barryFunk

Anyway, what handy screens?

As you're walking up to the immigration queues both coming into Thailand and leaving Thailand there are screens that show the other immigration area (there are two non-fast-track lanes coming in and leaving the country). In my experience both coming in at busy times and leaving at busy times the opposite immigration area almost always has a much shorter queue.

This is explained by the fact that so many 00:00 to 02:00 departures and 06:00 to 08:00 arrivals are Thai Airways long haul to/from Europe and Australia (widebodies). These all seem to park at the same pier so coming into the country people are all coming from one direction and going to only one of the immigration areas.

On departure the long queues at one area can be explained the same way - all the Thai Airways check in desks are at one end of the airport.

Have a look at the screens next time and save yourselves lots of time (and anger at AoT!). They're just to the left of the outbound immigration and just to the side of the ramp that leads up to the inbound immigration.

Cheers

barryFunk

Hi everyone

My wife and I will be moving to Bangkok for a new job in early October. I'm very familiar with Bangkok as my current job has had me travelling frequently to the LoS for the past three years.

My new employer has offered us £1000 in moving expenses (very generous!) but we're unsure of what we can bring with us duty-free. In other words - should we sell everything or ship some things? If we will be charged duty - at what rate will it be? The items of particular interest:

- new flat screen TV (35")

- Xbox 360 (a year old)

- a new mattress (which will be nearly impossible to sell in the UK!)

- books

- CDs / DVDs

- I'm assuming they won't charge duty on our clothes!

If we choose to sell most of it but I want to keep my Xbox - can I bring it in with my hand luggage? Or would it be confiscated if they have the x-ray machines turned on at arrival?

Another dilemma is my new iPhone. I'm on a 2 year contract in the UK with only 8 months of it used up. If I pay off the rest of the contract can I get it unlocked and put on True or another Thai mobile company once I move to BKK?

Sorry about all the questions and sorry if I've put this in the wrong forum!

Cheers for your help

BarryFunk

^^

Doesn't matter if it's 0200 or 1400 hours, that Immigration line is always long. Typical wait time is now 45 min to get out. I manage to snag a Fast Track Card coming in but something's gotta be done as that airport (Swampy - yes, folks really refer to it as Swampy) is a mess...

Typical wait time is 45 minutes? I must be very lucky then! I've departed BKK internationally at least 25 times over the past three years to a variety of destinations at a variety of times. The longest I've waited was 15 minutes though typically it's more like 5 minutes. Admittedly I have made use of the handy screens which show the state of the other immigration queue and used that one (even if it was further away).

This year I have departed BKK 7 times (most recently last week) and none of my waits to depart have been more than 5 minutes.

The most recent departure from BKK was to Kuala Lumpur where I had to wait over an hour at immigration on arrival and another 45 mins on departure. From touch down to the hotel (via the train and then SkyTrain) was 2.5 hours compared to 1.5 hours which is my typical Bangkok experience (though often closer to an hour).

Yet a lot of people on this forum seem to think that the KL airport is much better than BKK.... Odd.

Compared to my most frequented airports - HAN, SGN, CGK, LHR, YUL, YOW and YYZ - only YOW does a better job (with YUL being a close third after BKK). To me BKK is one of the best airports in the developing world.

Sorry for this rant!

In response to the original poster: it sounds like you caught BKK at its very busiest. I use the airport more than most and have never had such an experience!

Cheers

BarryFunk

I d think the line will be used by nervous of taxi types first timers and inevitable travel snarl ups at Makkasan.

The one virtue wil be down town check in,although I doubt the budget airlines will do this,as duplicating staff will eat into their meagre profits based on minimal staffing.Conversely will add to costs for Thai etc.

Whatever class,or pass etc you have in the good old days before mindless jihadis added security and bottle search to our woes once you checked in you were free,

Probably. Though presumably the new airport link should remove some traffic from the Makkasan area with lots commuting by rail rather than road. Perhaps the net result will be equal?

Either way I'm bloody thrilled since my regular hotel is steps away from the new line. Bye bye Bangkok traffic!

Right so I'm a long time lurker on these forums and finally decided to sign up because I'm confused by all the complaining. I fly through or into BKK at least 20 times a year and I've yet to have any serious problems. Yes there is sometimes a man whistling at me to take his "better" taxi but I've had that happen to me in all sorts of places - even developed countries (Malaga, Spain springs to mind). It would seem that everyone on here assumes that Suvarnabhumi should be as good as Singapore. Singapore's customer service benefits from a developed dictatorship which means that they have a low labour cost and lots of money for the little extras. Sadly Thailand doesn't have the same luxury.

I'm a very frequent flyer and BKK rates in my top three alongside Ottawa and Amsterdam. A small selection of airports I've flown through that are worse (and in most cases considerably worse) than BKK:

- Heathrow (all airports)

- Charles de Gaulle

- Frankfurt

- Istanbul

- Toronto

- Montreal

- Hanoi

- Ho Chi Minh City

- Jakarta

- Surabaya

- Phnom Penh

- Barcelona

- Milan

- Rome

- Moscow (both Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo)

+ countless other European airports

I find BKK comfortable and easy to use. My main complaint is the long walk after getting off a 12 hour flight. But immigration takes less time than most places and bags are usually quite to arrive. There have been some nice improvements of late: padded seats in the departure gates, moving security, moving the taxi rank so there's more space, etc... Once the free wifi and airport train are introduced I'll be a very happy man. It's clear that those in charge do have the best interests of their customers in mind. Much better than you can say about my usual departure airport: Heathrow.

I've never flown through Changi and I'm sure it's just great. However there are thousands of airports in the world and they can't all be Singaporean. If you compare BKK against the average it certainly rates well.

Sorry about the rant!

barryFunk