Bangkok International Airport Makeover/Thai Travel TV Program
 

Bangkok's now notorious Suvarnabhumi airport, which took 40 years to complete in 2006, is getting a done-over following the exposure of scams based on the monopoly KING POWER duty free shops. Baggage handlers will now wear uniforms with pockets sewn shut to prevent pilfering (must have been big pockets). They are also putting over 19,000 cushions on the uncomfortable bare metal seats in the airport.

Free WiFi is coming in October along with 126 InterNet connected computer workstations.

Now, instead of KING POWER staff working their little scam on innocent tourists, tourists accused of theft will now be handled "transparently so there are no complaints." They will be interrogated at the airport, rather than transferred to an outside police station, as was done by KING POWER collaborators, and interviews will be video taped.

Also, in the UK, here is a new TV show called "Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand" which explores "the ugly side of tourism in Thailand" one peace featured victims ripped off by a gun-wielding jet-ski operator. That's a new one! Hopefully the TV shows will appear on You Tube.

after 12 trips to thailand i just can't understand any ripoffs in the mainstream of life...on the seedy side i am sure there are plenty...

I just sky + this programme and will watch it tomorrow and am sure it will be sensationalised to the max.

No doubt, given that the British press was fooled by the woman and her husband who insisted they were falsely arrested... then the surveillance film of her shoplifting surfaces on the web. Now they need to make a really good case for just how terrible Thailand is.

Speaking of hype - BMT's comment that the airport is being "done over" seems a bit of hyperbole when the changes he's talking about are cushions for the seats and the addition of wi-fi (wasn't that always in the plans?).

The Internet workstations are already in place. Each departure gate now has two or three of them. I haven't checked for the wi-fi signal, as I normally use the Thai lounge, but with my gold card expiring at the end of the year, I guess I'll have to join the masses; or use the King Power lounge, which isn't bad.

Met a British volunteer police liaison last week, who has been following events with the King Power scam (there are many more cases than just the apparently guilty British couple). He lamented that the police officers who took part in the scam were still on active duty, and the sleazy "Mr Tony" was still used as a liaison. This despite the arrest of more than 1,000 people in a sweep of touts and tricksters at the airport.

BuonMeThuot (AKA: Jaitch, Daklak) has already posted the same OP on other forums under different names, example:

http://boards.bootsnall.com/post406082.html#p406082

http://www.travbuddy.com/forums/view...157285#p157285

For months now, he's been continually ranting and raving about the Airport and King Power mentioning all these facts that he makes up himself. He even has the nerve to take sensationalist reports and claim the PM wrote it, bla bla bla...

His last unproven nonsense on one forum was that a Graphic Software company in the UK had announced that the British couple in the CCTV wasn't them. When asked to produce a link, he ignores it.

One other point where the poster is an idiot is that he reports on a TV that he hasn't seen. Idiot LISTEN UP... the airport and King Power have not been featured in Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand documentary. As for "hopefully appearing on YouTube" Idiot... the videos have been on there for almost a week. Over the past couple of days, also a lot of uncut original film.