18 hours ago, Thechook said:

Are you worthy?  Just asking becsuse they want quality tourists, big spenders and we aussies spend big

And we hate waiting in queues as it is a long enough wait to get to the nearest pub as it is.

20 hours ago, Thechook said:

Are you worthy?  Just asking becsuse they want quality tourists, big spenders and we aussies spend big

yes, but only on beer. : )

13 hours ago, dallen52 said:

No they are not....

 

Part of APEC yes.

ASEAN no.

 

• ASEAN membership. 10 States ― Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. ...

 

 

Well described your point. So finally it is admitted that Australia is in Asia ????????????

 

Far far East, Further East, Kangaroo Asia and so on....... 

21 minutes ago, Thaifriends said:

 

Well described your point. So finally it is admitted that Australia is in Asia ????????????

 

Far far East, Further East, Kangaroo Asia and so on....... 

Used to be called Australasia as I recall. 

 

Australasia

• the nations of Australia and New Zealand.
• islands of the South Pacific, including Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and adjacent islands.
• all of Oceania including the regions of Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Australia.

But not China lol.

(They own most of it anyway)

 

Greater China now ranks as the top foreign owner of Australian agricultural land, overtaking the U.K., according to a government report.

2 minutes ago, dallen52 said:

Greater China now ranks as the top foreign owner of Australian agricultural land, overtaking the U.K., according to a government report.

it's like money and death - they can't take it with them

20 hours ago, Arkady said:

Wonderful news for Ozzies and Kiwis.  I hope they will have better luck using the machines than I have had.  As a Thai citizen the machine rarely recognises my prints first time and sometimes not at all, resulting in me being shoved into the manual queue.  I am hopeful that the new biometrics system hopefully to be introduced by the new 10-year passport concessionaire will be more efficient.  Mobile phones have no problem recognising prints every time, so I am not sure why a system costing millions of dollars cannot.

you can adjust the sensitivity settings on them machines.

I think on the minimum, you could nearly scan your butt and it will pass.

 

on the maximum setting it probably reject you 75% times 

But would I trust NOT having the proverbial entry stamp ?

22 hours ago, Tyrant said:

With all the arabs now in EU, a little more and Europeans will be banned from the rest of the world.

 

I thought it was quite a similar situation in Australia. Only Indians, Pakistanis, Somalis and Chinese instead of Arabs.

7 hours ago, dallen52 said:

UK still has a visa sticker for most overseas tourists and visitors. 

And arrival queues up to 90 minutes at Heathrow. 

 

Yes - and people complain how backward Thailand is.

On 8/23/2019 at 3:56 PM, sweatalot said:

Discrimination

Where are the automatic gates for Germans, Americans, Brits?

Gotta look after the important people first  ???? ????????

On 8/23/2019 at 3:57 PM, Arkady said:

Wonderful news for Ozzies and Kiwis.  I hope they will have better luck using the machines than I have had.  As a Thai citizen the machine rarely recognises my prints first time and sometimes not at all, resulting in me being shoved into the manual queue.  I am hopeful that the new biometrics system hopefully to be introduced by the new 10-year passport concessionaire will be more efficient.  Mobile phones have no problem recognising prints every time, so I am not sure why a system costing millions of dollars cannot.

Just like the TM30 app it never got tested.

19 hours ago, AntipodeanThai said:

Your totally wrong get your facts right, Those from oZ represent 30% of inwards tourists 

You may have a decimal point in the wrong place, its 0.30% (including NZ). Thailand has 38 million tourists a year, 30% would be 12.5 million people, thats half the population of Australia.

 

 

 

Edited August 24, 20196 yr by Peterw42

On 8/23/2019 at 2:04 PM, Reigntax said:

In the EU !

 

You think America is in the EU?

On 8/23/2019 at 8:38 AM, Thechook said:

Are you worthy?  Just asking becsuse they want quality tourists, big spenders and we aussies spend big

I'll vouch for that, spending good, cricket <deleted>.

On 8/23/2019 at 5:56 PM, sweatalot said:

Discrimination

Where are the automatic gates for Germans, Americans, Brits?

Maybe they don't think those nationalities are trustworthy enough

 

On 8/24/2019 at 10:08 PM, Peterw42 said:

You may have a decimal point in the wrong place, its 0.30% (including NZ). Thailand has 38 million tourists a year, 30% would be 12.5 million people, thats half the population of Australia.

 

 

 

and  three times the population of New Zealand

 

On 8/23/2019 at 5:56 PM, sweatalot said:

Discrimination

Where are the automatic gates for Germans, Americans, Brits?

 

Yes , i am  a Kiwi of total British decent, considering the mixed culture today I can not see why Australia or NZ would have priority for the above.

Considering the crime rates, or the amount of criminals caught in LOS, NZ numbers are quite low, Australia a lot higher.

Population numbers may play a part in crime rates.

Seems that most of the bad criminals come from Africa and the middle east, Russia and China.

So why give us priority, maybe this is just the beginning and Brits and America, Germany will follow.

 

On 8/23/2019 at 4:46 PM, legend49 said:

The official claimed that mostly people pass in 15 minutes

 

and thats fast for Thai immigration?????  Singapore has you stamped in 1 minute.

Ah the old Singapore myth again. The processing time of each IO in Singapore is roughly the same as BKK.  Singapore has around 18.5m visitors a year compared with more than double that in Thailand. Those visitors to singapore are spread through four terminals, whereas Thailand only has one. Try shoving 40m people through Changi terminal one and see how your one minute fantasy holds up. 

 

Not saying Suvarnabhumi doesn't have a problem - the numbers have clearly exceeded design capacity. But you need to compare apples to apples. Go through an airport with much fewer people passing through it and you can expect it to be less busy. Well done. 

 

(and by the way as someone who goes to Singapore once a month I have had 20-30 minutes queues on several occasions).

If the NZ & AUD passport holders go through E-Gates, assuming it is programmed to the letter of the law,  does this mean "denied entry" with a valid Tourist visa will be a thing of the past? IE remove some IO's subjective opinion based on his/her bad hair day rather than an official policy.

 

7 hours ago, josephbloggs said:

Ah the old Singapore myth again. The processing time of each IO in Singapore is roughly the same as BKK.  Singapore has around 18.5m visitors a year compared with more than double that in Thailand. Those visitors to singapore are spread through four terminals, whereas Thailand only has one. Try shoving 40m people through Changi terminal one and see how your one minute fantasy holds up. 

 

Not saying Suvarnabhumi doesn't have a problem - the numbers have clearly exceeded design capacity. But you need to compare apples to apples. Go through an airport with much fewer people passing through it and you can expect it to be less busy. Well done. 

 

(and by the way as someone who goes to Singapore once a month I have had 20-30 minutes queues on several occasions).

As someone who just came back from Singapore, it took me 30 seconds to go through the AutoGate to exit the country. Why did it take me 45 minutes to exit Thailand on Friday at Swampy? 

On entry to Singapore took about 2 minutes total. Yes they have a better setup than at Swampy, but still the systems they use and the intelligence of the officers is far and away better than Thailand. They have also shifted more people to using the AutoGates which lessens the amount of people needed to go through the human channels - same with HK. 

If Thailand could shift 20 to 30% of the traffic to the AutoGates, the crowding problems would be much less of an issue.

On 8/23/2019 at 5:38 PM, Thechook said:

Are you worthy?  Just asking becsuse they want quality tourists, big spenders and we aussies spend big

 second that .

On 8/23/2019 at 5:38 PM, Thechook said:

Are you worthy?  Just asking becsuse they want quality tourists, big spenders and we aussies spend big

second that

Very strange indeed. What if you'e a wanted criminal and just robbed a bank in Sydney ?  

2 hours ago, balo said:

Very strange indeed. What if you'e a wanted criminal and just robbed a bank in Sydney ?  

Then you will be among friends when you land in Pattaya

On 8/26/2019 at 10:58 AM, josephbloggs said:

Ah the old Singapore myth again. The processing time of each IO in Singapore is roughly the same as BKK.  Singapore has around 18.5m visitors a year compared with more than double that in Thailand. Those visitors to singapore are spread through four terminals, whereas Thailand only has one. Try shoving 40m people through Changi terminal one and see how your one minute fantasy holds up. 

 

Not saying Suvarnabhumi doesn't have a problem - the numbers have clearly exceeded design capacity. But you need to compare apples to apples. Go through an airport with much fewer people passing through it and you can expect it to be less busy. Well done. 

 

(and by the way as someone who goes to Singapore once a month I have had 20-30 minutes queues on several occasions).

Just to update - came through Changi this morning.  50 minutes at immigration.  Processing time of about four minutes per passenger, extremely slow.

On 8/23/2019 at 2:04 PM, Reigntax said:

In the EU !

For the Brits to be dismantled soon...

On 8/23/2019 at 2:49 PM, Pungdo said:

Australia and New Zealand are part of the ASEAN Free Trade area, could be why ????

Perhaps. Or they just wanted to start with the smallest piece of the tourism pie (apart from 'Africa'), as AUS/NZ make up only 0.3% of arrivals. Doubt that this will make queues much shorter...

Edited September 23, 20196 yr by StayinThailand2much

On 8/23/2019 at 3:57 PM, Arkady said:

Wonderful news for Ozzies and Kiwis.  I hope they will have better luck using the machines than I have had.  As a Thai citizen the machine rarely recognises my prints first time and sometimes not at all, resulting in me being shoved into the manual queue.  I am hopeful that the new biometrics system hopefully to be introduced by the new 10-year passport concessionaire will be more efficient.  Mobile phones have no problem recognising prints every time, so I am not sure why a system costing millions of dollars cannot.

I wonder how do these auto gates stamp passports for 30 day entries or for people with tourist visas that get stamped 60 days on entry? Or is it after passing the gate there's an immigration officer to stamp passports lol?

On 8/23/2019 at 4:26 PM, BestB said:

But how would the stamps work? or no more stamps?

I'm wondering the exact same thing. How does the machine detect that you have a tourist visa and the machine stamps your passport with a 60 day stamp?

On 8/26/2019 at 4:40 PM, G950 said:

If the NZ & AUD passport holders go through E-Gates, assuming it is programmed to the letter of the law,  does this mean "denied entry" with a valid Tourist visa will be a thing of the past? IE remove some IO's subjective opinion based on his/her bad hair day rather than an official policy.

 

I would think so. A machine won't be able to discriminate against people with multiple METV or SETV.