Suvarnabhumi Airport

[banpaeng]

Yes that would be on the first level. Best I could tell there are 4 levels at the airport. You can get outside on level 1, 2 and 4. Level 3 might let you out also but I did not see it. Level 3 was where I got a snack and was between the departure and arrival level.

I also meant to address another question and that is if you drive is it well signed. I have been two ways to the airport (1) on the expressway and (2) via regular roads. Both ways had a lot of signs in English and Thai. I was in a taxi each time I have gone, however if I think if I was able to drive in Bangkok, I think there are enough signs to get me to the airport.

Another Oddity I saw was the Thais go out to the airport and park on the expressway to watch the planes and get pictures. I mean they are parked on the expressway and out on a blanket or in the back of a pickup truck with a picnic and all. IF this was one or two cars or trucks I would say neat, but this is hundreds of cars and trucks. Makes for quite a site. Just waiting for and enterprising Thai to have the food and drink car to roll along slow to refresh them.

[BKKSTAN]

Hundreds of cabbies protest at Suvarnabhumi Airport

Hundreds of cabbies blocked the taxi terminal at Suvarnabhumi Airport last night in protest at a police arrest and ticketing of a driver.

As many as 300 police were deployed to the protest.

The arrested driver had failed to turn on his meter when ferrying a passenger to the airport from Chon Buri province.

One of the protesting drivers said the blockade demanded justice for the arrested driver.

He said taxis travelling interprovincial routes did not have to use meters.

The protest organiser, who asked to not be identified, alleged staff at a company that operated an Airports of Thailand taxi concession were corrupt.

They allowed "ghost taxis" to freely pick up passengers at the airport while those who paid Bt50 to enter the airport had to wait "hours" to collect a fare.

Staff received Bt20 kickbacks from each unauthorised taxi.

Hundreds of taxis blocked entrances and exits to the commuter area while others blockaded the Thai Airways catering building, causing traffic congestion in the airport compound

[izzix]

cribbed from TV >>
*******************
Used the airport for the first　time last week. Was expecting things to have improved by now inline with some comments here on the board.

Arrived on Saturday afternoon, Thai Airlines from Japan, and in fact had no real inconveniences. luggage arrived okay, through immigration and customs fairly quickly and into a taxi and away. I did however find it a bit strange to have use a bus between the plane and the terminal and be driven around and around, in a NEW airport, rather than to be able to alight directly to the terminal, like in the old airport, and most other airports in the world I know. Also the chaos when one exits from departures is now much worse than the old airport because it is contained in a smaller space than the old airport, with the money changers in the middle of the chaos too, rather than separated in the area before, as in the old airport. Signs to the public taxi areas are sparse, (I think I saw one) clearly on purpose to get people to use the limousine services (offical or otherwise). If you have read the forum and know to go straight down to the taxis it is okay, but many unsuspecting new arrivals must end up with these limousine taxis for not knowing about the ordinary ones.

However although my arrival was basicallyokay, someone I know who arrived later in the day on a direct Thai Airlines flight had his luggage lost. He recieved it next day I believe. So the luggage problems are still around.

But my real story was with my departure back to Japan on Thai Airlines on Thursday night. For a start everything said about the Toilet situation for departures is true. The situation is ridiculous and whoever it was the designed the departures floor like that deserves to be banned from being an architect or designer for life, it is just so obviously bad and lacking in any common sense.

Next there is the check in to Thai Airways. Two mammoth chaotic massive lines of people waiting and waiting, as they slowly slowly move to the check in. A wait of some thing like 90 minutes to get to your turn to check in. where you discover that computer problems are in effect and the hapless check-in staff can do nothing just tap tap on their computer, but the system is down for most of them, but after a lot of tapping and waiting eventually they get in to do your check in. What makes it all the worse is that there is no one from Thai airlines around to explain what is happening to the masses of people waiting and waiting, many who are starting to get worried about missing their flights (Of course all the flights were delayed an hour or so to allow for the delayed check in or many people really would have missed their flights) All who are frustrated and annoyed. No one to help try and organise the chaos. Only about half the check in desks were even open so they dont even have staff for that at such a busy time! (I thought I has seen bad check in situations departing from India, but at least there were some staff around so you knew what was going on as you waited and waited.) So anyhow computer problems are most definately still in effect!

Then there is security check before the gate, where when I walked through the alarm went off but no one checked me, as they were talking or something, and I just continued on. I had nothing bad with me but if I had I could have taken it aboard as that was the only check between me and the plane. And then of course finallly there is a bus to get to board the plane for a last taste of the Thai heat. Did they forget to design walkways to the planes, along with the toilets in the departure area? Is it cost saving or do they just want you to see how beautiful the building is from the outside?

The airport is clearly far from being over its problems and hundreds of people who departed with Thai on Thursday night bear witness to this and will, like me, be telling everyone they know just how bad it is. The definatley would not be agreeing with some of the posts in this forum where it is suggested things have improved or the airport is not really that bad. I doubt if even another year will see that much improvement as so many of the problems are quite major and structural and beyond what could be called teeething problems.
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[izzix]

I've been through the airport 6 times within the last month. All I can say is that I was somewhat disappointed with the structure and its supposed efficiency. From the outside, the airport is perhaps one of the most beautiful airports I've ever seen, second only to Incheon in my book. But when you walk inside, you see the sterile environment, wires, pipes, dirty cement columns, cobwebs on the honeycomb ceiling, and worse of all, the cheapest sad excuse for floor tiles I've ever seen. :ohno:

Though we all know beauty is subjective, I must say, after travelling through KLIA, Incheon, Narita,and HK,our airport and the materials they used in decorating/constructing the interior (especially the cladding, signage, and flooring) pale in comparison to that of other airports within the region.

The uncleanliness of the interior makes it look like the airport has been in use for the past 10 years. Why didn't they use a nice granite or a marble like its competitors. Having a white floor just makes the airport look even dirtier. I really hope they opt to cover most of the airport in a nice carpet. The see through garbage cans don't help with the interior design either. I really don't want to seen the contents of rotting food and liquids when I'm throwing away my tissue.:ohno:

Bathrooms are far and few. Why do they put the male and female signs at waist level instead of at eye level too? Anyway, I am glad to have heard that AOT is constructing more bathrooms within the terminal building because 4 stalls and 2 urinals per bathroom is really pushing it. Gosh, the bathrooms on the level of SP, Black Canyon, and baggage claim are very dirty and wet. In comparison, Incheon's bathrooms are so clean and nicely designed, Thailand should have mimic'd their design.

Another design flaw I've come upon is when leaving the main terminal complex to get to the car park.The luggage cart wheels tend to get stuck within the grooves of the metal floor bridge as well as in the sidewalk drains on ground level. Very annoying!

In terms of efficiency, I must say that I had no problem with the length of the walk to the departure gates. The people movers work great and excercise, especially after a long flight, is good in my book. Check in/out and immigration has always been a breeze as well. My only real complaint would have to be with the baggage handling system. 5 out of the 6 times I've travelled, I had to wait 35+ minutes to get my luggage. sad.gif

Something that I've seen since my first arrival was the large amount of illegal touts within the arrivals area. Why does AOT allow illegal taxi and limo touts to bother passengers on their way out of baggage claim? When I was waiting at arrivals for my father, I saw so many farangs being annoyed by the constant harrasment of touts following them like needy beggars. If hey needed a limo/taxi, they would go to the limo/taxi counter!

If I've offended anyone with all these negative crits about Suvarnabhumi airport, I'm very sorry. These are just a few things I've come to notice which I hope an airport official will read and try to correct in time. Please remember an airport is the gateway into a country and its people. It is the first and last experience people have within the country and that impression goes a far way. Right now, I understand that Suvarnabhumi is barely a few months old and I understand that things like baggage times and plane/gate use will be corrected. But when it comes to aesthetics like the signs and cheap poorly installed floors especially, will AOT redo/renovate them? Sadly, with the way things operate within Thailand, These things will probably never be looked into.

Here are some pics to support my claims ^^

see the pix on TV

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=95227

[izzix]

the TV Mary Poppins moderators seem to have deleted this post and photos above now .

[beer monkey]

was'nt impressed with the 45 minute wait for baggage to come through.

was'nt impressed with hoards of people (mostly touting for taxis/tours,but buisness is buisness i suppose) crowding the exit doors from international arrivals,could'nt easily move my heavy trolly full of the wifes bags .

Plenty of walking (good for the heart )from plane to exit for airport limo.

Taxi limo 900 baht inc tolls to sukhamvit. about 40 mins due to a bit of early morning traffic .
probably is cheaper but could'nt be arsed to haggle.
been quoted 300 baht for meter taxi from suk soi 5 for return,but car not big enough for the wifes bags.!

lights in the airport a bit dim.

massive place looked good.

just my view, and i was tired and wanted a comfy bed.

[jingjai]

Well as I've said to a few of my friends, it will probably take them a year to work the glitches out. None of the problems surprise me. I was part of the opening team on three brand new hotels in Hawaii. It would always take close to a year to get the hotels running properly. Most of the problems had to do with the physical plant.
More importantly though:
Has any of you people coming through checked on the Duty Free shops at arrivals? Do they have them? At the old Don Muang, there was a few Kings Power Duty Free Shops at the baggage arrival area. I don't mind a little wait for my luggage if I know I will be rewarded with a fine bottle of Single Malt Scotch at a reasonable price. The Macallan, please.

[beer monkey]

i am sure i saw a few shops upon arrival.

Used domestic departures and i can't beleive i went up and down in the lift 3 times after checking in ????(what a plonker )lol
saw the sign for departures with an arow pointing downstairs, so no problem there, so enter the lift press level 2 and on the button in the lift it says "Arrivals" lift goes down and opens all you see are baggage belts, so i go back up to level 4 then back down and up again then asked someone and they said yes its correct so down again and turn right at the baggage belts then see the numbered gates, all good, but still very dimly lit in there, strolled down to the gate and did not see any eating places or cold drink places, so strolled back the other way went in the something garden i think it was Coupon purchase 500 baht min, piza's , thai and japen foods and bar, the place was Hot and sweaty minimal AC, and food average, 40 baht for a small bott of narm.
Lots of concrete but impressive.

[valentine]

Starting tomorrow the following car parking charges come into effect.
Up to 2 hours. 25bht per hour, rising to 30bht ph up to 4. 5 hours and over 50bht ph. If you are unfortunate enough to work there, a monthly ticket is available at 2,000bht. These are for car or pickups.
For motorcycles a flat rate of 10bht per hour.There will be no free waiting facility.

[arjay]

I had a recent 4 hour stoppover in Suvanbhumi airport so was able to check it out quite well.

It's probably best to use the escalators, as opposed to the lifts (elevators) Beer Monkey!! The signposting is also clearer.

There is a viewing gallery on the very top level, but no seats or AC and hot air rises!

the gate and did not see any eating places or cold drink places, so strolled back the other way went in the something garden i think it was Coupon purchase 500 baht min, piza's , thai and japen foods and bar, the place was Hot and sweaty minimal AC, and food average, 40 baht for a small bott of narm.

Yes, I found that "Food Garden" It's tucked away (read "hidden") right next to and round the corner from Boots (the one where the corridor to the A and B gates splits up).

It is expensive and though you have to buy a prepayment card min 500 baht, you can get a refund of what you don't use. In my case 410 baht, as I bought a slice of pizza at 90 baht.

Most Thai food dishes, the sort you can buy elsewhere at 60-80 baht cost 140 baht.

It is quiet and they provide quality furniture, crockery, cutlery and glassware etc!!

[BKKSTAN]

Starting tomorrow the following car parking charges come into effect.
Up to 2 hours. 25bht per hour, rising to 30bht ph up to 4. 5 hours and over 50bht ph. If you are unfortunate enough to work there, a monthly ticket is available at 2,000bht. These are for car or pickups.
For motorcycles a flat rate of 10bht per hour.There will be no free waiting facility.

Tightening up the budget ,I see!I wonder how this compares to other major airports?

[BKKSTAN]

Hope I didn't miss a post from you!I wanted to ask you what your impressions and thoughts were about the new airport!

[arjay]

For motorcycles a flat rate of 10bht per hour.There will be no free waiting facility.

So what did you do with the motorbike then Val? Did you pay up, or park it outside?!

[valentine]

For motorcycles a flat rate of 10bht per hour.There will be no free waiting facility.

So what did you do with the motorbike then Val? Did you pay up, or park it outside?!

As I was going for two weeks i decided to flog it. cheaper

[beer monkey]

It's probably best to use the escalators, as opposed to the lifts (elevators) Beer Monkey!! The signposting is also clearer.

agreed , but i had the baby in a buggy, so was easier than escalators.

[BKKSTAN]

Still lots of things to complain about!!But air traffic control ain't one of them yet!

Bangkok Post:

General news >> Saturday December 16, 2006
Google
An appalling case of neglect

There has been no shortage of complaints about the facilities at Suvarnabhumi Airport and the corrupt practices involved in building it. Much of the blame for both belongs to the politicians who ordered it to be opened for full service before it was ready. This premature birth guaranteed that the glitches that would normally plague any huge new technical operation of this complexity would be greatly increased and, sure enough, they were. The scarcity of seats and toilets, inadequate signposting and lighting, mismarked baggage conveyor belts, rampant pestering touts, arrival hall crush, taxi mismanagement, lax security, poor working conditions for immigration staff and uncontrolled noise pollution, among other things, were all so predictable they could easily have been averted by proper planning before, instead of panic measures after, the airport opened. Just observing passenger flows at Don Muang would have pinpointed obvious problem areas. What we can take great comfort in is that there have been no safety issues. A lack of professionalism might be evident in some aspects of the airport management, but not in the air traffic control and ''airside'' ground control operations. These controllers are the best in the business and the on-time arrival and departure times speak for themselves.

But no praise is due to those who skimped on such modern-day necessities as attending to the needs of disabled passengers, many of them tourists. The opinions and recommendations made by representatives of the disabled during the airport design and construction phases appear to have been largely ignored. This is in total contrast to the disabled-friendly subway system where everyone worked together and succeeded in getting it right.

So what happened at Suvarnabhumi? Why are toilets for the disabled located at the back of restrooms where wheelchair users experience great difficulty in getting to them? Why were their concerns that parts of the walkways were hazardous because they were slippery apparently not acted on? Why did no representative of the now-deposed Thaksin government consult with representatives of the disabled, despite many requests, to help plan the special facilities needed? And why did representatives of the disabled get so desperate they felt they had to resort to filing a lawsuit in the Administrative Court against those politicians who had neglected their plight?

The group behind this action, led by Lt-Col Torpong Kulkhanchit, chief of the Asia-Pacific Office of the International Handicapped Organisation, says it was fed up with having its petitions and requests ignored and worried about the dangers. It cited certain air-conditioning vents in the passenger terminal as constituting a hazard to children and those with poor vision as there were neither warning signs nor detectable special floor tiles with tactile surfaces to alert people. They also expressed concern about the stairs in the terminal having steel-wire guard rails with gaps they said were big enough for a child to slip through and the lack of any transport service at the airport specifically catering to the needs of the disabled.

The Association of the Disabled of Thailand predicts the airport will fail its first big test when the country hosts the 9th Asian ParaGames next year if faults are not fixed in time. They may well be because attitudes have changed since the coup and efforts are now being made to rectify all the costly blunders that could so easily have been avoided.

[yorkman]

Ohh LOL Lee.. 3 times through and never a problem..try Heatrhrow for hassle! Again it will do me for the Xmas trip.

[shortimer]

I was just in LOS and this was my first time in the new airport so I was ready for major hassles but to my delight everything went very smoothly, the only problem I encountered was the taxi situation. As I arrived at about midnight when I went down to the taxi stand after running the gauntlet of phony taxi hackers I found huge lines and no taxi's, I noticed down the way at the domestic end what taxi's that were there were being filled at that end. However as I had read the posts here from other members I carried my sorry butt up to departures to find a huge ammount of taxi's just sitting there, as soon as I walked out a driver waved me over and put my bags into cab and off we sent to Sukumvit, all told the fare was just over 300 baht with tolls and tip. Very pleasurable.

Couple of days later taxi to airport for trip to Udon and once again no problem going to Domestic terminal, easy check in, purchase of ticket (NOK) and proceeding to gate, all well marked and no problem, on return same same and luggage wait was about 10-12 minutes, only drawback was luggage came in on same carousel as flight from Pucket and many arab travelers waiting for luggage, must have been water and deoderant shortage because the body odor was something to behold.

International flight back was same same except the check in where the lines were really long and slow but I attribute this to the passengers ahead of me (JAL flight) they had each about 3 huge suitcases apiece and were in groups of 8-10 a group handing girl stacks of passports and tickets, once this was past and I took the Bataan death march to the gate, good for exercise, were the plane embarked. I found the shops to be no more expensive than most in any airport in the world, the only problem is the one I read about most here the Lavatories, few and far between and only for use by 3 seaters and couple of urinals, but I am sure this will be addressed soon ( or so I hope) Would have been worse but thanks to the posting of some of the members here that went first I breezed right through.

[BKKSTAN]

Good report shortimer!Your still calling it LOS versus Thailand,so you are still able to see the brighter side of things w/o the cynicism of some of us not so new
I was thinking about your name and wondering if it referred to your ''lifestyle'' or plans for the future ?

Sounds like overall.LOS has another happy customer.Glad you had a good experience

[arjay]

Shortimer - as in short time to retire to the LOS. I've asked him that one before Stan!

Shortimer's post reminded me I recently took a taxi from "Suvanapoom" to Pattaya. This was my experience:-

After collecting luggage from carousel (tip - stand at the exit end of the carousel - the luggage first surfaces there) and walking straight out towards the road area I found myself in LOL - the Land of Limo's, so then retraced my steps and went down one floor/level and spotted the taxis. Virtually no queue at that time.

Approached the desk asking how much to go to Pattaya. Was told, I think it was, 1400 or 1500 baht (I can't remember because I didn't pay that amount). Tried to negotiate/haggle saying I'd paid 1000 before (though it was in fact 1100). They shook their heads and referred me on to some guys guiding people to the actual taxis. - same conversation! So I ignored them and went up to the next taxi and asked the driver. He asked me how much I pay and then looked over my shoulder to the guys hanging around (I think for them to tell him) meantime I first said 1000 and then upped it to 1100 baht. He then said Ok. The guys behind then wrote that price on the little chit, after confirming with me that I would pay any "Expressway tolls", and away we went.

During the journey I chatted to the taxi driver and he told me that he was happy if he got 1000 baht. Though I think by the time we got to Pattaya through heavy rush hour traffic jams, he maybe regretted that. Though I did give him an extra 100 baht tip - so in total 1200 baht.