Soju Knew Everything About Suvarnabhumi

[think_too_mut]

Is it only me or is it apparent he has disengaged?

He knew the guts of the airport(s).

Suvarnabhumi was his speciality. Never heard of him before but his skilled comments were of use.

[britmaveric]

If I recall he was proclaiming how good the new airport was and how it was ready to open, prob snuck away out of embarrassment.

[Pattayaman]

Probably the victim of a coup

[lomatopo]

Is it only me or is it apparent he has disengaged?

He knew the guts of the airport(s).

Suvarnabhumi was his speciality. Never heard of him before but his skilled comments were of use.

You could send him a PM, or are you trying to make some other sort of point? It's easy to imagine he is busy with work, travel and family?

He is very active on the FlyerTalk forum and his information has been extremely helpful to me and hundreds of other travelers.

I've completed 13 arrivals and 12 departures at Suvarnabhumi and think the airport is excellent as it meets or exceeds my requirements and expectations. I realize I am in the minority. Until the runways are proven to be unsafe and unusable I can live with the other issues. A lot of totally new airports (HKG, KIX, DEN, KUL) have had some major issues upon opening, and even years afterwards, so nobody should be surprised at the problems at NBIA. I've seen nothing yet that indicates the airport was opened too early. Clearly the runways and taxiways were completed long before 28 Sep 2006.

In the past 12 months I've been through CMB, SIN, HKG, NRT, PVG, HNL, SEA, SFO, LAX, SAN, DEN, MIA, ORD, IAD, JFK, BOS, LHR, MUC, FRA, HEL, JNB and CPT. Suvarnabhumi is a world class facility.

[britmaveric]

Suvarnabhumi is a world class facility.

:D

[Crossy]

Suvarnabhumi is could have beeen a world class facility.

If it had been properly finished.

Things like the 'stainless' steel light fittings being cleaned of the builders greasy paw prints and having their inventory labels removed, like actually connecting the illuminated Fire Exit signs to a power source, like removing the wildlife from above the 'state of the art' (actually '80s style) suspended ceiling, perhaps a lick of paint on the bare concrete would make a difference too. Blah blah blah..... If it were your house, would you accept the quality of finish, I wouldn't!

All small things I know, but it's stuff like this that makes the impression on travellers.

As an airport it works just fine (if we ignore the 'cracks' and the dodgy air-bridges), luggage arrives eventually, immigration is reasonably efficient, it's not difficult to get a taxi, although the 'unofficial' taxi rank on the departures level caused me serious problems when I wanted to actually depart, I had to get out of my cab two lanes away from the curb because of taxis waiting to pick up fares.

[Boxer]

Soju like me, was a great fan of the place but the mess it has become is beyond belief, I as one fan have stepped back. The Travel Trade worldwide must be laughing at Thailand under the headlines of "Amazing Thailand" once again, close the new hub of Asia and open the old one again!

However the Boxers Airport Guide still stands for those who have to use it. http://www.boxertravels.net/airport/index.htm

[Soju]

Hey everyone, I'm still around, just been super busy between traveling just about every week and work. I'm still very upbeat on the airport as it serves me great.

[sarcasm On] But my last international arrival a few days ago was the worst ever at Suvarnabhumi. There was a whole one other person in the immigration queue ahead of me and I had to wait an agonizing 90 seconds for him to be processed before my 50 seconds at immigration for a whopping 140 seconds spent there. Then on top of it, I had checked luggage for once and after waiting for ever at immigration I had to wait an eternity - a full 5 minutes - for my bags to arrive. Can you believe that! 5 minutes. What a horrible airport. Give us back Don Muang! I loved waiting 30 - 60 minutes in the immigration queues and then still waiting 20 minutes after that for my luggage sometimes. [sarcasm Off]

Anyways, I wish the best for Suvarnabhumi, but as I think several of us have already figured out, Suvarnabhumi has become a political issue, so there really isn't much more to say about it I'm afraid. Nothing any of us say will have any impact on the political decsions that will be made about the Bangkok airports' futures. Furthermore, I don't think any of us are experts in airport construction and have personal experience with the affected parts to really be able to say what exactly is the situation. Your guess is as good as mine if the runways are really as bad as some are making them out to be or not. On top of it, most of us have by now been through Suvarnabhumi and already made up our minds whether it's just okay, or we love it or we hate it. I don't see how continuing to beat a dead horse will change anyone's mind. Anyways, sorry for not being around to help out people as much as I'd like. I've just got other things taking up my time at the moment. Will probably be keeping a busy work schedule for the next several months but will pop in occasionally if I get a bit of time.

[Soju]

If I recall he was proclaiming how good the new airport was and how it was ready to open, prob snuck away out of embarrassment.

Never said it was ready to open. I don't think anyone on this board was that blind. I agreed that it needed to be opened earlier rather than later because that was the only way to get some of the lazy workers/contractors to do their job. If they said, "well, it's not ready to open, so let's give it another year", nothing significant would have been accomplished in the extra year. And any problem that may exist with the runways had absolutely nothing to do with the rushing to open the airport. The runways were built long before the opening date was fixed. It would have been great if they could have completely finished it before opening, but simply given the way things work in Thailand that shouldn't have been expected. It wasn't expected by me, whereas others who perhaps don't realize just how things operate in Thailand were expecting something much different and thus their disappointment. Take a look at Central World. It was opened several months ago. Anyone been in there recently and had a look around? Looks much worse than Suvarnabhumi with respect to construction and unopened shops. This is simply the way things are done in Thailand.

In my case, the airport is excellent for what I need out of it. There was almost certainly lots of corruption, and the Thai people likely got a very bad deal in paying much more for it than what they could have, or they could have gotten a much better / higher quality airport for the same money. I think that's where a lot of people bash the airport, but for me it doesn't really matter. I'm not Thai and I didn't pay for the airport. I only look at it from the perspective of a non-Thai traveler who uses the airport several times a month. It gets me in and out faster on average than any major international airport in the world that I frequent. It certainly isn't perfect and there are lots of things I'd change about it if I was in charge. But for what's most important to me, it simply works excellent and I'll be very sad if it should close, or if THAI international are chosen as one of the airlines to transfer their operations to Don Muang.

[salty]

Is it only me or is it apparent he has disengaged?

He knew the guts of the airport(s).

Suvarnabhumi was his speciality. Never heard of him before but his skilled comments were of use.

You could send him a PM, or are you trying to make some other sort of point? It's easy to imagine he is busy with work, travel and family?

He is very active on the FlyerTalk forum and his information has been extremely helpful to me and hundreds of other travelers.

I've completed 13 arrivals and 12 departures at Suvarnabhumi and think the airport is excellent as it meets or exceeds my requirements and expectations. I realize I am in the minority. Until the runways are proven to be unsafe and unusable I can live with the other issues. A lot of totally new airports (HKG, KIX, DEN, KUL) have had some major issues upon opening, and even years afterwards, so nobody should be surprised at the problems at NBIA. I've seen nothing yet that indicates the airport was opened too early. Clearly the runways and taxiways were completed long before 28 Sep 2006.

In the past 12 months I've been through CMB, SIN, HKG, NRT, PVG, HNL, SEA, SFO, LAX, SAN, DEN, MIA, ORD, IAD, JFK, BOS, LHR, MUC, FRA, HEL, JNB and CPT. Suvarnabhumi is a world class facility.

Travel broadens the mind.

[britmaveric]

Soju - only winding you up mate. However there was major problems, not just with the runways, but the terminal itself. It's a disaster waiting to happen - I just feel bad because this is smth that should never have happened, especially how much dosh/time was spent on the new airport.

[charlesfrith]

Any comment after building the runways on a swamp are just fluff. It's unsafe, it's sinking.