Why is Suvarnabhumi Airport and Thai on the ground so awful?
Feb 1, 2018, 9:55 pm
#31
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 905
each airport has its advantages and downfalls
What I like about BKK
- Fast track for security AND Immigration (outbound and inbound); tell me any other airport, who has comparable convenient fast track options!
- easy to get around and easy to meet, pick up, drop off etc., easy to find check in etc.
- broad choice of *A Lounges in each concourse (except G)
- friendly, supportive and flexible ground staff (in SIN they are friendly but arrogant and stubborn, in ICN and HKG you get a mixed bag)
Downfalls of the celebrated airports in Asia
SIN
- no fast track, I have waited many times 30 min+ in the Immigration Queue
- sometimes long taxi queues with unprofessional Organisation; the rip off with the Chryslers and Benz is on the level of a third world country and a disgrace for "clean" Singapore
- security in front of the gate with often long Queues and questionable standards; you can't take a bottle of water on the airplane
- arrogant, stubborn and unflexible ground staff. I had to go more then once through security AFTER arrival, where tehy confiscated all liquids incl. water bottle (how stupid and useless!)
ICN
- Immigration is often a zoo with long waiting times, none moving lines (instead of a snake line), people jumping queues (I waited several times over one hour)
- if you arrive or depart at the outer terminal, walking can be longer then at Swampy
HKG
- Long commuting from/to Ferry terminals; waiting area for Ferry is a zoo
- Shopping at the airport is an absolute rip off
What I like about BKK
- Fast track for security AND Immigration (outbound and inbound); tell me any other airport, who has comparable convenient fast track options!
- easy to get around and easy to meet, pick up, drop off etc., easy to find check in etc.
- broad choice of *A Lounges in each concourse (except G)
- friendly, supportive and flexible ground staff (in SIN they are friendly but arrogant and stubborn, in ICN and HKG you get a mixed bag)
Downfalls of the celebrated airports in Asia
SIN
- no fast track, I have waited many times 30 min+ in the Immigration Queue
- sometimes long taxi queues with unprofessional Organisation; the rip off with the Chryslers and Benz is on the level of a third world country and a disgrace for "clean" Singapore
- security in front of the gate with often long Queues and questionable standards; you can't take a bottle of water on the airplane
- arrogant, stubborn and unflexible ground staff. I had to go more then once through security AFTER arrival, where tehy confiscated all liquids incl. water bottle (how stupid and useless!)
ICN
- Immigration is often a zoo with long waiting times, none moving lines (instead of a snake line), people jumping queues (I waited several times over one hour)
- if you arrive or depart at the outer terminal, walking can be longer then at Swampy
HKG
- Long commuting from/to Ferry terminals; waiting area for Ferry is a zoo
- Shopping at the airport is an absolute rip off
You can't take wateror any other liquid at BKK , depending on the destination ( same for SIN). But it's only in BKK, AFAIK, that the confiscated toiletries and other liquids somehow magically appear for sale on Ebay and other sites.
The bottom line is that as a premium passenger BKK is not too bad ( and probably great in F). For lower (fare) classes i'ts pretty abysmal and I would love to know where they spend the massive income from the passenger service charge ( the highest in Asia).
As for the suggestion that everything will be solved if passengers get an Apec Card....the requirements are now very stringent and most people are ineligible ( that's not to say that some people who do not meet the requirements don't end up with the card). Thailand would do well to issue a frequent visitor card, in the manner of the one in HK ( and provide expedited immigration services to holder). Instead they want to push the elite card thing).
Feb 2, 2018, 12:10 am
#32
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: BKK
Programs: TG ROP Platinum, M&M Senator, IHG Platinum, Accor Platinum
Posts: 8,337
Even Cairo has fast track for *Gold regardless of the class of travel and in any case your perspective is as a ROP plat ( ir relatively rare beast).
You can't take wateror any other liquid at BKK , depending on the destination ( same for SIN). But it's only in BKK, AFAIK, that the confiscated toiletries and other liquids somehow magically appear for sale on Ebay and other sites.
You can't take wateror any other liquid at BKK , depending on the destination ( same for SIN). But it's only in BKK, AFAIK, that the confiscated toiletries and other liquids somehow magically appear for sale on Ebay and other sites.
most European Airports only for security, but not for Immigration
in BKK once you are airside (after security) you can get a bottle from the lounge or buy and take it on the plane, in SIN not as security is always in front of the gate
Feb 2, 2018, 1:21 am
#33
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Melbourne, AU
Programs: *A Gold, QF (ex-QP), AA, TG, A3 Gold, VA, SQ
Posts: 358
SIN
- no fast track, I have waited many times 30 min+ in the Immigration Queue
- sometimes long taxi queues with unprofessional Organisation; the rip off with the Chryslers and Benz is on the level of a third world country and a disgrace for "clean" Singapore
- security in front of the gate with often long Queues and questionable standards; you can't take a bottle of water on the airplane
- arrogant, stubborn and unflexible ground staff. I had to go more then once through security AFTER arrival, where tehy confiscated all liquids incl. water bottle (how stupid and useless!)
- no fast track, I have waited many times 30 min+ in the Immigration Queue
- sometimes long taxi queues with unprofessional Organisation; the rip off with the Chryslers and Benz is on the level of a third world country and a disgrace for "clean" Singapore
- security in front of the gate with often long Queues and questionable standards; you can't take a bottle of water on the airplane
- arrogant, stubborn and unflexible ground staff. I had to go more then once through security AFTER arrival, where tehy confiscated all liquids incl. water bottle (how stupid and useless!)
I have never spent more than 10 mins in an immigration queue in SIN. And had no line at all on many occasions. Maybe we just arrive at different times of day. Same with outbound immigration - rarely if ever have I struck a queue. Agree location of security at the gates is a problem in SIN. But you get that in BKK as well if the destination gov requires it (eg TG and QF flights have added gate security on all flights into Australia) - double security ! Pity the poor suckers I've seen who have their expensive DF whisky confiscated - King Power sees their boarding pass but doesn't tell them they won't get their purchase onto the plane !
BKK inbound / outbound immigration is a lottery. Can sail through or be waiting for 30 minutes or more, substantially affected by poor staffing levels.
Has anyone ever been bussed to/from the plane in SIN ? I haven't. Maybe it's illegal ? Rarely struck it anywhere else either. Bussing happens pretty much every time now on Australian flights into/out of BKK these days. It's just piss poor scheduling / cost cutting.
I usually take the $9 shuttle bus into town in SIN if the taxis are clogged. Perfectly adequate because downtown is so close.
Terminal hotels in SIN - you could get a comfortable bed with TV for $35 until recently (now a bit more expensive) if you don't like the decent lounge choices. You can even have a swim or go to the movies !
Carpeted SIN terminals feel like my lounge room ... okay slightly bigger.
TG at BKK has no fast track for *G; TG have it for *G in MEL. SIN doesn't really need it in my experience.
Feb 2, 2018, 2:12 am
#34
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Join Date: Nov 2006
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Have to say the OP has a point, except i have never seen it filthy.
Its my least favourite airport out of SIN, NRT, HKG, ICN & KUL & given its age that’s poor !
Fast track on TG is fine but I have had significant waits flying other airlines, simply understaffed & given the high passenger fees that’s bad.
TG lounges are an absolute disgrace, not been into a TG J lounge for years but hear the moans from colleagues that do & see one from the buggy going to the F lounge.
F lounge is faded & in desperate need of a refurb, Staff spend more time chatting amongst themselves than on service, I would much prefer self service to that. Food & beverage is very poor for an F lounge. TG only need to look at the EK lounge to see what the competition is capable of, great food & wines, spotless & comfortable lounge, easily the best in BKK IMHO.
Its my least favourite airport out of SIN, NRT, HKG, ICN & KUL & given its age that’s poor !
Fast track on TG is fine but I have had significant waits flying other airlines, simply understaffed & given the high passenger fees that’s bad.
TG lounges are an absolute disgrace, not been into a TG J lounge for years but hear the moans from colleagues that do & see one from the buggy going to the F lounge.
F lounge is faded & in desperate need of a refurb, Staff spend more time chatting amongst themselves than on service, I would much prefer self service to that. Food & beverage is very poor for an F lounge. TG only need to look at the EK lounge to see what the competition is capable of, great food & wines, spotless & comfortable lounge, easily the best in BKK IMHO.
Feb 2, 2018, 2:14 am
#35
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: BKK
Programs: TG ROP Platinum, M&M Senator, IHG Platinum, Accor Platinum
Posts: 8,337
you have not refuted my other Points. In particular taxis are not well organized and the rip off with the Chryslers and Benz unbelievable for SIN, given that taxis are the only convenient way for transportation
Feb 2, 2018, 3:15 am
#36
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 479
Now they will deliver it to the gate and I only see transit passengers having to give up their grog.
Feb 2, 2018, 4:50 am
#37
Original Poster
Join Date: May 1999
Location: New York,NY USA
Posts: 1,481
I can't possibly respond to all of the comments but thank you all. I think my point is that for an airport that is this new, the design, the maintenance and the airconditiong among other things is poor. I am not saying that the building is not air conditioned, I am pointing out that you can walk down to your gate and there are spots where it is effective and spots where it is warm. I would say a design flaw.
And yes, my comparison is to other Asian airports of equivalent size. Why not?
It is unfair to compare this to the New York City airports. We do not have the land to build a super sized terminal. With regards to LaGuardia, it handles 30 million passengers per year compared to BKK which handles 45 million passengers per year on a relatively small piece of real estate in terminals that are over 50 years old and just being renovated now.
And yes, my comparison is to other Asian airports of equivalent size. Why not?
It is unfair to compare this to the New York City airports. We do not have the land to build a super sized terminal. With regards to LaGuardia, it handles 30 million passengers per year compared to BKK which handles 45 million passengers per year on a relatively small piece of real estate in terminals that are over 50 years old and just being renovated now.
Last edited by speedbird001; Feb 3, 2018 at 5:38 am
Feb 2, 2018, 6:03 am
#38
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Homeless
Programs: Hyatt Glob; Hilton Dia; Marriott AMB; Accor Dia; IHG Dia Amb; GHA Tit
Posts: 4,844
The only thing I will agree is that the TG lounges are quite bad for a home airport of an airline which is supposed to be top tier (ranked #11 in the world by Skytrax). That said, given how good the BR and SQ lounges are in BKK, the state of the TG lounges is a drawback that we never have to suffer the consequences. It is better than not having choice, for example in ICN is there any *A lounge besides OZ? Perhaps I missed it.
In addition, when travelling J, BKK is actually one of the airports in the world where I wait the least so it makes my travel experience better. Do ICN and TPE even have a priority lane for security screening? Let alone immigration. Last time I was in ICN, there was an enormous line for security screening in the morning and I even saw airport staff wandering through the line to see who appeared to have carry-on bags which were too heavy. They took those bags away from people in line to bring them on a scale. What's up with that? Never seen anything like it even outside of Asia.
I agree the train from BKK to the city is subpar compared to other cities, but with taxis so cheap in BKK, once again I never feel bothered by the lack of adequate public transit compared to KUL, SIN, and HKG. More often than not, my transit to and from the airport in traffic takes between 30-60 minutes which is not very different than other airports with great train service.
I have never been felt uncomfortable because of the temperature in BKK. In some other airports I feel too cold. It is somewhat a matter of personal preference.
BKK might not be the best airport in the region, but not every airport can be the best. It has advantages and disadvantages. In the balance of things, for a J passenger it is above average based on my experience. I can agree that for Y passengers it can be a different experience due to waiting lines.
In addition, when travelling J, BKK is actually one of the airports in the world where I wait the least so it makes my travel experience better. Do ICN and TPE even have a priority lane for security screening? Let alone immigration. Last time I was in ICN, there was an enormous line for security screening in the morning and I even saw airport staff wandering through the line to see who appeared to have carry-on bags which were too heavy. They took those bags away from people in line to bring them on a scale. What's up with that? Never seen anything like it even outside of Asia.
I agree the train from BKK to the city is subpar compared to other cities, but with taxis so cheap in BKK, once again I never feel bothered by the lack of adequate public transit compared to KUL, SIN, and HKG. More often than not, my transit to and from the airport in traffic takes between 30-60 minutes which is not very different than other airports with great train service.
I have never been felt uncomfortable because of the temperature in BKK. In some other airports I feel too cold. It is somewhat a matter of personal preference.
BKK might not be the best airport in the region, but not every airport can be the best. It has advantages and disadvantages. In the balance of things, for a J passenger it is above average based on my experience. I can agree that for Y passengers it can be a different experience due to waiting lines.
Feb 2, 2018, 6:32 am
#39
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: KUL (MY), ICN (KR), ZRH (CH) or OTP (RO) - or somewhere in between
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Posts: 241
I was not comparing the size. I was referring to your comment re cleanliness. If BKK is filthy, what can be said about JFK, EWR and, God forbid, LGA? I lived for two years in northern NJ and had the misfortune of being obliged to use all these three airports over 200 times in that period, so I know what I am talking about. Any of these three airports are worse (in EVERY aspect, not just cleanliness) than even the former KLIA LCCT (not KLIA2 but the former LCCT in KL, which is closed today).
Nowhere in the parts of the world I travelled to (a little over 70 countries on 6 continents to date) I encountered security agents as rude and as bad-mannered as the ones in the three major NYC airports. These three airports are the only places in the world where the security agents are barking, not talking. It is like drill sergeants are being hired for the security check jobs.
Nowhere else in the world I had to wait for over 4 hours to clear immigration. And this did not happen in a furlough period nor it involved an SSSS on my boarding pass. It was simply plain inefficiency and could-not-care-less attitude. (Four hours was, it is true, an exception; my average waiting time was between 1 and 2 hours - but still way too slow).
Lounges? All are more or less a joke. Food in the lounges? Carrots and crackers, mostly.
The experience, in general? Dull or worse.
And I could go on...
So yeah, BKK is definitely not my favorite airport but I would rather pass through it 1000 times than ever pass again, even once, through JFK or EWR.
And that is why I was put off when I saw someone from the JFK/EWR/LGA airports area mouth-trashing BKK airport.
Where there is will there is a way. Look at ICN or KIX, just to give two examples. They too din not have the land or did not have the land nearby. But they found a solution. A major airport does not have to be close to the big city it is serving but it has to be efficient, pleasant (or at least not dreadful) and provide means to easily (and quickly too, ideally) reach the area it is serving.
Nowhere in the parts of the world I travelled to (a little over 70 countries on 6 continents to date) I encountered security agents as rude and as bad-mannered as the ones in the three major NYC airports. These three airports are the only places in the world where the security agents are barking, not talking. It is like drill sergeants are being hired for the security check jobs.
Nowhere else in the world I had to wait for over 4 hours to clear immigration. And this did not happen in a furlough period nor it involved an SSSS on my boarding pass. It was simply plain inefficiency and could-not-care-less attitude. (Four hours was, it is true, an exception; my average waiting time was between 1 and 2 hours - but still way too slow).
Lounges? All are more or less a joke. Food in the lounges? Carrots and crackers, mostly.
The experience, in general? Dull or worse.
And I could go on...
So yeah, BKK is definitely not my favorite airport but I would rather pass through it 1000 times than ever pass again, even once, through JFK or EWR.
And that is why I was put off when I saw someone from the JFK/EWR/LGA airports area mouth-trashing BKK airport.
Where there is will there is a way. Look at ICN or KIX, just to give two examples. They too din not have the land or did not have the land nearby. But they found a solution. A major airport does not have to be close to the big city it is serving but it has to be efficient, pleasant (or at least not dreadful) and provide means to easily (and quickly too, ideally) reach the area it is serving.
Feb 2, 2018, 6:48 am
#40
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: W29
Programs: It's Complicated...
Posts: 6,824
Some prices here:
https://www.thaiairways.com/th_TH/pl...obusiness.page
And yes, ask at check-in.
https://www.thaiairways.com/th_TH/pl...obusiness.page
And yes, ask at check-in.
Feb 2, 2018, 7:52 am
#41
Join Date: Dec 2013
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Nowhere in the parts of the world I travelled to (a little over 70 countries on 6 continents to date) I encountered security agents as rude and as bad-mannered as the ones in the three major NYC airports. These three airports are the only places in the world where the security agents are barking, not talking. It is like drill sergeants are being hired for the security check jobs.
Feb 2, 2018, 7:36 pm
#42
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: BKK
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Posts: 8,337
.... It is better than not having choice, for example in ICN is there any *A lounge besides OZ? Perhaps I missed it.
In addition, when travelling J, BKK is actually one of the airports in the world where I wait the least so it makes my travel experience better. Do ICN and TPE even have a priority lane for security screening? Let alone immigration....
In addition, when travelling J, BKK is actually one of the airports in the world where I wait the least so it makes my travel experience better. Do ICN and TPE even have a priority lane for security screening? Let alone immigration....
In ICN the only choice is the OZ Lounge (however it has higher Standards then the TG Lounge in BKK. In other airports like SIN you have to walk far into another terminal for alternative Lounges
re fast track, BKK is the only one I know that includes outbound security and immigration and Inbound immigration. None at ICN, TPE, HKG. Japan usually only Outbound. Most European airports only security but not immigration. China only domestic
Feb 2, 2018, 10:36 pm
#43
Join Date: Jul 2013
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And since we are talking about BKK, I would say that in that respect I found staff at BKK to be generally more pleasant and polite than average relative to other airports in the region, let alone NYC where mihaid is correct: the attitude of staff is dreadful and worst than anywhere else by a mile.
Feb 2, 2018, 10:45 pm
#44
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Land of Oz
Posts: 948
So good to hear if that's changed.
Feb 2, 2018, 11:02 pm
#45
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 712
I flew to SIN 6-8 times per year during last couple of years. In terminal 1 there are some peak times and queues can get long. also lousy organized: no snake line and some rows feed 2-3 booths and some only one (not visible from behind the queues). As said several times more than half an hour and then add 40 minutes for the taxi queue and the timing is really getting bad. agree for the outgoing Immigration, not more then 10 minutes.
you have not refuted my other Points. In particular taxis are not well organized and the rip off with the Chryslers and Benz unbelievable for SIN, given that taxis are the only convenient way for transportation
you have not refuted my other Points. In particular taxis are not well organized and the rip off with the Chryslers and Benz unbelievable for SIN, given that taxis are the only convenient way for transportation