New Bangkok Airport - Suvarnabhumi - Report on Day 2
 

Flew into the new airport Friday Sept 29th after 11pm. Some highlights:

1. The walk times rival the old Don Muang airport or Hong Kong without the train.

2. Customs was faster and seems more organized.

3. Visa on arrival looked better than before and more organized.

4. There are around 27 baggage carousels.

5. Getting my luggage took over 50 minutes, with the First tag on it.

6. The arrivals hall outisde customs is narrow and woefully overcrowded. It was awful and this is at midnight.

7. There are 2 tolls on the freeway into Bangkok which can cause delays, as it did at 12:30am.

8. The drive into town in no worse than the old airport.

9. Met a guy who waited 2 hours for his luggage after a 1 hour flight. Granted this was day 2.

10. There is no lounge for Qantas or BA. Expected in 2007.

Look forward to seeing it on the outbound. Hope this helps anyone who is coming in.

Thanks! I was wondering when someone who get through there.

It's sad to hear the arrival halls aren't an improvement.

Are there at least more moving walkways these days?

Steve

Yes there are moving walkways. Downside is when flights arrive at once and people just stand still on them it is faster to walk.

Thanks for the update. I have plans to go to Bangkok in December.

Probably not on American Airlines, though.

Moved from AA to Other Asia (non-Japan/China) for the benefit of travelers to Asia.

And thanks, I will be using that airport a few times in Feb / Mar 2007.

New airport little further out from city than old one so taxi fare was bit higher.
New airport is hugh and depending on which gate upon arrival, this means taking shuttle buses to get to main terminal for buses/taxi for final trip to BKK.
I ended up taking much more time from exit plane --take shuttle bus--reach taxi stand--line was very long and not a single taxi at the stand :mad:

New Bangkok airport - luggage storage
 

Does anyone know if the new Bangkok airport has luggage storage? During our only other trip to Thailand -- this past January -- we were able to store a few pieces of baggage (about $2 per piece per day?). I believe there were facilities for this in both the international and national sections.

Any feedback would be appreciated -- Leo N

Thanks for the report.

Can you describe the taxi procedure in more detail? Level? Wait? At the MTB? Or did you take the bus to the transportation center?

Now I'm confused... can you flag a taxi on leaving the terminal, or do you have to bus over to the transportation center? Also, can hotel cars pick you up at the terminal, or only at the transportation center?

You can't "flag" a taxi. Just like in the old airport, you get a cab through the dispatcher outside the arrivals terminal at 50 Baht surcharge. They originally wanted everyone to have to bus to the transportation centre, but backed off in the end.

Have you taken a taxi from the new airport? Do you pay the b50 to the dispatcher or to the taxi driver? Did you try to go up to level 4 to try and grab a taxi which is dropping someone off? Did you take the bus to the transportation center, where there are a lot of taxis supposedly waiting for dispatch to the terminal building.

I've heard the waiting line for a taxi from level 2 can be quite long.

How's the food at the new airport?
 

Are any of the restaurants open? Might seem weird, but one of the joys for me of the Don Muang airport was all the good food (much like in all of Thailand) that was available at the airport for reasonable prices (though more than if it were outside the airport).

That was always a consolation for the layovers I had between flights back when I traveled around SE Asia for leisure.

Dayrooms??
 

Does anyone here know if the new airport has dayroom facilities similar to the ones at Don Muang?

Yes, the grapevine says the first batch has just opened -- all ten (10) of them, and no reservations possible. Level 4, section G, again operated by Louis' Tavern.