Arrival experience BKK 5th Nov '21 (YVR, NRT, BKK)

[Pond Life]

Arrival at Swampy was very quick & well organised.

Got off the plane, walked towards Immigration, big line up of spaced out chairs, sat down, girls came and gave the reams of paperwork a look thru & shuffled them into an order they liked, sent me on to Immigration, every single desk was manned, no que at all.

They dont seem to care if you have COE or Thai Pass, I had COE.

They went thru my paperwork again, stamped my passport (new type of stamp) & sent me to collect my bag.

 

Picked up my bag and a bottle of duty free rum.
Walked past 4 very bored looking customs people.
Out the door to find a line of Hotel desks, got pointed to the right hotel guy who went thru my papers again.

He put me in a pre paid taxi to my Hotel.

 

At no time was I required to use a smartphone or download an App.

There was free WiFi at BKK, but you need to sign in to it.

 

I recommend you get a folder with clear plastic sleeves to put all your documents in.

On your travels they will be checked multiple times, I think it would save a lot of juggling.

 

Here's some added info on departing YVR with Air Canada & transiting Tokyo NRT with ANA.

 

I had checked in online as per an email, when I got to the airport I found this was a waste of time unless you were Jananese traveling to Japan (my transit location).

I was directed to a check in desk, very short que, few travelers, but very slow.

When I got to the desk the agent went thru all my papers very carefully, referring to various websites to see what the requirments were for each country.

After 30 mins I was issued with both boarding passes & bag checked straight to BKK.

No line up at the security check point.

At the gate Air Canada went thru everyones paperwork again.

I saw a Filipino lady refused boarding because she didnt have a boarding pass for one of her later transit flights !

 

Arrival at NRT started out smoothly, they got transit passengers off the plane first.

Went thru a standard security check to get to departure gate.

Then it became very disorganised & confusing.

Various ANA staff were giving conflicting information to passengers.

The safe option seems to be to go to the gate staff as early as you can & present your documents again.

They checked everything again, refering to the requirements of you destination.

Some people got on the plane, with their boarding pass, without document check, ANA staff delayed the departure & came on board to check the docs of those people.

 

Again, I recommend you organise your docs in a folder with clear plastic sleeves, so theyre easy to flip thru.

None of the people who checked my docs had heaard of Thai Pass, they all asked for COE, I guess this will change as the passes start to get issued, i'm still waiting for mine.

 

Choc Dee !

[Pond Life]

A bit of added info.

I'm double vaxxed, only needed 1 day quarantine, so maybe thats why I didnt need to download Mor Chana App.