Got into Swampy yesterday morning with lots of luggage (including a family drawing under glass) and needed to go to departure level to catch a domestic flight.

Got my luggage at the far most belt (23) walked the green customs line and head to first elevator (not wanting to take travelator with glass drawing)

To my surprise that elevator doesn't stop at level two. Does any know why???

Since I needed to check in at Thai Airways (other side of terminal as compared to belt 23) I did not bother too much to walk to the next elevator. But surprisingly elevator #2 does not stop at level 2 neither.

So I walked to elevator #3, and no you did not guess this correctly: You can't access elevator #3 landside, the whole area is barricaded, seemed you could get at the elevator when you come straight out of customs. No luck if you come from the left side and sit in a wheelchair

I got somewhat upset stuck into the barricades with only way out to backtrack.

So I found the fourth and last elevator and miracle it stopped at level 2 upwards, but full with people and carts coming from ground level. So the solution was to wait for the elevator to come down, get in with my luggage, get to ground level, back to level 2 where no one can get in because the thing was full already (you guessed this one right?) to finally reach level 4, departure level.

Believe me, I really love this airport and more specifically the idiots at AOT who run the show.

BTW, just before you reach immigration (where you turn left to the immigration booths) you need to navigate between some (duty free? sic) shops some idiots (AOT again?) set up there.

I believe that area should be cleared for arriving guests, but who am I to criticize that beautiful megalomaniac freaky building.

Oh, and if you have a fast track entry card, good luck to find that area, no surprise none of the other 9 business class passengers on my flight made it there.

This post has been edited by tartempion: 2009-11-03 09:57:15

I was stopped one time from taking a trolley onto a travellator and told to use the lifts but after 3 coming by completely full I just headed at the travellator full speed with the person trying to stop me having to jump out of the way to avoid getting mown down.

The lift and travellator situation there is a joke.

This post has been edited by PattayaParent: 2009-11-03 14:37:15

I came in last night at the place was busy, Passport control was packec with long lines but still it only took 15 min and lucy me my bag was just con=mimg out on bagage claim so no wait for that. Since they moved they public taxi downstairs and seeing the lines for folks heading that way I gave in and used AOT to get to the hotel. 1100 THB but the car was new and nice and no wait for it and From the AOY counter on I never touched my bags until I got to my room. AOT has won this one on me because after travling 30 hrs I was in no mood to run all over the airport looking for transportation.

I agree the elevator and travelator are a constant chagrin to me.

The vertical lift never goes where I want to go and the travelator is always blocked off with an 'official'' demanding a bribe to use (it).

Sometimes it takes me 30 minutes to work out how to get to the lower levels upon arrival, then I have to dodge: false customs men, fake policemen, false taxi drivers, various touts, pickpockets, confidence tricksters, bogus meet & greet officials, baggage thieves, phoney tax inspectors, bogus health officials, hopeless mendicants, lottery ticket vendors, shoe-shine boys and amputee beggars.

It's an absolute nightmare.

They should just let the airport operate as it was designed. Yes the design was poor from the start but still better if they kept the doors open and elevators running as they were designed.

If preventing few touts entering is that difficult they have always the Manila solution. No entry without passport and ticket and locate the meeting point outside and fence it with chainlink and razorwire.

Airport staff who don't let you on the travellator with a trolley? Guess I missed that one the last few times I used the travellator with my trolley full of luggage.

Only issue I had with the elevator was the people crowding the doors so tightly I couldn't get off. But, that's hardly the fault of the airport. No worries, I just ran over a few toes with my trolley. Hope that wasn't you tartempion

On a recent foray to the airport to pick up my visiting parents, it took me about fifteen minutes, to get from Lvl3 door1 to Lvl2 door1, a distance of about 10 metres.

I've heard a theory that travel between floors is restricted to prevent people in Departures (pre-Immigration) from going to eat at the cheap(er) food shops in the arrivals area. AOT starves departing passengers so they have to pay 250bt at Burger King for a feed once they're trapped past Immigration.

This post has been edited by sibeymai: 2009-11-07 16:39:47

Notice all the spivs are men
Let nuns run it
Kick oout duty free and have lounger chairs like Changi
Allow metred cabs only and as said above entry for ticket holders only andforeign passport holders meeting guests

The last time I went through for a departure was in August, but I didn't have any problem going down to the next level to eat before I went through immigration. Has something changed since then?

Bingo. All the elevators on the arrival level ... except the one at the far end ... are now within the "secure area" which only arriving passengers can access. So, they cannot have those elevators stop on the arrivals level, or anyone from the outside could "contaminate" the "secure area."

When the airport first opened, only the area immediately surrounding the doors exiting from the customs hall was sterile/secure. At that time, all the elevators could stop on the arrivals level, and all the doors exiting to the outside were usable.

I wouldn't be surprised if this were true.

I checked in for my 5pm flight and decided to check out the food fair on the bus/taxi level. By travelator, I couldn't get to it. There is a security guard who only let's 'airport employees with passes' onto the travelator, or so the sign said. When I tried to pass, he directed me to the elevator, which was packed. I eventually got on the single elevator and made my way to the food court and gorged myself to satisfaction, but found myself running through the same gauntlet to get back up to departures.
I noticed a great many Farang in the food court, so I guess the cat's out of the bag.

No idea how many elevators but non ever going in the direction I want too and since the yellow shirt invasion most of the lifts closed

Overall it’s a pretty efficient airport, but some things (like the bizarre arrangements with the floor skipping elevators) could do with a bit more tweaking.

A bit OP but the arrivals area could do with a bit of work. At peak times planeloads of people are channeled through the ‘cattle races’ so everyone exits through a 2 metre wide slot.

I made 2 airport pickups this week and both times the joint was jam packed with friends, relatives and drivers. A simple way to widen the exit would be remove some of the side stalls so that passengers can disperse over a wider area.

Right so I'm a long time lurker on these forums and finally decided to sign up because I'm confused by all the complaining. I fly through or into BKK at least 20 times a year and I've yet to have any serious problems. Yes there is sometimes a man whistling at me to take his "better" taxi but I've had that happen to me in all sorts of places - even developed countries (Malaga, Spain springs to mind). It would seem that everyone on here assumes that Suvarnabhumi should be as good as Singapore. Singapore's customer service benefits from a developed dictatorship which means that they have a low labour cost and lots of money for the little extras. Sadly Thailand doesn't have the same luxury.

I'm a very frequent flyer and BKK rates in my top three alongside Ottawa and Amsterdam. A small selection of airports I've flown through that are worse (and in most cases considerably worse) than BKK:

- Heathrow (all airports)
- Charles de Gaulle
- Frankfurt
- Istanbul
- Toronto
- Montreal
- Hanoi
- Ho Chi Minh City
- Jakarta
- Surabaya
- Phnom Penh
- Barcelona
- Milan
- Rome
- Moscow (both Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo)
+ countless other European airports

I find BKK comfortable and easy to use. My main complaint is the long walk after getting off a 12 hour flight. But immigration takes less time than most places and bags are usually quite to arrive. There have been some nice improvements of late: padded seats in the departure gates, moving security, moving the taxi rank so there's more space, etc... Once the free wifi and airport train are introduced I'll be a very happy man. It's clear that those in charge do have the best interests of their customers in mind. Much better than you can say about my usual departure airport: Heathrow.

I've never flown through Changi and I'm sure it's just great. However there are thousands of airports in the world and they can't all be Singaporean. If you compare BKK against the average it certainly rates well.

Sorry about the rant!

barryFunk