New Airport in Bangkok

[bangkoksins]

I have been to far worse. Suvarnabhumi is a great improvement on the old DM. Once the train is up and running and they sort out some of the problems it will be one of the best in Asia.

[Tomcat]

what!,You must be smoking Magic mushrooms or you got shares. I didnt even get started about things like  shortage of Toilets , late baggage, plus the rip off touts, pickpockets, shysters and all the other vermin that hover around places that are so packed that no one knows what the fuck is going on.

As someone said, there is no easy way that they can extend the exit hall. Its like a bloody Hong Kong race track . I just had a meet with my Travel Agent and she agrees that the talk in travel business is that its thumbs down

I spend a LOT of time at airports, thats why it matters to me. To other guys , it wont make any difference. Just getting the flem off my chest..  

[rob69in]

So London Heathrow now has some serious competition on being the worst airport I have been to, & believe me I have been to a few!

I am quite looking forward to my trip thru somewhere worse than Heathrow!

[Guest]

T.C. love your description of Nana in the first few lines,

[allstar88]

(bangkoksins @ Oct. 17 2006,15:14) I have been to far worse. Suvarnabhumi is a great improvement on the old DM. Once the train is up and running and they sort out some of the problems it will be one of the best in Asia.

classic          

[holly200]

Gee Thanks Tomcat,

I€™m really looking forward to arriving at Suvarnabhumi in mid November. I think I have the solution - get pissed on beer before you arrive.

As the BTS ever getting a station at the airport, oh sure.

From what you described, I€™m really going to miss the old Don Muang airport.  



Regards
Richard

[Tomcat]

Actually leaving the country is a better experience than arriving but its still crowded. Even the BKK post said that capacity for a few million more will be required within 3 years.

It looks as if there is a lot of room but thats because the roof is high like HK airport , the only space is above you,,,if you lower the roof it would look as packed as heathrow. It looks fab from the outside but that doesnt help anyone.

The worst airport must be Dubai.... i have never had to queue for a shit until i went there!

[Guest]

Does the new airport have the moving walkways or the golfcart type carts?

[rxpharm]

Arrived at the new airport on Oct. 20 at 8:00 am. Was expecting some problems with long walks and luggage. Pleasantly surprised as the assigned gate was fairly close to immigration - only 5 min walk. I could see it being a lot longer though, if your plane is assigned a gate really far from immigration. This place is huge and certainly you could have a 1 km hike to immigration if you are at the wrong end! They do have moving sidewalks, I did not notice any motorized carts. Still a lot of construction going on - not much in the way of duty free shops yet - hmm, where is Jay's friend working?

The luggage came off the belt fairly quickly - I think it was only another 15 min wait after I got out of immigration. Not sure if it new staff or new computer system, but the person manning my booth seemed quite slow compared to the old airport. Also they do not yet have the camera scanners, so I suspect they are using different software now, which probably adds to the time for processing.

With few flights when we arrived the arrivals hall was not very crowded. The public taxi queue was there on the ground floor as well as the faithful standby the airport bus (150 Baht). The arrivals hall definitely would have a hard time accomodating a couple of A380's landing at the same time. Will be interesting to see if the outbound luggage situation is improved when I fly out on Oct. 28.

Also it seems the airline lounges are not yet complete, except for the TG lounge - and even that is not completely finished yet.

[Tomcat]

I think it has moving walkways , cant remember seeing the golf buggies.

They are also changing the immigration desk layout from April 1st 2007 according to BKK post which it says will effect transit passengers???. I didnt understand the article to be honest, maybe someone else who read it will know.