The New Airport Poll

[womble]

oops.

Edited October 25, 2006 by womble

[jdinasia]

I think the new airport is FAR better than this poll

but the poll is gonna pull scads of people that haven't even been there

[STEELINOX]

I will letya know in a months time when I get there!

[meatgrowler]

oops.

let ya know in 6 weeks , holiday time, yee ha

[Boxer]

oops.

let ya know in 6 weeks , holiday time, yee ha

Been there , done that , think its FAB!

[bendix]

I'm currently sitting having a fantastic coffee in the departures lounge, waiting for a flight to Taipei. It's 6am.

This is my first experience of departure (although I arrived in on another flight the day after it opened).

My experience?

I love it.

The building is stunning, especially in the early hours of the morning. Check in was orderly, there were no queues at immigration and the range of shopping matches HK and Singapore easily. There are food outlets all over the place. And all the early nonsense about no toilets is just that - nonsense.

Sure there are some teething problems and it still looks like some retail places are opening soon so there are some construction people around.

But I am VERY impressed. 9 out of 10.

Oh, and I'm currently on a free wifi account here - so I can't complain about that either.

BTW, the taxi cost me 179 from Sukhumvit 11. Roughly the same as I paid to go to Don Muang.

Edited October 25, 2006 by bendix

[sbk]

Oops is right Womble!

Here is the airport poll, please respond there.

Womble, do you want the one in the general section moved to the Airport forum or leave it there for more eyes to see?

[womble]

Would prefer more eyes for now, perhaps we could move it later on when it drops off the page.

[Boxer]

Would prefer more eyes for now, perhaps we could move it later on when it drops off the page.

Poll should say ONLY Vote if you have used it.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Two trips and I liked it. Friendly to use.

[Krub]

OK for anew airport

Looking forward to more lounges

They need to do something to make the departure hall road access fluid and not a free for all with cars parked 2 or 3 rows deep...

[jdinasia]

Two trips and I liked it. Friendly to use.

4 trips and I feel the same!

[tornado40]

The best part of this great airport is the international flight departure area (apart from the fact that I'm coming back to the UK)

There's a great tapas bar with excellent wine on offer - looking forward to my next visit in January

[dsfbrit]

I'm currently sitting having a fantastic coffee in the departures lounge, waiting for a flight to Taipei. It's 6am.

This is my first experience of departure (although I arrived in on another flight the day after it opened).

My experience?

I love it.

The building is stunning, especially in the early hours of the morning. Check in was orderly, there were no queues at immigration and the range of shopping matches HK and Singapore easily. There are food outlets all over the place. And all the early nonsense about no toilets is just that - nonsense.

Sure there are some teething problems and it still looks like some retail places are opening soon so there are some construction people around.

But I am VERY impressed. 9 out of 10.

Oh, and I'm currently on a free wifi account here - so I can't complain about that either.

BTW, the taxi cost me 179 from Sukhumvit 11. Roughly the same as I paid to go to Don Muang.

I haven't been airside yet, so tell me is there somewhere to buy an English newspaper there. It was always one of my 'treats' when travelling back to the UK from Don Muang - buy a 2 day old Daily Mail or Sun and have a cup of coffee in that coffeeship outside the terminal - bliss.

I went to see the new Airport and as nice as it is, I couldn't see anywhere to buy a paper.

[Soju]

Two trips and I liked it. Friendly to use.

4 trips and I feel the same!

Same here after 6 trips.

[leisurely]

Yes, you can buy English papers (although why you would want the Mail is beyond me ). The airport is brilliant as far as I am concerned. You even get notification of the first case and the last on the luggage recovery belts. The taxis were plentiful - a top tip, don't just walk out of the door at the bottom of the escalator thing, move along the corridor before you go out, shorter queue. All in all a very enjoyable place

[Turok]

Fellas:

Airport is excellent. Juist made a trip from BKK to USA. And USA to BKK.

Too many people getting their shorts in a knot for nothing.

It will also not delay your intimate meetings.

Find something else to concentrate your efforts on. Stop moaning.

Enuff of these ridiculous polls.

Aren't there more important issues to discuss.

Turok

[JacknDanny]

Last week I flew from the new airport and returned 2 days later.

I drove to the airport, very easily found, signposting excellent.

On arrival, car parking easily found, signposting excellent.

I arrived around 1030am, car parks extremely busy, took about 15 minutes to find a space, but that is possibly because right now parking is free, so there would have been more cars there than normal.

Very short distance from car park to Departure lounge.

Excellent service, with many smiling faces providing help as to where to check in etc.

No particularly long wait at Immigration. I would say 8 out of 10 on departure.

Arriving back in Bangkok..............................

Totally different. I have got no idea what the planners were thinking when the arrivals hall was designed but it is pathetic. No where near enough room. My girlfriend was meeting me there and it took us 10 minutes of fighting through the crowds to find each other. God only knows what its going to be like in the High season!!!!

Extremely claustrophobic, it really is too bad to be true.

Does anyone know if they plan on extending the arrivals hall?

[tjo o tjim]

My first flights in/out yesterday. Generally impressed, although it is clearly still under construction, and was designed to limit amenities landside.

Walked around the "B" Concourse, which has some artwork up on the walls and plants scattered around making things seem much less grey.

One of the deliberate design goals was to limit land-side services, both to encourage people to shop airside, and limit the number of people mulling about. Level 3 was originally intended as a meet/greet gallery, which also explains why things are so congested at the meeting points on Level 2 now.

This land-side sparsity does make the airport much less attractive for crashing on an overnight international-domestic layover than Don Muang.

I'm disappointed by the toilet situation. Murphy/Jahn doesn't seem to think much of toilets; the O'Hare United terminal has the same sense of "afterthought" for the bathrooms.

I was also disappointed that we parked at a bus gate (United flight). Supposedly that isn't the norm.

The biggest gem is the two gardens on either side of the terminal. Unfortuantely, they are only accessible by going outside on Level 1 and walking by the smelly dumpster bays. Since the walkways are gravel, it's best to not bring your rolling suitcase.

And, the big mystery: How the heck are they going to clean the place. There were spiderwebs everywhere, and many of the windows were quite dirty and inaccessible. I guess you can always try and re-train a coconut monkey to wash windows...

[kangeroo]

Fellas:

Airport is excellent. Juist made a trip from BKK to USA. And USA to BKK.

Too many people getting their shorts in a knot for nothing.

It will also not delay your intimate meetings.

Find something else to concentrate your efforts on. Stop moaning.

Enuff of these ridiculous polls.

Aren't there more important issues to discuss.

Turok

[kangeroo]

Fellas:

Airport is excellent. Juist made a trip from BKK to USA. And USA to BKK.

Too many people getting their shorts in a knot for nothing.

It will also not delay your intimate meetings.

Find something else to concentrate your efforts on. Stop moaning.

Enuff of these ridiculous polls.

Aren't there more important issues to discuss.

Turok

what are you on about everyone has been very positive about airport

[inf]

Just returned to Taiwan last night from a 2-day 'raid' on Bangkok, and I must say my impression of the new airport was quite positive.

I must admit that we moved thru very fast, so we never had to use the restrooms, never had to look for a seat in the main departure hall, never had time to look around the shops, and only had carry-on luggage, so those are several aspects of the airport we can't really judge.

For the rest:

1/transportation late Saturday night

-all the talk about a transportation center on this forum confused us a bit; we just went down to the ground floor and looked for a bus to the Thong Lor area. The lady at the bus stop said there were no buses going there, and recommended a cab.

Unfortunately, we got a cab with a meter that didn't work, which we found out just after the cab left (no scam here, the driver really tried hard to get the thing going); he then drove around for a long time taking us back to our point of departure, he obviously wasn't too familiar with the roads there; we then had to wait for another cab, which took quite some time.

-to my surprise, the trip to Thong Lor didn't pass any toll stations; it was already past midnight, so I thought they stopped asking for money after that hour, but no, there were no toll booths along the way anyway.

-the whole taxi trip cost a ridiculously low 167 baht plus 50 baht airport tax, and no toll fees, i.e. taxi was cheaper than bus

2/transportation back to airport, Monday, pm

-we left Thong Lor in a cab at 4 pm: only minor traffic problems around the Thong Lor area, mainly where our driver chose narrow alleys to make his way to the main highway

-again no tolls despite this long stretch of highway straight to the airport; cab fee: 163 baht

-once inside the airport, we immediately found our check-in information, made our way through a crowded terminal to check-in section HJ; surprised at first that you could check in anywhere, and hardly any lines despite crowds;

-after checking in, we had the VAT forms stamped inside the office near the HJ section

-the airport tax was still 500 baht cash, and not 700 baht, as I had expected

-after going in, the VAT return booth was closed, but there was a sign referring us to gate D1 (which was on the way to C5, the gate for our flight); fortunately, the VAT office there was well visible, and there were hardly any people ahead of us.

All in all, I was very favorably impressed.

The place where you take buses and taxis still looks a bit improvised though. You would expect them to set up something like a real transit station, with booths and clear indications of where buses go, etc, but that's only a minor complaint.

Again (see above), we didn't use some of the facilities that provoked most of the complaints, so maybe that colored my view.

The fact that the taxi fare was so low and time spent on the road so short will make me want to stay in the eastern part of town near Thong Lor whenever I visit Bangkok again.