As of late last night arrival I noticed the line formed all the way past 45min wait time. Most of waiting visitors appear to be China mainland well they still don't deserve that kind of wait at LOS. 

 

And yet at mid evening,  it was quiet.  When several  wide bodies arrive, there will be a delay.  45 minutes is acceptable when one takes into consideration traffic flow. Compared to  delays at other airports BKK is still decent. Miami can take 3 hours, Toronto 2+ hours, Paris - 1+hour, Gatwick- 2-3 hours, Madrid - 3 hours,  etc.

Thanks for the report.

As previous post: 45 min could be spent better, but it is not as terrible than from reports some two/three months ago.

 

Not only you have to study holiday plans from Europe, US, Australia etc. but now also be aware of the "Golden Days" in China (October 1 to 8).

Just seen this thread

 

Good guys IN ....

Low profits from Chinese tourism, packages all inclusive from china. Nothing for the local economy, boring other tourists everywhere from the arrival! to do queue only for the Chinese is the way. 

They shouldn’t be allowed into Swampy – send all their planes to Utapao as most stay in Pattaya

I came in 2 weeks ago and waited for 1 hour

5 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

And yet at mid evening,  it was quiet.  When several  wide bodies arrive, there will be a delay.  45 minutes is acceptable when one takes into consideration traffic flow. Compared to  delays at other airports BKK is still decent. Miami can take 3 hours, Toronto 2+ hours, Paris - 1+hour, Gatwick- 2-3 hours, Madrid - 3 hours,  etc.

 

 

Agreed. I do fear, though, what it will be like during the peak of the coming high season ...

 

I've been through immigration at Suwarnabhumi a few times in the past 4/5 months and it took anything from 15 minutes to 1h30'. Each time it was obvious that the bulk of the crowd is from mainland China, so I think it's time to rename this airport Chinabhumi.

 

In terms of strict figures it certainly supports the claims of TAT (numbers of tourists going up up up). As for the true impact of this new model on Thai income (short, middle and long term), that I bet is a very different story.

 

 

56 minutes ago, gandalf12 said:

I came in 2 weeks ago and waited for 1 hour

They were training for the Golden Week... 

In my opinion the worst operated airport in operation. In Singapore, which receives plenty of visitors, the average wait through immigration is measured in seconds !

I came through DMK at noon on the 28th and the line was short of the fifteen minute marker.

6 hours ago, vspin134 said:

As of late last night arrival I noticed the line formed all the way past 45min wait time. Most of waiting visitors appear to be China mainland well they still don't deserve that kind of wait at LOS. 

 

Yes, they DO deserve that, and are used to it back home !

Came through yesterday at about 10:00. Waited about half an hour or so. Not great, but it was just a delight to be off that sodding plane!

Off topic, I did not see anyone asked to show money on arrival.

I was there last night around 7pm - Emirates A380 from Dubai with maybe 500 on board and got ahead of the masses. It still took about 30 min but I was lucky enough to get ahead of a few tour groups. At least they had most of the desks manned which is a huge change from before. At least they are taking baby steps to fix the problem, but they really need to follow the example in Singapore and HK to enable more frequent visitors to use the automated channels. If that took out 25% of the people it would be a huge improvement.

you can book VIP for about 1200 baht get met off the plane and walked straight through, but then you will wait for your bags 

2 hours ago, gandalf12 said:

I came in 2 weeks ago and waited for 1 hour

I came in 3 weeks ago and there were three people in front of me, this was at 4:20 pm.....saved my express pass for another day...and no the pass wasn't stamped with the flight or date so no worries I can still use it.

 

BUT I have, in the past on the same flight, seen the queue down the ramp and maybe 30 metres up the concourse. That was a fun wait...people jumping the queue..or trying to.

8 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

And yet at mid evening,  it was quiet.  When several  wide bodies arrive, there will be a delay.  45 minutes is acceptable when one takes into consideration traffic flow. Compared to  delays at other airports BKK is still decent. Miami can take 3 hours, Toronto 2+ hours, Paris - 1+hour, Gatwick- 2-3 hours, Madrid - 3 hours,  etc.

 

Last time I went through Gatwick there was nobody in the "Overseas Passport" line. Through in five minutes.

2 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

In my opinion the worst operated airport in operation. In Singapore, which receives plenty of visitors, the average wait through immigration is measured in seconds !

 

Singapore has progressed much in 50 years - Thailand has NOT progressed much in 600 years!  

Who is not learning? 

I touched down last Saturday and was through immigration in 30mins (business class) and 3 Saturdays ago I touched down and was through in 25mins (economy) ..both times I landed about 10am.

Most months I land friday around 11am and it's a 45mins to 1hr touchdown to through time duration.

Ps. Anybody taken less than 25mins from touchdown to through immigration?

Well, I arrived from there in last June and it was the same.

The few times I came it was always that terrible.

I entered on 02 Sep 17 at 1000 via KLM ex Amsterdam expected a long wait. Stood second in line for 90 seconds then stepped forward to be greeted by a smiling IO who pointed out that on the new format Immigration form that I should enter my Re-entry Permit Number. I told him that I left it blank because it asks for a Visa Number and since  the visa that I have been granted twelve extensions already is dead in an expired PP I was unsure if that was the number required. He smiled and said 'We are as confused as you, best put the re-entry number we can track that' 

Where can you book a VIP

 

3 hours ago, lvr181 said:

 

Singapore has progressed much in 50 years - Thailand has NOT progressed much in 600 years!  

Who is not learning? 

But Thailand was NEVER colonized. So they got that going for them.

18 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Where can you book a VIP

 

 

Information on VIP is here ... https://vip-777.com/form/BKK_Suvarnabhumi_International_Airport

I have never used VIP so I can't comment.

 

I use BFS ... https://www.bangkokflightservices.com/home/bfs-services/premium-airport-services/

My family visitors have used BFS many times and more than happy - also less expensive.

 

18 hours ago, JoePai said:

They shouldn’t be allowed into Swampy – send all their planes to Utapao as most stay in Pattaya

 

They do?  Not sure about that. U-Tapao isn't geared up for them. A lot come in via DMG too.

On 10/4/2017 at 9:28 AM, geriatrickid said:

And yet at mid evening,  it was quiet.  When several  wide bodies arrive, there will be a delay.  45 minutes is acceptable when one takes into consideration traffic flow. Compared to  delays at other airports BKK is still decent. Miami can take 3 hours, Toronto 2+ hours, Paris - 1+hour, Gatwick- 2-3 hours, Madrid - 3 hours,  etc.

45 minutes should be considered unacceptable anywhere, though BKK has never been as bad as Don Muang, both before and since the opening of Suvarnabhumi. Although I have never taken even one flight from Don Muang since Suvarnabhumi opened (I don't fly low cost and Don Muang is much more inconvenient for me than Suvarnabhumi is) I hear that waiting up to 3 hours is common there. Given that Suvarnabhumi has 120 immigration counters - there is little reason why anyone should have to wait in line more than a few minutes. The problem is they never open all the counters and each passenger is processed painfully slowly - 2-3 minutes on average, up to 5 or more minutes in some cases. In Singapore, they can process a foreign passenger in just a few seconds - why not in Thailand?

 

At airports like Singapore, Sydney, Zurich etc. you never have to wait more than a few minutes to clear immigration - even as a non-citizen foreigner. Other busy airports in the region generally don't too long (Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, Hong Kong etc.) The one time I flew into Toronto it didn't take long either - arrived on a flight from the US. The US is well known for being slow due to their strict security protocols. I find it hard to believe any EU airport would take long for EU citizens.

3 hours ago, jacko45k said:

They do?  Not sure about that. U-Tapao isn't geared up for them. A lot come in via DMG too.

Yes they are - U-tapao is being upgraded and being promoted as the greater BKK area's third airport and it's about time. Why this didn't happen 20 years ago when there were already millions of tourists going to Pattaya beats me.

 

The whole process of spending 1-2 hours in a bus, taxi, limousine or driving a rental car from BKK (or occasionally DMK) to Pattaya is futile when you have a perfectly good airport just 30 minutes from there. Something tells me the taxi cartel fears a loss of revenue once more flights head to U-tapao instead of Suvarnabhumi.

On 10/4/2017 at 2:08 PM, gaviolit said:

Good guys IN ....

Low profits from Chinese tourism, packages all inclusive from china. Nothing for the local economy, boring other tourists everywhere from the arrival! to do queue only for the Chinese is the way. 

Of course they must be tourists, they couldn't possibly be coming to visit relatives or dead ancestors. There are a large number of Thais that are of Chinese descent, my wife being one of them. About a mile from our home there is a Chinese graveyard that stretches for as far as the eye can see and during QuingMing it becomes a canvas village as relatives from around the globe visit for tomb sweeping day.

On 10/5/2017 at 12:23 AM, phkauf said:

But Thailand was NEVER colonized. So they got that going for them.

I read that as a 'joke'. Did you mean it that way?

16 hours ago, jimster said:

Yes they are - U-tapao is being upgraded and being promoted as the greater BKK area's third airport and it's about time. Why this didn't happen 20 years ago when there were already millions of tourists going to Pattaya beats me.

 

The whole process of spending 1-2 hours in a bus, taxi, limousine or driving a rental car from BKK (or occasionally DMK) to Pattaya is futile when you have a perfectly good airport just 30 minutes from there. Something tells me the taxi cartel fears a loss of revenue once more flights head to U-tapao instead of Suvarnabhumi.

Well to be honest, I live on the North side of Pattaya and near the motorway so Suvarnabhumi. is easier to get to than UTP.... DMG I have managed to avoid for a long time. I could get to UTP down Hwy 36, but the alternative of Sukhumvit all the way  is not a good option. Thirty minutes would be an impossible run. During busy spells it is likelier much slower.  Things are changing though, a motorway extension and tolls from where I am to Chonbury on Hwy 7 coming soon, may change that perspective.

I looked at the arrivals at UTP and there really aren't many, Some actually fly in over my house so not sure I will love the idea of expanding it.