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

[uncleeagle]

“During rush hours, the immigration counters at Suvarnabhumi Airport could clear about 2,000 passengers within an hour, but the immigration officers also had to be on alert for foreign criminals trying to pass themselves off as tourists, and many passengers were not allowed to enter the Kingdom, Choengron added.”

 

I very much doubt that there are truly many “criminals” trying to enter Thailand but this statement suggests they first assume that to be the case, apparently fill some arbitrary quota, reject a large number of innocent people in the process, labelling them as criminals and abusing them by locking them in a detention centre until deportation.

 

In their xenophobic minds, do they for example automatically label as a criminal every person who uses visa exemptions an “excessive” number of times, eg, 4, or is it 5 or 6....or perhaps just 3 if the IO is particularly nasty or just in a bad mood.

 

I would like to see evidence of this large number of criminals, or atleast a set of logical and reasonable criteria by which they select this large nunber of people to reject and deport, and have this reported in the mainstream foreign media so that potential visitors are fully aware of the risk involved in visiting Thailand.

 

It used to be the case that the media wrote about the jet ski scam etc or the frequency of road accidents as well as violence towards foreigners but surely the risk of being randomly labeled as a criminal by immigration, locked up and deported should also be reported as a very real risk to add to all the other ones.

Edited July 20, 2019 by uncleeagle

[transam]

1 minute ago, BobBKK said:

yes be with have that special lane and avoid the long queues into BKK.

Eh....?????

[BobBKK]

4 minutes ago, transam said:

Eh....?????

We don't queue at the normal lanes right?  I can't remember the number but if you are transiting to Chiang Mai you keep walking waaaaaay past all those people and there are 2/3 lanes.

Edited July 20, 2019 by BobBKK

[Chivas]

6 hours ago, superal said:

You could well be right and that would stop the criminals from going to Thailand . Could that be the reason why the tourism is down now ?  For the criminals already in Thailand , how can they get out of the country and avoid the finger print checks . I assume the checks are used at departures as well as arrivals ? 

Personally I believe its just internal Thai politics....put prints on database and then any subsequent police investigations have immediately got potentially hard evidence at crime scenes

Tourism from traditional countries are hugely down because the USD at 30 Sterling at 38 Euro nations at 34 and Aussies at 21 is making Thailand savagely expensive.

Even well off tourists wont be fleeced and seek alternative destinations

Edited July 20, 2019 by Chivas

[transam]

7 minutes ago, BobBKK said:

We don't queue at the normal lanes right?  I can't remember the number but if you are transiting to Chiang Mai you keep walking waaaaaay past all those people and there are 2/3 lanes.

Go back and read why the "Eh"....

[Liss Camber]

When I'm coming to Thailand I was travelling more than 15 hours already. Having to wait one hour for passing the immigration while having to stand on my feets with no possibility to sit down for a while is more than tiring. Taking in consideration that my driver will not wait for me for one hour or more I wonder how I'll get to Pattaya! (Don't tell me please to take the bus ????) Not looking forward to my next arrival at Suvarnabhumi in October in the afternoon. Booked my flights already ????.

 

If immigration takes that long in the afternoon how is it in the early morning hours or in the evening? For sure not much better! Hopefully things will change until then. 

[globalspark]

it has been a problem for  many years and very frustrating  when you arrive  on a late flight.For some reason most flights seem to arrive around the 10pm to 1am time slot.

 Yes correct immigration are been more  careful than  before and asking many questions such as your hotel  name and booking number.Now fingerprints been introduced it will take even longer.

 I think it would be better if certain countries  example Australia  EU countries were given  designated  counters as we are less likely to cause  problems.Tour groups should have  designated counters  as they would not be on the tour if there were visa problems before departure.

[crazyk]

I have arrived at both main airports a lot of times at different times,it can be either hectic or smooth,why not get the airports to spread the flights out instead of 30-50planes landing at the same time & other times only a few,the immigration staff know the busy times & being lazy make up some exscuse to blob it

[zydeco]

6 hours ago, kcpattaya said:

Apparently your name needs to be "Andrew Biggs" to be heard?
We all know how Thais work: Slow, slower, not at all...
NONE of the clerks at the airport seem to get bothered about the length of their queues.

 

I guarantee you that Biggs now wishes he hadn't made so much as a ripple in getting attention. He is a marked man. 

[Gandtee]

18 minutes ago, zydeco said:

I guarantee you that Biggs now wishes he hadn't made so much as a ripple in getting attention. He is a marked man. 

The reason his post got so much attention was that he wrote it in Thai.????

[Teddy3943]

Thailand always tries to be number one. It surely is the number one in the worst things

[StevieAus]

On 7/19/2019 at 2:50 PM, 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!!

 

I have flown with Etihad, Qatar and Oman Air in recent years and had to pass through security when transiting at their home airports.

If my memory serves me correctly the same thing happened at KL with Air Asia when changing flights about 2 years ago

[DavCurtis]

There's queues in every major international airport in the world, let's be realistic here people. This is Bangkok for christ sake. People just expect to walk into the country like diplomates? 

[StevieAus]

18 hours ago, crickets said:

Never waited more than 3 mins at Melbourne airport.

I was going to post a comment but will refrain must try and stick

together !!!

[Sheryl]

Nonsensical/trolling posts and replies to them have been removed.

[josephbloggs]

18 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

And now that you have criticized Heathrow, you will expect millions of ethnic Brits, I mean nationals, to tell you to leave for calling them, all of them, hell. 

 

We'll expect the UK social media to be exploding with critiscms of you and telling you to leave the county and making other threats. 

 

Knew you'd be along to defend the Thai????

How is it up there on your high horse?  Knew you'd be along to twist my story into something anti-Thai. I didn't defend anyone - I didn't even comment on anything Thai.  Queues like those in the OP are unacceptable.  

Just relating an unpleasant experience in my home country after a long and arduous flight (with kids).  

[berrec]

Well, there are actually 100............spend the first few hours in "Amazing Thailand" moaning and groaning on your first Thailand walkabout to a Thai immigration counter for Farangs for your 50 second processing entry go / no-go stamp.  

[ukrules]

On 7/19/2019 at 2:34 PM, webfact said:

but sometimes supervisors had to leave their counters to solve problems of other officers

 

Sounds like the immigration officers being busy denying entry to people and being dealt with by the supervisors.

 

My implication being that service levels have been reduced as the number of people they turn away increases.

[from the home of CC]

9 hours ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

20+ years ago and you'd be right. 

 

I sort of feel sorry for all these greenhorns that have just arrived like @Mel52, they missed out on when Thailand was an amazing place. Full of wonder and excitement. 

 

We are cynical because we have seen the changes, we know it was much better before, and we don't like the way it is headed. 

 

The Thais can't con us with their BS about biometrics and fingerprints, good guys in etc., because we know they are full of it. 

 

Many of us chose Thailand because of the freedoms... many of those freedoms now sadly eroded and the erosion cheered on by the happy-clappers into what is fast becoming an unpleasant place to be as a foreigner. 

Been here almost that long and I don't agree in the least. I see these change as 'taking out the trash', the human variety. For too long Thailand was lax in its immigration enforcement but thankfully that's changing. A few more tweaks will get rid of the rest of the garbage.

[Rawairat]

Just been to Singapore no queues and no problems ????

[tootall]

On 7/19/2019 at 2:58 PM, 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 !

Last week I came in at 03:20 got to the IO booth and there were 12 people in the que in front of me. It took 1 hour from the plane gate to clear IO. Took over 30 minutes to prossess 13 people-unacceptable. Only about 6 IO's on stations. You would think I would breaze through at that early time in the morning. The real problem is that there are never enough ques open to handle the masses. The blame is all on IO

[TDCNINJA]

I entered Thailand at 0500 on July 3. I personally saw 3 immigration officers put up 'closed' signs for no apparent reason. 

[Jack100]

You've been in Thailand to long when .....................

[NanLaew]

On 7/20/2019 at 4:47 AM, Jomtien Holiday Guy said:

There is many ways to ask Tourist to stay away…….I had a similar experience ones, when i should leave Thailand. Both Escalators down to the Place, where we show the passport for the last time was stopped….not because they didn't work, but because there was no more space for people downstairs!!!  I really though about it...Do i want to risk that kind of Bullshit one more time? or should i look for another place to spend my Holidays.....and now is the Bath on rise, so one more reason to be openminded for a new Country in the Southeast…. 

So even the escalators at the international airports don't like us now?

 

It's not so much your self-proclaimed open-mindedness that worries me.

[ThaiBunny]

Just now, Mel52 said:

It really isn’t just Thailand it’s most airports in almost all major world cities but Thailand does have probably one of the busiest airports in the world at Suvarnabhumi. It’s been like this all over the world and yes Thailand as well for several years that’s why I don’t understand why people are acting like this is something new it’s not.

Absolutely - Changi Airport is hell, isn't it

[metisdead]

More troll posts and the replies have been removed.  

[Benmart]

On 7/19/2019 at 2:53 PM, spidermike007 said:

It is true that there are very long lines in other countries. In LA, I have been subjected to hour long queues, just getting out of the airport on international flights. For the most part, the TSA seems to be grossly underfunded and understaffed. Lately, coming in has been far better.

 

But, there is never a justification for the immigration lines to extend beyond the ramp where you turn towards immigration, coming into Swampy. Never. That is completely beyond the pale. They have plenty of lines to handle tourists, and most of the time more than half are closed. They have plenty of agents, and they have the schedules, so they know when additional agents are needed. All else is just an excuse, and very, very weak deflection from people who just cannot handle criticism on any level. Man up. Do your job correctly, and we will not complain. Otherwise, deal with it. 

News flash. This issue is about BKK and not LAX and the TSA has no connection to the RTP.

[Hotrudester]

I certainly hope that they will also invite other regular travellers to give comments along with Mr Biggs who gained more recognition for himself and his businesses over his verbally abusive comments. Easier and cheaper to gain free publicity by criticising Thai officials. The longer Mr Biggs can carry on with this particularly tedious story the more recognition he will obtain. His small fish image may well grow to slightly larger fish. 

  

[Mel52]

Stuck in unnecessarily long lines after a long flight?

Tired?

Jet lagged and you just wanna get home?

Kids giving you an earful?

 

 

 

 

I understand I’ve had stressful times at airports before to but it’s just the way of the world today unfortunately. But it’s not as bad as people say. Although I agree Suvarnabhumi is one of the most crowded airports in the world among several other crowded airports around the world. Definitely one of the busiest airports in the world.

[dimitriv]

19 hours ago, Mel52 said:

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. 

I saw you repeating this several times.

 

A busy airport is no excuse for long lines. Why do you think so ?