7 hours ago, SiSePuede419 said:

If waiting for an hour to start your vacation in Thailand is the biggest problem in your life, you need to calm down and breathe and appreciate your privilege.

I'm 74 years old, I have great difficulty walking, and I have hip problems. I wonder if you would spout the same nonsense if you were in the same situation.

The 10 times i have arrived in early December, i would guess it averages around 20 minutes to get through passport control. Surely these queues must have been a result of some part of the IT system going down, no airport wants the bad press from reports like this.

2 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

There is no "coming B300 fee", it has been just a proposal for God knows how long and has fallen at every fence so far. If one is ever actually introduced you can be sure that the purpose/benefit of it will be explained.

They might explain it's purpose/benefit but that does not mean that they use it that way!

T.I.T.S.

I'm damn glad I wasn't stuck in that. When I'm not traveling with my wife I have to deal with this. Hopefully they can fix the problem.

1 hour ago, jimn said:

You can if married to a Thai

The scanner would know that?

4 hours ago, Jack Hammer said:

At Suvarnabhumi Airport go To the very far end of the airport down near where the post office is and there is a check-in there for disabled people , elderly people 70 and over , families with small infants. I go there every time you don’t have to take your shoes or your belt off. At the entrance, the staff my question you, show them your passport and tell them you are over 70

this is for departure not arrival

8 hours ago, Dakhar said:

Where are the fast track business class lines. I fly business class to china every month and ive beem told by immigration staff there is no fast track service for business class and I have to stand in the long lines. Departing there is fast track, but I have yet to see fast track for entering thailand.

To the right of the regular queue. I arrived Thursday night. Wheels down at 9:30, I was at my hotel in Sathorn by 10:45. Only 1 person ahead of me at immigration.

Many of the teeraks will be happy.

They'll get a few more hours with their boyfriend and a few less with their farang husband. 🙂

Come on, the industrial holidays in Europe just started, so this is probably the busiest day/time of the year for immigration.

9 hours ago, SiSePuede419 said:

If waiting for an hour to start your vacation in Thailand is the biggest problem in your life, you need to calm down and breathe and appreciate your privilege.

90% of the people in the world can't afford to vacation in Thailand, FULL STOP. 😃

You are totally missing the point !!

12 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

I travel enough, but at no other airport I see long waiting times to pass immigration.. Longest I had to wait was 10 minutes in all my travels except here in Thailand. There should be counters for visaholders and reentries, and for elderly and disabled.. The priority lines could be used for that, but we are not allowed. These lines are often empty.

Youve never been to england as a tourist then! Id say twice as bad on a normal day.

But, to be fair, its much better now if your country issues e passports.

Fyi at bkk i use the fast track given ltr visa or APEc card. Also, old people (70+) and people with disabilites can use also FoC, others can purchase fasttrack also for 1700 baht i see online.

Disastrous image for tourism and it will encourage foreigners to choose other countries to visit. Absolutely no respect in Thailand towards foreigners. They just love our money.

Bad optics when they want to be a hub for everything and get the tourists... but you have to go through a completely disorganised and fascist entry system and that's you first experience of the place. Good luck with that... clueless.

Never had a problem, I fly in and out twice a year. Probably just a bad day.

1 hour ago, Sir Dude said:

Bad optics when they want to be a hub for everything and get the tourists... but you have to go through a completely disorganised and fascist entry system and that's you first experience of the place. Good luck with that... clueless.

Speaking of clueless - I wasn't aware that Hitler was Thailand's prime minister. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

Edited July 13Jul 13 by Jonathan Swift

14 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

Thailand is known for its long queues and waiting time at the airport. But besides TDAC everybody must have fingerprint scan and facepic and boarding pass. I don't see that in other airports. With the coming 300 THB it will give much more irritation for travellers, as nobody will understand what the money is for. The first impression of Thailand is not a good one

You have not been in europe since April have you? Lengthy lines ups for entry and exit.

6 minutes ago, Jonathan Swift said:

Speaking of clueless - I wasn't aware that Hitler was Thailand's prime minister. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

You clearly don't know European history... Hitler and the Nazis were national socialists, it was Mussolini and his black shirts that were the original fascists. Check before you spout nonsense, please... another fail Wiki dependent fool.

Edited July 13Jul 13 by Sir Dude

I arrived on 8th July at 1730hrs and took about 3 minutes to clear immigration and then waited 25 minutes for my bag. Perhaps depends on the day & time, but of course any wait over a maximum of 20-30 minutes is totally unacceptable. Even if many flights arrived at the same time, AOT would have certainly known much in advance.

Does the BOI fast lane still works now a days? anyone tried?

last I used it was 4 years ago and it was great to skip that massive 3 hours queue that day.

4 hours ago, vangrop said:

I'm 74 years old, I have great difficulty walking, and I have hip problems. I wonder if you would spout the same nonsense if you were in the same situation.

I agree, I am 80 now, I do have problems walking the whole length of Swampie

12 hours ago, Dakhar said:

Where are the fast track business class lines. I fly business class to china every month and ive beem told by immigration staff there is no fast track service for business class and I have to stand in the long lines. Departing there is fast track, but I have yet to see fast track for entering thailand.

There's a fast track, I've seen it with my own eyes, but it's only available to holders of the Elite Visa.

12 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

I've read that they are for Thai people only. Foreigners not allowed to use them. Now, there's a surprise!

GeographicReference

That was the case when I arrived at Suvarnabhumi in May. In Phuket I don’t believe they even have them. If they do, they aren’t in use.

But I’m surprised that there are long queues. This is low season!

As an aside, I flew to Singapore today and as a Singapore citizen my passport wasn’t even scanned. I passed through immigration just by scanning my face.

Every counter used by non Singapore residents was also an e gate where passports were scanned. No immigration officers sitting at counters at all.

13 hours ago, Searat7 said:

Over 70 for priority lane, not 65

Has never been offered when I was 65 or 70. May be a Look a lot younger than I actually am. I must admit It isn't going to take much to say to hell with Thailand, I will go else where.

9 hours ago, Taboo2 said:

Excuse me, there is no war on Farangs ok. They are going after everyone, and in case you did not pay attention, a lot of Chinese were impacted by the crackdown.

Are Chinese not farangs? Are only Westerners farangs?

2 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

You have not been in europe since April have you? Lengthy lines ups for entry and exit.

Yep, the EU's cumbersomely bureaucratic EES nonsense is to thank for that.

14 hours ago, Peterphuket said:

That ‘ikke’ is talking against his better judgement – after all, in his own country, the airport is a far bigger mess, but he’d rather not talk about that.

Why would he when the topic is about an airport in Thailand? 🤔

I pretty much predicted this when they introduced their "new and improved immigration technology."

14 hours ago, Smokey and the Bandit said:

It will very interesting how TAT will spin this?

They are always saying we have more and more tourists and we want more a more tourists?

One look at that mess and it will put people off!

"Our new technology and immigration procedures will create efficiencies that will cut down lines at immigration crossings."

2 hours ago, suspectdevice said:

Why would he when the topic is about an airport in Thailand? 🤔

Because he made the statement .......besides TDAC everybody must have fingerprint scan and facepic and boarding pass. I don't see that in other airports.

The immigration portals of the airports of Canada, Australia, USA , Japan, China and the EU all collect biometric information including fingerprints and facial scan. There are long lineups in some EU countries as the information is collected. I am going to the UK next week and am expecting a long delay despite my pre registration of biometrics and e passport.

6 hours ago, Sigmund said:

Disastrous image for tourism and it will encourage foreigners to choose other countries to visit. Absolutely no respect in Thailand towards foreigners. They just love our money.

Please visit some other countries. There are surge arrival times too where the delays are awful. Try Miami, Beijing, Lisbon at peak times.

4 hours ago, wensiensheng said:

That was the case when I arrived at Suvarnabhumi in May. In Phuket I don’t believe they even have them. If they do, they aren’t in use.

But I’m surprised that there are long queues. This is low season!

As an aside, I flew to Singapore today and as a Singapore citizen my passport wasn’t even scanned. I passed through immigration just by scanning my face.

Every counter used by non Singapore residents was also an e gate where passports were scanned. No immigration officers sitting at counters at all.

Singapore may not have a problem sharing its biometric data with Thailand, however, most of the western world does because Thailand has not satisfied data security and confidentiality parameters that these countries require.

8 hours ago, robert2 said:

Come on, the industrial holidays in Europe just started, so this is probably the busiest day/time of the year for immigration.

You are wrong the European tourists is a fraction of the locals who don't have holidays in this period. That's why they call it low season