Outbound Experiences

[John K]

Well I flew out Sunday morning with little or no problems. I did note that security was at max and many of the security people were in shall we say ‘On the job training.’ I would say that give them a week and they should have 98% of the bugs worked out.

My airline told me to be there early at 2:00 am because the arport was new and had bugs, but when I arrived the check in did not open until 3:00 am. I suspect the 3 hour check in should be the rule for a while. My flight left at 6:00 am.

One other thing and I don’t know if this is new or not but taxi fare to the airport now also includes an extra 50 ThB. Can anyone verify this? Seeing as it was about 2:30 am and the place looked vacant I really did not have a problem paying him the extra. So from Thong-lo the fare was 229 ThB plus the extra 50 ThB

I wonder what my return experience will be in a few weeks?

[james512]

I flew out from the new airport on Emirates last Saturday at 01:25.

From the outside and arriving at night by taxi the building is very impressive but i was quickly disappointed once inside. The first thing that annoyed me was the very low lighting and the glare from all the blue lights. It made it difficult to see anything clearly.

Emirates checkin was a shambles. Waiting in line for well over an hour and i'd already checked in online. Even when i got to the desk it took the guy 15 minutes to print me a boarding pass for seats i'd already selected.

I then had time and went off to find a restaurant for something to eat. Downstairs looking for a half decent restaurant or pub and nothing. Cafe style places only from what i could see. I asked someone if there was anything else nearby and the hotel way opposite the terminal building was suggested... decided it was too far to walk so i sat down in one of the cafes. No service... everything self service. Queue up to order your food... then sit and wait for your food. I then had the misfortune of eating the worst meal i have EVER had in 4 years of living in Thailand. I sent it back because it was cold but they only gave me new rice. Disgraceful.

Immigration was virtually empty, however, i had to stand behind the only guy who seemed to have some problem. While deciding if i should change lines more people came in and i was effectively stuck where i was while all the other people were sailing through. Bad luck this, or it could of been that the young lady at the desk wasn't quite sure what she was meant to be doing, she did seem rather slow.

Customs only glanced at me... and i didn't see them stop anyone else either.

Inside and things were a little better. Shops were mostly up and running and I found an uncomfortable little bar for a beer before heading round to the gate.

The departure gates were spartan to say the least. Concrete pillars, metal chairs... the place was cold and uncomfortable. No shops to even buy a bottle of water. Overall it reminded me of Charles De Gaulle in Paris. Not a good thing as i consider that to be one of the worst major airports in Europe.

Boarding the place now... 30 minutes late. As i was halfway on the gangway (is that what you call it) approaching the plane the whole thing started to shake from side to side. And it didn't stop. A bit nerve wracking to say the least.

So basically, i didn't like the new aiport one bit. The only good side to this is things can only improve. I'll see how things are on arrival when i come back in 3 weeks.

[John K]

Oh I forgot about the ramp moving back and forth. I was at gate G4. I too found it a bit uneasy but then I figured out that they were just trying to shake the last few baht out of my hands before leaving. Like everything in Thailand appearance is everything, so the problems with the ramp was just an added feature to add excitement to the new airport I guess.

[steakpudding]

I flew with BA on Sunday and I didn't have the best experience there.

Check-in was ok since I was there early enough to be one of the first. It opened about 3 hours before departure time. However I realised when I was queuing for passport control that I was not given the departure card, so I had to go back to get one. When I came back I found the queue was building up. Despite it being a Thai passport check, it was much slower than the foreign ones. And when I was at the front of the queue, they seemed to have a problem with the PC so the guy in front of me were stuck at the desk for about thirty minutes or so. One of the people in the queue came up to the officer and asked if it's still working, so we can decide whether we should go somewhere else. We were told then (after a total wait of 50 minutes for me) to queue elsewhere. So we moved to the diplomatic and official passport line and it took me just 30 secs to get through. From what I saw, foreign passport lines went quite smoothly though.

My first impression (or depression) once I was airside was that there were so many shops crammed together. The design itself to me looked much like the HKG airport which I love. But all those shops make the terminal somewhat like LHR terminal 2, although nicer (I have to say, it is not much of a hard work to make it nicer than T2 ) I met up with BF who was already there and proceeded to the Louis Tavern Lounge. It was a pain. Signpost wasn't clear and the map given at the back of the invitation wasn't not helpful either. As we walked around to find the lounge, we agreed that there must have been either something wrong with the air-conditioning system or some corruption going on when they installed it so a dodgy company could get the deal because we were sweating A LOT. Later though my sister told me that the way the system works at the new airport the lower you are, the cooler it is.

Louis Tavern J lounge was nice. A bit busy at the time of arrival (about 9PM) but it was expected. Snacks were ok. Wine was a bit horrible according to BF. We also visited the TG lounge. It was spacious but so packed that it was impossible to find a single seat.

The gate was E2, which was close to the lounge. I approached there when it opened and found a looooong queue of people at the boarding pass check. I didn't see any First or Business line so I was stuck with everyone else. But even though there is one, it would be almost impossible to get there anyway since so many people were all over the way you can't really get through. It took me about 25 minutes to finally have my boarding pass checked.

Oh.. the toilet was horrible. I used one by the lounge and it wasn't nice. So I would have imagined how bad it would be outside where sightseers were.

I won't be going back to BKK until December but hopefully things will be much better organised then.

[ourmanflint]

One other thing and I don’t know if this is new or not but taxi fare to the airport now also includes an extra 50 ThB. Can anyone verify this? Seeing as it was about 2:30 am and the place looked vacant I really did not have a problem paying him the extra. So from Thong-lo the fare was 229 ThB plus the extra 50 ThB

I wonder what my return experience will be in a few weeks?

I knew someone would get caught.... surely the 50bt extra is to be paid by someone arriving at the airport, not departing, I didn't pay it to go Saturday... so the taxi drivers figure they can charge everybody now do they??? Both arrivals and departures.... cheeky!!!

[DrDweeb]

I flew out from the new airport on Emirates last Saturday at 01:25.

From the outside and arriving at night by taxi the building is very impressive but i was quickly disappointed once inside. The first thing that annoyed me was the very low lighting and the glare from all the blue lights. It made it difficult to see anything clearly.

Emirates checkin was a shambles. Waiting in line for well over an hour and i'd already checked in online. Even when i got to the desk it took the guy 15 minutes to print me a boarding pass for seats i'd already selected.

I then had time and went off to find a restaurant for something to eat. Downstairs looking for a half decent restaurant or pub and nothing. Cafe style places only from what i could see. I asked someone if there was anything else nearby and the hotel way opposite the terminal building was suggested... decided it was too far to walk so i sat down in one of the cafes. No service... everything self service. Queue up to order your food... then sit and wait for your food. I then had the misfortune of eating the worst meal i have EVER had in 4 years of living in Thailand. I sent it back because it was cold but they only gave me new rice. Disgraceful.

Immigration was virtually empty, however, i had to stand behind the only guy who seemed to have some problem. While deciding if i should change lines more people came in and i was effectively stuck where i was while all the other people were sailing through. Bad luck this, or it could of been that the young lady at the desk wasn't quite sure what she was meant to be doing, she did seem rather slow.

Customs only glanced at me... and i didn't see them stop anyone else either.

Inside and things were a little better. Shops were mostly up and running and I found an uncomfortable little bar for a beer before heading round to the gate.

The departure gates were spartan to say the least. Concrete pillars, metal chairs... the place was cold and uncomfortable. No shops to even buy a bottle of water. Overall it reminded me of Charles De Gaulle in Paris. Not a good thing as i consider that to be one of the worst major airports in Europe.

Boarding the place now... 30 minutes late. As i was halfway on the gangway (is that what you call it) approaching the plane the whole thing started to shake from side to side. And it didn't stop. A bit nerve wracking to say the least.

So basically, i didn't like the new aiport one bit. The only good side to this is things can only improve. I'll see how things are on arrival when i come back in 3 weeks.

I believe maritime words are still correct for air travel. This is the historical precedent. However, the septics have given us the following terms, which you may encounter on your travels.

deplane = disembark

debark = see deplane

jetway = gangway

flight attendent = steward/stewardess

There are plenty of others I would guess, just too slack to raise them to a level of consciousness just now

[Soju]

deplane = disembark

debark = see deplane

jetway = gangway

flight attendent = steward/stewardess

There are plenty of others I would guess, just too slack to raise them to a level of consciousness just now

You might be surprised at the number of people who don't have a clue to the meaning of 'embark' and 'disembark'. Many places used to use those words on immigration forms, etc., but lately I've noticed a lot of them using simpler words such as 'depart' and 'arrive'. Especially with the number of international travelers with limited English, it makes no sense to use such words at airports or on airlines.

[John K]

deplane = disembark

debark = see deplane

jetway = gangway

flight attendent = steward/stewardess

There are plenty of others I would guess, just too slack to raise them to a level of consciousness just now

You might be surprised at the number of people who don't have a clue to the meaning of 'embark' and 'disembark'. Many places used to use those words on immigration forms, etc., but lately I've noticed a lot of them using simpler words such as 'depart' and 'arrive'. Especially with the number of international travelers with limited English, it makes no sense to use such words at airports or on airlines.

This closely resembles the language “cop.” word in cop are pursuit, suspect, apprehend, M.O., incarcerate, transport, cuff, infraction, donut, and so on. In some countries the phrase tea money is also part of the language.

[backflip]

"You might be surprised at the number of people who don't have a clue to the meaning of 'embark' and 'disembark'"

Or the difference between "flammable" and "inflammable". Several years ago, Sears Roebuck was forced to change the labels on the paint cans because people didn't know what "interior" or "exterior" meant.

[John K]

So then departures should be labeled And arrivals

[rogerdee123]

I thought disembark was someone one whould have done to a dog. Kind of like a vasectomy.

[gavstah]

Outbound experience:

- Air Asia flight departing from BKK for Singapore at 7:05 a.m. this past Monday

- Marketing hype aside, the "one hour from Pattaya" is a tad optimistic - Taxi "reo-reo" from Pattaya with no traffic took one hour and forty minutes from door to door.

- Air Asia check-in counter mobbed, and staff obviously overwhelmed / undertrained - 15th in the queue, 50+ min to get checked in

- Once checked in, no snags. No line for airport departure tax, less than five minutes in outbound immigration queue.

Once we got to the gate (G1a), we discovered the flight was running 15 minutes late due to the torrential rain.

"Door to door" from Pattaya (home to gate) was three hours, including stop in terminal for coffee and the hong nahm.

[IMA_FARANG]

deplane = disembark

debark = see deplane

jetway = gangway

flight attendent = steward/stewardess

There are plenty of others I would guess, just too slack to raise them to a level of consciousness just now

You might be surprised at the number of people who don't have a clue to the meaning of 'embark' and 'disembark'. Many places used to use those words on immigration forms, etc., but lately I've noticed a lot of them using simpler words such as 'depart' and 'arrive'. Especially with the number of international travelers with limited English, it makes no sense to use such words at airports or on airlines.

Not that this has much to do with the topic, but I was once asked by an immigration officer in Bombay on arrival this question, "And today sir, from what destination have you previously been embarking?"

Took me a while to figure that one out.

[libya 115]

"You might be surprised at the number of people who don't have a clue to the meaning of 'embark' and 'disembark'"

Or the difference between "flammable" and "inflammable". Several years ago, Sears Roebuck was forced to change the labels on the paint cans because people didn't know what "interior" or "exterior" meant.

IMPORTANT SAFETY WARNING

'flammable' and 'inflammable' mean exactly the same thing; 'easily combustible'.

However from a safety point of view 'flammable' is preferred, because there are some people who assume that the in derives from the latin in which means negative.

In the case of inflammable the in derives from the latin preposition in which is meant to suggest intensity. ie. very flammable.

[rogerdee123]

"deplane" is what you ride in up in desky to get to de-destination