Suwanabhumi Airport Immigration 07/11/2019 3:23 pm

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

Looks like a long wait today in Suwanabhumi international arrivals immigration July 112019 at 3:23 pm????

[poohy]

I arrived same day and time about 4 weeks ago prior to fingerprinting it took over an hour then Good luck!

[Farangwithaplan]

How is the other immigration queue about 300m further down from that one?

 

[4MyEgo]

The date confused me at first, then I realised where I was ????

 

Suwanabhumi Airport Immigration 07/11/2019 3:23 pm

[ianezy0]

I called the impatient sufferers helpline. I’m in a queue!

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

40 mins not the worse. My flight from Perth on Thai Airways was as billed "Smooth as silk" but Thai immigration rough. 

[NanLaew]

51 minutes ago, Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere said:

40 mins not the worse. My flight from Perth on Thai Airways was as billed "Smooth as silk" but Thai immigration rough. 

But THAI from Perth gets in around 10:30 PM no? How did your flight get in so early?

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

2 hours ago, NanLaew said:

But THAI from Perth gets in around 10:30 PM no? How did your flight get in so early?

I think you chose the right avatar for your name. Try not to hit your head against that wall. Lol! 

[thaiowl]

I arrived at 1pm and the immigration line was down the entrance ramp.

[jaiyen]

13 hours ago, NanLaew said:

But THAI from Perth gets in around 10:30 PM no? How did your flight get in so early?

We always get the morning flight which gets in about 3.30 and there is never a big queue at that time. Even better when we fly straight up to Chiang Mai at 5.20.  No queue at all as you go through immigration at the domestic end.

[roderick17]

3 hours ago, thaiowl said:

I arrived at 1pm and the immigration line was down the entrance ramp.

I arrived at about the same time as you, I've never seen such a long line leading to the immigration counters, at swampy . Fortunatelty,   I followed a small family group into the priority immigration cue. That bit of very sly  cue jumping probably saved me a 90 minute wait. Thai immigration really need to do something and quickly!!

 

  

 

 

 

 

[masuk]

4 minutes ago, roderick17 said:

I arrived at about the same time as you, I've never seen such a long line leading to the immigration counters, at swampy . Fortunatelty,   I followed a small family group into the priority immigration cue. That bit of very sly  cue jumping probably saved me a 90 minute wait. Thai immigration really need to do something and quickly!!

 

  

 

 

 

 

How come we're discussing Snooker here?  (CUE)

[cnx355]

Do not forget that you have to be fingerprinted now.

 

I arrived on July 6th and it was done but I was lucky to be in a queue with European people that can read the instruction screen n English, In that case it took maybe 1 minutes more than usual for the scanning of the fingerprints.  For <usual> I means a long wait compared to the smaller countries around that do not use Arrival-departure card to staple in passport.

 

[barry008]

So now you scan both hands and your passport is that correct. We are arriving over the weekend just need a heads up.

[terryw]

I went through DMK last Friday. It took 45 minutes. 

 

Every 3rd or 4th passenger seemed to have a problem with their fingerprint machine.

 

What I do not understand is why they want your fingerprints when leaving Thailand, as they already have them in their database.

 

A clear example of bureaucratic overkill.

[keemapoot]

4 minutes ago, terryw said:

I went through DMK last Friday. It took 45 minutes. 

 

Every 3rd or 4th passenger seemed to have a problem with their fingerprint machine.

 

What I do not understand is why they want your fingerprints when leaving Thailand, as they already have them in their database.

 

A clear example of bureaucratic overkill.

I think the reason is twofold: 1. They can check to make sure the same person is using any particular passport by in/out matching; and 2. They can quickly match it to the person the 2nd time using only one hand making it unnecessary to do a full two hand and thumb scan. For example, I left Thailand last week and used it for the first time and had to do a full left/right/thumb scan input. Upon return a few days later on entering the country, I only needed to do one hand. The software obviously confirms that is the right person and there seems to be no need to do both hands after doing it once.

[NanLaew]

11 hours ago, Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere said:

I think you chose the right avatar for your name. Try not to hit your head against that wall. Lol! 

Thanks for somewhat insolently drawing my attention to the fact that TG does indeed have different flight times from Perth on alternate days.

 

Yours.

 

Mine.

 

At least your one departed and got in early and you were already in the conga line only 3 minutes after the SCHEDULED arrival.

 

There's a lot to be said for the efficiency of THAI, eh?

[Classic Ray]

I was interested to see that Thailand prints different fingers to Malaysia, another example of joined up ASEAN! 

[a3tsw]

Similar situation yesterday at Don Muang , same time 3:00 ~ 3:30pm, I arrived from Sapporo and lines were miles long , but moved fairly quickly , as all passport control booths were manned for a change.

[from the home of CC]

yea but the sky is falling here and nobody is coming to Thailand anymore... lol

[NanLaew]

It's school holidays time for loads of countries with a conventional calendar so families, backpackers. millennials and gap-year generation Y-ers and everything in between have started the annual summer travel ritual.

 

I am trying to get a domestic flight out of Broome next week and being quoted over 1000 quid one-way on Qantas biz class.

[Sujo]

I arrived 29 june and left 2 july. No fingerprint scanners used both ways. But lines were still long.

[Salerno]

1 hour ago, cnx355 said:

I was lucky to be in a queue with European people that can read the instruction screen n English

Lucky for those that can't read English that the instructions are in a language based on your passport ????

[wgdanson]

24 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

It's school holidays time for loads of countries with a conventional calendar so families, backpackers. millennials and gap-year generation Y-ers and everything in between have started the annual summer travel ritual.

 

I am trying to get a domestic flight out of Broome next week and being quoted over 1000 quid one-way on Qantas biz class.

What's the cost of a return ticket?

[NanLaew]

14 minutes ago, Salerno said:

Lucky for those that can't read English that the instructions are in a language based on your passport ????

...but nationality is no sure indicator of literacy as indicated by the little old Chinese lady who buggered about for the best part of 15 minutes at the inbound fingerprinting last month.

[NanLaew]

6 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

What's the cost of a return ticket?

About the same price on Virgin as Virgin only shows availability on a r/t ticket. Meanwhile, Qantas skyrockets to almost 1500 quid which includes the bonus of a 50 hour stopover in Kununurra!

[klauskunkel]

Suwanabhumi Airport Immigration 07/11/2019 7-Eleven 3:23 pm

 

It's the airport 7-Eleven queue, they provide the finger printing service for 10 baht per digit.

[mserror]

46 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

Last time I was stuck like that there was nearly no immigration counter manned. Hardly fault of immigration officers, but terrible management of the airport if this is a regular occurrence. If you manage the airport, you must know when planes are landing, you know from airlines how many approximately passengers are arriving (or at the least you can estimate from plane models/sizes) to adjust staffing dynamically. If that's beyond AOT's management capability, they should be sacked and replaced by a few extra lines in HR software.

The management either do not care about the queues, or do not understand the relationship between counter staff and queue length. Or both.

[NCC1701A]

2 hours ago, barry008 said:

So now you scan both hands and your passport is that correct. We are arriving over the weekend just need a heads up.

yes. right hand four fingers, left hand four fingers. then both thumbs.

[buanmeerugsaa]

3 hours ago, roderick17 said:

I arrived at about the same time as you, I've never seen such a long line leading to the immigration counters, at swampy . Fortunatelty,   I followed a small family group into the priority immigration cue. That bit of very sly  cue jumping probably saved me a 90 minute wait. Thai immigration really need to do something and quickly!!

 

  TAT and the PM need to do something quickly to shake up the Immigration Police. The negative appraisal of their ordeal will  be more potent than all the expensive ads sent around the world and further damage future tourism  Scenes like this queue should be a wake-up call.

 

3 hours ago, roderick17 said: