Urgent Help Regarding Transit At Suvarnabhumi Airport

[sangrilla]

hi,

I have a flight from KTM ( Nepal) to Bangkok to Las Angeles with Thai airlines

my Transit time at Bangkok is 1 hour. it is like i reach Bangkok at 06:20 pm and the Los Angeles Flight Leaves at 07:20

i would do my baggage a check through till Los Angeles. i have not been to bangkok before and i do not know about the airport.

could you guys kindly help me as after i land at BKK then do i need to go to Transfer Desk or i can just rush towards the gate which is in my boading pass?

would the Gate be on the same level and would i be able to reach the gate in 1 hour?

do i need to do the immigration?

i have heard that the suvarnabhumi airport is big so would i be able to reach my gate straight away in 1 hour?

it would be very kind of you if you could help me out and let me know the details if i missed something out

regards

Navin

[dr_Pat_Pong]

hi,

I have a flight from KTM ( Nepal) to Bangkok to Las Angeles with Thai airlines

my Transit time at Bangkok is 1 hour. it is like i reach Bangkok at 06:20 pm and the Los Angeles Flight Leaves at 07:20

i would do my baggage a check through till Los Angeles. i have not been to bangkok before and i do not know about the airport.

could you guys kindly help me as after i land at BKK then do i need to go to Transfer Desk or i can just rush towards the gate which is in my boading pass?

would the Gate be on the same level and would i be able to reach the gate in 1 hour?

do i need to do the immigration?

i have heard that the suvarnabhumi airport is big so would i be able to reach my gate straight away in 1 hour?

it would be very kind of you if you could help me out and let me know the details if i missed something out

regards

Navin

You shouldn't have to pass Immigration, and you'd have time to go directly to the LA flight ( presuming you have that LA boarding pass in hand. )

[Prakanong]

hi,

I have a flight from KTM ( Nepal) to Bangkok to Las Angeles with Thai airlines

my Transit time at Bangkok is 1 hour. it is like i reach Bangkok at 06:20 pm and the Los Angeles Flight Leaves at 07:20

i would do my baggage a check through till Los Angeles. i have not been to bangkok before and i do not know about the airport.

could you guys kindly help me as after i land at BKK then do i need to go to Transfer Desk or i can just rush towards the gate which is in my boading pass?

would the Gate be on the same level and would i be able to reach the gate in 1 hour?

do i need to do the immigration?

i have heard that the suvarnabhumi airport is big so would i be able to reach my gate straight away in 1 hour?

it would be very kind of you if you could help me out and let me know the details if i missed something out

regards

Navin

The airport is big but not so much you would not get from A to B in an hour (I would hazard half an hour at most but that is my experience and not hard fact)

As you are connecting on a TG flight I would suspect they would have someone at the gate as you disembark to get you onto the connecting flight - ask at KTM - if you have boarding passes for the LAX flight no need for transfer desk..

All in all you should be OK

[Kerryd]

As you are flying on the same airline all the way, they should give you boarding passes for both flights at the same time. If not, ask for it at check-in in KTM.

Most of Swampy has those "walkalators" that speed things along nicely (especially if you walk "with a purpose"). Once you get off the plane into the hallway, there are "walkalators" all the way to the main part of the building. Then more "walkalators" that take you to the Transfer desk/Immigration area and beyond to the other gates.

You'll have to find a Departure Board to confirm the gate your next flight will be departing from. Whatever is on your boarding pass may not be correct by the time you arrive in Bangkok.

If you don't get the second boarding pass in KTM, you'll have to hussle to get to the Transfer desk and check-in for the next flight (remember that there may be line-ups).

I'm not an athlete, but I'm pretty sure I could get off at any arrival gate in Swampy, and make it to any other gate in less than 15 minutes, but you have to put some effort into it. As an example, I've gone from plane stopping at the gate (doors not open yet), to Immigration and outside the terminal in less than 18 minutes. I did get lucky in that there were no lines at Immigration, and didn't have any checked luggage.

Which reminds me. With only 1 hour between connections, there is a possibility that your checked bags may not get transferred in time. 1 hour is cutting it pretty short (over the last 5 years of having people fly from different parts of the world to Dubai, and then into Afghanistan, I've found that anything less than 3 hours between flights is pretty "iffy" as far as having checked luggage get transferred, even when using the same airline.)

When you check in, ask them to put "Priority" labels/stickers/tags on your checked luggage and remind them that there is only an hour between connections. That may help.

[scrunchielaura]

it is like i reach Bangkok at 06:20 pm and the Los Angeles Flight Leaves at 07:20

How soon is your trip? If your travel date is beyond the latter part of October, be aware that Thai have changed the Los Angeles schedule. Instead of a non-stop flight leaving in the early evening, the flight will leave at dawn and stop to refuel in Japan.

[dingdongrb]

As an example, I've gone from plane stopping at the gate (doors not open yet), to Immigration and outside the terminal in less than 18 minutes.

What happens if his plane does not stop at a 'gate' and instead stops out on the tarmac and has a bus haul him into the airport building? Not sure if this is still the case since it's been awhile (over a year) since I've arrived at Swampy in this fashion (bused from the tarmac to the airport building).

[NotNew2You]

Don't forget also that departure gates often close 20-30 minutes before DEPARTURE time. So in fact, you may have only 30-40 minutes to make your transfer. This is really piss-poor planning on the traveler's part...one should always allow AT LEAST 2 hours between any connecting flights. Especially when taking off from an airport in a place like Nepal, where I would presume departure delays are not unheard of. If there is only one possible flight a day...one should take the day earlier flight and pay the cost of a nite in transit (or you could slum-it at the airport).

[Kerryd]

Don't forget also that departure gates often close 20-30 minutes before DEPARTURE time. So in fact, you may have only 30-40 minutes to make your transfer. This is really piss-poor planning on the traveler's part...one should always allow AT LEAST 2 hours between any connecting flights. Especially when taking off from an airport in a place like Nepal, where I would presume departure delays are not unheard of. If there is only one possible flight a day...one should take the day earlier flight and pay the cost of a nite in transit (or you could slum-it at the airport).

True enough. I had to reschedule my latest holiday because a charter flight changed their timings and was going to drop me at Terminal 2 in Dubai less than 2 hours before my next flight from Terminal 1 (that's if they actually arrived on time). There was no way I was going to be able to clear T2, travel all the way around to T1, check in and get to the gate in less than 1 1/2 hours, so I ended up having to leave a couple days earlier.

It was hard enough trying to get my first set of flights (Dubai-Bahrain-Bangkok) changed that late in the game. Trying to get the rest (Bangkok-Manila-Vancouver-Kamloops) of the flights rescheduled less than a week in advance wasn't going to be easy (if it was possible at all), so I had to leave earlier and spend a day in Dubai. The bonus was that I got to spend a couple days at home in Thailand before catching the remainder of my flights on the regular schedule.

Most of the trip went well, but the Bahrain-Bangkok flight was delayed by 3 hours, and so was the Bangkok-Manila flight. Fortunately I had enough leeway in my schedule to make my connections without any dramatic dashes through various airports. These days it seems flights are delayed or late arriving more and more often (at least the ones I've been on). I was quite surprised when my Philippines Air flight coming back (Manila-Bankok) arrived 40 minutes early !!!

[antony77]

all airlines seem to insist on a 2 hour transit time if you have "through"checked in luggage and if you don't have this time they may refuse to accept it. in which case you would have to collect your luggage and then recheck it, which means a pretty good chance of missing your flight. I would never book a connecting flight with less than 2 hours transit time.