Thai F arrival lounge?
 

Hello. Does Thia have the arrival lounge for F class passenger? or only departure passengers only>?

Officially no. You can ask the PA to take you into the lounge for a shower but it's unlikely to happen.

When I arrive in F and transfer to C I am always escorted to the F lounge-or are you just arriving on F and staying in Bangkok?

Thanks for the reply. Yes, no connection flight from BKK...... I really hope I can use the lounge to refresh.....

you have no access, you will be escorted out to passport control through a priority line and offered help with your bags.

There was some plan for an arrival lounge when Suvarnabhumi opened but it never actually happened.

Thanks for the information. I guess there is not arrival lounge...

Correct.

Considering the almost embarrassing level of fawning over TG first class passengers that takes place there, I think it's quite a surprising omission actually.

There was an arrival lounge planned originally. Up until recently it was still mentioned on the TG website...

While TG definitely pays attention to their F pax I have no idea what you experienced that could be construed as 'embarrassing' nor 'fawning'.

I wouldn't be surprised if whatever you saw was just a leftover webpage from back before Suvarnabhumi first opened and they had planned for the arrivals lounge, but killed the idea. They probably just never got around to updating their website, which is the norm for TG.

They actually did build the lounge, but never opened it. I seemed to go unused for several years, but late last year when I took a look again, it was being used as a staging area for the wheelchairs/wheelchair staff. A real shame they built it but never used it. I think it's the second door from the domestic arrivals door.

I think this conclusion is obvious. ;)

I guess most F pax would jump into their waiting car and be gone. No real need to hang around the airport if you don't have a connecting flight.

For many F arrivals it would be expected that pax will head out of the airport. For the flight back arriving at sunrise it is not assured a hotel will be ready for them and having access to the lounge for a shower/quick breakfast would be a nice touch.

It's not happening, but it would be nice.

agree - but one would think for F pax they would spring for a hotel for the night before to cover an early arrival :)

An arrivals lounge makes good sense for 'short' haul F and C (USA to Europe or SIN-TYO for example) where you could legitimately be expected to sleep on the plane and head straight to a meeting. Maybe there's just not the demand for Bangkok?

I think there's probably a big difference in what passengers are expecting between those flying on award tickets, and those on paid tickets. Those on paid tickets can probably afford (or the company can afford) an extra night for a room, someone to pick them up at the airport, etc. For award tickets, people in general are cheaper and may not want to spring for the extra night hotel room, etc. But of course TG isn't concerned that much with what the award travelers think. They're focus is on paying customers. So I suppose with regard to F travelers it does make some sense. But the arrivals lounge was also for C travelers, in which case I'd think more of them would be interested in an arrivals lounge.

Of course that's just my gut feeling and a big generalization. I'm sure some paying F passengers would still like the arrivals lounge, such as if they're arriving and heading straight out to a meeting, some would want a shower first. Or if heading out immediately would make them too early, they might want to stay around at the arrivals lounge first, catch up on emails, do a bit of work, etc. Checking into a hotel might not be practical if the hotel was out of the way from where their meeting was. Or perhaps they're not even going to stay in a hotel, but just go for a meeting and then leave the same day.

If money wasn't important, there's always the Novotel available, but an arrivals lounge would be more convenient I would think.