Do the math.   They said Biggs had got off a plane when 44 flights with 4,500 passengers arrived between noon and 2pm.  That is 100 passengers per airplane.   That just does not sound right.  Biggs should teach them math not English.

Wait to the so called high season starts it will take hours to get out of the airport & I see a lot of people not returning again to Thailand to have to go through this remember people might have been on a flight for 12 hours & with children 

Thai response are too often, *snivel, why do you criticize Thailand*, "it's equally bad in other countries" *snivel*, *sound of blowing his nose*. "We are such a good people, how dare you come here and say bad things about us, *snivel*". 

Every time "Thai" people defends incompetence or bad behavior from officials, someone (Thai) has to defend them, no wonder why Thailand is so full of corruption, incompetence and illiterate people. 

What? are you saying that the posters doing this are the very same people getting bashed, NOOO, can't be, they are too stupid to know how to write in English or know how to handle a computer. 

5 hours ago, Hawkman said:

 

Hmmm. At which point did Andrew Briggs call Thai people hell? He said the queues were hell for tourists, you idiot.

 

The obvious solution is manage it better and it can be done, with some common sense and planning and listening to others.

Common sense, planning and listening to others????... Never, never, never going to happen. On the other hand if it ever does. perhaps someone could lift me out of the box and prove it.

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 !

3 minutes ago, Mango Bob said:

Do the math.   They said Biggs had got off a plane when 44 flights with 4,500 passengers arrived between noon and 2pm.  That is 100 passengers per airplane.   That just does not sound right.  Biggs should teach them math not English.

High numbers is considered to be good in Thailand, just look at the baht exchange rate, it doesn't matter if it's true or not, what matter is that it looks good. 

Children below 13 use the same logic. 

I agree that each time I travel to Thailand immigration seems to get slower and the queues longer, hence another reason I visit less as after a 12 hour flight I don't want to be queuing for an hour to show my passport. Unfortunately it may just be me, but in a shop if there is a large queue at the counter I will just put the stuff down and walk away, its a philosophy of long queue = insufficient employees, its not my problem its theirs and they obviously don't need my business. There are things on which you can't effect change so you just have to consider what they are worth to you personally. From my personal experience I would add that it's pretty lucky that the immigration officers don't have to do 9 or 10 things to do because if they were on piece-work rates their families would be starving, I have never experienced such awkward deliberate slowness...…..is it perhaps that immigration need to consider employing officers with faster processing skills?

4 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I'd call that B.S.  I don't think I've ever cleared incoming Immigration in 50 seconds of the time from handing over my passport, and that was BEFORE they started their fingerprinting scheme, which clearly is making things longer.

 

Agree. And whats this about interview? Never happened to me.

This bad when tourist numbers are bad, lets hope numbers do not go up otherwise we will spend half of our holiday queing at the airport to get in and out of the country.

Easy fix! The immigration authorities need to talk to TAT to lower the number of arrivals, and in order to achieve this feat, TAT can contact the treasury department to increase the Baht value to 29 Baht to one dollar. ????????????

5 hours ago, kotsak said:

 

That's where it's heading.. ????

Explain with verifiable facts please.

5 minutes ago, Surasak said:

Agree. And whats this about interview? Never happened to me.

 

in English...By a typical Thai Immigration officer?   

 

That must be from 43-45 seconds in their 50 second allocation...

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

 

------------------------

 

-- im pleased i will never need to meet this 'Krisada Suyasien' person. What a short sighted and selfish view she has...

 

How about all the Thai people this guy Andrew has educated over the years with the international business language. Well done for speaking up Andrew about the horrible queues at the Airport - someone needed to say it, Yey! 

2 hours 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.

I have never had a long wait in Siem Reap and have been in and out of there numerous times in recent years. 

7 minutes ago, Surasak said:

Agree. And whats this about interview? Never happened to me.

Its probably because they dont have time for the questioning..

 

Be careful what you wish for though.

4 hours ago, dcsw53 said:

IATA moved the goalposts. Fingerprints now required = more time required = need for more desks. Build them.

Where is it a requirement of IATA to have finger prints?

Australia has no finger print requirement.  Only photo scan is required.  It take about 10 seconds

 

1 hour ago, Mel52 said:

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

So start a thread on that experience if you want to initiate positive stories about Thailand. Unfortunately this thread is not about beauty spots in Isaan, but lengthy queues at the airport, and thin skinned Thais taking exception to criticism from someone who probably loves the country at least as much as you do.

This should be the worst experience of anyone entering Thailand.  But is it?  "Welcome to Thailand!" 

9 hours on the plane, whats another 55 mins wait in the Immigration queue?? ???? ????

5 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...

Yes agree.

And a poor choice to use the word "hell" knowing if translated into Thai language in the Thai media, would probably be taken a lot more serious with Thais.

Not as casual as we use it in English.

fool!

Anyway why did he not employ some fast-track or VIP service?

Not like he cant afford it

This is what I mean this morning to the new minister of tourism.

He talk about safety for the tourist but waiting more then 2 hours before you can visit Thailand because Prayut apparently thought it was necessary to get my fingerprints from al my fingers because he is thinking I'm ma criminal, don't have anything to do with safety but more  ways to show they don't like the farang.

I have know this for many years but now it is becoming very clear.

 

47 minutes ago, webfact said:

Suvarnabhumi immigration police deny closing counters during rush hours

Not opening them causes the same congestion.

If you check the Thai only counters you will see them all open with one or two persons in line.

Came into DMK last night at around 9pm, asked for the old people's line, nice tubby helper lady opened the diplomatic channel and showed me through with a smile, first in line, no scanner in its slot so no dabs taken, efficient lady IO, through in 60. Lovely!

6 minutes ago, marquis22 said:

9 hours on the plane, whats another 55 mins wait in the Immigration queue?? ???? ????

But when you do a trip for example from Hongkong for 2 hours, and have to wait 2 hours again?

But I understand you like it.

1 minute ago, Mango Bob said:

If you check the Thai only counters you will see them all open with one or two persons in line.

Ofcourse, they don't need 10 fingers. Only from that dirty farang.

5 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...

i thought we where "guest"?  is this how they treat guest?  flew into LAX and it took 5 minutes with the kiosk.  

Thai immigration is a disaster.  The only thing they are excellent at is keeping or kicking people out....more effective than China's and Trump"s wall combined.  Perhaps demonstrated by the images.  

5 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.

busy out buying submarines

Its a shambles! Its a nightmare for elderly and families with tired children.. Sort it!