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paborn

January trip report

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So you must write pretty early/very late, as its now 9.36 here in BKK.

About cattle in EK: Ive done it, as Ive also flewn such on EY, GF, KU, Oman and many more, and even in ''coach=Y'' its among the largest space any airline gives. I guess you were on an AB380? Well, even on LH the seatspace was more roomy as usual. Hope you enjoy the time here to the fullest!

But DBX is an enormous airport-nearly 100.000.000 pax/yr, vying with ATL and LHR to be the busiest in the world-as I just read. Theyre building an brand new and even larger airport in Dubai somewhere in the empty sands.

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4 hours ago, paborn said:

A word about the cabs. Now, I may be doing something wrong and please correct me. But I trudge along to the little post and press the button and I'm assigned number 53 - all the way down the line. Now, why can't we just take the next car in line. This system seems to work to please the drivers, not the customers. Please tell me where I err.

I think the system is to avoid scams - or make it easier register a complaint about drivers who have doctored their meters.  If you look closely at the ticket, it not only gives you the bay number but also the name of the driver and the cab number. Even so, the system could easily be refined. Its nuts to have someone getting a ticket at the TG end of the airport having to walk the length of the airport to get  cab.

 

Re the Emirates A380, I once had to exit through first class and down the stairs. First has  individual suites with doors! But EK is changing the layout in some of its A380s. Its dropping First and about 20 biz class seats and adding 130 coach seats in their place. This increases capacity from around 500 passengers to 615! 

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welcome back , we were waiting patiently for you to get over your vacations and start reporting back. 

Hope following days brought better luck  than crappy airports, no-show cars, uneatable sandwiches , not to mention door knobs and other first day nuisances.

And even if Cutey and Beauty don't take AMEX any more I'm pretty sure they still take old fashioned cash.

Waiting impatiently for first boy to appear on your horizon

 

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10 hours ago, paborn said:

A word about the cabs. Now, I may be doing something wrong and please correct me. But I trudge along to the little post and press the button and I'm assigned number 53 - all the way down the line. Now, why can't we just take the next car in line. This system seems to work to please the drivers, not the customers. Please tell me where I err.

well, it may just be that you DID get the next in line.

Note that there is no taxi LINE in front of the building, presumably to avoid congestion due to slowly departing taxis when passengers have lots of bags to load, for example. Instead, they have introduced the bay system, which makes sense IMO.

The cab's wait in a VERY long line on the side of the terminal building and then enter the bays as the bays become free and are allocated to them. So the cab in the first bay next to the ticket machine may have gotten there AFTER the one in the bay far away. Hence the far away cab is far away but still the NEXT IN LINE. 

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Breakfasts were OK, nothing spectacular. However, one day I felt very tired and decided to have a quick lunch in the hotel and ordered a club sandwich which was just nasty. One of the layers had meat I could not identify and don't care to know what it was but it was left uneaten. I would stay there again but never eat there - other than breakfast, again.

pity, they used to actually have really good food in the lobby restaurant. The best feature of all FOR ME of Tarntawan of bygone days when I still used it as a visitor was the availability of a la carte breakfast 24 hours a day. Best invention ever for long sleepers.

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4 hours ago, anddy said:

well, it may just be that you DID get the next in line.

Note that there is no taxi LINE in front of the building, presumably to avoid congestion due to slowly departing taxis when passengers have lots of bags to load, for example. Instead, they have introduced the bay system, which makes sense IMO.

The cab's wait in a VERY long line on the side of the terminal building and then enter the bays as the bays become free and are allocated to them. So the cab in the first bay next to the ticket machine may have gotten there AFTER the one in the bay far away. Hence the far away cab is far away but still the NEXT IN LINE. 

pity, they used to actually have really good food in the lobby restaurant. The best feature of all FOR ME of Tarntawan of bygone days when I still used it as a visitor was the availability of a la carte breakfast 24 hours a day. Best invention ever for long sleepers.

Andy. actually I do understand this. However, I have been to airports that have a dispatcher so you wait and the next in line comes to you and that works even better. The dispatcher can hold things up if a line is forming ( people with many bags ) or speed it up. 

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10 hours ago, vinapu said:

welcome back , we were waiting patiently for you to get over your vacations and start reporting back. 

Hope following days brought better luck  than crappy airports, no-show cars, uneatable sandwiches , not to mention door knobs and other first day nuisances.

And even if Cutey and Beauty don't take AMEX any more I'm pretty sure they still take old fashioned cash.

Waiting impatiently for first boy to appear on your horizon

 

Yes, they take cash. My point is that when you can no longer absorb the discount rate then things are tightert than they were finacialy. Still, good service and a staff of only two rather than the former three or four.

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Thanks for the fine report Paborn.

Cutey and Beauty is my favourite barbours shop anywhere, but it probably should be that good when they charge 400 baht in country where you can get your hair cut for 60-100 baht.   This time I tried UP2 following a mention here.   300baht.   Cutey and Beauty is better, maybe >33% better.  

You are right to pick up on the floor levels issue.   They just don't get it.    Brand new high end tower blocks and yet there is a 2 inch random step in the floor where none should be necessary if the place is surveyed and constructed properly.    

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51 minutes ago, hank75 said:

I don’t mean to pry paborn, but just trying to understand your report better - do you use a wheelchair generally, or only in airport situations?

 

Only in airports and only in large ones. Dubai is crazy large and IMHO organized around shopping rather than quick access to gates.

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42 minutes ago, z909 said:

Thanks for the fine report Paborn.

Cutey and Beauty is my favourite barbours shop anywhere, but it probably should be that good when they charge 400 baht in country where you can get your hair cut for 60-100 baht.   This time I tried UP2 following a mention here.   300baht.   Cutey and Beauty is better, maybe >33% better.  

You are right to pick up on the floor levels issue.   They just don't get it.    Brand new high end tower blocks and yet there is a 2 inch random step in the floor where none should be necessary if the place is surveyed and constructed properly.    

Yes, I should have mentionmed that it is my favorite as well. I never get my hair cut before a trip as I plan to have it cut there. I'll run over there for a shave in the morning. When I'm on vacation I like a little pampering. I don't mean to demean it in any way. It's just that so much is changing so fast that I'm sensitive to seeing something that looks to be on the down side rather than flying high. It's still very nice.

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2 hours ago, z909 said:

Thanks for the fine report Paborn.

Cutey and Beauty is my favourite barbours shop anywhere, but it probably should be that good when they charge 400 baht in country where you can get your hair cut for 60-100 baht.   This time I tried UP2 following a mention here.   300baht.   Cutey and Beauty is better, maybe >33% better.  

You are right to pick up on the floor levels issue.   They just don't get it.    Brand new high end tower blocks and yet there is a 2 inch random step in the floor where none should be necessary if the place is surveyed and constructed properly.    

I have tripped on that step a few times. I never thought to look if there was a lack of drains in the main bathroom thus if there was a leak some protection for the main mall. I'll have to look next time.

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3 hours ago, paborn said:

Andy. actually I do understand this. However, I have been to airports that have a dispatcher so you wait and the next in line comes to you and that works even better. The dispatcher can hold things up if a line is forming ( people with many bags ) or speed it up. 

gotcha. True, a dispatcher might be helpful. With labor  being as heap as it is they could easily afford to pay for that from their takings of the 50B airport surcharge. 

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2 hours ago, Scooby said:

I have tripped on that step a few times. I never thought to look if there was a lack of drains in the main bathroom thus if there was a leak some protection for the main mall. I'll have to look next time.

Please look, but the Romans and drains. They built this in the age of elevators!

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6 hours ago, Scooby said:

I have tripped on that step a few times. I never thought to look if there was a lack of drains in the main bathroom thus if there was a leak some protection for the main mall. I'll have to look next time.

My brand-new condo building has that sort of odd little step up at the entry to each apartment.  The explanation that I got for why it was done was that it protects the apartments from when the meebaan does the heavy floor washing out in the hallways.  And this was presented as the rather obvious explanation.  So these treacherous barriers around a bathroom would also prevent the water from sloshing out of the bathroom as the meebaans give the bathrooms their frequent mopping.  Not sure I'ld make tha particular safety tradeoff, but TIT.

 

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6 hours ago, anddy said:

gotcha. True, a dispatcher might be helpful. With labor  being as heap as it is they could easily afford to pay for that from their takings of the 50B airport surcharge. 

I think the current system is probably overall faster than it would be if a smaller number of passengers were getting loaded into a smaller space near the "dispatcher", but certainly it is a little disheartening after 18hr flight to have to schlepp luggage another 50 meters.

Even before they introduced the current system you often would have to walk a bit to get to your taxi, but at least the taxi driver came to you and could help with luggage.  But more important, I think when they got rid of the the human people assigning taxis it became that much easier for unscrupulous taxis drivers to try to go off-meter.  

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1 hour ago, DivineMadman said:

I think the current system is probably overall faster than it would be if a smaller number of passengers were getting loaded into a smaller space near the "dispatcher", but certainly it is a little disheartening after 18hr flight to have to schlepp luggage another 50 meters.

Also very frustrating when you are hoping for an English speaking driver with basic recognition of international hotel names, and instead you’re assigned a ramshackle car with a Thai-only driver and the other drivers have to help explain to him exactly where you want to go to! I also see lone female passengers hoping for a strong male driver to assist with luggage and end up with female drivers.

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