5 minutes ago, userabcd said:

All these electronics and tech being peddled by software specialists and being implemented by the powers that be are certainly making life, travel and dealing with govt more complicated and difficult.

Yep, they should do away with the desk tops and issue iPhones, then it will all become clear.....

I have to give a shoutout to the elite program here. Although you feel like a right <deleted> riding in the golf cart with the freaking siren on and the gold clad lady behind the wheel, they got me through from the gate to the backseat of the AOT Camry in 35mins flat without me doing anything at all. It's insanely expensive of course when you pay 100k/y and only fly 10 or so times per year, but does take away the pain of dealing with the hoi polloi. 

1 hour ago, shady86 said:

Time has no value here.

Especially during lunchtime. 

You people doing all this complaining are giving me the s...s. You are the ones to blame because if you didn't come here then there wouldn't be any queues to complain about. Why can't you see this?

Ive seen this Aussie on TV. He loves himself but he does speak fluent Thai.

He could be in for some difficulties with renewing visas etc now that he has damaged Thailand's wonderful name (according to Prayuth)

Krisada Suyasien said: "That's OTT - Thailand has given you a good living now you call us hell".

 

NITI said: "I've seen the same abroad. This (criticism) is too much. It's not always like this”.

 

"Thailand has given you a good living?" It definitely looks like hell to me. 

 

 Some have to sit on planes for many hours, just to arrive in Thailand and wait many hours to "be allowed" to let in this wonderful land of scams and lies?

 

  It seems that plenty of Thai people have forgotten that THEIR country would be similar to Myanmar without tourists who've spent a lot of money in just one holiday?

 

None of the expats send money home to support their family, so why are we seen as something that's not really wanted, Mrs. Somchai?  

 

 

 

   

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Immigration officers have to do 8 things in 50 seconds," he said. These are passport check, visa check, face recognition, blacklist check, scan, interview, take a picture and stamp. 

 

In other countries at least 4 of those things happen with a 3 second pass of the document through a scanner.

I cant recall ever being interviewed on arrival. All I've ever got is blank looks, grunts and gestures to move back or forwards.

 

 

5 minutes ago, Lucius verus said:

Ive seen this Aussie on TV. He loves himself but he does speak fluent Thai.

He could be in for some difficulties with renewing visas etc now that he has damaged Thailand's wonderful name (according to Prayuth)

So in the end after all of this he is just another extended tourist like the rest of us. ???? 

2 minutes ago, Lucius verus said:

Ive seen this Aussie on TV. He loves himself but he does speak fluent Thai.

He could be in for some difficulties with renewing visas etc now that he has damaged Thailand's wonderful name (according to Prayuth)

I've known Andrew ever since he arrived here. Though we're not close friends, I have always respected him because he's worked hard to get where he is and his heart has always been in the right place. He's given a lot back to Thailand. He'll be fine.

disorganized, unorganized or not a shred of organizational structure

Long Q means tourists are dying to come to Thailand....

2 minutes ago, Mavideol said:

disorganized, unorganized or not a shred of organizational structure

 

Arguably, the 'post office' queuing system is better than the previous mass scrum.

The longest waits I have had in the past year or so are, in order : Siem Reap, Cochin in India and Gatwick.

1 hour ago, Cloudy said:

Foreigners living in Thailand should be careful about critiquing immigration so publicly. Hope his visa extension goes through ok.
Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

Andrew Biggs is something of a farang icon in Thailand. Has PR, speaks fluent Thai, far above the average pleb.

50 seconds?? So, how come the IO in front of me never does it in less than 5 minutes?

I thought Rooster was the most famous English teacher in Thailand.

2 minutes ago, ratcatcher said:

Andrew Biggs is something of a farang icon in Thailand. Has PR, speaks fluent Thai, far above the average pleb.

'Ear, 'ear....

3 minutes ago, puchooay said:

The longest waits I have had in the past year or so are, in order : Siem Reap, Cochin in India and Gatwick.

Long queues at Sydney airport in mid April, with the ePassport gates not working... Funny, as in both, New Zealand and China they work just fine.

3 minutes ago, transam said:

'Ear, 'ear....

41 minutes ago, aqua4 said:

Does not seem to stop Thai's from becoming 'German' or 'American'? Do they look in the mirror or at the cuckold West. 

It's about acceptance as a human being and a fellow citizen. Have you ever heard of a Caucasian (or even Cambodian) minister, judge, policeman, etc., in Thailand? Foreigners, incl. Asians, holding important government posts is common (and not even news-worthy) in the West, but I don't see that Thailand will ever have a member of government born to 'foreign' parents (who immigrated to Thailand)...

2 hours ago, webfact said:

"Immigration officers have to do 8 things in 50 seconds," he said. These are passport check, visa check, face recognition, blacklist check, scan, interview, take a picture and stamp. 

 

He said all this takes time if the country is going to keep out the bad guys. 

 

Keeping the bad guys out? Abusing this phrase as much as they have abused the Amazing Thailand phrase or like Thailand, Kitchen of the World.

 

But all fine and dandy leaving the Thai bad guys already in to lions share of preying on the good guys. This as a Thai job only. Just joking.

So basically Biggs is being said to shut up you ingrate second class low life Farang.

8 minutes ago, holy cow cm said:

So byasically Biggs is being said to shut up you ingrate second class low life Farang.

So, no VIP treatment for him...

 

Imagine, a TV icon like him being a Thai national; I bet they would usher him to his 'private' immigration counter. But as he is 'only a falang', he had to go back to the end of the queue like anyone else...

Biggs? Never liked the guy, he acts like a "monkey farang" - trained to speak and laugh stupid like all thai´s - so now he know what they REALLY think of him, hahaha!

 

BTW the line up in Swampy is nothing, people should try the old Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, that´s hell, 2-3 hours getting thru..

 

 

He should know better not to make such a comment.

Thai people will dislike him for it, bad for his image. And also in the worst-case there is the defamation law.  Just shut up is a simple solution.

Have to pick up a mate who's coming for a visit next month. Guess I don't need to be in a hurry to get there on time.

13 minutes ago, wilailuk said:

BTW the line up in Swampy is nothing, people should try the old Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, that´s hell, 2-3 hours getting thru..

Nothing like spending all day at an East Berlin checkpoint for entry to the DDR. Which would be off topic but for the fact that immigration here (TM 30, 90 Day, currency controls, police surveillance) is getting more and more like the old DDR every day.

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Krisada Suyasien said: "That's OTT - Thailand has given you a good living now you call us hell".

Are those kind of Thais really thinking that Thailand is the way it is because of Thais and their domestic industry/knowledge/innovations? Where would Thailand be without tourist/foreign money? Remove that and you have a second Cambodia. 

43 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

I thought Rooster was the most famous English teacher in Thailand.

That strutting little cockscomb! Words fail me, across and down.

It's important to remember that..

Wednesday was a public holiday and the final of 5 days off for many. Not only is that going to increase traffic, but the immigration staff are due their own time off.

Just getting more staff or outsourcing or sending others up the queue won't work because each 'alien' has to be checked in properly.

The fingerprint thing is new, and will of course slow things down as well.

Like the rest of this country, those who make the decision aren't anywhere near the sharp end, and those who are at the sharp end are discouraged from rocking the boat with ideas, suggestions or dare I say it 'criticism of the system.'