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ColoradoGuy
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I flew out of the new airport (with a TG, Dew) this morning. This is two days in advance of the official opening. All of Air Asia and Jetstar Asia flights are there, as well as a few Thai Airways and Bangkok Airways flights. The official opening is 28 Sept but a few of the international flights from Japan/Korea that overnight in Bangkok and leave in the morning are landing here tomorrow night (KL, UA, NW, ANA).
Anyway, here are a few notes:
'
Transport: We took a taxi from Sukhumvit Soi 15. Approximately 31 kilometes. Two best choices are to enter the highway near Sukhumvit Soi 2 (80 baht toll total) or to take Asoke and enter the highway at Rama 9 (40 baht toll total). The first is much quicker if there is traffic. We left Soi 15 at 7:25am and pulled up departures at 8:00am. Some of this time was getting to the highway.
Another option would be to take the MRT to Rama 9 station and get a taxi there. If traffic is horrible, this might be the fastest.
I could not get a taxi to take us there using the meter. I believe this problem will minimize when the airport opens officially. Taxis do not want to go there now because they have no return fare. Can't blame them, I guess:
Taxi 1: "Cannot go"
Taxi 2: "700 baht"
Taxi 3: I said 300 baht, he said "no"
Taxi 4: Agreed to 300 baht after some persuading by me.
So I paid him 300 baht plus tolls. He did turn on the meter (just for show I think) and the metered fare would have been 190-195 baht). So 300 is not that bad. He was waiting around departures for a little while hoping someone would come out and want to go back to the city.
Check-in:
Pulled up to an empty departures area, took Dew's picture next to the army soldier with gun and the sniffing dog. Entering the airport, our baggage was sniffed by dogs. Inside, check-in with Air Asia went OK, although one of the two baggage tag printers was not working. Then we walked around the departures area and snapped some pictures. It reminds me of Hong Kong Airport in a lot of ways, huge vaulted ceilings, lots of steel and glass, etc. It was not very busy with passengers, as there were just a few flights. In my opinion, the departure hall is attractive and functional, just like Hong Kong.
Arrivals:
I walked down to arrivals to look around. Empty, as there were no planes arriving. There is a sign for a taxi stand. There are many stands for transport, phone cards, etc. Most of them do not look like they are ready to be opened in two days. I think things will be done very quickly, though, once the urgency of lost business sets in.
I do not know about arrival procedures as we did not arrive.
Departure:
Went through immigration, only two agents working there (as there are so few flights). There was NO 500 BAHT DEPARTURE TAX collected. I think everyone is too busy to bother with it now. I'm sure it will be collected starting 28 Sept.
Once through immigration, you are in a huge duty-free shopping area. It is probably similar in length to the one at Don Muang, however the one at the new airport is wider and has shops on the left, right and middle. Mostly upscale stuff, I saw a Sony shop, a Mont Blanc, etc. None of these shops were open and it looked like some of them will not be ready in 2 days.
There were no signs for gates in this area. None. So you walk through immigration and are in a shopping concourse with no gate signs and really no indication that you are in a airport! So where is Gate C-3? We asked a construction worker and he pointed us the way. Not until we walked 5 more minutes did we see any sign for gates. This will definitely need be remedied very quickly.
They are still constructing parts of the terminal, including ramps, handrails, gate areas, etc. Tons of construction tools still being used and laying about. We saw hundreds and hundreds of construction workers doing work. I expect they will be there day and night. This place opens in 40 hours. We would walk past areas that are draped with plastic and have no lights, signs, etc. and Dew would smile and say "Yes, new airport ready!" 
I did not see any moving walkways, however we were not in the arrivals area where most of them would be, and we were only in the C-gates, which is the smallest departure area in the airport.
We actually walked through a secure staging area in order to get to our gate. We could have easily walked out onto the tarmac. I expect this to be changed when the airport opens.
Flight left 5 minutes early, less than one-half full. Boom-boom in the lavatory is a possibility, I'll wake Dew up.
Summary:
Is the airport ready? Well, it is hard to say for sure. No, the airport is not finished yet, there is still work to do, many of the shops will not be ready in two days. The check-in area looks almost 100% complete and ready to go, the shopping area still needs some work and the departure gates (at least the ones we saw) were almost ready. Lots of little things still to be completed. There is a smell of new paint, new flooring, etc.
Signage has a lot to be desired. Unless they put up some gate signs, there are going to be people wandering around. This problem is compounded by the Thais who never ask anyone where something is.
I did not observe aircraft servicing, baggage systems, etc. and their readiness. My guess is that if there are major problems, it will be in this area. You can have an airport that is "ready" and still have a little dust and plastic, but if operations have problems, this airport will have growing pains.
Keep one last thing in mind. All of the above is written about an airport that is NOT YET OPEN. Full judgment should not be made until after September 28.
Dew flies back alone in two days on 28 September, the first official day for the new airport.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 8:40 pm on Sep. 26, 2006
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Ballsburstin
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CG,
Thanks for the heads-up. I have a good friend who will be arriving from Amerika to the new airport on th 28th (lucky him, lol). Will be curious to get a debriefing from him when he returns to the States in a couple of weeks. He has opted to check no bags because of the potential issues, and is only carrying a carryon. Probably a good idea for the moment. The "no signage for the gates" thing you experienced is going to be a real problem if they don't straighten it out soon, and if the baggage system is not ready for prime time, there will surely be teething problems.
- Balls
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 9:00 pm on Sep. 26, 2006
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ThaidUp
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And who is in the worst position?
Thanksfornuttin
If things are a big mess the Thai's can add this to his list of bad deeds.
If things go great he is not in country to parade around and take credit for it.
I rescheduled my flight back to the USA until the first week of November so I can be assured that the Mont Blac store is open so I can buy a proper pen to fill out my Departure Card.
Great FR CG!
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:20 pm on Sep. 26, 2006
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BIG BEEFA
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I depart from the new airport tomorrow at 0730, so hopefully I'll have a smooth run, then I come back 2 days later. For some reason I've noticed that getting things done in Thailand can be slow but when push comes to shove thing can be finished very quickly.
Beefa
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 10:14 pm on Sep. 26, 2006
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MickTheKick
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Quote: from BIG BEEFA on 11:32 am on Sep. 27, 2006
I depart from the new airport tomorrow at 0730
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 10:31 pm on Sep. 26, 2006
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bkkmaster
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Quote: from ColoradoGuy on 9:58 am on Sep. 27, 2006
Taxi 1: "Cannot go"
Taxi 2: "700 baht"
Taxi 3: I said 300 baht, he said "no"
Taxi 4: Agreed to 300 baht after some persuading by me.
So I paid him 300 baht plus tolls. He did turn on the meter (just for show I think) and the metered fare would have been 190-195 baht). So 300 is not that bad. He was waiting around departures for a little while hoping someone would come out and want to go back to the city.
Thanks for the info CG. This is one of my biggest concerns before and now. As I know they won't like to take a person too far if no taxi fare back and jack the price up. Kind of like how they hate taking people to Poseidon. 
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 11:26 pm on Sep. 26, 2006
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China Sailor
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I suspect that many of the Transport/Phone Call/etc. stalls will open up on the 28th. How hard is it to pack your supplies in a box and drive from DM to Suvarnabhumi?
Oh yeah, everybody else will be doing the same thing. I would not want to be trying to fly out early on the 28th.
Those who must should allow a lot of extra time for traffic...
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 7:11 am on Sep. 27, 2006
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S M E G M A
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Testing the airport tomorrow on the way out and coming back Sunday (domestic). Lets see how it goes.
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 7:09 am on Sep. 28, 2006
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RodneyAnsellEsq
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I am sure it will perform well, just for you of course.
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 7:10 am on Sep. 28, 2006
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IBFarang
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Just returned from Shanghai and passed thru the new airport. I was on Thai air and the landing was one of the roughest I have experienced. They came down pretty hard onto the runway.
I like the general look of the inside of the new terminal – kind of similar to Toxic, uncovered/bare concrete piers, exposed wire/cable trays running between light fixtures, large and decent Thai based artwork along the moving walkways, moving walkways are wider allow people to both stand to one side and others to walk past on the other.
Arrived around 21:00, plenty of workers at immigration, but slow on getting the baggage – took over an hour. The electronic sign after immigration that shows which belt your flights luggage will be on changed between Thai/English way too fast. They appear to be actually set up for real customs inspection at some date in the future, but I did not see them inspecting anyone (I think they wanted to avoid delaying anyone). Looks like they might actually work their way towards actual customs forms in the future. Not enough room after you clear customs before you are surrounded by the throngs of people – who are being held back by a red line on the floor – yea that works great.
Pretty poor signage after clearing customs in regard to finding transportation out. Down one escalator to metered taxi stand – no bus ride required. Only had to wait about 10 min in line for metered taxi into town. Taxi ride to lower Sukhumvit was about 10 min longer – due in part to one toll gate only having three toll booths open. The used to cost no more than 150 bath, meter was over 180 baht this time.
All in all not a bad experience.
On the up side I generally like the looks (at least from what I saw) of the new terminal, and the moving walkways get you to immigration in decent time. Had plenty of immigration staff working, and customs was breeze as always, and fairly short wait for metered taxi right at the terminal.
On the down side, luggage took longer than normal (they will probably work this out over time), the ride cost more (over 180 vs less than 150), and the ride took longer (about 10 min longer with very little traffic).
Not really fair to judge things based upon a single trip – but I have to return to China in a couple of weeks so I will have another chance to see how things compare.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 11:47 am on Sep. 28, 2006
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