Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport

I am sorry for the proud Thai people. They have to face the fact that their Suvarnabhumi Airport is way behind Singapore and Hong Kong. This is strange since Thailand is always striving to be the best in aviation. One thing is to walk for 45 minutes to reach your plane or the endless immigration line. Another thing is the expensive stores trying to lure people to buy so called duty free goods. If you have time you will get everything much cheaper in the streets of Bangkok - not duty free!

Allow an extra hour to get through immigration! Had to queue for 1.5 hours to exit customs/immigration as a tourist with the queues right through this so called new airport. Terrible way to treat visitors to ones country who are spending their hard earned cash. Also prevents people getting into the duty free area with time to make use of the airport facilities. Terrible system and extremely frustrating. Not sure why this is happening. Never had such a bad experience leaving a country after an amazing holiday. Terrible shame to leave a country being treated like cattle.

Check in no problem went to passport control and the line of passengers snaked well out into check in areas. I was very lucky to get to gate on time a lot of anger expressed and airline reps trying to find passengers absolute madness - especially when most of passport control desks were closed.

Bangkok airport certainly is and after a long time of criticism trying to work out some problems that it is facing but for me it is ignoring the most important and the one that causes most irritation. I am talking about immigration. Passport control is always in chaos. There are 2 main rush hours in the airport still struggles with very slow passport control officers and less than 50% of the pass-checks open. 55minutes on departure and 45min at arrival is just unacceptable. The marketing of Suvarnabhumi is visible in the Thai media as they are achieving faster service and with a smile. I reckon most of the passport control officers flanked the lessons. All I see at the pass desk is stickers and advertising of who supplied the camera who supplied the air freshener etc. So if I can give passport control any grade lower than zero I would. Otherwise security was better and faster the so-called duty free has lost my attention for the last 6 years so I just go through still nothing of interest close to the gates and the place there looks like a barren desert waiting at gates much better with padded seats giving the place a better look always prepare for long walks at arrival to the passport controls.

I have often transited through this airport but never actually left the airport until this visit. For a modern airport it is a shambles - it is hard to work out where you are going in particular from the domestic to the international terminals. Additionally I do not know why an airport with so many air bridges you still have to be bussed to your plane - surely they would have thought of this when building the place. Immigration looked like a nightmare but lucky we had fast tracks and did not have to put up with the huge lines for non- Thai citizens. Overall a fabulous looking building but not user friendly.

The airport is impressive but I would rather spend less than 35 minutes queuing at immigration and have less luxury shops. The airport express link to the city is excellent I miss old Don Muang's more traditional aspect !

Generally not bad but only 5 out of 16 passport control desks for foreign passport holders were opened when I went through resulting in a wait time of just over a half hour.

Something needs to be done at the Arrival Hall. Very chaotic and packed. The area is still very confusing and closed-off as usual. Touts are not in the arrival hall but are instead in the baggage claim area! I was asked whether or not I will get a taxi there two times! Departure: maze-like queuing system is much needed to prevent people from jumping back and forth between lines. Signage - the new black signs are much clearer. Decoration - adding more stuff in doesn't make the airport more appealing! The authority seriously needs someone with sense of style to come and decorate the airport.

I transit BKK twice a month on average and on my latest outbound journey which was mid- afternoon I was horrified to see that the lines at immigration were as long as at other times of the day. The signs promoting the 20 minute wait system have been taken down. This was despite making some of the Thai passport lanes for Thai/foreign passport holders. Usual agitated people trying to queue jump with those in front standing firm and rightly so. Thai immigration needs to hire more staff. This has been a thorny issue for years and it was never that bad at Don Muang. The return journey was the best yet thanks to the plane parking near the immigration area on the D concourse and got lucky as a new officer came on duty and as everyone rushed to his desk it left my line virtually void of people.

Been though BKK most months this year. Passenger numbers are on the rise again and pressuring the system. Choke points now are in Immigration with lengthy queues at most times of the day. I wouldn't arrive at the airport an hour before Departure Time - you may not make it. (1/2 hour minimum getting through Immigration). They've done a reasonable job of slicking up the Security areas after Immigration and that seems to be working well. Arrivals is fine with a lower taxi tout concentration than last year. Haven't tried the Rail Link yet. Some way to go before BKK hits the standards of HKG SIN or ICN but it's getting better.