Land-of-Miles

My Girlfriend and I flew from the new BKK airport last night and I thought I would post a quick synopsis of our experiences.

Arriving at the new airport is easy; the expressway had clear signposting to the new airport from approximately 20km before the appropriate exit. Upon approaching the terminal it appears impressive and the approach way is crowded with cars parked on the "hard shoulder" admiring the new airport. The terminal building itself looks very like HKG on approach and the check in area has a very similar design to HKG.

Unfortunately however there the similarities with HKG end. The new airport has dirty floors, poor signposting and construction workers completing ad-hoc works in many places. My check in (with OS) was very straightforward (check in opened some 4 hours prior to my departure) however since my GF was flying with BA she could not check in until almost 90 mins after I did. She chose to spend more time with her family whilst waiting to check in so we agreed to meet airside. The entire check in area seemed to be swarming with more local "airport tourists" all taking picture of each other within the new terminal

The location of the departure tax machines/kiosks is far less logical then the old Don Muang and I spent several minutes trying to find one. The immigration queues at departures were as bad as at Don Muang, with officials taking forever to verify details and provide exit stamps etc. My GF later spent almost 60 mins queuing to at immigration after finding that there were no departure cards in the immigration area, and she had not been provided one by BA (she thus had to re-enter the check in area and request one). The immigration computer systems also seem to be experiencing problems. The Air-Conditioning in the main check in area seemed to be functioning reasonably, however the temperature increased markedly on entering the immigration area. After clearing immigration and a small customs area, PAX negotiate a steep slope down to the main airside departures area (read shopping mall). The temperature in this area was really quite oppressive with the Aircon seeming to make little difference (fortunately we cleared the airport at night rather than the middle of the day, I shudder to think how hot the building will become then). While waiting for my GF I decided to check out the new TG lounge and negotiated the main shopping walkways which take passengers to the gates and the 2 wings which hold the airline lounges. This shopping area/walkway is like a bizarre cross between the shops at HKG airport and the airside design of LHR T2. The available space is very narrow since it is stuffed with shops/bars etc. and thus provides little space for PAX. The design is much much worse and much narrower than the old Don Muang Airport. These long hot “shopping walkways” have the feeling of long narrow tents due to the roof design. Since I found the area oppressively hot I had no intention of lingering in the shopping area and thus tried to find the TG lounge.

Of all the lounges TG (perhaps not unexpectedly) have the clearest signing (there are no signs to any other lounges apart from a vague reference to “airline lounges” in the 2 piers. The TG lounge has both F and J areas (as a *G and *A C PAX I was only able to access the J area or Royal Silk Lounge). The work in the lounge was substantially complete and it was well designed, although seemingly overwhelmed by the sheer number of PAX using the facilities. The layout reminded me a lot of “The Wing” in Hong Kong. The J area was large with cleverly designed seating areas to “break up” the large space into a series of smaller spaces. Food and drink was available (But no wine). The food offering seemed to be typical TG lounge fare (curry puffs, sandwiches, pastries and the like). The central food and drink area seemed overwhelmed and poorly designed, however the outlying food and drink areas (containing much the same fare) were quieter and more pleasant. I could not find a stable Wi-Fi connection in the TG lounge, which is a shame since free Wi-Fi has always been a welcome feature of TG lounges in Don Muang. I gave up trying to find a signal after 10 mins, had a wander around the lounge which was IMHO less attractive on the whole than the best TG lounges at Don Muang then went to wait for my GF to clear immigration.

BA J Pax receive an invite to the Louis Tavern Business Lounge (situated by the E gates), coincidentally OS also give an invite to this lounge, which is also used by UA and is also a *G lounge. I suspect that F Pax receive an invite to the Louis Tavern F lounge (more on this later). When my GF eventually cleared immigration we went to the Louis Tavern Lounge which was actually quite nice and much more pleasant than the old Louis Tavern Lounge at Don Muang, however it is VERY busy and not 100% complete (mainly minor cosmetic details). The Louis Tavern F lounge (which like the J lounge can be accessed with a Priority Pass) was quieter but much less pleasant than the larger J lounge. The food and drink selection together with seating etc. was indistinguishable from the J lounge. The F lounge was however substantially less complete than the J lounge. Neither lounge had any shower facilities (nor did the TG lounge so far as I could see). Smoking areas also seemed rather thin on the ground and difficult to locate.

The whole of the new airport seems to be hotter the higher you are in the building. When descending a floor from main departures to the lounge level, the building is noticeably cooler and the lounges were cooler still (although the TG lounge is quite open plan and consequently warmer). My GF’s sister is a student at Thammasat University and along with a number of her friends she worked at the new airport on Friday and Saturday promoting King Power offers. No apparent checks were made prior to the issue of airside passes (which I find quite worrying).

On balance my GF and I both thought that the new airport was less of a leap forward from Don Muang, than a retrograde step. I am sure things will improve given time, but as things currently stand I would absolutely avoid BKK if at all possible.

Traveloguy

Did we really need yet another thread on this one?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=607037

and that does not include the numerous threads appearing on both the OW and QF boards.

G-BOAC

Dunno about another thread or not - but the info is certainly very useful IMHO ^ I'm glad I've got no plans to go near BKK any time soon...it sounds ghastly!

AJLondon

Thanks for the most useful first-hand info Land-of-Miles. ^

Much appreciated, and I'll certainly try avoid BKK transits for the next few months now!

jchand

Thanks for the in depth trip report. ^

Dave_C

Hopefully when I go through in a months time, there will be less "tourists" and more of the building work will be completed! Cheers for the update.

Land-of-Miles

Sorry I disagree, the other threads referred to (apart from the TG specific threads) were long on Questions and short on answers. The specific thread above was a single question issue "is there a lounge yet?". I have answered this and hopefully tried to summarise something of the general ambience of Suvarnabhumi itself. If any Mod feels it is better to consolidate under a single thread, please feel free.

Traveloguy

As even you state you have answered their questions, would it not be best to post it in those threads? Or am I missing something?

Maybe it's just grumpy Mondays!

UncleDude

I understood Multi-Thread posting was a No No..At least this first actual on-site report is better than all the previous maybe, perhaps, possibly, the airline site says: comments.

About to leave myself and see how a BA F Class pax is treated Loungewise.

Jenbel

My vote would be for grumpy Mondays

Thanks for the review. I've followed the construction of this airport from afar - so its interesting to read how its working now, compared with the information which was coming out about it. Bit alarming to hear that the lounges already sound overwhelmed, when it should be operating at under capacity - but I suppose with not all lounges complete, the situation may improve a bit yet.

Traveloguy

Seems the QF/BA facilities won't be open till 2007 so there will be a lot of grief over the next few months.

http://www.qantas.com.au/info/flying...BangkokAirport

Also seems that CX won't have everything up and running - only a J lounge for the moment.

Land-of-Miles

I only saw 3 other lounges apart from the Louis Tavern and TG Lounges.

These were Bangkok Airlines, Korean Air and EVA (Although I am not sure the Evergreen lounge was actually open). I did not see any obvious sign of the CX lounge. Assuminng that BA/QF will permanently be using the E Gate range, then construction has not even started on the lounge so far as I could see. I would expect completion to be late 2007 at best, given construction progress in this part of the world.

It does raise the question though if these airlines (particularly Korean and EVA) could complete the construction of their lounges in time for the opening, why couldn't BA/QF?

Traveloguy

I suspect it is not a priority. They each have one flight going into BKK unlike the numerous flights that go through SIN or even HKG (although the lounge in HKG is mediocre). Politics probably also played a part this being Thailand of course!

Land-of-Miles

I think that the lounge situation should be one of the first things to improve, the main airside area Aircon will probably be more difficult to fix. The poor airside security (as evidenced by my GF's sister) is also at odds with much heavier than expected (for BKK) departure security. I was asked to remove my laptop from my cabin bag, the security agent also inspected my tolietries in some detail and had a good look at my laptop power supply and NC headphones. The basic design problems seem likely to be a permanent feature however, it would probably not be quite so bad with good Aircon. Somehow I always feel much grumpier when I am too hot.

Land-of-Miles

4 flights in total ex BKK is a reasonably substantial amount I would have thought. There would be a certain logic in teaming with CX and AY and soon JL to create a OW lounge pavillion. I woulld have thought there is considerable commercial logic to this, since of the OW carriers only CX has any "round the day" flight activity. I guess part of the problem is that all the OW carriers have flights leaving at a similar time. CX, BA, QF and AY have flights which depart within minutes of each other. Things could get quite busy in the lounge if CX iand JL are thrown into the mix.