Bangkok Airport is Getting Worse

[Betti]

Jerome - surprised here. I am not surprised I have to walk to my AirAsia flights..... but THAI??

[BUCKY]

I always fly on Thai Air and we always deplane at what seems like the furthest possible gate from the terminal. Sometimes we don't even get a gate, and we park on the tarmac and have to get a bus that drives around in circles for 20 minutes.

That was what happened to me recently on my TG flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. I thought maybe the tarmac thing was for domestic flights only. After that, we waited almost 40 mins for our lagguages. We figured cos it was raining abit and that caused delay on the unloading... oh ya, not forgetting that day we took almost 2 hours to get from CM to BKK. The usual flight time was only around 1 hour but we had to circle around the airport due to heavy traffic or the weather condition.... I'm not sure... the pilot didn't explain.

[Jerome]

We fly in from Nagoya, I thought it might have been because it isn't a major city and they were saving the close gates for the VIPs coming in from NY, London, Dubai etc.....

[paul_au]

Yes...Changi must rate as one of the top airports of the world, but no matter how bad Suvarnbhumi Airport is, it is still miles ahead of Perth International Airport....now that’s a really bad Airport.

and the fact that Sydney Airport charged like a wounded bull for parking is my gripe. The daily parking charge at Sydney airport is probably as much as some Thai people earn in a month..

[Jerome]

and the fact that Sydney Airport charged like a wounded bull for parking is my gripe. The daily parking charge at Sydney airport is probably as much as some Thai people earn in a month..

Australia, and Sydney in particular is ridiculously overpriced and overrated. And I say that as a former Sydney boy.
8 dollars for a single serve tub of yoghurt.....give me a break!

[paul_au]

The fact you have to pay for parking to pick up some one up at Sydney international terminal is criminal, if you stop for 30 seconds, your number plate will be photographed and you will receive a $132 fine in the mail. Best to catch the 400 bus for $3.20 to Rockdale station, I'm not going to waist my money on that private rail line.

[Maxxy]

Ahh yes but at least Perth Airport is much better than our local airport here in Port Hedland, not by much I might add.

My last two flights to Bangkok it was a bus ride from the plane to the terminal, got me beat why they can't pull up at the terminal in question though (those two flights there appeared to be many vacant gates to pull up to). My next flight is from Hedland to Bangkok via Bali but I am not looking forward to my 4 hours in transit in Bali, a friend just flew that way and they made him purchase a visa US$25, go through immigration and customs and then walk to the departures (his transit was only for 2 hours) so I guess that would put the airport in Bangkok ahead of bali's airport from at least one perspective.

[TomUK]

Maybe I am doing something wrong, but I have never had any major problems with arriving or departing in Bangkok.

On 29 April I arrived on TG917 and we were about 20 min early. After a quick bathroom visit and a stop to exchange some traveller cheques I made my way to Immigration. Here the whole procedure took less than 2 minutes, and that's including waiting time. Shortly after I reached the luggage carousel my suitcase appeared and I walked through Customs without any problems. After buying a new sim card for my mobile phone I walked to the official taxi stand and sat in my taxi to Pattaya about 50 minutes after arriving in Bangkok.

I flew back on TG916 on 16 May and when I arrived at the airport I could walk straight to the next check-in counter without having to wait. I then went down to the staff canteen on floor 1 for a final meal on Thai soil. When it was time to go through immigration I only had one person in front off me, so hardly any waiting time. I noticed that all immigration booth now were open for Foreign and Thai Passports whereas in the past there were always separate booth for Foreign Passports and Thai Passports. At the security check, which is now right after Immigration, I had only three people in front of me. My flight was only about 30-40% full in economy and with the next passenger about 6 or 7 rows behind me I felt like flying in a private jet.

TomUK

[kfchugo]

Parking costs at Sydney airport are more expensive than Heathrow or LAX according a recent report here (Australia).

[Betti]

TomUK: could be time of the day, anything. last time I left Thailand, I was queuing up for 20 mins for Airasia check-in, then at least 40 mins for immigration, then security as well (twice). then the gate was changed for the departure and I had to backtrack. but at least there was free internet and the freezing metal seats are gone.