"Suvarnabhumi is hell" screams Thailand's most famous English teacher

[DrTuner]

45 minutes ago, StayinThailand2much said:

HCMC airport, IOs change shift at 7 p.m.; salute the tourists(!!)

I like that. They know who they are serving. Civil servants, remember? In Thailand they think they're next to buddha because they managed to buy into a government job.

[Mel52]

Excuses, excuses, excuses. Spin, Spin, Spin. Promises, Promises, Promises. Why bother to defend a broken system? We'll read the same next year and the year after that.

They’re one of the busiest airports in the world!!! I don’t understand how people don’t get that Thailand literally has one of the busiest airports in the world and people wonder why the lines are long it’s amazing it doesn’t take longer. You know now that I think about it I have always heard people complaining about the airport in almost every major city I’ve ever been to.

[sawadee1947]

21 hours ago, webfact said:

when 44 flights with 4,500 passengers arrived between noon and 2pm.

well, everybody with common sense can understand immigration now.

44 flights came unexpected. Not planned , not scheduled, just out of the blue. ????????

[Mel52]

Sorry - I didn't read twenty six pages of replies - perhaps/probably mentioned already.  

It is Thai Customs and Immigration's responsibility to see that their operations are ADEQUATELY staffed. Airline schedules and manifests are available.

 

So, want to stop receiving "Black Eyes" do your job - Staff Correctly.  

 

I’d like to see you and everyone else who’s whining about it do their jobs for one day and see how long you all last. The airport would probably shutdown if they tried that experiment. These people are working their asses off!!! And it’s a very thankless job.

 

[Andrew65]

30 minutes ago, poohy said:

Flew in a few months ago (end of April)  arrived 3pm on a Friday afternoon massive queues took over an hour to get through...and This was before fingerprinting

 

Must be fun now!

Thai and Eva leave LHR around 21:30 for BKK arriving around 15:00. So just with those 2 flights it's probably around 600+ people being disgourged into Swampy at the same time. Probably flights from CDG, AMS, & Frankfurt also.

 

As someone else pointed out, if you arrive between 12:00 -14:00 the Thais have their lunch break. Probably not enough IO's to rotate and keep all the desks open.

[brianthainess]

On 7/19/2019 at 9:42 AM, Chang_paarp said:

So 44 flights arriving surprised the immigration folk?

 

Did they all arrive without warning?

 

It is called management to look at the expected workload and plan accordingly. Just one of the things that impacts on the chances of a tourist returning or recommending to others whether it is worth the effort to go to Thailand, even before the exchange rate is considered.

They are to busy driving around the country checking expats paperwork, that was checked a few days ago at the I O while applying for the same visa/extension that you made last year(s),and they came and visited you then, you even have to draw a new map for them. Plenty of I O available but in the wrong places. Phew i feel better now.

[transam]

8 minutes ago, Mel52 said:

They’re one of the busiest airports in the world!!! I don’t understand how people don’t get that Thailand literally has one of the busiest airports in the world and people wonder why the lines are long it’s amazing it doesn’t take longer. You know now that I think about it I have always heard people complaining about the airport in almost every major city I’ve ever been to.

Then they should make sure they have the staff to cope with the flow.

 

Well shouldn't they....?

[transam]

6 minutes ago, Mel52 said:

I’d like to see you and everyone else who’s whining about it do their jobs for one day and see how long you all last. The airport would probably shutdown if they tried that experiment. These people are working their asses off!!! And it’s a very thankless job.

 

What a load of rollox...........????

[Mel52]

They are not good organisers.
 
[emoji23]
 

Anyone with common sense knows that’s not how air traffic control works otherwise you’d be having collisions crashes and accidents all the time at the airport but they don’t. You could cut the stupidity on here with a knife jeez. Conspiracy theorists all over are apparently joining together on this topic [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

[Andrew65]

Just now, transam said:

What a load of rollox...........????

It doesn't look like a very hard job. Entering people's details into a computer and stamping their passport, all whilst sitting on their asses. But then they're civil-servants.

[Kerryd]

1 hour ago, Stoker58 said:

Queueing for one hour is never acceptable. 

Also, it’s physically impossible for 20 flights to arrive “at the same time”.

"It has a total of 120 parking bays (51 with contact gates and 69 remote gates), with five of these capable of accommodating the Airbus A380. "
"The main passenger terminal building, with a capacity of handling 76 flight operations per hour, co-locates the international and domestic terminals, though assigning them to different parts of the concourse." 

Pretty sure they can easily handle more than 20 flights at a time (as in - within a few minutes of each other as we all know, or should know, that they wouldn't be landing at the exact same time").
Watching them come in, it seems they are getting a flight landing every 2-3 minutes. Just checked and it seems they are getting around 800 flights a day (Domestic and International combined as well as Cargo flights). That's an average of 1 landing every 1.8 minutes, every day.

It does seem though that one of the main problems is the scheduling of the arrivals. I know from having flown in from the East and from the West that they schedule the arrivals from different regions to a set period. 

For example, every time I've flown in from Dubai or Bahrain, I've usually arrived at between 7-9 in the morning.

But when I flew in from a flight originating from Hong Kong, Japan or Taiwan, I usually arrived late at night (11pm - 1 am or thereabouts).

 

[Kalasin Jo]

I came in on Tuesday, hitting immigration at about 18:45. Lucky for me I was just ahead of a large number of arrivals, so short queue. Didn't wait long, processing including fingerprints and brief chat with IO as to where I was headed in Thailand and why, took around 2 minutes I'd say. Collected bag from carousel and out. About 45 minutes in all from touchdown.

[Spock]

20 hours ago, rayjed2 said:

This is NOT just to enter the "land of smiles" this is even if you are in transit. I fly  to Cambodia and like using Thia Air. I am a frequent flyer, but I will now use Malaysia Airways as the last few flights I have been held up by these long queues. Twice I have nearly missed my connection! in fact there was a family who pleaded with the Immigration Officers to let them through as their flight was leaving in 15 minutes, but there was no "smiles" then, and they were made to wait. They were just a few people in front of me and it took me nearly 50 minutes before I got through, so draw your own conclusions on the fate of that family!

I have flown many routes over the years and passed through many airports as a transfer passenger and have never had to pass through another security check such as this. Why are people who are in transit subjected to this in Suvarnabhumi airport?

No wonder tourism is dying in Thailand, just coming through immigration is enough to put a person off.

By the way, it takes me about 30 minutes to enter Cambodia via Phnom Penh, that is with collecting my bag, buying a visa and passing through immigration, go figure!!

 

No additional security check in KL when flying transit. Totally unnecessary given transit passengers have been checked at port of origin.

[Andrew65]

1 minute ago, Mel52 said:

From what I’ve seen in the last 5 years that I’ve been living here retired here and the last ten years that I’ve been coming here they’re better organizers than our government in the United States most Asian cultures are especially in Japan I remember.

Japan's an out-lier, maybe the most organised place on the planet.

 

Not to be used as a comparison with places in Indo-China.

[transam]

1 minute ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

Now you've shifted from spamming this thread with anecdotal nonsense and conjecture to air traffic control which is completely off topic.

 

Best ignored I think.

 

 

It's OK, he Wai's a lot........????

[Mel52]

"It has a total of 120 parking bays (51 with contact gates and 69 remote gates), with five of these capable of accommodating the Airbus A380. "

"The main passenger terminal building, with a capacity of handling 76 flight operations per hour, co-locates the international and domestic terminals, though assigning them to different parts of the concourse." 

 

Pretty sure they can easily handle more than 20 flights at a time (as in - within a few minutes of each other as we all know, or should know, that they wouldn't be landing at the exact same time").

Watching them come in, it seems they are getting a flight landing every 2-3 minutes. Just checked and it seems they are getting around 800 flights a day (Domestic and International combined as well as Cargo flights). That's an average of 1 landing every 1.8 minutes, every day.

 

It does seem though that one of the main problems is the scheduling of the arrivals. I know from having flown in from the East and from the West that they schedule the arrivals from different regions to a set period. 

For example, every time I've flown in from Dubai or Bahrain, I've usually arrived at between 7-9 in the morning.

But when I flew in from a flight originating from Hong Kong, Japan or Taiwan, I usually arrived late at night (11pm - 1 am or thereabouts).

 

 

I’ve noticed the same thing at pretty much all the same airports in the countries you listed they just need a bigger airport Suvarnabhumi is one of the busiest airports in the world it’s well known for being one of the busiest airports in the world. National Geographic I believe it was once even did a story on how busy Suvarnabhumi airport is.

[Andrew65]

1 minute ago, Spock said:

No additional security check in KL when flying transit. Totally unnecessary given transit passengers have been checked at port of origin.

Happens at Dubai too, annoying.

 

I'm not really surprised that they might do this in Malaysia & Indonesia, hotbeds of Islamism.

 

I suspect it's because some flights come from places like Yemen or Sharm El Sheikh or Somalia, where security is not the best.

[robertson468]

I pass through Swampy several times each year and always, always there are long queues and unmanned desks.  I think efficiency is something that is not common to Thai administration, unless there is some hidden benefit for them.

[Mel52]

Funny I have worked in Thai companies for 31 years at senior management level and found that to be completely untrue.
 
Your experience of Thai management and organisation is coming as a tourist on holiday?
 
[emoji1]

Then try visiting the rest of the world

[malibukid]

21 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

Mr Biggs is, in my opinion, totally correct. An absolute disgrace for a modern airport, and one that many people are afraid to use because of the incredible length of time it can take to get through immigration. The time, plus the usually hostile manner of the officials processing passports, gives any visitor an incredibly bad first impression. In contrast, Singapore, also a busy airport, takes an average time of around 30 seconds waiting, and less than that to be processed !

Thailand was never colonized

[connda]

21 hours ago, webfact said:

In response to celebrity English-language teacher Andrew Biggs complaining about the long queues at Suvarnabhumi Airport, the Immigration Bureau has clarified that it had already mobilised more personnel to facilitate immigration clearance.

Of course, instead of addressing the long immigration queues that seem to plague travelers deboarding at Suvarnabhumi, officials make excuses.  Well, cultural lesson number one and lesson number two and lesson number three are encountered by travelers as soon as one steps off the plane:

Lesson 1.  Xenophobia.  You're not welcome here foreigners and as such you'll stand in line for an hour or so for the privilege of entering the most magnificent land of the most magnificent Thai people.  You foreigner are kon daang, or quite literally, different people...not Thai people, and as such untrusted and assumed to be trouble-makers, potential criminals, potential illegal aliens, and therefore we must scrutinize you all to the n^th degree.
Lesson 2.  Saving face.  Regardless of what pesky, unwelcome, trouble-making foreigners say about the immigration queues at Thai airports - there is no problem!  Foreigners are all potential riff-raff and can not be believed.

Lesson 3.  Social status and ranking.  The rich are allowed to by-pass the queue because they are special and you are not.  So stand in line, be quiet, don't rock the boat - and know your place.

Welcome to Amazing Thailand - The Land of Smiles.  

 

[Odysseus123]

4 minutes ago, transam said:

It's OK, he Wai's a lot........????

I daresay he would wai to my mobility scooter if he thought that it was manufactured in Thailand...all that Airborne training I expect..the 82nd and 101st are notorious "Wai-ers" as you know..????

[Mel52]

Funny I have worked in Thai companies for 31 years at senior management level and found that to be completely untrue.  

Your experience of Thai management and organisation is coming as a tourist on holiday?

 

[emoji1]

 

Ten years ago I first started coming here as a tourist now I’ve been living here for the last 5 years by the way. Go see what it’s like everywhere else instead of pushing your conspiracy theories on an Internet forum. I have been living here as well for years and I’ve been all over the rest of the world as well. I also deal with immigration every year and every 90 days for only a few minutes when I do my 90 day report.

 

[Andrew65]

1 minute ago, malibukid said:

Thailand was never colonized

Ayutthaya was sacked and occupied by the Burmese, questionable.

[anon7854]

Working in Thailand for nearly 3 years learned me one thing : Thais are catastrophic at management and accepting critic.

Edited July 20, 2019 by anon7854

[Odysseus123]

5 minutes ago, Andrew65 said:

Ayutthaya was sacked and occupied by the Burmese, questionable.

And the Khmer got to near my place..oh and the French actually did get here..ssshhh..

[kinyara]

Jus for one day why don’t those in charge of the various interested parties. Minister for Tourism, Head of Immigration, AOT, TAT, even the PM in disguise, turn up unannounced and view the actual situation in the arrivals hall of Swampy. They don’t appear to have the slightest idea of the reality of the poor service that awaits those arriving every day. From a tourism perspective Thailand is falling down at the very first hurdle, and no-one in authority appears able or willing to seek a long term lasting solution. Short term knee jerk responses to periodic public criticism just don’t cut it.

 

Can’t help thinking the airport situation and the inability to improve is symptomatic with so many other issues negatively impacting the country. I don’t suppose it will ever change, the old status quo carries on in so many areas.

Edited July 20, 2019 by kinyara

[transam]

1 minute ago, Mel52 said:

Ten years ago I first started coming here as a tourist now I’ve been living here for the last 5 years by the way. Go see what it’s like everywhere else instead of pushing your conspiracy theories on an Internet forum. I have been living here as well for years and I’ve been all over the rest of the world as well. I also deal with immigration every year when I get my extensions and every 90 days for only a few minutes when I do my 90 day report. They are EXTREMELY organized! Your dumb conspiracy theories make me doubt your story about working here in upper management for 30 years, YEAH RIGHT

Chummy, to be honest I don't think you know what you are talking about or you are on a wind up....Think you don't realise that a few of us on TVF have been in the country a long time and KNOW how the place works. You can carry on with your stuff but looking daft will take it's toll..

[anon7854]

1 minute ago, Mel52 said:

They are EXTREMELY organized!

????

 

Yeah I'm pretty sure they are "Extremely" organised.  You have no idea what you are talking about nor have any management experience it seems.   Restaurants that could do with 4-5 people on shift in Europe are having 6-7-8 in Thailand.  Shopping malls have a completely useless guy at entry greeting you.  In the company I worked for 3 years in BKK there was a guy cleaning the computer monitors because the cleaning lady didn't have the "expertise".

 

The government institutions are even more filled with incompetents and waste of space'ers. I would not call that "organised" 

[Jasminetea]

These are scheduled flights. Surely immigration should know well in advance how many flights are arriving on a daily basis.