursday. I learnt that the best way to get through closed doors and immigration lines is to do in Thailand what Thais do best................yes it begins with "S"..........................S M I L E .

Everything may take 15 - 20 minutes longer, just breath in slowly, exhale, walk tall and eat well - YOGA.

I feel so much better about life in general after 2 weeks in Asia.

Stop all your moans and go to the land of smiles.................its an airport, what do you expect.....................!

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Its a great airport and I always feel at home when hitting "Cobra Swamp"and it cant be doing too bad now that its got into the Worlds Top 10

(with thank Skytrax )..hope OK to mention.

WORLD'S TOP 10 AIRPORTS....2010 1 Singapore Changi Airport 2 Incheon International Airport 3 Hong Kong International Airport 4 Munich Airport 5 Kuala Lumpur International Airport 6 Zurich Airport 7 Amsterdam Schiphol Airport 8 Beijing Capital International Airport 9 Auckland Int'l Airport 10 Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport

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TerryMcmanus24.....BKK airport in a top ten list.......hmmmmm ...it might make my top 10 of worst major hubs. The Skytrax results do not always reflect reality being for the most driven by individual airline and airport lobbying. BKK has a well deserved reputation for being horrible and my own experience of it is that it is badly sign posted, dingy and utterly chaotic, especially on arrival. The architectural style used (concrete everywhere) was a waste of a great opportunity in a country with some stunning buildings and a rich history of design. The airport hotel was (it has been a while since I stopped due to the issues in Thailand generally) the best part of the airport and would certainly have made my top ten of great airport hotels.

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Hi Binman62 - the new BKK airport is certainly not dingy and chaotic. When it opened the systems did not entirely work and the place was a little understaffed. My main criticism is the distances between some of the gates and the departure / arrivals hall. I recall reading that the furthest distance that a pax could walk (depending on the stand) is about 2.5km, which for the elderly and infirm does bring challenges. Immigration q's have also reduced significantly as more immigration staff become available, although over the last few months, there have been other reaons why the airport has been less crowded.

A new issue affecting BKK is that due to sinkage of some of the taxiways, AOT have started to instruct aircraft to be towed well away from certain stands and taxiways before start up clearance is given.

All in all compared to the likes of LHR, JFK - BKK is a breeze and a very pleasant user friendly airport. Whether it is a top 10 airport though, I tend to agree with what your post implies, that it falls outside of the status of top 10.

It is a big airport for a big city.

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MartynSinclair....my views were based on a overnight stay in the BA lounge about a year ago following a very long delay to a Qantas flight. I went for a walk around the terminal and the over riding memory was of dark concrete and air-conditioning pipes. It was certainly dingy. The chaos was from the continuous calls for late passengers during the night (not in the lounge I would add) and the scenes outside in arrivals and departures.

There is no doubt that it is better than JFK but I am not so sure that it beats LHR and certainly not T5.

BKK was an opportunity to do something special like KIX HKG ICN and KUL. In fairness, having used all of these airports, none of them is perfect operationally but they are all in their own way spectacular buildings, easy to use and offer passengers an enhanced experience over what went before. BKK sadly has not been that successful. There is a wonderful hotel with one of the best Spas anywhere but that had little to do with the airport.

As well as the well advertised political issues and the operational problems there has also been the rather nasty matter of corruption whereby innocent passengers were falsely accused of theft and then held for several days in some instances for the purposes of having extorted from them.

I have never bought into the land of smiles image of Thailand generally but my own experiences in Bangkok and at the airport have left a less than positive image of the country and of the airport in particular.

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"A year is a long time in the life of a new airport" .... well the saying went something like that.......!!

Binman, a year ago is a year ago. BKK is far from perfect, but it is a little more perfect than it was a year ago.

I too was stuck one Friday evening about a year ago. It was absolutely awfull, a 6 hour delay because wonderful Qantas were an aircraft down, shortly after the 747 was forced down with a hole in its side. I had a real hard time, slumbing it in the first class lounge, which was kept open all night (as was the business class lounge). There was food, drink, showers, newspapers, internet connections, more food - tv - went shopping (on my own) - and then the lounge staff had the audacity to call the flight 5 hours late. To top it all off, Qantas only had 1/2 bottlle of their 20 year old tawny port - wow, life was a bitch that night!!

On a serious note Binman, irrespective of whether you are taken in by the land of smiles or not, BKK has come a long way in a year. It is far from perfect, but it is in a very good league, perhaps the championship, not quite the Premiership, but certainly above the lower leagues....

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It is now almost 18 months since my original post on this topic .. and I would agree with others here that things have changed, generally for the better at BKK ... architecturally it rivals others in the region (although does not surpass them) but it does the job ok .. signage is still a problem with handwritten notices stuck with sticky tape on anywhere conveneient .. that's Thailand, not a lot of style in Government agencies ... now I hear that some of the taxiways are sinking because of poor quality materials used in construction (read: corruption as usual) and aircraft are avoiding these areas until they are fixed .. BKK is after all built on swamp land ...

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Is the new skytrain up and operating from the airport to central BKK, near Rama IV and Silom? hours of operation? thanks.

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They are testing the Airport link at the moment with restricted time periods between Suwana and Phyathai..believe 7-10 am...1-00-5pm and its FREE.

Full operation is scheduled to begin in August at Bt 150 a ticket.

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Only trial runs at present. During the test run, the train is operated on weekdays, from 07.00-10.00 hrs and 16.00-19.00 hrs, departing from the terminal every 20 minutes. The trip takes approximately 30 minutes from the downtown Phya Thai terminal to Suvarnabhumi Airport, with 4 stops at Ratchaprarop, Ramkhamhaeng, Hua Mak, and Thub Chang stations along the line. The Airport Link is expected to be put on commercial service in August 2010 but don't hold your breath.

A recent race by the Bangkok Post sent 1 reporter by the train and another by taxi from a downtown location to the airport. After getting a motorbike to the train station and then the train, 1 reporter took 46 minutes to get to the airport. The other reporter took a taxi direct to the airport in 30 minutes. Both cost around the same price. So, it depends where you are staying and at what time you travel although the freeway to Suvarnabhumi never seems to get clogged once you are on it.

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They should re-run the "race" but make the taxi driver drive within the speed limit - because there is no way to do that journey by taxi in 30 minutes without breaking the speed limit!

Also, I dispute the claim that the cost of the two journeys is almost the same. I live within fifteen minutes of Big Swampy and travel to the airport by taxi on average once a week. The cost is THB130 so there is no way a ride from Phya Thai is going to cost THB150.........!!

A significant advantage of the skytrain over a taxi is that you should arrive alive and not totally stressed out by the taxi ride!

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I merely report the news as I read it ... any taxi ride in Thailand is stressful ... taxis can travel at 0-10 kmh in downtown Bangkok at peak hour and it's even more stressful .. just living in Thailand is stressful ..

living in Thailand is stressful !!

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Dear oh dear Oz Traveller.......without wishing to move off topic, I am sorry you find living in Thailand stressful! I really enjoy it, but then I also travel a lot in the region on business thus making regular trips out of Thailand - that may be the saving grace for me....who knows!

Do you travel to Singapore often? I have just started a new topic about additional security checks on arrival at Changi - only for flights from BKK....do you have any similar experience?

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The Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link is opening 23/08/2010.

Ride from the Airport to Phaya Thai BTS will cost 20 baht on the City Line, or 10 baht if you travel only 1 to 7 stations.

The Express Line will cost more at 50 baht from Suvarnabhumi to Makkasan. These are promotional fares expected to last until the end of 2010, and there's a high likelihood of that being extended until mid-2011.

The Express Line and City Line trains departs every 15 and 20 minutes, respectively. The Express train offers larger storage space for luggage and bicycles + toilet.

The check-in facilities at Makkasan Station is not expected to operate until the State Railway finishes the setting up of subsidiary company 'SRTET' expected by the end of 2010. THAI is keen to set up city check-in facilities right from the beginning, and may extend such service to Star Alliance passengers at a later date. The airline expects city check-in passengers to pay for the Express Line ride to Suvarnabhumi himself, of course.

Modifications are being made to Phaya Thai BTS station at the moment and should be ready by 23/08 to allow direct connection with the ARL station (passengers need not go to the ground level for transfers).

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JamesMoloney5

A single journey from Phaya Thai to Suvarnabhumi on the City Line should cost you 40 or 45 baht after the promotional period or 20 baht during the promotion (23/08 to end of 2010).

OzTraveller

You don't have to buy the 150-baht ticket on the Express Line, if you have a cabin-size luggage. Just use the City Line trains.

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Very good. I appreciate it. City check in would be great for all Star Alliance partners!

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Thursday 26th August - landed BKK and off aircraft at 14.50, through immigration at 15.00, bags waiting on conveyor belt. In car by 15.05 and arrived downtown at 15.35. This airport is now working. Immigration hall was busy and most booths had immigration staff and yes I did use fast track.

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and now expanding....

http://asia.businesstraveller.com/asia-pacific/news/suvarnabhumi-airport-expansion-approved

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Martyn I agree that Immigration is much better now - sometimes I don't even bother with the extra 50m walk to the Fast Track Immigration facility, because the regular one is not busy.

The only part of your arrival experience that I am amazed at is the fact that your luggage was on the conveyor belt waiting for you. Luggage delivery is the worst aspect of the arrival experience and I have never had my luggage beat me to the carousel at BKK.....never.

The only airport that consistently has my luggage waiting for me at the carousel is Changi!

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have a long wait in BKK - anyone has any experience of the Thai lounges?

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James - it was on the belt because the first cargo that is offloaded at BKK on a Thai longhaul is First Class. Bear in mind I also had a buggy from the aircraft to immigration. The drive was slow, but still faster than walking. It does amaze me though that Thai was not able to park closer to the immigration hall, but then of course I would have had to wait for my luggage!!

Tarisingh - if you can get into the Thai First class lounge, it is certainly amongst the worlds top lounges. If you have Oneworld Gold/Emerald, the BA/Qantas lounge is very good.

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thanks martynsinclair - am traveling business class so NO first call lounge for me! do you know the difference between royal orchid and royal silk lounges? someone told me one of them offer head massages??!

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Hi Martyn, the reason they cannot park closer is because they have moved the transfer point for int-dom flights and the buggy is not allowed to traverse that point - don't quite know why.

I am a regular F passenger from London and Paris (I do the journey 6 times a year) and even in First the luggage rarely beats me to the carousel. A couple of weeks ago I was traveling from Singapore to Bangkok and we waited 45 minutes for our luggage. Do you know the reason given for the delay? A tropical rainstorm.........

I mean guys, you build an airport in Asia and the luggage is delayed 45 minutes because of a rainstorm.................!! Come on, who designed this airport and did not factor in tropical rain downpours?

Don't get me wrong - I live in Bangkok and I travel 200,000 miles a year so I see a LOT of this airport. I think Thai is trying to improve its product (First class on the new 777-300 from Pairs is fantastic) and the First Class arrival experience is great, but it has a long way to go on the regional routes - still using ancient aircraft that I was using 20 years on the Hanoi-Bangkok route!

Tarisingh, the ROP lounge does offer foot massage, and head massage and full body Thai massage (if you have the luxury of time on your hands), but I have only ever used them when flying in First and they are free to F passengers. I believe you have to pay if travelling in Business......but not quite sure.

So if you are travelling Business but you are not an ROP member I am unsure if you can use that particular ROP lounge.

The Royal Silk lounges are good for what they offer, food is not a patch on the Business Class lounge in Singapore, but the seats are a comfortable place to spend some time - but no massage!

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The G-ds were on my side today. There were 4 of us in F, 2 transiting to SIN and 2 into BKK. Flight was light and the weather was excellent. Hence the reason why I always date my flight reports.

I have had my fair share of suffering at the belt on the shorter Thai flights even in F.

Tomorrow is another day!!

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A review has been posted here on the new airport link

http://asia.businesstraveller.com/discussion/topic/Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi-Airport-Link-review

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The 20 min. foot or head/shoulder massage service at TG's Royal Silk lounge in BKK is also available to business class passengers departing BKK or in transit, and it is FREE. You must have at least 1 hr. spare before your boarding time.

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Anyone heading out to BKK, the lines at immigration are horrendous, with waits of up to 90 minutes.

Try and secure the services of fast track immigration, either through business class travel or your hotel.

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I always travel in First to BKK but have not noticed any fast track for Business/First arriving or departing, is this new?

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about 2 years + new.

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As mentioned in earlier post, immigration lines when departing Bangkok are simply horrendous (if you fly Economy). On last Friday morning, I get to the line (outside immigration hall) at 6.05am only to get inside the hall at 6.35am and then at 7.00am I managed to pass through immigration.

Once again, instead of making things better, in Bangkok airport they only managed to make things worst.

So, get to the airport on peak hour times (morning from 5.30 to 8 am) and evening (from 8pm to midnight) at least 3 hours before your flight departure time.

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There are companies who provide a fast track service through BKK airport (irrespective of class of travel), for arriving and departing pax. It may be worth investigating this option.

I was advised that BKK is extremely busy at the moment in part, due to Chineese New Year.

A happy New Year to all those who celebrate.

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Derek,

If you fly First on Thai you benefit from the excellent meet & greet service and you are taken by buggy and escorted through Immigration at the Thai First/Business Class Immigration area.

If you fly any other airline, there is a separate Fast Track Immigration facility for which your airline will give you a Fast Track pass which you should surrender to the Immigration officer. I have accumulated a good number of these now as the officer invariably forgets to ask for the pass. I can then use these on the odd occasion I travel in economy.....thereby skipping the long lines.

There are some "cheap charlie" airlines, such as ANA and, I think but not sure, Qatar, which do not provide these passes because they do not pay the fee for the service. If you travel Business Class with these airlines you will end up in the economy class line at Immigration.

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How very interesting that 7 of the top 10 airports are in Asia, two in Europe, one in NZ but not ONE in the USA which prides itself as being such a great country, most especially NYC which claims to be the greatest city in the world. Try using JFK and Suvarnabhumi looks pretty darn good to me. I've used it four times in the past two months and never once had any problems whatsoever. In fact, contrary to my worst fears, it was efficient and very easy to navigate from check-in to security to the gate (although in some instances that is a long, long walk. Our taxi driver met us at Exit 4 which was fully open as was Exit 3 and we had no problem finding him nor he us.

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JamesMoloney5 - Just to correct your post as it is inaccurate. I fly to BKK with Qatar regularly and they always give premium passengers a fast track immigration pass and I have never had to queue.

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Qatarfan, thanks for correcting me. I wasn't sure as I said in my post. I have flown Qatar a couple of times to London via Doha but couldn't remember if they provided the fast track pass.

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Suvarnabhumi Airport is now my favourite airport in the world. Living in Asia for 25 + years I have had my frustrations with Bangkok which I travel through biweekly most of the time. If you travel on Thai Airways First or Business there is no easier or faster airline experience anywhere, especially on first. With an easy check in experience, a short walk to Thai's own dedicated fast track immigration directly in front of the business check in area and a few steps after security to the escalators down to the lounge. Flying first you get the meet and greet service with the buggy which saves your legs on departure/arrival by being brought to or picked up from the the gates. Massages are a delight and you really find yourself in such a relaxed mode by the time you take your seat on board. Thai are slowly upgrading their aircraft but the seating is comfortable in business on most routes, even the old seating is still comfortable. Thai and the Airport management have really got together to make this an excellent experience and I never have had to wait too long for my luggage after the first few months problems, which both HK and KL experienced as well. If you want to complain about airports and bad experiences Manila is a nightmare.

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Jason,

You wrote a very accurate description on how good is Suvarnabhumi Airport if you fly with TG on First and Business, something I did many times. On that I agree 100%.

However sometimes for short regional flights I fly in Economy Class and this is where you will feel the pain, as I did last week and many other people, in fact most of the passengers going through the airport are economy class passengers and they have to suffer one of the worst airports in Asia by far.

We have to be truth and not judge an airport only for their F and C class service but overall and on that regard, Suvarnabhumi Airport is still a shame and even Manila airport where I was last month is better since you will never spend more than 20 minutes to go through Immigration (last time I just took 5 minutes).

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Jason - having arrived into BKK airport this morning, for the second time this week, using Thai First, I agree with your comments 100%. However, that does not eliminate the experiences for those that do not enjoy fast track. The queues between 2pm and 5pm most days when the European and Japan flights arrive are wholly unacceptable.

What the queues do show is that tourism and business are returning to Thailand. I hope that the airport management do take note and speed the passenger flow through immigration for those that do not enjoy the superb Thai first and business experiences.

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I Must say I have always found Bangkoks new airport a delight to travel though, spacious comfortable, no hassle and have never experienced any ques at Immigration, perhaps this is because i fly Business class with Emirates and they give you a fast track pass yo use the VIP lane after check in, which is great

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SiamAir & Martyn, Thanks for your comments and I do understand the problem when travelling on economy or even premium classes on some other airlines at Suvarnabhumi, before Xmas i travelled to Cairo (got my timing right there) unfortunately on Egypt Air First Class and was not given a fast track card, even when I complained the security were adament that I go through the economy channels of immigration and security and it was very crowded and took me about 40 minutes to get through and not leaving much time to relax in the lounge or do any shopping. As a Star Alliance carrier I was very disapointed in some of the Egypt Air product but I guess you get what you pay for. Egypt Air did not credit my miles at all and cost me my Gold status by a few miles, which I have just got Thai to finally credit the miles and reinstate my Gold status. I am currently in Buenos Aires Argentina, travelling here on Thai to Joburg, SAA to Sao Paulo and TAM to Buenos Aires and I must say how impressed I was with both SAA and TAM both excellent business class products. With reference to Siam and your experience in Manila, all I can say is you were extremely lucky as I regularly fly in and out of Manila and it is not unusual to wait an hour at immigration due to the amount of people and few staff. Manila is a shambles they built a new terminal, could not open it for about 5 years because the government would not pay the contractor and when they finally opened it a couple of years ago, it is being used by the local budget airlines. The existing Terminal 1 is the same airport that I think Magdellan used when the Spanish came to conquer the Philippines a few hundred years ago. It is cramped and if the air conditioning works on the day you use it, your very lucky!

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James,

yep, qatar do give you fast track cards. i recently transited thru BKK on thai business class. even transit security check was tediously long and slow. lounges were spartan to say the least. overall as a transit traveller I cant really rate it accuratly.

regarding entrance security, I once made the mistake of flying into dehli international, then had to go over to domestic for a flight in 6 hours. as the stop was short i dint bother with a hotel, thought I would sleep in the lounge.....wrong! security would not let me in the terminal without a ticket, even tho I had printed it out. No one from airport present to confirm so no entry...I ended trying to sleep on the pavement outside for 3 hours...not good..

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