OzTraveller - 13/02/2009 07:01 GMT
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.
TravelRich - 16/02/2009 03:15 GMT
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).
katsu2223 - 16/02/2009 15:24 GMT
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.
bombayteddy - 20/02/2009 14:39 GMT
BKK is heaven if you've experienced BOM !!
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!!!)
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.....................!
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
Binman62 - 09/07/2010 20:37 GMT
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.
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.
Binman62 - 12/07/2010 15:54 GMT
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.
"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....
OzTraveller - 12/07/2010 21:53 GMT
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 ...
Is the new skytrain up and operating from the airport to central BKK, near Rama IV and Silom? hours of operation? thanks.
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.
OzTraveller - 13/07/2010 07:00 GMT
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.
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!
OzTraveller - 14/07/2010 08:00 GMT
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 !!
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?
Zoowatch - 19/07/2010 21:48 GMT
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).
Zoowatch - 19/07/2010 22:01 GMT
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.
