Bangkok and Other Airports - Your Recent Experience - Busy, OK or Quiet. Please Add your Experiences.

[Bobbyg]

1 hour ago, bexwell said:

Not an airport issue, I've just been called a liar for paying £531 for an Etihad flight in 4 weeks.

Good deal

6 hour layover in Abu Dhabi?

[Phantom51red]

1 hour ago, Bobbyg said:

Good deal

6 hour layover in Abu Dhabi?

Definitely, I'd take that 

Just paid £710 from aberdeen - ams- shanghai-bkk ,,for 2 weeks time ,,have to book short notice at the moment cos of the job,but the usual abz,ams,bkk route was double the price,never been to shanghai either,only 4 hour stopover so will probably stay in airport.

[mrcharliemofo]

2 hours ago, bexwell said:

Not an airport issue, I've just been called a liar for paying £531 for an Etihad flight in 4 weeks.

How long ago did you book that ? 

I flew with them last September and they were great. I paid £595

That layover is a bit of a bummer though as is the landing time but if you're ok with it that's all that matters.

[bexwell]

3 hours ago, mrcharliemofo said:

How long ago did you book that ? 

I flew with them last September and they were great. I paid £595

That layover is a bit of a bummer though as is the landing time but if you're ok with it that's all that matters.

I booked it last Thursday Night, I've been watching the prices everyday on Skyscanners for a few weeks and decided it was now or never.

[Krapow]

On 1/30/2024 at 9:42 PM, Stillearly said:

Thai take off before EVA as usual, even though they have a later departure time 555

That's why i purposely booked Thai for next month, my last 2 flights with EVA have been quite stressful, one time never even got luggage till next day.

Though to be fair, the last trip was Heathrow's fault, a breakdown on a luggage belt, not EVA.

[Butch]

On 1/30/2024 at 6:08 PM, Stillearly said:

Check in with EVA was a pain in the arse ... large queue and then they took us out of the queue to do our own baggage tags .., but two of the machines didn't work for me , so had to join another queue to do it the old fashioned way ..., for the first time ever I was asked if I had a Visa .. I told them no , but I was leaving the country before 30 days ... they asked for proof .. I just showed them my TripIt app ( which isn't proof as everything can be typed in manually.. ) which they accepted 🤷‍♂️

Security was a pain as well , machine was backed up , guy telling us no need to take anything out of your bag .. I walked through , then they wanted to check my shoes ( they were fine a couple of hours ago at the previous airport security... ) then had to wait five mins until they scanned the shoes separately and then had to walk 30 metres in my socks to find somewhere to sit and put my shoes back on ...

Total process took about an hour ... luckily I updated my fantasy team , before I joined the queues 555

Was this LHR or SVB mate?.

[boydeste]

Just checked into Eva at Swampy. 

New machines and an automated bag drop. 

Very quick and smooth with the help of one of the many pretty ladies floating around to help.

Security was quick and easy with new machines that let you keep everything in your bag except power banks.

Immigration was very busy, but a little tip for you.

I went to the automated scan line which was short. It refused my passport and I was directed to see a normal officer. This was a dedicated line just for automated refusals and I was through in 10 minutes, whilst the normal queue was horrendous. 

Now in the Eva lounge which I really like. 

Decent selection of food and drinks for my taste.

I find it very relaxing too!

[Stillearly]

Safe flight ✈️

[boydeste]

2 minutes ago, Stillearly said:

Safe flight ✈️

Thanks mate.

[Derek Dangleberries]

On 2/1/2024 at 4:34 AM, bexwell said:

Not an airport issue, I've just been called a liar for paying £531 for an Etihad flight in 4 weeks.

Fucking magnificent !! Who was it booked through ???

Let us know how much wine they dish out too please !!

TIA !!

Edited February 5 by Derek Dangleberries

[bexwell]

29 minutes ago, Derek Dangleberries said:

Fucking magnificent !! Who was it booked through ???

Let us know how much wine they dish out too please !!

TIA !!

I booked through Skyscanners, I check the prices every day and have been doing for a few weeks. I decided it was now or never, I would have preferred to fly with Qatar but they wanted £770. The next (fucking) day Qatar dropped to £550 for 1 day. Anomalies like that happen every now and then and by checking every day you can sometimes get one 

[Stillearly]

Utapao departures , very quiet, only one flight leaving... 👍

[Butch]

Stansted Airport UK Departures / arrivals (Info from Wife who flew this weekend)

Also, worth noting that to drop off at Stansted it's £7 for up to 15 minutes, £25 over 15 minutes. There is a Mcdonalds pretty much on the roundabout before you enter the main road to get into Stansted which gives 1 hour parking maximum.

Short stay parking is between £10 for up to 30min, £18 for one hour, £22 for 2 hours to £35 for 4 Hrs.

Inside the Airport the Emirates desks now occupy the area directly in from of the Entrance. Burger king, Costa, WH Smith and another food place are all in pre entry / arrivals.

Pre entry is hectic, pretty much a melee getting to security and busy during most daytime hours. Not enough E gates for the passengers, basically. Once thru, shopping is excellent with a large variety of shops, a few restaurants and duty free.

Arrivals , the E-gates work much better and more quickly than those at LHR, less distance to walk to the Arrivals area and less distance to travel to the Car park. Wife landed at 17:10, and we were in the car and heading home by 18:00. Not bad at all.

Since Emirates fly from STN, it may be used by one or two BM's for a 2 leg BKK journey. It's ridiculously easy to get to being just off the M11, plenty of airport parking for long term available and while much smaller than LHR and LGW, it does seem to run a lot smoother, albeit the pre entry to security is the only weak link in the chain.

 

[Phantom51red]

Great service on the ams-shanghai flight with China Eastern,id say as good as any of the middle east Airways I've flown in the past,easy and quick boarding,food was ok rice chicken cauliflower and green beans,omelette for breaky,with the usual side stuff.

One thing I noted how quite the people were,no loud talking or shite comin from peoples phones or tabs,pretty much a perfect flight,watched interstellar and to the summit about a Chinese guy who lost both bottom half of his legs due to frostbite on everest then 30 year later after another 2 failed attempts he summits at 69 years old with prosthetic legs! 

Definitely would fly China Eastern again,1 more flight with shanghai Airways to bkk,gets in at 10.30pm.

[Phantom51red]

Flight from shanghai landed on Time,pork and rice for dinner prawn salad,small bag of crisps,2 savoury biscuits, watermelon,coffeeand orange juice,immigration was painless about 10 to 15 people at each booth,straight through taxi to Crystal suites Hotel lat krabang ,120 bht,in McDonald's 5 minutes from hotel ,don't think will go downtown, a lon g 33 hours travelling,shanghai airport is great designed lots of space,seats,power and USB points,pity lack of food tho. 

[Stillearly]

I flew from Samui to DM today 

departing Samui was painless as ever , always best to check in online as there are two queues for all the BA flights and the bag drop one is usually smaller 👍

I haven't used DM since Swampy opened , but it was a breeze , bags came off very quickly and meter taxi to lower Suk was very quick 

299 meter + 80 toll + 50 airport chg + 20 bag +31 tip = 480 Baht 

 

 

[Phantom51red]

23 minutes ago, Stillearly said:

I flew from Samui to DM today 

departing Samui was painless as ever , always best to check in online as there are two queues for all the BA flights and the bag drop one is usually smaller 👍

I haven't used DM since Swampy opened , but it was a breeze , bags came off very quickly and meter taxi to lower Suk was very quick 

299 meter + 80 toll + 50 airport chg + 20 bag +31 tip = 480 Baht 

 

 

Ive never had a prob at dm either flying north or south,is there not a bts station outside now ? 20 bht to put bag in boot ? 

feckin kneck o the twat ! 

[Stillearly]

Check in , immigration and security a breeze at PP

 

Took off on time and landed five mins early at Swampy ... bus to D5 , immigration busy , but I booked fast track , only one in front of me , although lady took ages to process him ... then my turn , how long am I staying, where, do I have booking .. do I have Thai wife .. ??? 555

 

She wrote some notes from my booking and eventually stamped me in .. bag had just arrived on the belt as I got to it 

I will probably get the online visa next trip , just in case ...

[Derek Dangleberries]

17 minutes ago, Stillearly said:

but I booked fast track ,

Who through, mate ???

[Stillearly]

15 minutes ago, Derek Dangleberries said:

Who through, mate ???

https://www.limousine.in.th/fasttrack.php

 

[Derek Dangleberries]

12 minutes ago, Stillearly said:

https://www.limousine.in.th/fasttrack.php

 

Yep! The same as the company I used on my trip to UK last year.

 

[Derek Dangleberries]

Just as I replied to @Stillearly above, M'Lady told me that "The Gubment" had called to say that the Blue Book is ready for me to sign tomorrow abternoon.

Next stage will be getting my Thai ID Card for farang..

Now then a question.......

I am not yet 70 years old so can't use the old bastard/Thai lane, can you use it with a Thai ID Card at Immigration....

[KWA]

Departed BKK on Saturday morning. Check-in area was mobbed and even Business Class check-in, security and immigration had queues, albeit only a few minutes each.

Immigration had moved from where I remember to the very end of the concourse past "W" check-in desks. Exiting there took me behind the regular immigration desks and there was no queues there.

[maipenrai]

Flew to Don Muang from Phnom Penh yesterday and had a funny thing happen when I checked in - the clerk starts nattering about my passport - "What's the problem?", I ask - turns out there is a little chunk missing from the top of one page where a hamfisted immigration officer tore an arrival/departure slip off six years or so going by the adjacent stamps; I say "So what, no info missing" but that's not good enough, she has to go and fetch her superior and together they keep nattering until I persuade them somehow to just forget it and finish the job of checking me in. The flight itself was uneventful and I arrived just before another flight came in so didn't have to wait long to get through Immigration -another few minutes and it would have been a different story - and breezed through with no problems at all.

I picked up my bag and hustled down to the cab booking area with only about ten people ahead of me. Then it was my turn and as I walked out to the cab with the driver he grabbed my heavy rolling bag with the handle extended and pulled it right off the curb at an angle, then fought to keep it upright as it started tipping this way and that way as he kept dragging it along - "Careful with that thing, damn it!" Once we got in the cab and got underway, I asked him about the meter - "Oh, you want meter?" "Yes!" whereupon he pulled a cloth off that was hiding the meter and turned it on. We took the freeway which is expensive from DMK, 130b altogether, and the meter fare was 220b with a 50b surcharge so a total of 400b - I'll bet he would have charged me 500 if I hadn't insisted on the meter; I've heard of this BS happening from Suvarnabuhmi but this is the first time I've experienced it from DMK. 

[Pumpuynarak]

12 hours ago, maipenrai said:

Flew to Don Muang from Phnom Penh yesterday and had a funny thing happen when I checked in - the clerk starts nattering about my passport - "What's the problem?", I ask - turns out there is a little chunk missing from the top of one page where a hamfisted immigration officer tore an arrival/departure slip off six years or so going by the adjacent stamps; I say "So what, no info missing" but that's not good enough, she has to go and fetch her superior and together they keep nattering until I persuade them somehow to just forget it and finish the job of checking me in. The flight itself was uneventful and I arrived just before another flight came in so didn't have to wait long to get through Immigration -another few minutes and it would have been a different story - and breezed through with no problems at all.

I picked up my bag and hustled down to the cab booking area with only about ten people ahead of me. Then it was my turn and as I walked out to the cab with the driver he grabbed my heavy rolling bag with the handle extended and pulled it right off the curb at an angle, then fought to keep it upright as it started tipping this way and that way as he kept dragging it along - "Careful with that thing, damn it!" Once we got in the cab and got underway, I asked him about the meter - "Oh, you want meter?" "Yes!" whereupon he pulled a cloth off that was hiding the meter and turned it on. We took the freeway which is expensive from DMK, 130b altogether, and the meter fare was 220b with a 50b surcharge so a total of 400b - I'll bet he would have charged me 500 if I hadn't insisted on the meter; I've heard of this BS happening from Suvarnabuhmi but this is the first time I've experienced it from DMK. 

Thats the trouble with IO's stapling your TM47/TM30 into your passport, i always use tight paper clips and ask the IO if they could refrain from stapling them. I have to say that your clerk was being somewhat OTT but the condition of your passport is very important to some airport clerks.