More complaints as usual. Even if they passengers and the planes did not show up without there knowledge, I am sure they do the best they can with the manpower available at every arrival. Of course it can also be miscalculations, but nobody is perfect. Whats the problem with standing in a line for maybe 1-2 hours at the most. I guess everyone travelling should take into consideration if they believe it´s worth the waiting to get into Thailand, or if they rather travel to a country where it goes quicker.

Amazing situation

Firstly, how do you scream on Twitter? An extra exclamation mark? A super angry emoji? Secondly, what sort of mentality do you have when you get irritated by having to queue, that you immediately go public and raise everybody's hackles? Self-important little man.

 

The solution is staring everybody in the face and only requires some small software engineering to put it right:

 

Passengers needed to get all ten fingers scanned.

 

Everybody is desperately searching for their other two fingers when they get to the front of the queue.

 

 

I flew last week (wednesday 9pm) and it took about 35mins in the queue. I must have got a lazy IO as it took him 3mins to process.

 

Upside though, no waiting for baggage on the carousel !!

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.

Are you seriously comparing Thailand to the old East Germany before the wall came down??? REALLY? Do you have any idea what East Germany was like with the Stasi and the old Soviet Union? You should seriously read about the history of that before you make ridiculous comparisons like that. Airports all over the world are crowded and I’ve seen much worse than Thailand all over the world even in the United States. I waited like 3 or 4 hours a few times going through Dulles International Airport on my way to Washington, D.C. people who think Suvarnabhumi airport is crowded ought to try getting out of Dulles International Airport and a few other airports all over the world.

 

Whining and complaining has become our National pastime. Let's share some good things about this beautiful country as well.

3 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Typical Thai over reaction to justified comments, he was not calling Thais or Thailand hell, just the ludicrously long immigration queue. Obviously this has been a problem since the scanning of fingers was introduced, needs looking at again.

They weren't scanning fingerprints on the 8th or the 17th at DM.

1 of 4 metal detectors at the DM departure also wasn't working but they were pretending it was by sending people through it..

3 hours ago, webfact said:

I was frustrated by what I saw yesterday because I am concerned about the image of Thailand."

Yeh! sure....555

Whining and complaining has become our National pastime. Let's share some good things about this beautiful country as well.

EXACTLY, like the very beautiful place we went swimming out in the country yesterday up here in the Issan area.

6 minutes ago, SAMCHAROEN said:

Whining and complaining has become our National pastime. Let's share some good things about this beautiful country as well.

Good idea. Well Thailand is close to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. That's positive!!

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

Frankly i'm surprised at this Andrew guy who by all account should have known better, what response was he expecting from Thai people other than 'if you don't like it go back home' and 'you are biting the hands that fed you all those years you ungrateful farang'... now Once and for all, Thai people in general do not give a stuff how a foreigner/farang feel or being treated in this country and it's futile to complain or try to make a point of it...

Coming from the same thin skinned outrage merchant that bangs on about immigrants in your home country, I find this post the height of irony ???? 

Its no wonder tourism is 30% down. They are all still waiting to get through immigration ????

Whining and complaining has become our National pastime. Let's share some good things about this beautiful country as well.

The Hill Tribes Villages up in the mountains outside of Chiangmai I could go on and on about the good things and beautiful places that Thailand has to offer. I absolutely LOVE IT here!!! I agree with you I’ve been saying the same thing for a while now ever since I first started using this website for information.

What a bloody ridiculous headline: "screams".

 

It was nothing of the sort.

1 hour ago, StayinThailand2much said:

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...

Guess he flies economy too. Business class he would be in the vip fast lane.

3 hours ago, Hawkman said:

 

Well said. Heathrow is a nightmare, but not like this.

 

Surely they could improve things? For example, if they have to do EIGHT things, why not delegate it? Employ more people, two officers, let's say who work themselves up the queue and do the passport and visa check and interview. If anything not right, send them to another queue for further enquiry. That will leave the officers with about a ten second job and relieve the stress for the officers too.

Well, in the last 9 months or so I've been into Gatwick once and Heathrow twice, never spent more than 10 minutes in the immigration queue, and that's the queue for all EU passport holders.

 

Heathrow is now fully-automated with an EU passport, no dealing with immigration people.

The Swampy queues are nothing new, I remember queues like that 5 years ago, took 2 hours to get through.

3 hours ago, neeray said:

This is just not good for the image of Thailand !!!

It is just best to avoid Bangkok these days.  Since junta mania, the prices have been jacked up, the hassles increased and the pleasures have been reduced greatly.  Flown in and out of other airports and have not had much in the way of frustrations. 

7 minutes ago, Mel52 said:

Are you seriously comparing Thailand to the old East Germany before the wall came down??? REALLY? Do you have any idea what East Germany was like with the Stasi and the old Soviet Union? You should seriously read about the history of that before you make ridiculous comparisons like that. Airports all over the world are crowded and I’ve seen much worse than Thailand all over the world even in the United States. I waited like 3 or 4 hours a few times going through Dulles International Airport on my way to Washington, D.C. people who think Suvarnabhumi airport is crowded ought to try getting out of Dulles International Airport and a few other airports all over the world.

 

Interesting. I remember well taking 3 senior Thai consultants (30-35 years old) with me from Bkk to a project in New Delhi.

 

On arrival I was in the pp line before my colleagues, the Imm. officer avoided all eye contact and yelled because he couldn't quickly find the front page, the mumbled the whole time he searched every page then stamped me in with no further comment. Total time maybe 6 minutes.

 

Then the first Thai person started to move to the desk. Imm. officer Instantly yells 'I didn't tell you to come forward, why don't you have respect', and then he addressed all three Thai guys with anger and just abuse and telling them how bad Thai people are. Then asked every possible silly illogical question possible. Process time about 12 minutes each.

 

Then we moved to the luggage carousel, then discovered all or bags were already in a taxi, then the driver produces a print out, which I discovered a little later was  illegally obtained from a staff member in the hotel where we had bookings.

 

Then I got approached by another driver who asked me to take his phone. My contact from the client company was on the phone (I had spoken to him several times before by phone and I recognized his voice), he indicated that the man who had just approached me was his personal driver from his company, and he said 'please don't take a taxi no matter what they tell you'. 

 

 

Whining and complaining has become our National pastime. Let's share some good things about this beautiful country as well.

Trust me it might not look like it judging by most of the posts on this forum but there are plenty of us who agree with you 100%!!! I could write a book about all the beautiful places and interesting places that Thailand has to see and do!!! And I’m from Arizona in the United States originally and Arizona has some of the most beautiful places in the United States and possibly the world so for me that’s saying a lot plus I’ve also been all over the United States and all over the world.

 

2 hours ago, Chivas said:

So are these finger scans ( I assume prints) being immediately checked against worldwide databases ??

I came through yesterday at 2.45pm. Queues were long but fast-moving as the fingerprint scanners weren't being used at all.

26 minutes ago, Mel52 said:

Do you have any idea what East Germany was like with the Stasi and the old Soviet Union? You should seriously read about the history of that before you make ridiculous comparisons like that.

Yes, I do know what East Germany was like, because I passed over into it on a regular basis during the 1980s. Everywhere you go, register here, register there, and beware you don't read the wrong material or you could be taken in for "attitude readjustment."  

I spent 10 years of my life as cabin crew and BKK is the worst, most inefficient airport I have ever seen.

I'm surprised Thailand has not yet implemented a "Club Mobay" scheme like they do in Jamaica. Arrivals queues in Jamaica are notoriously bad and it seems rather than attempt solve the problems, they've privatized and capitalized on the mess to make more cash. This seems like a perfect Thai solution to the problem as well.

 

You book in advance of your arrival/departure for $80. You're met when you exit the plane and guided to a lounge and they take your passport and you can relax with complimentary drinks and food while they process your passport. then you're guided through luggage and customs. In and out in just a few stressful minutes, meanwhile your cabin mates on the same flight are sweating it out for another hour at the airport.

Typical Thai knee-jerk reaction to blame everything else, but themselves.

It's not rocket science, Somchai - just make sure each one of the frikken immigration desks is manned at all times!!

Do you want a calculator to figure out how many personnel are required to man all the desks?

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

Frankly i'm surprised at this Andrew guy who by all account should have known better, what response was he expecting from Thai people other than 'if you don't like it go back home' and 'you are biting the hands that fed you all those years you ungrateful farang'... now Once and for all, Thai people in general do not give a stuff how a foreigner/farang feel or being treated in this country and it's futile to complain or try to make a point of it...

Sadly, that is very true. As far as tourists are concerned, there is always Cambodia and Vietnam

Yes it can be a nightmare, go and have a coffee, and come back, or just wait, or go business class.  Nobody likes to see this when you're just off a long flight, but don't go on social media, especially if you work in Thailand and slag off the county/system/immigration, too many expats seem to think this is a good idea...wrong.

I came back recently.....and yes it is hell. The new fingerprinting system is a nightmare, prolonging the transaction time for each person as they attempt to fingerprint themselves 4 times....Any new system should, be reducing transaction times not prolonging it, unless there is a corresponding increasing in the number of I/Os which there was not....we had three lanes open....one lane closed down because there was a woman they would not let in the country leaving only two lanes open with 3 or 4 flights to handle.....

I suppose the upside is that I did not have to wait for my baggage, it had arrived been unloaded and stacked while we waited hours in the immigration queue. 

THAILAND IS GOING BACKWARDS NOT FORWARDS. Hire hundreds more I/Os and man all the booths all the time. 

You find the same in every international airport. Just get a sandwich and a cola or beer and look internet ........

There was a day in high season this year when the queues at Krabi Airport were 4 HOURS long. 4 flights landing at the same time. Some of them had only flown 90 minutes from Singapore! The airport manager's excuse: It was a Sunday. Half of the immigration staff were off. Dumbass excuse, p*ss poor management and just embarassing.

Departures are more crucial as one may miss a flight. Be careful guys.

 

Monday morning it took me one hour to go through the security check and the immigration check. Luckily the airline check-in before was quick.