What Is Wrong With Me?

[bmanly]

Samran, I agree with you. I find the new airport very accommodating. Easy to arrive, check in, find your gate and leave. When returning, a bit of a walk, a half hour queue to get through immigration and by that time your bags are on the carousel ready to be picked up. Not a difficult or painful experience, everything is well sign posted and I've never had problems. When comparing it to Sydney, it is way way better than Sydney airport. I think this airport has the potential to move several thousands of more passengers in the future, it is big enough for that, all in all I think it's pretty good. Too bad about those runway cracks though, cheers.

[Spee]

I have flown in and out of the new BKK airport several times and never had a problem either.

Ditto for me.

Ok, now I have a gripe and that is with the international phone calling services. From what I could gather, there are only two options, buying a card at the Family Mart and using the terminals in the open area or at the CAT Telecom room. That's it!! No "yellow" phones like around the city, at the train station, etc.

The Family Mart option sucked totally. They only had 100 baht cards for which one was given a credit of 120. The problem is that any phone call going over a couple of minutes brings the card value below 100. After that, it can only be used for the internet because there is a 100 baht minimum for international calls. What BS! And then there is the phone quality. Obviously the service is VoIP but the QoS was just awful, delay, noise, unstable volume ... all simple issues that are very easy to fix. As telecom is my business, it appears that the service provider has purchased the cheapest service options possible and eff-off to the consumer. {The internet service was also awful, very slow, spotty DNS resolution, a wacky user interface, etc.)

The CAT Telecom option was a bit more reasonable, however it was still not that great. It is only in one location and only has a limited number of handsets. What sucks about this is that the amount of minutes for a 100 baht card is <deleted>, only providing for a few minutes of calling time which is essentially worthless. However, if one buys a 300 baht then the calling time goes up considerably, to roughly 40 minutes where I was calling. Regardless, an international calling fee of between 10-30 baht a minute is still outrageous. At least the voice quality was decent.

I can forgive the duty free experience, the occasional wait in lines, etc. But these options for basic communication services are simply awful.

Another downside was the hassle from the cabbie from Sukhumvit to Suv. Despite me telling him meter only, he kept pushing for 300 baht flat rate. I kept saying meter only, meter only and finally he turned it on. From Ploen Chit to Suv was 205 baht. I gave him a small tip after he quit whinging and started into some pleasant conversation, but his BS about the flat rate cost him my usual tip which is normally a bit more. At least he didn't try to con me for the 50 baht exit fee. Probably he could tell from our chat that it wouldn't work.

On a positive note, the JAL business lounge near the G gates was fairly nice, good shower facility (though only one), fair selection of drinks and food, and free internet service.

Also on the plus side were the local security teams shoo-ing the departure side cabbies away from the curb quickly to prevent them from seeking fares out of place.

And getting out was also easy, short check-in line (though I was early), short wait at immigration, and short wait at the gate security. At least as decent as anywhere else that I've been and certainly better than many.

Pluses and Minuses. It is what it is.

[Darknight]

an international calling fee of between 10-30 baht a minute is still outrageous.

well then you're probably an american.

national carrier fee's in Belgium. Even Togo is more cheap then thailand

Thailand (66) eurocent per min peak 106,13 eurocent per min low hours 91,26 connectioncost 10,60

Togo (228) eurocent per min peak 71,11 eurocent per min low hours 52,00 connectioncost 10,60

As the exchange rate is currently around 43 bath to the euro this telephone call sounds rather cheap to me ;-)

by the way

1.06 EUR = 1.43764 USD

Euro United States Dollars

1 EUR = 1.35626 USD 1 USD = 0.737321 EUR

Views and standpoints that's what it is ;-)

Edited August 24, 2007 by Darknight

[Spee]

an international calling fee of between 10-30 baht a minute is still outrageous.

well then you're probably an american.

Well then, you're probably .....well ... comment withheld.

The cost of long distance voice comm is rock bottom .... and guess what ... going down not up.

These prices are ridiculously high. The fact that a card is required with a high set limit and no chance to top off or purchase other quantities is a joke.

As I said, this is my business. These costs are way way high, even for a business that has made a sizeable investment and wishes to recoup and make a reasonable profit.

International calling fees of ahywhere from free to a few pence per minute is the norm. Even allowing a few Sd's from the norm, these kinds of prices are unworthy of the service being offered.

[bendix]

an international calling fee of between 10-30 baht a minute is still outrageous.

well then you're probably an american.

Well then, you're probably .....well ... comment withheld.

The cost of long distance voice comm is rock bottom .... and guess what ... going down not up.

These prices are ridiculously high. The fact that a card is required with a high set limit and no chance to top off or purchase other quantities is a joke.

As I said, this is my business. These costs are way way high, even for a business that has made a sizeable investment and wishes to recoup and make a reasonable profit.

International calling fees of ahywhere from free to a few pence per minute is the norm. Even allowing a few Sd's from the norm, these kinds of prices are unworthy of the service being offered.

Get a mobile phone. They're amazing inventions. I've heard they're becoming quite popular.

[Spee]

Get a mobile phone. They're amazing inventions. I've heard they're becoming quite popular.

Wasted sarcasm my friend. My point was about making international calls using the facilities at the airport. Not every visitor to Suv owns a mobile or brings one with them. Calls should not be a buck a minute in this day and age. Fifty percent of that would be much more reasonable and less like the apparent greed-fest that exists now.

[samran]

Get a mobile phone. They're amazing inventions. I've heard they're becoming quite popular.

Wasted sarcasm my friend. My point was about making international calls using the facilities at the airport. Not every visitor to Suv owns a mobile or brings one with them. Calls should not be a buck a minute in this day and age. Fifty percent of that would be much more reasonable and less like the apparent greed-fest that exists now.

The only international gateway into and out of Thailand is controlled by CAT, the state monopoly. At the airport, it is the only one who would be authorised to offer international calls, like most other places in the country.

They charge like wounded bulls. We all know this. But to blame it on the airport is a bit silly. It is a telecomunications deregulation issue, not an airport one. Go protest out the front of the Telecoms Regulator on Paholyothin Soi 8 (Soi Sailom), about a 10 min walk from Ari BTS.

[HomeSeekAsia]

There's a HUGE difference between US and European airports !

In Europe, most airports are ok i.e. not as good as Changi or Narita

but decent. But regardless of the level of security you will be treated like a human being

and screened by competent human beings most of the time.

(and here I am including Tel-Aviv - not quite Europe but a Developed country

which puts safety as a top priority)

While the US is a fear and ignorance-driven third-world country in many respects....

In the US, you'll go thru a lot of crap, including but not limited to:

- Being asked why you don't have a green card in your US passport

- Being treated like cattle by any moron who wears a uniform, yells

at you, confiscates your water bottle but never finds the 15 lighters

you forgot in your pockets, or the box-cutter your spouse forgot

in his carry-on.

- Being unable to lock your luggage, which means that if it

goes thru a notorious hub like Chicago O`hare, your luggage will get

lost for weeks and arrive ... with all valuable content missing: DVDs, DVD player

1000 us$ worth of brand new stuff that the airline won't pay for because they don't cover

anything `electronic'... or without a receipt...

- Being offered a `discount hotel' because the US carrier has over-booked a flight

and wants you to shell out the cost.

- Taking 3 days instead of 3 hours to fly from New York to Bonaire (Dutch Antilles)

by being dragged thru Jamaica, Miami, Curacao and more, where your mother in law

who's coming all the way from Sweden gets there before you do.

- Jogging thru Miami airport following the crew, since even *they* don't know which terminal the

plane is at.

- Being asked to check in... `A salad in a plastic bag' because the carry-on limit is one piece

(and forget about being fed by the US airline)

- Being denied boarding because you have a French passport and a one way ticket to Germany....

and not a single agent has a clue about Schengen...

- Being asked to show a German visa/work permit in your French passport (sic.)

- Being rerouted to Sweden rather than Spain and told by a knowledgeable manager to `take a fast train from Sweden to Madrid'

- Having your spouse detained for hours and being denied seeing him, or any news at all, as you are returning from a parent's funeral

- Being denied medical attention while husband detained several hours ... for what is a mere formality regarding a stamp on his new green card

- Having your Passport stolen around your neck at JFK between Immigration and customs: aren't we very safe ?

- Being singled out for `security' when going to a funeral, denied boarding, then told that there are no flights from Philadelphia to New York for you, and being given a train voucher with the wrong train schedule... making you MISS the funeral.

- Being singled-out because you have to go out to smoke and then back thru already crowded security lines, while it's so simple to have ventilated smoking lounges which don't inconvenience non-smokers

- Having Security Screeners spill coffee on your brand new laptop... and then yelling at you for expressing your irritation

- Being unable to urinate 30 minutes around Washington DC for fear of terrorism (but doing so approachinh New York is just fine...)

- Getting away with frozen water, humid baby wipes, a cheese knife but not an unopened Duty-free perfume

- Having to take your shoes off all the time, as if it were useful... while most shoe soles manufactured contain a metal shank

that could be worse than a box cutter in the wrong hands (which is why some shoes ring a the metal detector)

- Beeing puzzled that 200 million people accept this type of treatment because they are cowards manipulated by fear

- Being on the tarmac for 3+ hours waiting to take off with no water and screaming babies, and eventually forced to drink the plane's tap water which is not drinkable... too bad for the babies on board...only to be brought back to the terminal where you have to fight to get rerouted to a sensible location

- Having flight attendants curse at you when asking for help to store your carry on

- Knowing that it's all useless anyway since (a) the screeners are notoriously incompetent and ( Check-in luggage isn't even X-rayed

I have visited quite a few developing countries, even taken domestic planes in the former Soviet-Union

during a snow blizzard. Nowhere was I treated as badly as in US airports !

I'll take Changi anyday ! Would even consider spending a vacation there

I would also say that comparing it ONLY to SG and HK is not fair.

Compare it to most of the european hubs and it will win every time. I don't know about american airports but judging on the comments made here not much difference with europe.

I have yet to experience an airport that really makes me say : wow!, and that includes Changi.

cheers

onzestan

[tig28]

"Being denied boarding because you have a French passport"

Well ..... that seems reasonable.

[Eff1n2ret]

"Being denied boarding because you have a French passport"

Well ..... that seems reasonable.

- and your point in reviving a 3 year old thread is...?

are you into necrophilia by any chance?

[elliss]

- I bought a nice bottle of Veuve Clinquot(sp?) champers from King power for 1750 baht, including the yellow cover. Nice price I would have thought in this part of the world.

.I spoke to her in English and have an Australian accent.

It's easy really.They felt sorry for you........

1)Australian

2)No taste in fizzy.Should have gone for a Dom or a Krug..

yep , goes to show thai,s have do compassion .

i feel sorry for him ,,, so sad.

[moe666]

I really have to agree with wintermute Samran. It says a lot of how low our expectations have become if you are heaping praise on the latest, most expensive airport in Asia, for doing an adequate one-off job upon your arrival.

And what else are they suppose to do welcome each of us with a string of flowers or a soi 4 girl.

In my many trips over the years always in and out time depending on the lenght of line at immigration

[sbk]

"Being denied boarding because you have a French passport"

Well ..... that seems reasonable.

- and your point in reviving a 3 year old thread is...?

are you into necrophilia by any chance?

I remember this thread.

No idea why the OP revived a three year old thread but hey, its entertaining.

[PattayaParent]

^it wasn't the OP that revived it.

[sbk]

youre right PP, pity that, Samran spins a good tale