Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport

Magnificent airport. Was flying on Swiss Business Class so I got to use the Fast track lane through customs and security. The Thai business class lounge was great and was right next to the gate. As opposed to US airline lounges the Thai lounge had a large buffet with an extensive selection of food. Can't wait to go to this airport again.

After reading all the comments I was very surprised to rush through customs in the afternoon within 15 mins only. Baggage received within 30 mins after landing. At departure we enjoyed a good check-in for our Swiss flight to ZRH had to queue a bit at customs roughly 10 mins and no waiting time at security. Duty Free much too expensive so no interest to use them. Overall pretty clean but showing some its age now. Departure gates could be a bit more customer friendly.

Although the prices in the shops are totally ludicrous and most far higher than at down town Bangkok the one good thing is that if you are flying business or first class at least with Thai you go through immigration in special express lanes that are very fast and necessary after a walk of several kilometres from the arrival gate.

I live in Thailand and use this airport quite a lot as a leisure traveller. I try to choose early morning arrivals or departures which seems to eliminate the queuing problems - I wouldn't consider a flight arriving/departing in the late morning or afternoon. Immigration officials are not very talkative even with Thai people so it might be a little unfair to comment on their seeming unfriendliness it's the way they are with everyone and is quite common with Thai officials everywhere not just at the airport. Shops are outrageously expensive compared to Thai street prices but we counter that by buying snacks & water outside the airport. Seating can also be a problem at times. Also be aware that scams and rip-offs are not uncommon at the duty-free shops and have been known to get people in trouble - items you haven't bought being put in a bag with legitimate purchases without your knowledge or as a gift unintentionally wandering outside the limits of the shop with an item you haven't yet paid for maybe to show others; both of these have been known to land travellers with the threat of prosecution and expensive fines (ie. bribes) to avoid jail. Thailand is a terribly inefficient non-customer friendly place and this airport epitomises that on the whole.

The cost of refreshments is an absolute rip off! Examples: a small bottle of Heineken beer is 180 Baht compared to 40 Baht in outside mini mart shops. A small bottle of water is 60 Baht compared to approx 7 Baht outside. Similarly the (duty free?) airport shops are pretentious and extremely expensive compared to shops outside. Thailand is well known and appreciated for its value for money therefore it is a great shame and leaves a sour taste that the airport authority's parting shot is to cynically extract the last few baht from their visiting tourists in this way.

Arrived there for the first time at approx 10pm huge queue for immigration at least 90 mins got told by someone in the queue in front of me that they had just closed 2 booths and moved everybody over to the other ones the immigration officer was very unfriendly and said only the very minimum to me. By the time I got through immigration found my bags and found my shuttle trip it was about 12.30.

The real problems begin when you arrive at immigration. Very crowded and big lines. Took me 90 minutes to pass - really not acceptable. This makes the start of a holiday in Thailand less good and very tireful after so many hours of travelling. Few days later domestic departure with no immigration busy no big queues for security checks. For international departing I would recommend to stick to 3 hours before at the airport as immigration take 60 minutes. Overall enough shops at the airport people friendly and airport clean.

I used to live in Bangkok so frequently travelled in and out of the old airport Don Mueng. I recently flew into Suvarnabhumi for the first time and it completely lacks any insight into the flow of people around the place. It's clumsy unintuitive and the immigration queues are obscene - at least an hour each way and lots of pushing and shoving from unorganised queues and frustrated and irritable passengers.

Like others have said immigration lines here are terrible. I've departed and entered via this airport more than a dozen times over the last 2 years and it's gotten marginally better but still bad. If you're travelling biz/1st it's no problem because you get the special Fast Trac program that has 4 dedicated passport control to serve a handful of passengers. But if you don't have the fast track it's a nightmare. The immigration officers are not friendly.

Things seem to have gone downhill with Suvarnabhumi a little since my last trip here but only with passing through immigration. Not sure maybe the number of arrivals has picked up? Waited about 20 minutes inbound but outbound back to Australia waited over an hour - I really cannot see the point of having such a large airport and only having 2-3 gates open - perhaps they are low on staff. Aside from that some nice comfortable areas to rest and eat in the airport prior to departure although the internet IS a little slow. Airport is an amazing design as well - lots to look at. Hope that customs/immigration can pick up their game a little before my next trip.