Suvarnabhumi targets immigration and baggage delays

Baggage times no worse than Australia in my experience!

Baggage delay is getting really bad.. way worse than 2 years ago

3 minutes ago, Brettoj said:

Baggage times no worse than Australia in my experience!

BKK is faster than JFK.

This message has been heard for many years,
however, I lack faith.

10 minutes ago, Brettoj said:

Baggage times no worse than Australia in my experience!

Is Australia a standard to aspire to, or poor?

My past at Swampy was always that baggage got there before I did, or very soon after. Things seem to be getting worse though, with immigration and baggage.

Edited August 20Aug 20 by jacko45k

What about Phuket immigration. I know three people in the last three weeks that have waited in the immigration line, 1.5 hours, 2 hours and Yes, 4 hours. And these were all returning foreign residents with valid long term visas.

Go have a look at Singapore or would that be losing face?

7 minutes ago, LivingNThailand said:

What about Phuket immigration. I know three people in the last three weeks that have waited in the immigration line, 1.5 hours, 2 hours and Yes, 4 hours. And these were all returning foreign residents with valid long term visas.

That's insane lol, the regional flight time is less than the queue time for immigration in many cases then. That also would explain the baggage issues, as you get tons of late collected bags as a result from that.

I have heard nothing but similar and bad stories or even still hard questioning while having a DTV visa and being pretty much new in TH. Many of them are like, what is the point, now i'm still single, might as well then marry a indonesian or vietnamese as of easy 5 year visas.

The people I know that still do make it work improvised, you talk with today's flight costs and other fees, such as safe entries, about easily 20-25K baht per 2-3 months for just the visa. So basically they force people on corrupt/crooked DTV visa providers, most can't even bother as they never lived here in the good years, they aren't that impressed by Thailand to begin with. Most are confused they make it a hassle, where virtually every country begs for people to come stay and spend money. It's economic asylum seekers only that are a issue.

The few hardcore niche ones that do are willing to pay the 20K per 2-3 months, are just spending less and living cheap in bungalows and eating mostly from home too, in the south. So it hurts economy either way twice as much. It also makes people to not even want to own a monitor, or a bike, just because it is never sure when they are suddenly booted out. Let alone to buy a condo at this point lol.

Makes zero sense from any perspective, then at least offer like a 10K renewal per 3 months inside the country together with having e.g. a rolling one year rental of at least 10,000 baht too as proof of spending some. All the money goes to other countries for visa runs now.

Visa stress and uncertainty from government policies also causes more fragile spending in general, also by business owners. They ask like a whopping 250 USD or 8000 baht now to get a safe entry... I mean get real. That's nearly a year visa in cambodia.

Edited August 20Aug 20 by sunrisecoconuts

45 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

Is Australia a standard to aspire to, or poor?

My past at Swampy was always that baggage got there before I did, or very soon after. Things seem to be getting worse though, with immigration and baggage.

My experience is the same. For 2-3 years post Covid, it was smooth sailing and I got to the carousel before my bag. In the last 6 months or so, something changed and the immigration queue takes longer, even when the queue isn't that crowded.

Timewise, it correlated with implementing the TDAC, but I don't claim to know if that's causing it.

Edited August 20Aug 20 by impulse

3 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Immigration has all the information they need as far as incoming flights are concerned, and when people get off of 10 or 20 hour flight subjecting them to a long wait at immigration is absolutely unforgivable, and makes a really terrible first impression.

It's really time that they clean up their act.

In fairness, they were doing really well for a while. Not so much recently.

And kudos to them for straightening out the taxi situation (mostly). A couple of times recently, I got a taste of the bad old days when the taxi ticket machines went down. What a zoo. But that's what it used to be like all the time. I still get pressured to pay a lot more than the meter, but it's small money in the scheme of things.

BTW, I'm referring to Swampy...

Edited August 20Aug 20 by impulse

Never had any delays re: baggage collection and that's having sailed through Thai passport channels holding onto to the wife's shirt tails.

The God Lord looking after his own I guess.

30 minutes ago, impulse said:

My experience is the same. For 2-3 years post Covid, it was smooth sailing and I got to the carousel before my bag. In the last 6 months or so, something changed and the immigration queue takes longer, even when the queue isn't that crowded.

Timewise, it correlated with implementing the TDAC, but I don't claim to know if that's causing it.

So you miss the days of "hurry up and wait"? You're not alone apparently.

1 hour ago, Fact said:

BKK is faster than JFK.

It’s nothing to brag about if you compare yourself favorably to the worst. Aim to beat Singapore and you will have achieved something.

I would be interested to know if suvarnabhumi is now catering for more Travellers than it was built for. In other words operating at more than capacity.

I suspect it is. In which all the quick fixes in the world aren’t going to actually solve the problems.

Meanwhile in Singapore construction takes place on terminal 5, which i understand will be bigger than all existing 4 terminals put together. THATS planning and executing for the future.

I

33 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

So you miss the days of "hurry up and wait"? You're not alone apparently.

Years ago (not at BKK), I arrived at the luggage carousel just in time to catch someone "accidentally" walking off with one of my bags. Ever since then, I prefer to wait on my bags instead of the other way around. I also put some ugly reflective stickers on all of my wheeled luggage so there's no way someone could accidentally confuse mine as their own. (I also show up on car headlights walking down the street where there's no sidewalk)

Since Swampy rarely has anyone matching luggage and tags, I don't mind the wait after immigration. I hit the head and the ATM and check to make sure I don't need to top up my Thai SIM. Then I take a seat, which isn't possible in the queue.

2 hours ago, LivingNThailand said:

What about Phuket immigration. I know three people in the last three weeks that have waited in the immigration line, 1.5 hours, 2 hours and Yes, 4 hours. And these were all returning foreign residents with valid long term visas.

One suggestion: Buy a walking stick and hobble!!

6 minutes ago, simon43 said:

One suggestion: Buy a walking stick and hobble!!

Not in Phuket, but there are several airlines that have found out that they provide boarding assistance and early boarding for dozens in wheelchairs, yet they walk off the plane just fine. Those days seem numbered.

I'm looking forward to January when I turn 70 and qualify for elder relief at BKK. I've been tempted to try it on at 69 with my Bumrungrad medical certificate from after my heart attack.

43 minutes ago, wensiensheng said:

I would be interested to know if suvarnabhumi is now catering for more Travellers than it was built for. In other words operating at more than capacity.

I asked AI and it said that during Summer months the peak arrivals are mostly clustered between 1 pm and 5 pm which floods immigration queues. The number of first time tourist, families etc take longer to process.

Additionally AI states the staffing is Lower in off peak Summer Months.

AI states that while approximately the same volume may transit the Immigration Queues in Peak Winter Months. Immigration is fully staffed. Additionally the number of business and repeat visitors is higher which takes less time to process

12 minutes ago, impulse said:

Not in Phuket, but there are several airlines that have found out that they provide boarding assistance and early boarding for dozens in wheelchairs, yet they walk off the plane just fine. Those days seem numbered.

I'm looking forward to January when I turn 70 and qualify for elder relief at BKK. I've been tempted to try it on at 69 with my Bumrungrad medical certificate from after my heart attack.

I’m leaving the country in a few months and several people have told me to get a wheelchair leaving phuket, that it is easy. Except I like to do as much walking before and inbetween flights. I’d be so busted.

I’ve just turned 70 and keep asking people if they have an “elderly “ area for immigration,etc in Phuket coming and going but no one seems to know. Hence the wheelchair option. 😩. I’ve heard they have it in bkk. I’ve also heard that there is a disabled line coming into phuket but large groups of certain people have tried to abuse it. What to do. 😝

Edited August 20Aug 20 by LivingNThailand

1 minute ago, LivingNThailand said:

I’ve just turned 70 and keep asking people if they have an “elderly “ area for immigration,etc in Phuket coming and going but no one seems to know. Hence the wheelchair option. 😩. I’ve heard they have it in bkk. I’ve also heard that there is a disabled line coming into phuket but large groups of certain people have tried to abuse it. What to do. 😝

Post back if you find a definitive answer for Phuket. I just fly through BKK.

1 minute ago, impulse said:

Post back if you find a definitive answer for Phuket. I just fly through BKK.

Coming back I go through immigration in transit in bkk and that usually is seamless. I hope so this time. Customs in phuket though.

3 hours ago, Brettoj said:

Baggage times no worse than Australia in my experience!

Had to go to head office in Melbourne last year, flight landed at 9pm.

Waited 2 hrs for my luggage.

Disgusting.

21 minutes ago, J Branche said:

I asked AI and it said that during Summer months the peak arrivals are mostly clustered between 1 pm and 5 pm which floods immigration queues. The number of first time tourist, families etc take longer to process.

Additionally AI states the staffing is Lower in off peak Summer Months.

AI states that while approximately the same volume may transit the Immigration Queues in Peak Winter Months. Immigration is fully staffed. Additionally the number of business and repeat visitors is higher which takes less time to process

Good info.

I was thinking more in terms of annual passengers traffic.

Now that I bother to look it up, 65 million passengers pa is considered capacity for suvarnabhumi and this year annual traffic is projected to be 67 million. So any improvements made may make things better at the margin, but the root cause is insufficient capacity.

Of course there is a big difference between low and high season, but that’s a phenomenon at virtually every tourist destination. And the recent issues are apparent in low season, which gives food for thought.

If Thailand wants more tourists — especially so-called 'quality tourists' — they need to first make sure that the infrastructure is in place.

Everyone knows that official visits are announced in advanced, so you can bet they loaded the IO desks in anticipation in order to put on a show. Yet she still thought it was slow - imagine what she would think if she arrived on a normal day.

Nice showing. But unless the wait times go down considerably this will continue to be a problem for the country. If it takes a couple hours in line people won't return.

7 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Is Australia a standard to aspire to, or poor?

My past at Swampy was always that baggage got there before I did, or very soon after. Things seem to be getting worse though, with immigration and baggage.

I agree on the immigration. I have never met such a miserable not interested doing my job people ever.