Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi named among the world’s worst airports

[PaPiPuPePo]

On 6/13/2017 at 2:18 AM, KhunBENQ said:

It's for the bin.

Frankfurt in the best list?

This patchwork labyrinth??

Yeah, FRA? Notorious mess of an airport. Changing planes there once I got directed to a long empty hallway and emergency-exit-type concrete staircase, fortunately I guess there were other passengers navigating this maze and together we eventually found our way.

 

Two things I dislike about Swampy: the 10km trek from plane to immigration, and the hassle going from floor to floor. 

 

At least you can get wifi, when it opened all they had were some mostly non-functioning overpriced incredible slow and frustrating terminals, I actually felt sorry for the tech-challenged bureaucrat who got suckered into purchasing them.

[oldhippy]

Long walks are typical for almost all major airports worldwide.

You can not blame any particular airport for that.

 

Nobody expected the enormous growth of air travel.

Hence the success of small airports - that will soon have the same problem!

 

 

 

[Familyaffairs]

As one who travels to/from Suvarnabhumi, I can confirm its a nightmare airport. Incredibly inefficient, rude security, constant delays. Almost every TG or PG flight arrival means you have to climb down the portable stairs, stand in a crowded bus, and then have a long walk and wait for your luggage. All in all, its a marathon to complete. Staff are sitting around, or even sleeping on mats in full view. What a joke.

[shady86]

This is one of the reason why it's lousy. Half of immigration counters are closed.

[observer90210]

Strange...am I missing something here?....since I have being going to BKK Airport, never took a bus?.....Dubai transit is far worse with certain areas needing to climb stairs...

 

Not to mention certain European Airports either in England, Germany or Switzerland that believe me are a million times worse then Suvarnabhumi, with endless steps to climb, neverending queues at immigration long walks, and regular need to take a bus at the boarding gate, to board the plane...

 

So why whim constantly against the Suvarnabhumi Airport?...Is it just to make it even with Sumchai who ripped you off on the last paint or plumber job at home?.....One can understand that the never ending attempts from a certain proportion of local Thais to rip off farangs can get exasperating to hateful....but is that a reason to stigmatise a whole nation and it's infrastructures?

Edited June 28, 2017 by observer90210

[elephant45]

Was the guy or gal who designed the elevator on LSD?

[Dave67]

Paid for a Fast Track departure tomorrow,. Since they upgraded Thai lane to scan of passport theres no going through the Thai lane with missus anymore. I paid for Fast track arrival and was the only one there and was at baggage belt before the missus. 1200bt is money well spent if you don't want to gamble on queuing up for a hour or so.

[IMA_FARANG]

I have said it before and I will repeat it here ,it is not an airport, it is a  shopping center mal a l with runways attached to it.

As a 70 year old man going through a r row of shops filled with overpriced goods, many that I neither want or will ever buy in order to arrive or depart Bangkok in a wheelchair I have no real love for Swampy except as an overpriced transit point I pass through as quickly as I can.

 

 

[Wake Up]

On 6/20/2017 at 9:44 AM, Familyaffairs said:

As one who travels to/from Suvarnabhumi, I can confirm its a nightmare airport. Incredibly inefficient, rude security, constant delays. Almost every TG or PG flight arrival means you have to climb down the portable stairs, stand in a crowded bus, and then have a long walk and wait for your luggage. All in all, its a marathon to complete. Staff are sitting around, or even sleeping on mats in full view. What a joke.

I fly Swampy and internationally regularly and I have to respectfully disagree with all your opinions. Swampy is in my top 5 airports in the world for ease, visual beauty, cost and availability of airport taxis, and facilities. The airfares are slightly higher from BKK to USA but that is the airlines doing not Swampy. The landing taxes at London are outrageous compared to Swampy. 

Sometimes the immigration lines can be long or short but that is true of every international airport in the world. When landing at Swampy I rarely have to board a bus to get to the terminal unlike Hong Kong and other airports. We each have our own experiences and perception and yours are valid for you and some others. But for me I love Swampy and fly in and out of it at least 4 times yearly. Peace ?

[nasanews]

According to my humble experience Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi is a lot better than major U.S airports.

[observer90210]

3 minutes ago, nasanews said:

According to my humble experience Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi is a lot better than major U.S airports.

yes and the queues are great to hook up conversation with some nice chesty ladies on line,  before immigration

[elephant45]

Sorry I meant the escalator,,,,,

[Negita43]

Personally, never had a problem at Suvarnabhumi  and rail link to city is great.

 

Also agree with view on Manila although it's been a couple of years since I was there and maybe the building work has finished.

 

And whilst we are on the subject Heathrow isn't that wonderful.

[TheLobster]

Why aren't AirHelp facing libel charges?:

Maybe no one has thought of it yet.

[YetAnother]

On 6/13/2017 at 3:44 PM, Wiggy said:

I wonder how long before this is put down to "old information" or a "misunderstanding". I'm not surprised though, as Swampy is a dump. 

agreed; if you recall, when swampy opened , there were ZERO signs, Zero people helping confused fliers while still in the airport and Zero services at the gates . almost working payphones in the gate areas; and this astonishingly stupid mall in the departure, pre-security area

[CG1 Blue]

I like Swampy and have never had a problem there, apart from once or twice having long immigration queue waits. I've never had to take a bus to the plane either, so I'm surprised to see a lot of those comments.

I know this doesn't count because it's just a regional airport, but the airport at Phuket actually puts me off going there.  My main issue is with the taxi arrangements.  I gave it another try in Feb.  Here's how it went:

 

- See a crowd of tourists around an official looking Thai lady

- Eventually figure out she is in charge of the taxi ticket system and get a number from her

- Wait patiently while other tourist are continually trying to jump the queue (mostly because they don't know the system)

- My number is called out eventually, and a Thai bloke leads me off to a car park

- He chats to his mate for a couple of minutes, leaving me standing there

- He shows me to his taxi and we get in, only for a coach to pull up in the car park blocking us in the parking space

- We wait 10 minutes for the coach to unload passengers, and eventually we're able to start the journey

 

The previous time I went to Phuket (about 10 years ago) I hadn't booked my accommodation yet as I planned to choose a place when I got there. I then had to endure the taxi scam where they take you to a tour shop about 20 mins into the journey, and make you book accom there and then.

 

Why does it have to be so 'kin difficult?!!

[mrboatbkk]

Wrong information

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[Ace of Pop]

Suvarnabhumi looks fine for me? What's the problem?

So does Mc Donald's. ?


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[oldhippy]

On 18/06/2017 at 3:03 AM, alexlm said:

Suvarnabhumi looks fine for me? What's the problem?

Problem 1: tax free prices at the King Power monopoly are ridiculous

Problem 2: sometimes very long waiting at immigration

 

But fair enough, BKK is certainly not worse than other major airports.

 

Short story:

2 weeks ago I entered with a non im visa, isued by the Thai embassy in Belgium.

Their 9 (september) looks like a 3 (march).

Immigration was only doing their job of course, I got questioned for half an hour by 3 officers.

Yet easy to see previous entry stamps.

When things were finally sorted out, a smile?NO - a joke? NONO - an excuse? NONONO.

Not very pleasant after an 11 hours flight.