Bitec Check-in

Hopefully the airports will be back to normal soon, but I used the Thai Airways check-in service at BITEC and was impressed ...

I could drive right to the entrance and be at the temporary check-in counters in less than 5 minutes.

I had to check in 7 hours before the flight ... but after check-in I headed to Central City over the road for lunch.

Check was as efficient as ever.

I returned 4 hours before the flight and passed through Immigration in 30 seconds

20 Minutes later I was on a bus to U-Tapao with a free drink and sandwich in my hand .... and we had a police escort all the way .... possibly because at that point we'd all been through Immigration and Security.

The bus dropped us at an old hangar next to the run-way where the Red Cross were serving fried rice and fruit under the wing of an old plane

After hanging around for an hour feeding the local mosquitos we boarded a bus to the plane.

I thought it was all very impressive for an improvised arrangement under difficult circumstances.

There were a few issues ...... after all the passengers had been mingling for 45 minutes they announced that any passengers from a particular hotel had to pass through a security scanner. Bit pointless after we'd been milling around in the open.

The crowds sitting around outside the terminal building were a sign of the misery many passengers who's headed direct to U-Tapao were still suffering. The plane sat on the runway for an hour before taking off ..... but I've had that at 'normal' airports. I heard about one flight being cancelled after people had checked in at BITEC. Oh, and there was no duty free shop!

But overall I was impressed with the set-up and the genuine effort put into customer care.

I'm heading back to Bangkok later in the week, so may experience U-Tapao (wasn't that an 80's glam rock band?) the other way around. One odd thing .... the plane (to Delhi) was not full.