I am arriving BKK at 6:30 am and I'm fairly certain that my hotel room will not be available (booked for 1 night at the inconveniently located Rama Garden Hotel thru OAT).

I am wondering if it is possible to visit the business class lounge (I'm flying business class) to freshen up, take a shower, change clothes after an all night 17 hour flight. Will it be possible to retrieve my luggage and then go to the lounge? If not, would it be a good or bad idea to spend about 45 minutes in the lounge after landing and then pick up my luggage?

First of all, I would e-mail Rama Garden and see if they can check you in when you arrive. Business can't be all that great for them right now since they are not anywhere near the new international airport. So they should be able to accommodate you.

According to the Thai Airways website, there is a business class arrival lounge with showers after immigration but I have not used it. Since you exit right into baggage claim after immigration, it looks like the lounge is right there and you could pick up your bags prior to entering the lounge. If no one chimes in to confirm this, contact Thai Airways and ask them.

are you flying out of the old airport subsequent to your arrival in bkk? if not i would book a hotel myself near to the new airport and just forget rama gardens....its an ok place but nothing fantastic...

Bob, she's on a tour and has to meet other people at Rama Gardens. OAT really did't do good planning on this one!

I would plan to check in to the Rama Gardens after you arrive rather than going to the Thai Business Class Lounge. I was in the lounge several times on my November trip. It was not nearly big enough for all the people who needed to use it and the facilities were minimal.

To answer your last question: I think it would be a bad idea to let your luggage wait while you went to the lounge.

All good advice. Plan A is to take Craig's advise and email for an early checkin. Hopefully that will be no problem. Thanks.

I'd be concerned that if you e-mail them asking for early check in, they will in turn advise you to book the previous night, which is standard practice. In this case, I'd think this would be more the case as business can't be good they would want to get all the income they can from each customer they can manage to get. As your room rate paid through OAT is very likely a very low negotiated rate (and that's why OAT puts you in such an inconvenient place), I can't see the hotel offering any favors for free.

However, if you DON'T e-mail them and just show up there at about 8:30 - 9:00 (which is when you can expect to get there) then they will in all likelihood send you right to your room without asking for additional money...and on the chance they don't do that, you can certainly leave your bags with the front desk and relax by the pool.

kathie---i think OAT did this on purpose....they probably get decent rooms for $30 per nite....leave it to tour companies to stick people out in the middle of no wheres...

There is a little confusion here as to the location of the Thai business class lounges at the new airport. What Thai means on its website about the lounge being “after Immigration” is that the lounge is INSIDE the SECURED DEPARTURE GATE area. This is for DEPARTING PASSENGERS who have been through Immigration and are DEPARTING from Thailand. Business class passengers leaving Thailand on Thai Airways use a special lane at Immigration which exits directly into Thai’s business class lounge. (I have been flying to Bangkok about once a month for the past 6 months on Thai business class and am pretty familiar with the drill.)

There is no lounge that I am aware of near the baggage claim area. From arrival Immigration you go directly into the baggage claim area, then walk through customs and then enter the (tiny) arrivals hall to the street. I am not aware of any lounge in any of these areas.

That being said, you may still be able to get access to the lounge as an arriving passenger. You would have to follow signs for “Transit/Transfer” passengers and then get to the one of the lounge that way. You do NOT want to go with “arriving” passengers, as that will take you to incoming Immigration and baggage claim.

Note that there are 3 business class lounges in the airport, I am not sure which one has the showers, I believe it is the main/largest one nearest to the departure Immigration booths, but don’t know for sure.

Finally, I am not 100% sure that you would be allowed to go from the secured departure/transit are to arrival Immigration and then be allowed to enter in Thailand, you should ask before you enter into any “transit/transfer” area at the airport. If you want to do this, I would suggest you ask about it on the plane, and have a Thai Air rep escort you from the plane to the lounge, and then another rep escort you from the lounge to the arrival Immigration.

I personally would have no issues with leaving my bags turning on the baggage carosel for 45 minutes or so while I was showering. They may be pulled off and put aside, but otherwise IMO will be perfectly safe.

If you don't want to try to do the lounge, I agree on just going to Rama Gardens and sitting by the pool or having breakfast. They may even be able to get you into a room. The other thing to do is book a room yourself for the previous night, which means it will be there and paid for when you arrive. May be worth the price to you.

For security reasons, I very much doubt there is any airport where you can use a departure lounge as an arriving passenger. Unless Thai has an "arrival lounge", early check-in or trying to find a day-use room near the airport would be the most realistic option, IMO.

<i>For security reasons, I very much doubt there is any airport where you can use a departure lounge as an arriving passenger. </i>

Actually, plenty of airports have lounges used by both departing and arriving passengers: Frankfurt or Brussels or almost any US airport, for example. There are typically airports where arriving passengers do not have to go through security before getting on their connecting flights (though flights to certain destinations, such as the US, always require a security check).

There are actually at least 4, maybe 5 Thai lounges. The ones on the C Concourse do have showers (at least the one on the left side).

Rizutto, a &quot;transit&quot; passenger is what you are referring to. That is someone with a connecting flight. Yes of course there is not need to go through immigration on a transit flight, and you can always use a lounge. The OP is actually arriving into Thailand her final destination and not connecting to another flight. Therefore, most of us doare unsure that an arriving passengers would be allowed into the secured transfer/transit area and then allowed into the arrivals immigration area.

Cicerone, I believe you misread or misunderstood my post. I was not speaking of transit passengers, I was speaking of arriving passengers who can use those airside lounges that are also used by departing passengers. W9London questioned whether security procedures permitted this.

I mentioned Frankfurt and Brussels, both of which allow arriving passengers to go directly from their airplane to other airside gates and lounges without passing through security. That's why Lufthansa, for example, lets arriving passengers in Frankfurt use the lounges that departing passengers use.

This has nothing to do with transit passengers. Transit passengers might indeed have to pass through immigration -- for example, a passenger changing planes in Bangkok on a trip from Tokyo to Chiang Mai clears immigration in Bangkok.

Yes, your post was confusing because it said &quot; arriving passengers do not have to go through security before getting on their connecting flights&quot; . You can see where I would have though this was indicating that you statement was for people getting onto connecting flights.

Passengers going to Chiang Mai from Bangkok are not &quot;transit&quot; passengers as I mean the term and as most airports mean the term when putting signage up in airports. Transit passengers are not entering a country at all as a final destination, they are changing planes in that country. When going to Chiang Mai as a final destination, you are entering Thailand and, like most every country in the world and with Schengen countires in Europe, your first port of entry is where you go through immigration. Passengers going to Des Moines via San Fransisco, for example, go through immigration in San Franciso, not Des Moines. Those people are not transit passengers as their ulitmate destination is within the US. Passengers going to Moscow via Paris are transit passengers.

I hope it all works out for the OP and she can use the lounge. I just think it is difficult knowing the security issues with the airports here, you generally can't cross areas.