Suvarnabhumi After One Year

[chinthee]

Sorry to all who've read this post on 3 different threads, but there are 3 threads on this topic. Mods, you should merge them.

Ok, here is the definitive int'l trip airport report, including taxis and all other elements (except outgoing immigration & baggage claim on arrival) This report also contains an in-depth look at First/Bus. Class travel on Thai in last paragraph. Departure from BKK Thurs. 9 August and arrival to BKK Sat. 11 Aug. Now, given these departure and arrival times, and given the class and airline of travel I would guess that this is just about as good as it gets at BKK.

Departure from BKK. Early 6:30AM departure. I usually drive and park in short term parking for short trips, but decided to test taxis once again to dispel any myths. Hailed a nice newer Toyota taxi (as most are) in my small residential soi off Sathorn after at most a 2 minute wait. 200Baht + 65 tolls + 100 tip (nice chat with driver). Check in was a snap with Thai Royal Silk class dedicated seated check-in, and dedicated immigration desks. (for this reason I can't report on regular immigration lines leaving BKK). The walk to the gate from immigration was as follows: 10 mins. To security checkpoint. 5 mins in security, 2 mins to gate. Total 17 mins to gate. The departure gate was E5, so this is not too far.

Arrival back to BKK. Early again 6:30AM arrival at gate F5. 8 minute walk to immigration. 4 people in my immigration line. Went through quickly, but saw lines starting to form for other foreigners. I had no check in baggage, so can't comment on that, but did want to check the AOT limo touts INSIDE customs at baggage claim. So, I strolled over to the busiest baggage turnstile looking for the nice lady with the clipboard. Shock. Nowhere to be found. So, I proceeded to customs, when I saw the HUGE round counter with a yellow banner spanning its circumference. In big black block letters it says TAXI. In much smaller type is says AOT Airport Limousine. But for all intents and purposes, this conveys the impression that this is the airport, tourism authority-sanctioned taxi information booth where one can get a "public taxi." Very misleading. Worse, the smiling ladies behind the counter were calling out to me in unison, Taxi, sir???, (sort of reminded me of walking past the tourist beer bars "where you go?") and at the same time, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted another clipboard lady attempting an intercept path, and I did a fancy juke and sidestep move as I said "no thanks."

So, I go through customs, and wonder what will await me outside the door. Well, to my surprise, the first thing that greets me is ANOTHER big AOT yellow banner counter "TAXI," with further catcalls from the girls. I continued walking intent on counting how many times and from whom I get hit up. After that it wasn't too bad. There was another lady with a green badged jacket of some sort, must be some sort of official taxi service, she tried, I gave her a quick left hook and she fell to the wayside. Finally, as I approached the escalator to go down to the public taxis there was a plain-clothed joker who attempted to step into my path, but rather than say anything, he just flipped his wrist and I caught a flash of some white paper in his hand, which I believe either said "taxi" or perhaps was a dirty picture. In any event, I took out his knees, then hurdled over the top of him, and continued downstairs. The public taxi counter was virtually EMPTY. (AOT grabbed most of them?) I told them quickly in Thai where I wanted to go and had my no-nonsense face on. I was quickly taken to a taxi, where the driver mumbled a few words and promptly flicked on the meter. He must have done 120 the whole way and I was home in 17 minutes! 200 fare + 50 airport tax + 50 tip for the fast ride. Anyway, they appear to have cleaned up a lot of the rogue taxis (or at least reduced them to deaf mutes holding cards), but at the same time, put big reinforcements of AOT touts in their place with big counters. If you can find the public taxis, no problems to report, and no long lines.

All-in-all, a very efficient trip out of and into BKK. No complaints at all, personally. Though, while I was breezing through the taxi stand, there was some farang family trying to work out the taxi situation, and not sure if they were being given any stories or not, but can't personally testify to any problems myself. I will say that this AOT taxi crap is shameless. I feel sorry for the first time travelers coming into BKK. They will mostly probably fall for the dual effort both inside and outside customs, as it is well organized and insistent. It appears almost like the TAT tourism authority-sanctioned information stand for taxis into the city. NOT GOOD.

Thai Airways Royal Silk class travel. I haven't discussed this much before, because it seems like some pretentious posters get their jollys by touting how proud they are to be traveling first and business class. Big f'ing deal. If someone else is paying (company expense), sure fly this way. If you're paying, unless it's a long haul flight, flying to a critical meeting, treating yourself & partner to a nice holiday, or redeye like I just took, it's wasted money.

Anyway, I've flown a number of times in and out of Suvarnabhumi on Thai, and on all classes of service. This week, I flew Royal Silk on a two class aircraft. I will say that if you are based in Thailand, and you do fly business class or higher, Thai is the absolute best service. Apart from being the first drop-off door at the airport, you get the dedicated check-in section, where you actually sit in a civilized private club setting, getting through check-in is a snap. Next, a few paces away, two private immigration officers await your VIP immigration check-out. Again, a snap. The best part of all this, is because you can count on a rapid check in and immigration experience, you don't have to arrive for your flight so early. I arrived only an hour before flight time, and still had time to wolf down some snacks and morning coffee in the club. Finally, not more than a few steps from there, you are descending the escalator to the Royal Orchid Club. The club is very nice, and though this club has the best location of any airport I've seen, the refreshments on offer and other facets fall short of my calling it the best club in Asia. In my opinion, the Pier, Cathay Pacific club in Hong Kong still has that distinction, hands down, with its private bars, good wines served by white-coated barmen, etc.. (no wines ever in Thai clubs) Anyway, what makes the Thai club so good is its fantastic location directly after your VIP check in and immigration treatment. Now, for ROP and Star Alliance Gold members, you can use the club, obviously, even if flying economy class, and there are also dedicated gold card check-in counters, but they are just regular counters, and not close to the First/Bus. Class section. However, after checking in there, and passing through normal immigration, you can easily walk back to the club. Of course, the other advantage of traveling this way is the early boarding, and for First/bus class, first disembarkation upon landing. I have to report that early boarding works very well for Thai. In other airlines, or at other remote airports, where they are not Thai staff, it can sometimes be spotty, but at BKK, it works well. In fact, rather than announce boarding for premium customers first, a staff member just quietly walks around with a nameboard leading all the premium passengers to board first. This works better than announcing boarding, because the barbarian hoards immediately crowd the gate and it gets ugly. As for priority baggage handling, the last few times I've checked in luggage, it continues to be spotty. Sometimes your bags are first off the plane, sometimes not.

In conclusion, things are getting better at BKK. It's mostly running pretty well. It's still not in the top 3 airports in Asia, and maybe never will reach 3rd, because of design errors (long walks - no trains), and public taxi placement/deception.

Oh, BTW, I'm going to post this in a couple of threads because there are multiple threads running on this. And, in response to whether the airport belongs in the top 10 world rankings?? No way. But it works adequately, and it's new and modern.

[kalaminsa]

Still reminds me of Moscow in the 80's .