Over 6,700 Bags Stranded At Suvarnabhumi Airport

[letsryan]

i always travel light with just walk just a walk on bag and a ruck sack so i can walk straight out had to wait over a hr once never again.

they told me your walk on bag has to 7kg or under.

So too did I... but forget not, there're new rules now. My last trip had three stops over 7 planes, and with the new rules, if you don't check your baggage you would have to buy new shampoo, soap, deodorant, etc. at EVERY stop. Let's hear it for the new useless liquid/gel rules. Ah well, as long as I'm packing a duffel I can take my swiss army knife again.

By the way, I was at the new airport last week and it's quite attractive if you like the steel and glass look (I do), a bit too much concrete I thought but lots of artwork on the walls to cover that up, very spiffy looking.

The arrivals gate, though, was horrendous. Small and narrow, confusion about which exit a plane would be using (meaning anyone who wanted to meet someone had 5 exits to monitor, and no good way to get through them), and this small little yellow-stripe lane through the touts that ends in just a mass of people, impossible to get through... it took me maybe 15 minutes getting through customs, maybe 15 getting my bag from the belt, and 30 getting through the mass of humanity in the small packed arrivals lounge. Something has to be done about that, and you can't blame the touts - they should've been expected, and a lot of them were waiting for specific people, running around between 5 exits searching for them.

[jingjoe]

Making light of it re. 'leaving the old bag at home'' reminds me of the old one about;- "pilots overnight bags".

The pilots wont have any trouble if they travel light and their "overnight bags" in most cases are very, very attractive. Suay mak mak.

Brother, is that REALLY you? tsk tsk tsk

[tracer0]

i always travel light with just walk just a walk on bag and a ruck sack so i can walk straight out had to wait over a hr once never again.

they told me your walk on bag has to 7kg or under.

since when? Mine never was checked on weight (luckily)

But anyway, as asked earlier, has anyone read something about the passengers???

[tracer0]

just got back from Bali last night, big surprise as the duty free shop was open and accessible on arrival, like we used to enjoy in Sydney. We could buy a few things like sunnies that my wife wanted and missed on the way out, at a very good price compared with other duty free shop

*rayban new model price between 2.8 and 3.5 KBaht while in Bali at the duty free they were 145US and in town at 150US. Bangkok duty free seems to be a good bargain still

since we spent 15 min in the duty free, our luggage had shown up and there was no one in line at immigration...

it looks great and they are handling it the best they can, I think these guys are doing ok.

oz

What makes you sure you have REAL ones instead of just better looking fakes....

[popshirt]

i always travel light with just walk just a walk on bag and a ruck sack so i can walk straight out had to wait over a hr once never again.

they told me your walk on bag has to 7kg or under.

since when? Mine never was checked on weight (luckily)

But anyway, as asked earlier, has anyone read something about the passengers???

The weight on my carry on bag was checked for the first time a week ago as I was leaving LAX on EVA. It was deemed too heavy, although a regulation "carry on" size and certainly not heavier than on previous flights. I removed my laptop and checked it with my other two bags.

[Estrada]

Apparently the software was purchased at Panthip plaza for 120 ThB

Had the Software been purchased at Pantip Plaza for B120 it would probably be working fine.

[sawadeeken]

"Meanwhile, Thai Airways had to mobilise another 30 soldiers to help labelling baggage."

I didn't know Thai Airways had its own army!

This sounds to me like a "green light" for pilfering your bags.....I hope everyone checks the contents of their bags that come by late delivery

[mitrapaap]

"Meanwhile, Thai Airways had to mobilise another 30 soldiers to help labelling baggage."

I didn't know Thai Airways had its own army!

This sounds to me like a "green light" for pilfering your bags.....I hope everyone checks the contents of their bags that come by late delivery

Some people here seem to be paranoid. What's wrong about getting people to help? What would you prefer, some tuk tuk drivers, some teenagers from Lad Krabang Technical college?

[ramidin]

This is probably about the same as when Malaysia opened KLIA and Hong Kong opened up.

Inevitable that things like this will happen, however, hope the soldiers handling the bags all speak English and not Thailish, or god knows where bags will go.

I guess this will affect transit passengers more than arrivals, as transit times can sometimes only be a couple of hours.

Travel tip: Always check the luggage label they put on, even on a computerised system - learned that one after another airline large international airline lost my bags five straight times.

I am going to HK on Tuesday with HAND LUGGAGE only, will buy anything else I need!@

[Fore Man]

I arrived back from India today via TG and transferred to Chiang Mai....my home here...with a 2 hour stopover at Suvarnaphum. A bit of confusion after arrival, trying to figure out where to obtain my domestic boarding pass. The lighted signs over the booths in the tranfer area all state "TRANSFER to INTERNATIONAL", but if you looked very closely, they had pasted up some printed A4-sized PowerPoint signs that said to check-in there to transfer FROM incoming overaeas flights to domestic ones. Until I came back and read the small print, I was lost and getting bad instructions. At least I have it figured out now. Then upon landing in CNX all of my baggage was missing, and so were most of the other PAX' luggage as well. That was 10 AM and it is now just 12:15 PM. I just received a call from Thai that they are delivering my luggage now. So if Thai has their arms full today, they are doing a pretty good job trying to manage it. I have to salute them. And in time they will get these growing pains under control.

[animatic]

Let see:

Existing working computer system at Don Muang ;

All you need is to duplicate the network cabeling,

and move most of the computers over and turn them on.

Existing trained staff, at Don Muang ;

All you need is a small booklet listing changes in the layout at new airport,

give it to staff 1-2 months in advance, pop quiz test that they have read it..

WORKING SYSTEM, WORKING WORKERS.

OK existing luggage transport vehicles at Don Muang ;

Load each grouping on waiting trucks after their last incoming Don M flight

is put to bed, and send then to corresponding new terminal.

More space to work with, vs a list of complaints about Don Muang.

Compare space available to existing issues to be dealt with,

Bathrooms, Phones, bank machines, shop placement,

passenger access, and oh yeah

SIGNS TO GET FROM POINT A TO POINT B...

Did ANYBODY actually WALK on the floor tiles before purchasing them?

How about flow charts to show passenger egress,

no one blocked out how this works, they just laid out

a huge space and said use this? A plane comes in,

it has a known quantity of passengers,

that must move from point A to point B to point C.

Heck even slaughter houses, know how to move the cows....

Did anybody calculate the number of passengers vs restrooms needed?

there are vast bodies of studies for

numbers of people vs liters of urine,

for travelers, vs football fans, vs office workers.

All different quanitities of liquid imbibment, and the neccesary outflow.

Did they purchase a new and untested computer system,

rather than transfer the existing one, with some additions.

It's hard to believe that in a day the number of flights and terminals

would so expanded, thet the existing software would have been over come.

All of this so predicatable too.

Yet no one learns form others msitakes....

A fiat from above, to make a date,

and NO thought about what it actually means in practice.

He he ignores history is doomed to repeat it.

I am glad I have NO plans to travel... opps spoke to soon,

I must go to Khon Khaen in a week or so...

Maybe the 16 hour arctic bus is preferable to the new airport

at this early juncture...

Edited October 8, 2006 by animatic

[mitrapaap]

Let see:

Existing working computer system at Don Muang ;

All you need is to duplicate the network cabeling,

and move most of the computers over and turn them on.

Existing trained staff, at Don Muang ;

All you need is a small booklet listing changes in the layout at new airport,

give it to staff 1-2 months in advance, pop quiz test that they have read it..

WORKING SYSTEM, WORKING WORKERS.

OK existing luggage transport vehicles at Don Muang ;

Load each grouping on waiting trucks after their last incoming Don M flight

is put to bed, and send then to corresponding new terminal.

More space to work with, vs a list of complaints about Don Muang.

Compare space available to existing issues to be dealt with,

Bathrooms, Phones, bank machines, shop placement,

passenger access, and oh yeah

SIGNS TO GET FROM POINT A TO POINT B...

Did ANYBODY actually WALK on the floor tiles before purchasing them?

How about flow charts to show passenger egress,

no one blocked out how this works, they just laid out

a huge space and said use this? A plane comes in,

it has a known quantity of passengers,

that must move from point A to point B to point C.

Heck even slaughter houses, know how to move the cows....

Did anybody calculate the number of passengers vs restrooms needed?

there are vast bodies of studies for

numbers of people vs liters of urine,

for travelers, vs football fans, vs office workers.

All different quanitities of liquid imbibment, and the neccesary outflow.

Did they purchase a new and untested computer system,

rather than transfer the existing one, with some additions.

It's hard to believe that in a day the number of flights and terminals

would so expanded, thet the existing software would have been over come.

All of this so predicatable too.

Yet no one learns form others msitakes....

A fiat from above, to make a date,

and NO thought about what it actually means in practice.

He he ignores history is doomed to repeat it.

I am glad I have NO plans to travel... opps spoke to soon,

I must go to Khon Khaen in a week or so...

Maybe the 16 hour arctic bus is preferable to the new airport

at this early juncture...

Plenty of ideas and I'm sure all of them would work (that's why nobody had them before!). You only made one single mistake. You should have applied for the post of Airport Ingenering Director 10 years ago, then we wouldn't have all the little teething problems now.

[mcfester]

Let see:

Existing working computer system at Don Muang ;

All you need is to duplicate the network cabeling,

and move most of the computers over and turn them on.

Existing trained staff, at Don Muang ;

All you need is a small booklet listing changes in the layout at new airport,

give it to staff 1-2 months in advance, pop quiz test that they have read it..

WORKING SYSTEM, WORKING WORKERS.

OK existing luggage transport vehicles at Don Muang ;

Load each grouping on waiting trucks after their last incoming Don M flight

is put to bed, and send then to corresponding new terminal.

More space to work with, vs a list of complaints about Don Muang.

Compare space available to existing issues to be dealt with,

Bathrooms, Phones, bank machines, shop placement,

passenger access, and oh yeah

SIGNS TO GET FROM POINT A TO POINT B...

Did ANYBODY actually WALK on the floor tiles before purchasing them?

How about flow charts to show passenger egress,

no one blocked out how this works, they just laid out

a huge space and said use this? A plane comes in,

it has a known quantity of passengers,

that must move from point A to point B to point C.

Heck even slaughter houses, know how to move the cows....

Did anybody calculate the number of passengers vs restrooms needed?

there are vast bodies of studies for

numbers of people vs liters of urine,

for travelers, vs football fans, vs office workers.

All different quanitities of liquid imbibment, and the neccesary outflow.

Did they purchase a new and untested computer system,

rather than transfer the existing one, with some additions.

It's hard to believe that in a day the number of flights and terminals

would so expanded, thet the existing software would have been over come.

All of this so predicatable too.

Yet no one learns form others msitakes....

A fiat from above, to make a date,

and NO thought about what it actually means in practice.

He he ignores history is doomed to repeat it.

I am glad I have NO plans to travel... opps spoke to soon,

I must go to Khon Khaen in a week or so...

Maybe the 16 hour arctic bus is preferable to the new airport

at this early juncture...

Plenty of ideas and I'm sure all of them would work (that's why nobody had them before!). You only made one single mistake. You should have applied for the post of Airport Ingenering Director 10 years ago, then we wouldn't have all the little teething problems now.

Well I do seem to remember on the first couple of days all the congrats congrats they are are doing an excellent job, I also remember the talk of where are all the doomsday sayers now that the airport is running so smoothly with just a few 'little teething problems', lol.

Well I'm sure its not a little problem for a family on a 2 week vacation only to have there bags returned to them, say when they get back to their home country, yes excellent holiday for them.

We doomsday sayers are still here, just sitting quietly watching you all eat your words, so once again, the airport was in no way ready to open, I think we can rest assured on this fact now.

[banchang]

I hear they are going to pile up the bags to keep out the riseing water is this true?

[MaiChai]

I came through the new airport on its first day of opening. The luggage took so long to arrive that I had enough time to go and change some money, spend 10 mins looking for a trolley and go and do a number 2 in the toilet. When I came back the bags still had not come off!

Tip: leave your bags at home and buy everything you need when you come. Everything is so cheap. I always wonder why people bring so much luggage on holiday to Thailand when its a shoppers paradise?

[Rhys]

Whoaaa missed it... Last Sunday's baggage retrival was not a problem..

Do something about the walk to the front of the side.. and those overcharging Taxi Drivers.. Sad they are still at it..

[salty]

Thank heavens I am not travelling with Thai Air on my next visit to LOS.

[gburns57au]

Thank heavens I am not travelling with Thai Air on my next visit to LOS.

So you will be going to another airport then ???

[mitrapaap]

Let see:

Existing working computer system at Don Muang ;

All you need is to duplicate the network cabeling,

and move most of the computers over and turn them on.

Existing trained staff, at Don Muang ;

All you need is a small booklet listing changes in the layout at new airport,

give it to staff 1-2 months in advance, pop quiz test that they have read it..

WORKING SYSTEM, WORKING WORKERS.

OK existing luggage transport vehicles at Don Muang ;

Load each grouping on waiting trucks after their last incoming Don M flight

is put to bed, and send then to corresponding new terminal.

More space to work with, vs a list of complaints about Don Muang.

Compare space available to existing issues to be dealt with,

Bathrooms, Phones, bank machines, shop placement,

passenger access, and oh yeah

SIGNS TO GET FROM POINT A TO POINT B...

Did ANYBODY actually WALK on the floor tiles before purchasing them?

How about flow charts to show passenger egress,

no one blocked out how this works, they just laid out

a huge space and said use this? A plane comes in,

it has a known quantity of passengers,

that must move from point A to point B to point C.

Heck even slaughter houses, know how to move the cows....

Did anybody calculate the number of passengers vs restrooms needed?

there are vast bodies of studies for

numbers of people vs liters of urine,

for travelers, vs football fans, vs office workers.

All different quanitities of liquid imbibment, and the neccesary outflow.

Did they purchase a new and untested computer system,

rather than transfer the existing one, with some additions.

It's hard to believe that in a day the number of flights and terminals

would so expanded, thet the existing software would have been over come.

All of this so predicatable too.

Yet no one learns form others msitakes....

A fiat from above, to make a date,

and NO thought about what it actually means in practice.

He he ignores history is doomed to repeat it.

I am glad I have NO plans to travel... opps spoke to soon,

I must go to Khon Khaen in a week or so...

Maybe the 16 hour arctic bus is preferable to the new airport

at this early juncture...

Plenty of ideas and I'm sure all of them would work (that's why nobody had them before!). You only made one single mistake. You should have applied for the post of Airport Ingenering Director 10 years ago, then we wouldn't have all the little teething problems now.

Well I do seem to remember on the first couple of days all the congrats congrats they are are doing an excellent job, I also remember the talk of where are all the doomsday sayers now that the airport is running so smoothly with just a few 'little teething problems', lol.

Well I'm sure its not a little problem for a family on a 2 week vacation only to have there bags returned to them, say when they get back to their home country, yes excellent holiday for them.

We doomsday sayers are still here, just sitting quietly watching you all eat your words, so once again, the airport was in no way ready to open, I think we can rest assured on this fact now.

Critisizers and pessimists have an easy life. They always end up being right, because the world is not and will never be perfect. So their prediction of "there will be problems" is always right.

Thanks to all the optimists for having visions and make the world move ahead, make things happen and resolve problems that occur.

And if you still believe that the opening of the new airport has failed to be a success, then ask your mother what a pain it was when YOU got born.

[Plus]

Had it been opened in November, many of the problems would have been avoided. But who cares? Surely not the optimists.

[PanzerJohn]

"Critisizers and pessimists have an easy life. They always end up being right, because the world is not and will never be perfect. So their prediction of "there will be problems" is always right.

Thanks to all the optimists for having visions and make the world move ahead, make things happen and resolve problems that occur.

And if you still believe that the opening of the new airport has failed to be a success, then ask your mother what a pain it was when YOU got born."

I used to be an optimist but I was always disappointed.

Edited October 8, 2006 by PanzerJohn

[jellykookabanj]

Had it been opened in November, many of the problems would have been avoided. But who cares? Surely not the optimists.

The actual opening date of any new airport is irrelevant. Teething problems can only happen after the ###### place has opened. To say that they wouldn't have occured if the opening had been delayed till November is fantasy. Problems will always occur after the event and can never be eliminated by delaying the opening.

Airports around the world suffer problems all the time, but when fallback procedures are written up ( following the occurence of problems ) and the staff get used to reverting to fallback procedures, then failures are minimised and often don't even become apparent to the travelling public.

This airport is a big change for all the staff involved and it will take time to settle down and get used to "new" facilities and procedures.

[Plus]

I believe it's easier to put us signs around the airport BEFORE it opens, so you can concentrate on real "teething" problems. Also you might want to finish construction before you let people in. Also you might want to test all computer systems before you open the airport.

Ok, they did that, and they knew that their computers cosistently fail - both luggage and boarding systems, and they had to operate them manually. Why weren't they given time to solve the problems? Do they really have time now?

They could have anticipated arrival hall problems, and they could have thought about taxi pickup earlier. They didn't have time for trivialities like that. In fact they didn't even know that taxis would be a problem until a week before the D-day, no one had time to think about that.

Do you really think that solving all these problems is easier with 80,000 passengers using the airport daily? They should have minimised the number of problems they have to deal with after the opening.

[letsryan]

I believe it's easier to put us signs around the airport BEFORE it opens, so you can concentrate on real "teething" problems. Also you might want to finish construction before you let people in. Also you might want to test all computer systems before you open the airport.

Ok, they did that, and they knew that their computers cosistently fail - both luggage and boarding systems, and they had to operate them manually. Why weren't they given time to solve the problems? Do they really have time now?

They could have anticipated arrival hall problems, and they could have thought about taxi pickup earlier. They didn't have time for trivialities like that. In fact they didn't even know that taxis would be a problem until a week before the D-day, no one had time to think about that.

Do you really think that solving all these problems is easier with 80,000 passengers using the airport daily? They should have minimised the number of problems they have to deal with after the opening.

I think they knew there would be problems, and perhaps slightly more if they opened a little early... but the tradeoff is they got to work out the kinks before high season. Good move, if you ask me, even if there still is a little construction getting done. Better to have these problems with 80,000 passengers instead of 200,000...

And by the way, the family of four with lost luggage - REALLY bad strawman, if that's your goal then no airline nor airport has EVER gotten past its teething problems, as there are probably minimum a hundred cases like that a day at any major international airport. Are you saying that a 2% lost luggage rate is simply unacceptable? Anything above 0% is going to be a big problem for someone... hence any lost luggage equals big problem? I suppose you could argue that... but you certainly can't pick on Thailand if you plan to rail at windmills in such a manner.

[Virgil]

Relax,

Shouldn't you change your nickname to "Lee-Lak"? .... especially if you're living in Thailand. ... Just a thought ....

Virgil, Out!

Mighty Mouse,,,, very funny,, it takes some doing to tickle me,,, but that was good!!! thanks relax

[shaunoro]

I'm not gloating, but after attempting to tender for the baggage system,we were denied to tender.

Obvoiusly some company had put in a suitcase full of money to the correct person.

java script:emoticon(':annoyed:', 'smid_7')

I was representing the consultants who did the baggage system at Hong Kong airport.

That worked but had teething problems like any other system.

[[email protected]]

TIT:

[Pappiklon]

Came through this afternoon on Eva flight from London, long walk to immigration but cleared quickly, wairted about 15 minutes for bags (but I often wait longer at Heathrow), arrivals hall is very small and packed, turn right through barrier and down one floor on escaltor walkway (I originally waited for the lift as didn't realise the escaltor wasn't a stair type and could take trolleys) at the bootom of the escalator turn left and through exit door to taxi quee, which was short but there was another on my left which was even shorter, in all 30 minutes from touchdown to being in a taxi.

Much better and faster than I expected....change tends to take a bit of getting used to but I'm sure this airport will soon be both familar and easy and the old forgotten

[Plus]

tradeoff is they got to work out the kinks before high season. Good move, if you ask me, even if there still is a little construction getting done. Better to have these problems with 80,000 passengers instead of 200,000...

Thaksin didn't tie the opening date to a high season but to elections. It would be nice if they figured out how much time they need to start taking 200,000 people a day. Maybe one more month for preparation, open at the end of October, get one month to sort everything out before December.

It would be nice if they used this train of thought. Unfortunately there's no evidence for it whatsoever. It was a political decision and it was forced down the throats of all parties involved.

What they are facing now is a bad news spreading by the word of mouth from the fellow travellers, just in time for the high season to reach the travel agents.

6,700 bags, 80,000 passengers, half of them outbound - we are talking about 15-20% of all luggage lost.

[Ijustwannateach]

For better or for worse, it's these kinds of problems that tend to get themselves solved, though- too much loss of face otherwise. The sad part is that the taxpayers (including myself) are the ones who are paying for the system, the system to fix the system, the system to replace the system, etc., etc., etc....