BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT customer review :  15 July 2009 by John Kent   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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My wife is diabetic and the security people were unbelievably rude to her because she was carrying needles and insulin - she had a doctor's letter and a copy of her prescription to prove her case but that did not matter to the iditios in security. A complaint to the airport has yet to be answered after more than a year. If it were not for the fact that BKK is the gate way for Saigon then we would never use the place again. The other problem is the long walks to the different gates - ridiculous if like us you are over 65. Duty Free shops are expensive.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT customer review :  14 July 2009 by Rob Boyce   (UK)

Customer Rating :  3/5

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Agree with previous postings regarding the decor and state of repair, although cannot comment on the immigration facilities as I was only transiting through the airport twice in recent weeks. Long queues for many toilets were apparent. The smoking rooms often seem to have their doors left open as they are small and appear to have poor ventilation. Very long walks between some gates for transit passengers.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT customer review :  14 July 2009 by Dan Ashford   (Australia)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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I found the new airport a bit on the sterile side. Not much seating, but once you get called through to your flight, then there is plenty of seating to be had while you wait to be boarded. A couple of times I got lost through the directional signs, but overall its was alright. Staff friendly. The only bad thing is the queue to go through on arrivals. That part of things is no better than the old airport.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT customer review :  13 July 2009 by Tejas Kumar   (Australia)

Customer Rating :  3/5

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I agree with many of the recent negative comments on here. I read them before I left for Bangkok and found them to be unfortunately very true. I would have thought after all that planning and money spent they would have built a high standard airport - is that not what we expect these days? The dull grey colour of the terminals are disgusting. Please use some colour. The queues are ridiculous. Even after a couple of years after opening it is getting cramped up. There is an incredibly long walk to the departure gates. Arrivals i found OK with the fast moving escalators. I agree there is a distinct lack of toilets. I asked one of the cleaning ladies and they told me the water was not safe too drink. You would think at a newly built airport this would be the case. The airport is either too hot in parts or too cold in parts. Obviously there is not enough air conditioning - especially at passport control on departures - it was fuming. The one positive is the couple of Buddhist shrines they have at the terminals. Very nice looking but this was overshadowed by the negatives.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT customer review :  25 June 2009 by Matt Rennie   (Australia)

Customer Rating :  3/5

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If the designers of BKK intended to create an airport that reflects Bangkok, they have achieved that. The exposed concrete (which is showing many cracks), piping and steel match the look of those 10+ year old unfinished towers of the city. The inevitably slow moving long immigration lines are like the endless Bangkok traffic jams. The distinct lack of toilets is just like the absence of public toilets in Bangkok. You know you have arrived in Bangkok when there are taxi touts waiting alongside you at the luggage reclaim even before exiting the secure area! Will the airport train ever be finished so you can avoid these guys? With so many years and a huge budget to create a great Asian airport hub (like SIN, HGK, KUL & ICN) where did it go all so wrong? On the positive side the Thai and other Asian food available is great (just like in Bangkok). The friendliness of the Thai people is displayed by the airport staff (except the cold, robotic immigration officers).

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT customer review :  17 June 2009 : by Erich Koller  (Switzerland)

Customer Rating :  3/5

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Arrival was a breeze early in the morning. We were through customs within 10 minutes and bags arrived shortly after. Must add here that obviously our flight was one of the first to arrive in the morning, so cannot give an accurate picture if this is standard now. Quite the opposite was our departure in the late evening. While check-in has significantly improved and is now almost par with KUL, the area after passport-control is more like a big shopping-mall than an airport. Duty free still firmly in the hands of King Power - no change there despite the promises of the government after the opening of the then new BKK airport. Prices are firmly too high and quality sort of questionable. Therefore we avoided and tried out some restaurants that are, despite not being excellent, okay for what one might ask for before departure.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review :  20 May 2009 : by Felix Windisch  (Austria)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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I have to say that the airport itself is a good airport. But the way to the arrival hall is quite long. Although there are moving walkways it took me around 15 minutes to walk. Passport control was easy done, but then the arrival hall came. After getting your baggage it's very easy and short to get to the arrivals hall, where I was picked up. When flying back (this time BKK to FRA) Check-In was very uncomplicated, but there is a huge mistake at the airport. There are no toilets at the check-in level. I asked staff, a friendly Thai told me, that there were only toilets at the level between arrival and departure hall. When I went to the concourse the way was the same length as the way to the arrivals hall, which itself shouldn't be more than 20 minutes from every gate (thanks to the special layout of the concourses). It was in the evening and I still had 2 hours left until my plane departed, so I took a look at the shopping opportunities. The shops are big and very nice, with nearly everything to buy there. But the prices weren't the same one as in downtown Bangkok (no surprise!). As well there are several restaurants, which can be reached easily. There were nearly all fast food brands (Burger King, Subway, others), but also Thai and Asian food and, for my special surprise, a Kebab restaurant. Another big benefit of the airport is that there is no security until you reach the concourse itself, that means that the security control is behind the food court. The control itself is efficient and although all long-haul-flights were departing at the same time as my plane, there were no long lines in front of the security. As a special surprise I found another security control right one level under the visible one, where my family and me were the only passengers. The remaining way to the gate was about five minutes, and the farthest gates shouldn't have been more than 10 minutes walkway away from the security control. The only thing I'd have to accomplish is that the ways to walk are quite long (although you have moving walkways everywhere). In fact I would like to avoid to have a transfer flight, whose gate is located at the other end of the airport.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review :  19 May 2009 : by Peter Lee  (Singapore)

Customer Rating :  2/5

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Some airlines parking way out on the tarmac, so beware that you may be taken by bus around the airport and dropped off near immigration - if that is really where you want to go. I had to transit to another international flight and had to run for my life clear across the airport from sector C to E - and missed my flight. Shops and eateries at the airport provide OK quality, but overpriced. The international departure area appears cluttered.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review :  18 May 2009 : by J Samson  (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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Extremely long walks, lack of seating, always a queue for the minimal amount of toilets available, rip off prices in duty free and restaurant. Good luck in trying to find the left luggage - worst of all the airport is flooded with taxi touts. If you have never been to Bangkok before you will fall foul of these touts. Try and find your way outside to the taxi rank and pay the 50 baht charge and a taxi should cost you no more than 500 to the city. Good luck!

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review :  18 May 2009 : by Mike Rosenzweig  (USA)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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This airport seems to be improving quite a bit from when they first opened a few years ago. While restroom facilities seem to be getting better, there is still a shortage of facilities. The ventilation systems seems to be a lot better, and there is now a good choice of stores and food outlets now. The airport is bright and clean and from what I saw, seems to be better maintained then it used to be. It seems like they are doing a good job of working out the issues, and I can now say that I actually like this airport a lot.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review :  14 May 2009 : by H Maenen  (USA)

Customer Rating :  3/5

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BKK appears to be a poorly-maintained branch of the King Power department store with incidental aircraft and immigration services. The walk to some of the gates can be extremely long, depending upon where the plane parks, and the architectural design of the building prevents the air conditioning from being very effective during this exercise session. Therefore the experience of BKK is usually a hot and sweaty walk through a sea of duty-free goods. There are a number of restaurants serving food that is relatively tasty for an airport on the lower floors outside of security, and interestingly enough, the non-sterile area of the airport outside security is actually better maintained than the interior portion, where the fit and finish of the construction is very poor. Still, immigration usually moves along fairly rapidly, and baggage handling is also pretty swift, which make the arrivals portion of any trip to BKK easier to take.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 12 May 2009 : by M Outhwaite

Customer Rating : 4/5

Having arrived at the Airport take no notice of the limo services - inside the Airport I was ripped off 2400 baht when in fact you can get a taxi outside for 1000 baht. So wait till you get outside. When you have checked your bags in, wait landside as other have mentioned there is nothing airside - make sure if you smoke you have to go down several levels. Leave enough time, as it can take a while to walk to your departure gate. All in all not a bad airport, the staff always seem to be pleasant.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 10 May 2009 : by L Clough

Customer Rating : 3/5

I've never had any trouble with either airport in Bangkok. I do ensure I leave plenty of time between connections because, as those who visit often know, rarely is anything on time in Thailand. As for the facilities, the shopping is more expensive than downtown. The food is more expensive, but saying that tell me an airport where it isn't! Immigration are sometimes stern faced. Mango tree cafe is well worth a visit if you've not tried it.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 6 May 2009 : by J Harper

Customer Rating : 2/5

No problems transiting on arrival as Eva Air checked our luggage through to Samui and we had use of the Bangkok Airways lounge. Departure was a different story. Bangkok Airways would not check our bags through, our flight left Koh Samui late, we waited 25 minutes or so for our luggage and had to run to the Eva Air international check in desk. With less than an hour before our flight was due to leave, we were sent the wrong way to immigration! We were now starting to get very concerned about missing the flight but thought that, as we were lucky enough to be travelling business class, fast track would help considerably - wrong! Despite asking about fast track and pointing out we were very short of time we had to join the extremely long queues at immigration. 40 minutes later we finally reached the (very long) security queue. Eventually, we were allowed to use the gate E "fast track" and we finally boarded the aircraft several minutes after the scheduled departure time. I should point out others travelling from Koh Samui were held up in the same way. Thank goodness Eva Air delayed take off. Come on Bangkok airport, improve your departures. More immigration/passport control and security points needed and better signs/staff training so people do not spend time heading in the wrong direction. If you have a fast track for business class passengers, let them use it. If not, make provision for one as soon as possible.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 23 April 2009 : by Peter Kaerch

Customer Rating : 1/5

My home airport - a huge shopping mall with an airfield. Extremely long ways to walk to the gates. Forget the Duty-free, prices are very high - downtown is cheaper. Restaurants and cafes are good but also very pricey. Unpleasant steel and concrete and freezing cold. Missing the nice and relaxed Thai atmosphere of the good old Don Muang airport. Insufficient toilets and seats. Not to mention the notorious taxi scam once you finally manage to pass immigration. Hopefully the transportation improves if the Airport train is finally in service.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 14 April 2009 : by Derek Adams

Customer Rating : 1/5

What a mess this new facility has turned out to be. I pass through BKK 8/10 times a year and see no improvement whatsoever. Horrendous queues (up to an hour) with surly immigration officials. Arrogant taxi touts have permeated everywhere-even airside at baggage carousels which bodes little for their security. The tax free shopping isn't! My Apple iPod cost 500Baht more "tax free" than a retail shop in Bangkok. Freezing cold grey steel seats at the departure gates and poor signage, add to that the entire structure having a grey unfinished look. It looks what it is, a cold, soulless, uncaring airport. Perhaps the airport authorities could shoot down to Singapore's Changi (T3 in particular) to see how it can be done. Some chance.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 8 April 2009 : by Vittavas Prathomvarl

Customer Rating : 3/5

It's a very long walk to the immigration. I am still not so impressed with the open ceiling as it displays the building structure columns (as if it's an unfinished work). I am not sure whether they are planning to do anything with it. The immigration area is a chaos. Despite the fact that almost all of the counters are opened it is clearly visible that it is not possible to handle large quantity of passengers arriving at the same time. For Foreign Passports there are at least 30 people in each queue. People started to jump between queues (ie. group tours), as some queues are much faster than the other. I really recommend that the airport should implement a maze queue, so it is fair for everyone and also provides more queuing space in an orderly fashion. There are staffs helping the passengers to distribute proportionally between the lines but their English seems to be very limited. The queuing area is also not very pleasant, as the air ventilation is poor. Many passengers are very upset and exhausted (consider that most morning arrival flights are long-haul), they should not deserve to be treated this way. However taking an advantage of a Thai Passport, there wasn't any queue and I got out from the immigration within no time. I believe there's a lot of room for improvement at this airport.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 8 April 2009 : by D Smullen

Customer Rating : 4/5

The thing to remember with this airport is to go through immigration, but dont head through security to your gate till its almost time to board. Their really is nothing to do, buy, eat or read once you are past security The rest of the airport is good, plenty of food options, smoking rooms and a couple of decent book shops. I find the Thai immigration and security staff very nice. On the taxis, my advice is ignore everyone and everything inside the airport, go outside were the metered taxi stands are.