Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok
I recently had the rather dubious pleasure of transiting the new airport in Bangkok. I had already been through the place on my way into and out of Thailand three times before, so I was already aware of its post industrial decor and metal seats, but this was my first time in transit.
To start things off I had come in on Thai Airways and the plane did not go to a gate but taxied out to a spot on the tarmac a long way from the terminal. I was rather surprised that this sort of thing has started happening so soon as I was under the impression that the new airport was built because of just this type of occurrence at the old Don Muang airport.
Coming up the escalator after disembarking from the bus I looked up and there were the signs for the international transit passengers to follow. I followed them down to the end of a very long corridor only to find that for Egypt Air I had to go to the other end of the opposite wing. I asked why there were no signs explaining this and was told that they were there but I must have missed them.
On the long walk back up the corridor I kept my eyes peeled to spot the sign that I had missed. I finally found it though it was not too easy because whereas the signs for the international transit desks were above the travellators this sign was at ground level and rather than crossing the corridor so that it would be easily seen it ran lengthways and could easily be missed, as I had just experienced.
The sign was just about three feet high and had the airline code names with a desk number beside them and an arrow pointing to whichever end the desk could be found at.
On arriving at the other end of the corridor I looked for the desk numbers. Again none were to be seen but there were signs above the desks with the airline logos on them. I found the one for Egypt Air and got in line with only one person in front of me. The girl serving this desk was on the phone when I arrived and this went on for about fifteen minutes when she finally hung up and served the person in front of me.
When it came to my turn I handed over the printout for the E-ticket and the girl looked at it and after a few moments asked where I was flying to. I replied that I was going to Cairo as stated on the ticket and she told me rather brusquely that I was not in the right row. She pointed to a sign on the next desk which read “JAL 318″ and said that I needed to find a sign like that on the desk, not the airline logo above it.
I was getting rather annoyed by this time but I searched again for the sign on the desk, hampered as I was by the fact that having passengers at the desk blocked any view of the signs. During the search for the sign I did notice that all of the other signs that I came across were, in fact, at the desk with the corresponding airline logo above it. I finally found the one saying Egypt Air and got into line behind four people.
After twenty minutes and only two people having been served I began to comment rather loudly that the check-in in Jakarta which included checking my bags and paying airport tax had been conducted far more swiftly than this transit desk was operating. Another twelve minutes saw me at the desk and I finally discovered what the problem was. The girl on the desk was obviously completely lost on the computer system and had to ask the girl beside here for advice every time she needed to fill something in.
With my boarding pass finally in hand I headed for the smoking room nearby and was again struck by how inferior the facilities were in this supposedly modern airport. The smokers rooms are small cubicles and after a few smokers have passed through there it is difficult to see where you are walking as the extraction system is pathetic.
For anybody in government in Asia who is considering commissioning a new airport here is some free advice. Go to Singapore and take a look at Changi Airport there. Copy it exactly!
It doesn’t matter which terminal, if you need more than one add a skytrain link exactly like the one between the terminals at Changi. When specifying the luggage handling equipment don’t bother asking your local companies to try to build it. Use the same people who did the job in Singapore. It just works!
Copying should save all sorts of architects fees and consultancy costs and it will actually be capable of working with half-way decent staff. For any other countries intending to build a new airport you should do the same. You could certainly do a lot worse . . . Thailand did.
It was your own silly fault!!
Why didn’t you go SIA from Changi?
One of the best airlines in the world and direct to Cairo.
Somebody fouled up my booking. They originally had me travelling from Bangkok only and when I reminded them that I was based in Indonesia they just added a Thai Airways flight from Jakarta to Bangkok.
Comments were made on arrival and it will be SIA or Emirates on the way home. I did think about you on the flight, why did you get the royal treatment and myself and Wayne got dumped in the gutter, as it was?
Any smart replies to this question will be treated with the contempt they deserve.
Now why would I be tempted to make a smart reply?
My guess is that there has been a bit of a reshuffle in the Cairo office and things got a bit mixed up.
Actually I would like to go back there, they have a much more practical and realistic approach to the job than is seen on most crews these days.
The bottom line is the crew is there to acquire Seismic data. Everything else is secondary. And coudn’t be in place at all if the Seismic wasn’t being done.
Your rolled vib is more impressive than mine, but if you want a look:
http://www.seismatters.com/coppermine/displayimage.php?album=20&pos=12
How’s that for a completely disjointed and off subject reply.
Things are better now. I have my booking and it is SQ all the way to Jakarta, then Garuda (you can’t have everything).
You will remember that I told you that Apache are easy to work with. They care about finding oil, not about statistics.
Your rolled vibe is quite nice too. Same old thing, three point turns on a slope with a buggy vibe, they never seem to learn.
By the way, the comments here can be nested. Just use the “Reply to” dropdown to indicate what you are replying to and your comment will show up just under the comment you used in the dropdown.