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

Customer Rating :  3/5

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Facilities

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 review :  17 June 2009 : by Erich Koller  (Switzerland)

Customer Rating :  3/5

Queuing

Cleanliness

Facilities

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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Cleanliness

Facilities

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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Cleanliness

Facilities

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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Cleanliness

Facilities

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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Facilities

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.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 20 March 2009 : by David Walker

Customer Rating : 4/5

I like any airport where there is a fast track for premium passengers - HKG take note! Landside is effective, many check in desks and great staff. Airside, a little confusing as it all looks the same, despite the fact that you could be more or less anywhere. Different levels also confusing, if you walk from lounge to smoking areas. Seems to be different levels in security for different flights, some you get the full security check, others nothing. Always find it way too hot whenever I have been there - even inside the terminal.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 10 March 2009 : by J Marshall

Customer Rating : 4/5

Suvanabhumi Airport is a good airport when compared to LHR, JFK, HKG or LAX. It is all under one roof. There is a reasonable amount of English spoken. The airport is clean and new. While it may seem that the duty free items are expensive, alcohol is very pricey in Thailand, so you're much better off getting your booze here. We travel with our children quite often and the immigration people couldn't have be more helpful (they held our kids while we finished up paperwork and took us at the head of newly opened up line). The only negative is the amount of walking, which is exacerbated by traveling with children.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 18 February 2009 : by N Sutherland

Customer Rating : 3/5

Been through BKK many times now. Airside is not good for all of the reasons listed below. Landside is slightly better. If you're departing from BKK and travelling Economy. delay going through Immigration till about an hour before your flight departs. That should be sufficient time to get through Immigration, Security etc., but keep an eye on the queues. Shopping is poor and over-priced, but there are more food places landside than Airside and more seating on the lower levels if you have a lengthy wait. There is nothing out at the Gates - so don't go there until they're close to boarding your flight. I've not tried any of the Pay Lounges but the airline lounges are nothing special either. If you're transiting and have sufficient time consider going through Immigration and waiting Landside - and if you have lots of time, go into town (allow 1 hour each way). I think there's a left luggage place in Departures. Very new, very modern building but not much thought given to the comfort of the millions of passengers who will use the place. The Designers had a couple of good models in SIN and ICN - pity they didn't copy them.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 9 February 2009 : by E Shields

Customer Rating : 2/5

Just endured 18 hours at BKK. Would have paid for hotel if I had known it was going to be anywhere near that length of time but was told to come back in two hours - every two hours for a whole day. There were 150 of us who failed to connect to SYD flight (which means they let the plane go out half empty) because of fog. Nowhere to sit in BKK airport - backpackers were OK -they rolled out their bags and slept on floor. All plastic seats long since taken - scores of weary travelers sitting on the ledge beside the moving walkways. Someone in the planning department certainly screwed up when they designed this airport!

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 9 February 2009 : by Y Leung

Customer Rating : 1/5

This is a new airport which is extremely poorly designed. We have to clear immigration first but after that entered a promenade full of shops. We have to walk a very long distance to our gate C2. Clearance through security is right before entering the gates. The waiting area is very narrow and insufficient for all passengers. The departure area just irritates passengers.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 9 February 2009 : by Michael Robinson

Customer Rating : 3/5

I found this airport cold, impersonal and confusing. It just seems like a series of long featureless tunnels. You cannot take bottled water on to your flight due to the nothing to buy after security. On my London-Brisbane stopover of a couple of hours it was ok, but 7 hours on the way back was nightmarish. I would recommend however the massage place though, neck and back for around $20 for 45 minutes, it really did make me feel better and ready to face the 12 hour flight on to London. A two hour delay on our flight, not announced until arrival at the gate made it very uncomfortable with not even a bottle of water to while away the hours. I prefer to fly Thai, but that airport makes me wonder.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 27 January 2009 : by Michael Scott

Customer Rating : 2/5

The airport is little more than a shopping mall, with no thought given to passenger comfort or convenience. There is very little seating, and too few toilets. Duty-free prices are extraordinarily high - approximately twice what you might pay in a normal department store or supermarket in London. Restaurants and cafes are almost four times normal Bangkok prices. Away from the shops, the airport is often gloomy and little more than bare concrete. Not a pleasant airport, and not one I would want to spend a lengthy stopover at.

BANGKOK SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT review : 19 December 2008 : by Farouk Mogheth

Customer Rating : 1/5

One of things that I am experiencing more and more upon arrival in Suvarnabhumi airport is the aggressive manner the taxis have become. I live in Thailand for 4 years and it was never an issue to take a city taxi with a meter. Today even though the desk outside takes your address and presents itself as the official controller of the taxis, they are only interested in the 50THB "airport tax" - when you ask what tax, she says "Airport tax!". Taxis handle you as in a Bangkok downtown flee market asking a fix price (excl. the tax) of a minimum 500THB. Locals of course realize that the trip including freeways amount maximum to 200THB to the CBD. Go upstairs to the departure area and there will be ample hassle free taxis happy to take you to the city. and asking the airport management to deal with this issue. Its a horrific first experience for newcomers and the issue is getting out of control.