SURVEY: Suvanabhumi Airport -- one of the worst?

[Scott]

Some time ago, there was a thread that listed Suvarnabhumi Airport as one of the worst airports.   In your opinion, how would rate Suvarnabhumi Airport?  

 

Feel free to leave a comment.

 

For reference, here is a link to the thread:

https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/987642-thailand’s-suvarnabhumi-named-among-the-world’s-worst-airports/

[NoshowJones]

Terrible airport, badly signposted, only three weeks ago, I was trying to get the train into Bangkok, I knew where to go as I had done it a good few times

before, when I got there, the entrances down to the train were all blocked with no diversion signs, it took me ages to find the train.

 

Accuse my of Thai bashing if you like, but there have been times on my motorbike road trips, when roads have been shut down with no diversion signs, not even 

an arrow pointing anywhere. The mentality in this country is dreadful at times.

[retarius]

I saw the survey that trashed Suvarnabhumi. I disagreed with it. For me it is a very good airport, although perhaps not top 10. Like all infrastructure, it was built for a certain usage and now handles double the amount of passengers that it was built for. The other design "fault" was that it was in early construction when the War on Terror and all the additional security came in, which has meant closing some entrances and cobbling together some sort of secure environment for safe travel.

 

Are there slip ups with immigration? Yes sometimes, but that it  a police issue, not an airport issue. I am sure that the airport would love to have all the booths manned at peak times....but the country has insufficient immigration officers and too many coffee breaks. They should look at simplifying immigration procedures to get people through quicker, but this being Thailand, immigration procedures are being made for mystifying and complex instead.

 

My main criticism is the lack of toilets....it is critical in the check in area and bad in the rest of the place...but we can;t have everything can we?

[KOZMO]

The only thing good about it is the Lounges for Business and First Class !!!

[baboon]

An airport is an airport is an airport to me. I don't look forward to using Suvarnabhumi nor do I dread it, immigration queues aside.

 

I suppose I preferred Don Muang, but only for sentimental reasons.

[SpeakeasyThai]

What shall we moan about next... Bus stations?

 

[InMyShadow]

Yawn

[Ulic]

It is way better than Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi Kenya and Manila's airport as well.

Maybe not the best but if they staffed immigration fully they would get far fewer

gripes about it from tourists and expats.   

[Kabula]

Much better than most in the U.S.

[jobwolf]

Considering Suvarnabhumi is not a hub, the distances to walk are far too big. Immigration is improving and much 

friendlier now, the check in counters are still terrible. Info counters do not speak English or any other foreign language. 

[WhizBang]

15 hours ago, KOZMO said:

The only thing good about it is the Lounges for Business and First Class !!!

Have to disagree with you here.  I would class them as among the worst I have encountered anywhere.

[NoshowJones]

2 hours ago, possum1931 said:

Terrible airport, badly signposted, only three weeks ago, I was trying to get the train into Bangkok, I knew where to go as I had done it a good few times

before, when I got there, the entrances down to the train were all blocked with no diversion signs, it took me ages to find the train.

 

Accuse my of Thai bashing if you like, but there have been times on my motorbike road trips, when roads have been shut down with no diversion signs, not even 

an arrow pointing anywhere. The mentality in this country is dreadful at times.

Look at the way my words are set out in my post, that is not the way I printed it, this seems to only happen to me, could one of the mods please check it out?

[ddavidovsky]

It's a place for catching planes and it's fine - I don't need a resort.  As long as it has plenty of places to sit down - including lounges with comfy chairs - that's the main thing, and Boomy is fine for that.

 

[yeah I know it's '-poom' - I anglicise it

Edited July 2, 2017 by ddavidovsky

[champers]

My only real gripe is that food and drink is horribly expensive once you get airside, but that applies to any airport.

[barefootbangkok]

In general the facilities are fair to good. The management of the facility isn't great but coordinating services with so many agencies and using workers who have limited English must be a nightmare.  The bottom line is that there have been no significant accidents!

Edited July 2, 2017 by barefootbangkok
Grammar

[SiamBeast]

Overall quite good, however the business and first class lounges could get some expansion - last time I took a late evening flight, the business lounge was full and we had to sit on the floor in the lounge - IMO not acceptable.

 

Economy immigration queues could do with some improvement, when some friends fly economy and tell me they land at 23:45, I usually show up an hour late and I still have to wait for them. No problem with Thailand Elite queues though.

 

Apart from that, no complaints.

[craftyhen]

will never be good without a dedicated bar to drink in beforehand

[ozfarang]

Yes, I agree with the OP

 

because;

• direction signage poor for an international airport

• very limited understanding of english by most counter staff

• poor choice of food outlets airside and highly overpriced

• immigration queuing inbound and outbound is woeful for tourists

• general cleanliness well below international standard

 

It's got a long way to go to climb into the top 10

 

 

[psyvolt]

I actually think swampy is a great airport to use. Never had a problem following the signs or asking for directions, and yes sometimes I've found the walk from gate to arrival hall long, but what do ppl expect? It's a big airport!

I've found plenty of good food options that although not cheap, not a ridiculous price as some other airports I've flown through.

I've not found it any cleaner or dirtier then most international airports I've been thru, and have found it to have plenty of restrooms when needed.

Only thing I don't like, is the confusing aspect of the closed escalators land side,where last time I went thru swampy (December) you had to go up two stories to then go down one to get to your floor (a few of the escalators were blocked, ao no comment on what was happening, as it could have been maintenance, gov mandated or something completely different), but I did find signs explaining all this quite clear, so more an annoyance then anything else.

I def put it in my top ten airports to use

[jesimps]

3 hours ago, retarius said:

I saw the survey that trashed Suvarnabhumi. I disagreed with it. For me it is a very good airport, although perhaps not top 10. Like all infrastructure, it was built for a certain usage and now handles double the amount of passengers that it was built for. The other design "fault" was that it was in early construction when the War on Terror and all the additional security came in, which has meant closing some entrances and cobbling together some sort of secure environment for safe travel.

 

Are there slip ups with immigration? Yes sometimes, but that it  a police issue, not an airport issue. I am sure that the airport would love to have all the booths manned at peak times....but the country has insufficient immigration officers and too many coffee breaks. They should look at simplifying immigration procedures to get people through quicker, but this being Thailand, immigration procedures are being made for mystifying and complex instead.

 

My main criticism is the lack of toilets....it is critical in the check in area and bad in the rest of the place...but we can;t have everything can we?

Immigration is part of the airport set up and it is diabolical. I'm sure it's everyone's main gripe.

 

Then as you mention, not nearly enough toilets. I know how women feel now when they have to queue.

 

Lastly, I keep losing my car because the floor levels of the terminal building and car park don't match.

[ksamuiguy]

No nice friendly , smiling people with knowledge of the airport on hand to Help "The Kingdom's" visitors. What ever happened to Travelers Aid, students and retired people donating their time and expertise to help people when they arrive. but alas no work permit so no Non Thai speaking helpers, and no help because they are not multilingual so they can not help,plus they don't get paid so Thai's don't want the job. Volunteering in "The Kingdom" seems to be non existent. Why doesn't TAT put employees out  trying to help "The Kingdoms" visitors, they don't need to look hard, you can spot the bewilderment on all the faces from very far away.

[carabaothai]

Immigration is a nightmare! 

Sometimes, lot of people but only half of the immigration counters opened!! 

Edited July 2, 2017 by carabaothai

[tryasimight]

2 hours ago, craftyhen said:

will never be good without a dedicated bar to drink in beforehand

with or without bar girls?

 

I would imagine the bar fines would be horrendous if the price of a Subway is any measure.

Edited July 2, 2017 by tryasimight

[sydneyjed]

Had to wait 90 minutes at Manchester Airport a couple of weeks back just to  go through the X-Ray screening..they only had four machines out of the eight manned!Not only at Swampy does this happen..Sydney can be a pain also,,computer system went down the other Monday and the whole airport came to a grinding halt.All depends on if you suffer a bad experience to be honest..for some people this can ruin their holiday!

[Blackheart1916]

Surveys, especially on airports and airlines, are a dime a dozen and tend to have the outcome that suits the author's purpose. The only time I had trouble at Swampy was the first time when it was new, all good since then. Beats Sydney in many areas hands down  (my usual departure / return point) 

[terryofcrete]

7 hours ago, baboon said:

An airport is an airport is an airport to me. I don't look forward to using Suvarnabhumi nor do I dread it, immigration queues aside.

 

I suppose I preferred Don Muang, but only for sentimental reasons.

Don Muang can be bad if the departures areas are busy, also if you are coming from outside Thailand Immigration can be very slow ! 

[Gumballl]

What does this survey have to do with (Thailand) news?

[Puwa]

Here's the bad: Few toilets, vast distances between gates, terminal is too hot especially gates and check-in, few comfortable places to rest outside a lounge (compare with Singapore or Seoul), absurd lines at immigration, poorly trained and downright rude staff at security screening.

 

The good: drop off area works, passable foodcourt on domestic airside, lounges, taxi & transport are ok, usually better than Don Muang.

[phkauf]

After traveling a fair bit around Asia, I would put Swampy at the bottom half of the list simply because of the horrible way things are managed. Immigration remains a nightmare on both entry and exit - this past Wednesday it took me an HOUR to get through at 4pm. The lines for both sides were down the ramp and less than half the booths were open and in fact three had closed while I was waiting, with none opening up. The idiot immigration officers in charge walk around like nothing is wrong - great first impression for tourists. At even the worst airports, it isn't this bad.

The food options in the terminal stink, mostly overpriced fast food and crap selection. Other than high priced luxury stores and King Power, there's no real shopping. Serious lack of elevators and the escalators are poorly positioned.

Check-in can be a nightmare depending upon airline, and then going through security and immigration is a total crapshoot so you need to plan at least an hour.

Airport Rail Link is a good idea poorly executed. While it is fine to take to the airport, coming back can be a nightmare to get a taxi from either Makkasan or Phaya Thai. Taxis from Swampy at any time other very late at night just get stuck in horrendous traffic.

Just compare Swampy with Hong Kong or Singapore or KL or Narita - it's not even close. Swampy does beat out Manila which is truly horrible so you got that going for you TOT.

[ozmeldo]

For capital city East Asian airports it is one of the worst despite being newish. That's sad.

 

Haters, been to a regional Indonesian airport lately? No, I didn't think so.

 

It's ugly, uncomfortable, a bit pricey and the queues entering the country can be longish but hey it's better than all US airports save for SFO and IAD.

Edited July 2, 2017 by ozmeldo