Suvarnabhumi Airport - I Was Very Unimpressed

[midas]

When comparing Suvarnabhumi to Singapore, HK and even Narita, Suvarnabhumi comes up woefully short.

TheWalkingMan

totally agree !

[Rinrada]

The price of very ordinary food outlets, (excluding the international chains you favour), is indeed part and parcel of the airport in which market forces have little or no effect, as there are no alternatives.

Huh?

In the few times I've been to the airport, ,I've seen dozens of food outlets - some international chains, some local chains, some one-man band organisations. By definition, they are competing with each other. Thus, market forces are very much in play.

As any classical economist will tell you, prices of goods and services are NOT set by the seller. They are set by a dynamic interplay of seller's desire, buyer's interest, alternatives etc.

The fact that food outlets are charging high prices tells me only one thing. The market can bear those high prices and a natural price equilibrium has been found.

If those prices were too high, ipso facto sales would drop and the vendors would need to reduce prices to meet their natural level.It ain't rocket science.

Agree absolu...

and if ALL of the expected 12 million foreign tourists who pass through the place start using the Magic Food outlet on the ground floor ( left hand side ..beside the bus tic stand) then maybe the Astro-naughts up top will come down to earth...

I think that the Airport design/layout /approach iare all great but the services inside the BOX are SAD......

[alexth]

There are a couple of places where you can sit before going to your gate. There is a free THAI economy class lounge on Level 3, concourse B, near the intersection of concourses A,B,C,D. (...) it is open to all passengers (...)

In other words: I have to be a member of an internet forum, which has a section about the new airport to find out, where I can sit down at Suvarnabhumi?

OR...keep your eyes opened. If that doesn't work, I recommend an eye doctor

[Soju]

and if ALL of the expected 12 million foreign tourists who pass through the place start using the Magic Food outlet on the ground floor ( left hand side ..beside the bus tic stand) then maybe the Astro-naughts up top will come down to earth...

I'm doing my share. Me and my wife eat there every time, if we're hungry. On the last trip, noticed they actually had to already expand the food court, I guess due to such heavy demand. The place is packed even at 1AM. Great value for your money. And another tip, go next door, outside the terminal building, to the Family Mart for any convenience store purchases. Do not go to the other Family Marts inside the terminal building as they are all operated by King Power, as noted on their signs, and you just help the monopoly maintain it's power in doing so. The independent Family Mart on level 1 also has a bigger and more typically Thai selection of merchandise. Also a Siam City Bank ATM inside, for anyone needing one of those.

[dwwin]

Agree absolu...

and if ALL of the expected!!! 12 million foreign tourists who pass through the place start using the Magic Food outlet on the ground floor ( left hand side ..beside the bus tic stand) then maybe the Astro-naughts up top will come down to earth...

I think that the Airport design/layout /approach iare all great but the services inside the BOX are SAD......

I'd think they'll have to expand the transit lounge first.

[khall64au]

Have used the new airport 4 times in past 2 weeks - with different airlines - and the confusion with signage, etc never fails to astound me, despite having thought I'd learned my way around quite well during first 2 visits.

On the 3rd visit, was meant to connect between flights with a Thai official at Thai Airways counter but could not find him anywhere and he wasn't answering mobile phone. Thai Air could not find my booking. Was instructed to check email for last minute changes.

With only 5 mins to spare had to run the entire length of terminal to find an internet outlet. After asking at least 4 different staff enroute I finally found somewhere to hastily check email -and print my booking confirmation form -at well-hidden "post office" where I was told "NO PRINTING!!"

Finally got through to said Thai official on his mobile - his flight in had been delayed and the luggage collection counter was choked. We finally found each other and he handed me my onward ticket (which had obviously been booked).

Just a few more grey hairs!!!

[xbusman]

So I am driving around some obscure neighborhood out in the boonies and come across a new sign that says Suvarnabhumi with an arrow pointing straight. Now, I am at least fifty klicks from the new airport, what relevance could that sign possibly have. Considering the byzantine navigation required to get to the airport from there, I am wondering exactly how beneficial those signs could be. Since then, I have noticed them everywhere, in the most oddly obscure places, with only one exception. I have not seen any of them withing about 5 kilometers of the airport except on the expressway. Now this is not a scientific survey, but this abundance of signage in neighborhoods is starkly contrasted with the almost complete lack of signage in and around the airport itself. These signs are everywhere and obviously took a lot of time, effort and money to install. Gotta love it.

[tartempion]

I think it is great...taxi to airport was swift via the tollway, check in to Thai Business class has its own dedicated area and private immigration clearance counter,no queues,no hassles, then straight down into the royal orchid lounge.Love it.

Good for you, but 90% of travellers can't afford business class. Try eco

[tartempion]

Why are people using the price of tea or food in the airport's outlets as a weapon to attack it?

Surely it's up to the individual food stalls to determine their own pricing policy and I would imagine they would do no more than apply the fundamental laws of economics to their pricing - ie, charge as much as they can get away with to a captive audience. It has nothing to do with the airport.

Incidentally, I note that the well known chains (Burger King, Black Canyon Coffee etc) are charging exactly the same price at the airport as they do any other location around the country.

Why not blame the price of airtickets on the airport too?

It's the same principle.

Didn't I read King Power Group has monopoly renting out all shops and require a certain % to be returned to them?

Don't think that fundamental laws of economices apply if this is the case. Prices must be high to survive.

[Spee]

I think it is great...taxi to airport was swift via the tollway, check in to Thai Business class has its own dedicated area and private immigration clearance counter,no queues,no hassles, then straight down into the royal orchid lounge.Love it.

Good for you, but 90% of travellers can't afford business class. Try eco

ThaiAir business class for domestic travel is a great bargain IMHO. It's only a little more than coach and you get the lounge waiting area, a bigger seat and special treatment. Build up domestic miles with business and then cash them in to go business on the occasional international flight.

[jasreeve17]

I think it is great...taxi to airport was swift via the tollway, check in to Thai Business class has its own dedicated area and private immigration clearance counter,no queues,no hassles, then straight down into the royal orchid lounge.Love it.

Good for you, but 90% of travellers can't afford business class. Try eco

ThaiAir business class for domestic travel is a great bargain IMHO. It's only a little more than coach and you get the lounge waiting area, a bigger seat and special treatment. Build up domestic miles with business and then cash them in to go business on the occasional international flight.

Agreed.

Going to Phuket for a break I paid 3,500 for bussiness instead of 2,000 domestic. Seems as I have a pathetic and irrational fear of crashing, I drink beer to ease my worries. The free beers in the business lounge more than made up for the difference in price - it's a shame that you're only allowed into the lounge two hours before the flight though.

(I do feel sorry for the high class business traveller that has to put up with riff-raff like me in the lounge, but I suppose they could go to the first class lounge)

[sibeymai]

Had the opportunity to assess the voluminous feedback first hand recently. While the design and appearance is definitely a personal preference I was very interested in the operational deficiencies I was expecting to experience. While I was nowhere near as impressed as I was with Hong Kong, and I doubt even after several years of operation Suwarnabhumi will ever equal HK, I did not experience any major deficiencies, apart from what I will call one inconvenience.

Being out of Thailand for several days I decided, based on the reports of rip-off taxi drivers, to drive to the airport and use the long term car park. Finding the location, several kilometres from the terminal, was no problem. However, the entry/exit booths and ticketing is not operational and there are no instructions on where to go to get a ticket. A guy with an electric cart is available to take you to the bus which arrives every 10 minutes or so. The bus then does a 25 minute circuit to the ground floor level of the airport and then back to the bus terminal which is across the road from the long term car park (200m away). Here you have to change busses to another bus which takes you back to the airport terminal but this time to the departures level.

There are no announcements made so for a first time user who doesn't know what's happening will feel a bit panicky on the first bus as there is no indication they need to continue to the bus terminal and change busses, then return to the airport terminal a second time. What's the point of this additional 25-30 minutes of unnecessary travel time. Why not just add the long term car park stop to the route of the second bus ?

The busses are used as local transport by the airport workers. I was the only farang. It didn't help having to listen to the Thais behind me discussing what sort of an idiot would park their car out in the sun for a few days and have the paint fade. Having established that neither of these experts owned a car I further inquired from what experience they had acquired their expert knowledge.

Arrival back in Thailand was easy. Immigration was fast, baggage arrived in a reasonable time and there was no problem with Customs. Knowing the routine now with the busses it was also easy to get back to the car park. At 140Bt a day it was a much better deal than having to contend with a taxi extortionist.

OK, it's never going to be the best airport in the world nor probably even a regional hub. As it is today it is barely better than Don Muang and reportedly already reached it's maximum capacity of 76 (?) movements per hour. A big and unnecessary waste of money, definitely, but it can and does function as an airport.

Edited December 23, 2006 by sibeymai

[endure]

The busses are used as local transport by the airport workers. I was the only farang. It didn't help having to listen to the Thais behind me discussing what sort of an idiot would park their car out in the sun for a few days and have the paint fade. Having established that neither of these experts owned a car I further inquired from what experience they had acquired their expert knowledge.