When You Exit The Baggage Claim Area - No Easy Way To Meet People As They Come Out

[oakweb]

Every time I go to pickup someone at the airport, there is total mayhem. Travellers exiting customs area are presented with two options

when they leave, Exit Left, or Exit Right. And when we go meet travellers we only have the option of meeting someone from the right. Police

have told us before we can't go to the left hand side. One cop finally told me to walk outside and go around and I can be on the let hand side.

Has anyone else seen this problem? I pay companies to pickup friends and this is a constant problem. They can't find the drivers. My

friends turn left and miss everyone standing on the right. The people on the right can't cross over to the left.

It's absolutely insane.

I think next time I'll tell them to go up to the 3rd floor to Starbucks or something, waiting by the exit is just stupid the way it's setup now.

[JohnC]

Why not go to the well signposted "meeting point" ? Always pick up friends there no problem.

[RabC]

Or tell your arriving guests to turn right outside customs?

[PattayaParent]

Or tell your arriving guests to turn right outside customs?

You just beat me to it.

The other option is to wait in the area behind the airport taxi desks so you see your friends enter the arrival hall and shout / wave to them if they can't tell their left from their right.

[lomatopo]

On levels 1, 2 & 4 there are ten (10) doors at the front of the Main Passenger Terminal building. These are conveniently labeled #1..#2........#10, from left to right if standing outside the building and facing it.

International Arrivals will exit from the B or C exits so I usually just give people a door number like 7, 8 or 9 and meet them there. This has worked well for me over the past ~ 6 years.

http://www.suvarnabhumiairport.com/indoor_map_internet_en.php

[MB1]

As far as I'm concerned OP, you aint got a clue what your on about, since the opening of the airport I have never had a problem with being picked up when arriving in Thailand.

It's so simple if you know how, when you have cleared Immigration, baggage and customs, turn right and walk straight down to meeting point/ exit gate 3, this is the arrival floor on level 2.

Tell your freinds NOT to turn left. Simples.

I dare say millions of passengers have been picked up okay but you think the system is stupid, I know who/what I think is stupid.

HTH.

Edited July 14, 2012 by MB1

[thrilled]

The 1st time I had to use the pay phone to reach my party.the 2nd time I also had to but It was better.

The place can be crazy no doubt .

[Traxster]

The last time I had to meet someone coming thru Customs I told them beforehand to look for my torch light

and I took a torch ,turned it on and just waved it above everybody's heads.

As soon as my friend came through the doors she saw the light from my torch and ..............'Bob's your uncle' !!

[IMA_FARANG]

Tell those meeting you to meet you at the arrival area floor just outside the baggage/immigration/customs area. There is a place for them to gather and meet you.

I believe it is arrival area number 3 at door #3...but I may be wrong on that number. There is at least 1 sign in both Thai and English that directs people to the visitors arrival/meeting area.

When you arrive you should turn right after exiting customs. You will see numbers on the sections above and to your right.

As I said you want to go until you get to section #3 ....and I believe there is a sign in English there that says something like "Meeting Point" there.

That's where they will be told to meet arrivals by the security gaurds/Police if they ask them.

I agree it's poorly marked, and most arriving passengers are not told this information.....but there is a marked meeting point there where people should meet you.

[oakweb]

Thank you for all the suggestions, I have seen that meeting point sign but from my experience the weary travellers I meet there can't seem to find it. I agree to tell everyone just "turn right"

do not turn left. The problem I have is the stupid pickup service I send, has no system what so ever. Sometimes they stand on the left, sometimes on the right.

This map is awesome but they don't mark the meeting place:

http://www.suvarnabhumiairport.com/indoor_map_internet_en.php

Does anyone know where that meeting spot is on the map? I'll mark it and then give it to my customers

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/37997220/SuvarnaAirport.jpg

[JohnC]

http://www.bangkokairportonline.com/node/86

[lomatopo]

http://www.bangkokai...ine.com/node/86

That's a pretty ancient website, and asking arriving pax to transition up to level 3, from Arrivals on level 2 is nutty - you cannot exit the Main Passenger Terminal building on level 3. Much better to stick with level 2, just pick a door #, the door # signs are huge, intuitive, easy to communicate, easy to spot when exiting from both B and C (left/right from either).

[PattayaParent]

Thank you for all the suggestions, I have seen that meeting point sign but from my experience the weary travellers I meet there can't seem to find it. I agree to tell everyone just "turn right"

do not turn left. The problem I have is the stupid pickup service I send, has no system what so ever. Sometimes they stand on the left, sometimes on the right.

This map is awesome but they don't mark the meeting place:

http://www.suvarnabh...internet_en.php

Does anyone know where that meeting spot is on the map? I'll mark it and then give it to my customers

https://dl.dropbox.c...arnaAirport.jpg

Gate 3 on that map if you don't know your way around the terminal.

What I don't understand is why a terminall designed by an international consultants specialising in airports design is so dysfunctional in Thailand?

[NanLaew]

Yes, it is bizarre that 7 of the 10 exit doors are within the 'secure' area so everyone is funneled down to the bedlam at the official 'Meeting Point' at door 3.

I advise my pickups to turn right out of Customs and get on the first travelator, stop at the Family Mart in the middle on level 3 and get some cold San Miguel Pale Pilsens and then take the travelator back up to level 4 (Departures) and exit at door 7 where I am parked where the aircrew buses drop off. All quiet down that end.

Edited July 16, 2012 by NanLaew

[marstons]

i pick many people up and get picked up myself by taxi's always simple turn right out of customs head to meeting point 3 also door exit 3, well sign posted and can't understand how people have a problem with it. cant think how it could possibly be made any easier. One thing that really hacks me off is when at arrivals the exit is clogged with long lost loved ones hwo been to spain for 2 weeks (UK arrivals) the BKK idea of keeping people away is a great idea for me.

[saengsureeya]

What I usually do with people who I pick up:

I wait at the entrance of long term parking and wait for a call from the travelers, that they claimed their baggage,

I tell them to walk to door 3 and wait outside.

By the time they walk out door 3 I arrive.

This action is not performed to save parking-fees, but the parking on its self is a disaster.

[lomatopo]

Yes, it is bizarre that 7 of the 10 exit doors are within the 'secure' area so everyone is funneled down to the bedlam at the official 'Meeting Point' at door 3.

I think you may be confused? Maybe that map is confusing you? All ten (10) doors are land-side; there are no exit doors "within the secure area".

The flow for international arrivals is Immigration, baggage claim, customs then exit from either "B" or "C". Typically people come out of exits "B" or "C" based on the location of their baggage carousel hence the gigantic overhead sign in the Arrivals area indicating which flights might use which exit. Obviously that information is subject to change.

I agree that it is crazy for people to walk all the way down to the "official" meeting area near door #3, or to go up to level 3 or 4 (unless you have arranged a curb-side pick-up or wish to flag down a taxi dropping off passengers on level 4), or to go down to level 1, unless you want to get a taxi, bus, mini-van.

I assume they have the official meeting point way down at door #3 to accommodate both domestic and international arrivals?

[NanLaew]

Yes, it is bizarre that 7 of the 10 exit doors are within the 'secure' area so everyone is funneled down to the bedlam at the official 'Meeting Point' at door 3.

I think you may be confused? Maybe that map is confusing you? All ten (10) doors are land-side; there are no exit doors "within the secure area".

After well over 200 departures and arrivals, there's no confusion. Agreed that all 10 doors are landside and open onto the drive thru. The grey area in the map is the ONLY area where people from land-side and MEETING passengers as well as Domestic arrivals through gate A can go. The pale green area (that includes doors 4 - 10) is only accessible to international passengers arriving FROM airside through gates B and C, TAT and AoT selected touts and shops and airport pass holders, ie. the secure area. There's a guard to stop people walking up that way into the green area. That's why the travelators on the right of the map that go down to Arrivals are manned by security with barriers and the elevators on that side of the building either don't come down or stop at that level. Several of the doors do exit out to the sidewalk but public pickup and passenger access to the sidewalk access is mostly blocked by security barriers. AoT's limo service and the few on-airport rental companies take up the rest of the kerb up to door 8 and beyond that, there's official vehicles parked, including the faux 'Bomb Squad' F-250.