I just flew out of BKK ( Suvarnabhumi Airport, Thailand) for like the 6th time, and I hate hate hate their duty free areas.
Scenario: arrive at curb, wander to airline drop bag areas, which are always mobbed. Most airlines try to make that smooth, but it’s a lot of standing for everyone, hurry up and wait. Then security, which at BKK isn’t terrible. But this all takes quite a while, coupla’ hours.
At this point, you’re ready to pee, buy water, maybe eat. You’ve been standing and queueing for 1-2+ hours. You’re ready for a break - get some water, find your gate. Get settled. I don’t have water because it can’t traverse security, and I’d really like to hydrate.
And they dump you into a tunnel/gauntlet of what must be at least a kilometer (maybe 2!) of Duty Free shops before you can find someplace to sit or pee or eat. Buy Versace! Gucci! Armani! Dior! All this shit most travelers don’t care about. Consume, bitches!
Good god, can we at least arrange all these shops around restaurants and fucking bathrooms?! Instead a bazillion people trudge trudge trudge past all this crap that interests 5% of the crowd just to find a bench or hydration or a fucking bathroom.
I’ve been to Hong Kong airport and it’s much better: they arrange everything in a bit of a circle, interleaving these “who cares?” shops with bathrooms, places to eat, basic facilities. BKK has none of that - you have to march the endless gauntlet of shops. At the end may be a drinking fountain. Maybe.
I’ve also been to Tokyo/Haneda HND and it’s about as bad as BKK: forced march past a shorter (but still 100s of meters) collection of shops that don’t sell food or water and there’s no bathrooms, no seating, but would you like 2 liters of Glenfiddich?!? Then finally some shops with food and water.
I have bad feet – it hurts to walk. Can you not make me march past 100s of meters of this crap with no benches, no water, no nothing? I mean, I just got through bag check and security. I’m dehydrated and I need to pee!