Domestic-to-domestic Transfer At Suvarnabhumi

[Ricardo]

We recently passed through the new airport, en-route from Chiang Mai to Hat Yai, with Nok Air, so I thought I'd post our impressions, for other people's information.

Firstly we were 'stacked' for 10 mins, despite 2 fully-operational runways, so the extra capacity hasn't solved this minor problem.

The metal-grid floors of the new walkways, at an angle due to the 'low-down' 737, were slippery, and might be a problem when wet , or wearing smooth/worn-soled shoes.

The 'industrial/gothic' look of the building is very impressive, but I didn't understand why the uplift-lights, illuminating the ceiling, were blazing on a sunny day. Surely the design might have avoided this waste of electricity, and used natural daylight, in this age of global-warming ? This could be any old international-airport in the world, it just didn't feel very Thai, to me.

The absolute lack-of-signage has already been noted by others, however I have to say that it was very misleading indeed. Coming off concourse-B into a shopping-mall, at the junction with A & C, with no signs showing the way-out, will cause many passengers problems. There should be maps of the terminal throughout the building, this is not rocket-science, folks !

There are signs for international-transfer & the baggage-hall, this is less than helpful, if one is making a domestic transfer, IMHO. We saw one farang, on a 75-minute domestic connection, totally 'lose it' and shout at the staff at the discreet information-desk, because he simply couldn't see where he was supposed to go. It was hard to blame him.

We went to the baggage-hall, collected our bags, and exited following the single 'way out' sign, before seeing our first 'Departures' sign. The lift from the baggage-hall, direct up to Departures, was not signed, but still had a security-guard on it, to tell you that it could not be used ! So pushing our trolleys (travelling with family & fully-loaded) we then took the two travellator/escalators to go from Arrivals (2nd Floor) to Departures (4th Floor), where domestic & international check-ins are all in the same massive area. A sign to say Left-for-Domestic or Right-for-International would be a bonus.

The temperature rose significantly, as we went up, cool downstairs but uncomfortable at Departures, due to the design of thebuilding. Hot air rises, cool air falls, guys !

The moving-screens combine International & Domestic flights willy-nilly, and change too fast, to read more than a few lines per-change. This should be slower ! The text is so small as to be almost unreadable.

Checked back in, for our onward departure, the security-gate to Domestic Departures was not easy to spot, lack-of-signs again. But we found our wayback to our new gate, next to the one we had originally arrived at. TiT or sod's-law !

The restaurant-area near Concourses A/B/C is still under-construction. There were numerous unfinished offices/desks around the terminal.

And the more-affordable Thai food-court, which is on level 1 next to the bus-area, is unsigned & mysteriously fails to appear on any of the airport-leaflets or maps, while the more-expensive for-rich-farang-tourists ones are all shown. But most shopping-malls include maps to show exactly where each shop is.

On our return-trip, we had to use buses out to a parking-stand, the Gate was not easy-to-find, there was little information about which door led to which bus & plane, and no departures-screen, to see when your flight is delayed. This led to some passengers not finding their way - and a 30-minute delay in take-off.

On the plus side, all our bags arrived undamaged and fairly quickly, both times, and the other issues will hopefully be addressed in time, once identified by the management.

In summary, could have been better, with a little more time to finish-off building-work, and better testing of signage by real customers.

I would recommend allowing a minimum of 2 hours 30 mins for any domestic-to-domestic transfer, unless you're rich, and travelling Thai Airways !

[samtam]

If you're "rich" and travelling Thai Airways you might even need longer, by all accounts.....

[Maestro]

We recently passed through the new airport, en-route from Chiang Mai to Hat Yai, with Nok Air...

Why did you have to collect you baggage at Suvarnabhumi and check it in again for Hat Yai. Does Nok Air not allow you to check through from Chiang Mai to Hat Yai?

---------------

Maestro

[Ricardo]

We recently passed through the new airport, en-route from Chiang Mai to Hat Yai, with Nok Air...

Why did you have to collect you baggage at Suvarnabhumi and check it in again for Hat Yai. Does Nok Air not allow you to check through from Chiang Mai to Hat Yai?

---------------

Maestro

Correct.

Most low-cost-carriers operate on a point-to-point basis, they don't guarantee to make their scheduled connections, or offer frills like through check-in. This was the case with Nok Air - we did ask, as it would make our lives simpler, but had to treat it as two separate journeys.

Not sure if any Thai LCC checks it through, although I think I remember 12Go saying they could, a year or so ago.

A full-price carrier like TG would check it all the way, and issue both sets of boarding-cards at the initial check-in.

But they were B59,000 for the journey, as opposed to B30,000 with Nok or 12Go.

You pays your money - and takes your choice !

We need a 'smilie for "Farang Ki Nok" - for myself & any other 'careful' types !

[Soju]

...unless you're rich, and travelling Thai Airways !

You don't necessarily have to be rich just to use THAI. Depending on your situation it may actually be a very smart move financially to use THAI over another carrier. Take an example...

On Nok Air, BKK-UTH costs 1,550 THB, fare is not refundable and cannot be changed on the day of flight, but can be changed up to the day before for 535 THB.

On THAI, BKK-UTH costs 2,490 THB for an unrestricted fare, which is 940 THB more than a restricted Nok Air ticket.

By flying THAI you get free use of their business class lounge if you are a gold member of their or any other Star Alliance mileage program. So if I went to the airport hungry and decided I needed a couple hundred Baht worth of snacks and drinks, by flying on THAI with a gold card I could save that couple hundred Baht by eating/drinking in their lounge, assuming the lounge snacks/drinks were adequate for my needs.

By flying THAI, you get 500 frequent flyer miles, credited to THAI or another Star Alliance carrier mileage program of your choice. Those 500 miles credited to your mileage account, if you were to purchase them separately would cost something like 10 USD, which is probably on the high side as to their worth, but certainly the mileage is worth several dollars.

The baggage allowance on THAI is 20 kg. standard, but higher for members with silver or gold mileage cards. With Nok it's 15 kg. I don't know what Nok Air charges per kg of overweight luggage, but easily you could pay several hundred Baht, even more than a thousand Baht extra depending on how much over the limit you are.

THAI provides you with an on-board snack, whereas I don't believe Nok does, though the value of this snack is probably hardly even worth mentioning.

If you need to change your ticket on the day of the flight, it will cost you 535 THB on Nok, versus I believe free on THAI, provided you purchased the unrestricted fare, not a restricted fare.

Depending on the flight schedule and your own schedule, if you fly on Nok Air you may waste quite a few number of hours more than if you flew on THAI. My time is not free, especially if it's my vacation time. I want to maximize my vacation time as I'm paying a lot for that vacation. Many people fail to consider this point when booking an airline. If you spent 1,000 USD for an international plane ticket to Thailand for a week vacation, plus hotel and other expenses, your cost per day could easily total 300 USD or more. Plus what is your leisure time actually worth to you even if you're not on vacation? For me, the answer is easy as I have plenty of options for making money on the side if I had free time and wanted to spend some of my leisure time working. Let's say your leisure time is worth $50 per hour to you, so if you were to spend half a day (let's say 8 hours) more by taking Nok Air rather than THAI air, due to not being able to make a connecting flight, that would cost you $400 in leisure time.

So total up the costs in this hypothetical situation...

Nok Air:

1,550 THB for ticket

535 THB to change ticket on day of travel

200 THB for snacks not provided by lounge

1,000 THB for excess weight charge

5,500 THB for lost vacation time (1/2 day @ 300 USD per day = 150 USD or 5,500 THB)

14,700 THB in lost leisure time (8 hours @ 50 USD per hour = 400 USD or 14,700 THB)

Total cost: 23,485 THB

THAI:

2,490 THB for ticket

-200 THB for value of 500 frequent flyer miles

Total cost: 2,290 THB

So in this extreme example, the Nok Air ticket is actually over 10 x the price of a THAI ticket, with other LCCs probably being in a similar situation to Nok Air's prices. Of course many people are retired, so they will say their time is not worth anything, and if they're living in Thailand then they're not on vacation either, so that will eliminate a huge portion of the cost of a Nok Air ticket. Or maybe the flight schedules are such that there is no actual lost vacation/leisure time. And if you don't have excess luggage, aren't a frequent flyer, and are positive you'll never need to change your ticket, then the cost of flying Nok vs. THAI will save you a whopping 940 THB. So even in the best case, one doesn't really have to be rich to fly THAI over Nok, and in the worst case one would be penny-wise but pound-foolish to purchase a Nok Air ticket.

For me, being one who does take advantage of frequent flyer miles, and who's vacation and leisure time is quite valuable, will always choose to fly on THAI unless Nok Air has a better schedule and I can gain some valuable vacation time using them. I won't fly Air Asia unless absolutely necessary.

[griffer]

crikey Soju, don't forget to bill yourself $25 for the half hour it took to write that reply.............