Immigration At Airport Longest On The Planet!

[ZZZ]

It's no excuse that it takes long time at other airports as well, they are just as bad.

The thing is it's possible to cut down the time. I have traveled to Singapore hundreds of times at it normally takes no more than 15 min from you leave the plane until you sit in a taxi. That is with check in luggage, I've made it in 7 min without luggage!!

[Ricardo]

It's no excuse that it takes long time at other airports as well, they are just as bad.

The thing is it's possible to cut down the time. I have traveled to Singapore hundreds of times at it normally takes no more than 15 min from you leave the plane until you sit in a taxi. That is with check in luggage, I've made it in 7 min without luggage!!

Ah, but Singapore isn't intended to be the new 'hub' , of aviation in Asia !

[lazeeboy]

It's no excuse that it takes long time at other airports as well, they are just as bad.

The thing is it's possible to cut down the time. I have traveled to Singapore hundreds of times at it normally takes no more than 15 min from you leave the plane until you sit in a taxi. That is with check in luggage, I've made it in 7 min without luggage!!

Ah, but Singapore isn't intended to be the new 'hub' , of aviation in Asia !

the problem is the threat of terrorism everywhere ,better to be 10 minutes longer than dead ........

[Captain Chaos]

It's no excuse that it takes long time at other airports as well, they are just as bad.

The thing is it's possible to cut down the time. I have traveled to Singapore hundreds of times at it normally takes no more than 15 min from you leave the plane until you sit in a taxi. That is with check in luggage, I've made it in 7 min without luggage!!

Ah, but Singapore isn't intended to be the new 'hub' , of aviation in Asia !

the problem is the threat of terrorism everywhere ,better to be 10 minutes longer than dead ........

What are you on about?

[womble]

It's no excuse that it takes long time at other airports as well, they are just as bad.

The thing is it's possible to cut down the time. I have traveled to Singapore hundreds of times at it normally takes no more than 15 min from you leave the plane until you sit in a taxi. That is with check in luggage, I've made it in 7 min without luggage!!

Ah, but Singapore isn't intended to be the new 'hub' , of aviation in Asia !

the problem is the threat of terrorism everywhere ,better to be 10 minutes longer than dead ........

Looks like you've bought the US and UK government scare tactics.

This world isn't that dangerous, terrorists are only a small threat, don't believe everything you are told. Civil liberties are important you know.

[bkk_mike]

It's no excuse that it takes long time at other airports as well, they are just as bad.

The thing is it's possible to cut down the time. I have traveled to Singapore hundreds of times at it normally takes no more than 15 min from you leave the plane until you sit in a taxi. That is with check in luggage, I've made it in 7 min without luggage!!

Ah, but Singapore isn't intended to be the new 'hub' , of aviation in Asia !

the problem is the threat of terrorism everywhere ,better to be 10 minutes longer than dead ........

Surely - the discussion is about people who've come off the plane after it's landed. Stopping terrorists is really more a matter of preventing them getting on the plane in the first place or at least without a gun, bomb, or box-cutters. (or a bottle of water !!)

And it's not like the increased queueing at immigration has anything to do with terrorism. It's all to do with the inability of immigration's computers to automatically deal with the YEAR-OLD change in the rules to limit the number of 30 day runs. (or people mistakenly filling in the departure side rather than the arrival side of their landing cards).

And why do you have to fill in the same data twice anyway - surely they can just scan your passport when you exit, and tie it back to the arrival from the data from the electronic swipe of the passport. (But then Thai government departments do seem to like useless paperwork - after all, why else do Thais have to fill in landing and departure cards - they've all got electronic passports, and given their ID number ties them to an address, there's no information on a landing or departure card for a Thai that can't be gleaned from the swipe of their passport.)

[moonhunt]

It's no excuse that it takes long time at other airports as well, they are just as bad.

The thing is it's possible to cut down the time. I have traveled to Singapore hundreds of times at it normally takes no more than 15 min from you leave the plane until you sit in a taxi. That is with check in luggage, I've made it in 7 min without luggage!!

Ah, but Singapore isn't intended to be the new 'hub' , of aviation in Asia !

the problem is the threat of terrorism everywhere ,better to be 10 minutes longer than dead ........

I think it is more of problems with efficiency, training, and/or resource allocation.

If they are really focused on people's passport inspection, they can process faster than now.

Sometimes they feel like spending their resource to talk with somebody else, and scaring the people.

[naka]

It's no excuse that it takes long time at other airports as well, they are just as bad.

The thing is it's possible to cut down the time. I have traveled to Singapore hundreds of times at it normally takes no more than 15 min from you leave the plane until you sit in a taxi. That is with check in luggage, I've made it in 7 min without luggage!!

I travel in and out of Singapore often, I find the times to be very variable, sometimes

only fifteen minutes but at other times almost forty. The new budget terminal

seems a lot faster than the main terminals.

Naka.

[Captain Chaos]

It's no excuse that it takes long time at other airports as well, they are just as bad.

The thing is it's possible to cut down the time. I have traveled to Singapore hundreds of times at it normally takes no more than 15 min from you leave the plane until you sit in a taxi. That is with check in luggage, I've made it in 7 min without luggage!!

I travel in and out of Singapore often, I find the times to be very variable, sometimes

only fifteen minutes but at other times almost forty. The new budget terminal

seems a lot faster than the main terminals.

Naka.

FORTY?! Wow, that is waaaay longer than I have ever had to spend to get through Changi! What time of day are you hitting those Q's (so I can avoid it)?

[brahmburgers]

As much as anything else, the long lines stem from several Thai propensities, namely:

1. they love to heap on the bureaucracy. In my adopted town of Chiang Rai, there must be at least 100 different gov't buildings - they take up vast amounts of acreage. Go in any door and what do you see? Likely dozens of people (mostly young women) doing 'busy' work - which translates as looking busy in order to appear to be busy in order to pass the hours until the next paycheck.

2. no one is ever fired in Thai bureaucracy. The worst that can happen is a reprimand and/or a trip to the Ministry of Inactive Posts. Which, by the way, is another of the hundreds of adaptations from the USA - decades ago, when an FBI agent screwed up, they would send him to an 'inactive post' somewhere like Billings Montatna.

3. The workers and their bosses don't care if you wait a long time

4. Which of the workers graduated from college just by showing up in class most of the time? Thai universities don't flunk students, particularly those from good families. So regardless of what they score on the test (which they probably cheated on [mai pen rai], they're going to pass unless they skip school altogther. So a lax educational system devoid of creative thinking, is another factor.

5. Inability of airport management to come up with creative & funcitional ways to ameliorate the problems.

need I rant onward. Methinks that's enough for now.

[onethailand]

I usually fly home on the last flight in, so typically arrive after 8-9 pm. Not once in all my trips have I ever encountered a line more than 10-12 people at immigration upon return. I am *always* in a taxi within 15 minutes of disembarking, even if the plane parks somewhere on the tarmac and they bus you in (one of my pet peeves, it happened again tonight in pouring rain even though there were plenty of gates available).

[Captain Chaos]

I usually fly home on the last flight in, so typically arrive after 8-9 pm. Not once in all my trips have I ever encountered a line more than 10-12 people at immigration upon return. I am *always* in a taxi within 15 minutes of disembarking, even if the plane parks somewhere on the tarmac and they bus you in (one of my pet peeves, it happened again tonight in pouring rain even though there were plenty of gates available).

That's interesting - my Friday flight up from SIN arrives 10.30 - 11.00pm and just recently the Q's have been quite bad. Not mid-afternoon bad but definitely more like 20-30 people deep.

[Crossy]

I'm getting worried, my flight from MNL gets in at 10.45 tonight, wonder how long the lines will be. After a full day at the office and a flight (only 3 hours admittedly) what I don't need is a line as long as the flight

Meanwhile, I found this whilst looking for something else (note the URL), not Thailand related directly, but we think we have it bad in LoS http://www.netstumbler.com/2007/09/18/my-w...-delta-airlines

[onethailand]

Normally lines shouldn't be too bad at night. There is a bit of a trick, however, that I would suggest.

If you are brought in on the bus, you will be let off at a door in the center area. When you come up the ramp, watch most people go left (towards the duty free) - you should go right, because the center immigration area is usually empty.

Conversely, if you are docked at a gate, when you walk towards immigration just look quickly and you can see what the lines are like - if they're long, walk another 100 meters to the center immigration area.

I should point out that my experiences are mostly with the usual immigration areas and not the center area, however.

[gk10002000]

I was in Thailand in April and saw nothing that was discussed here. Just the usual passport inspection lines. Has something changed since then? Are they really taking photos, or creating long lines? I do agree that Don Meung seemed to be consistent and never really waited very long. Sometimes 10 -20 people in each line, but with a 747 or two arriving at the same time, that is unavoidable.

[alexth]

It's nice to see that people are always complaining about the new airport. Keep up the spirit people and hope you'll get so angry about the new airport that we won't have to see you in Thailand again

Edited September 25, 2007 by alexth

[mrtoad]

My experience this week was that the biggest problem was actually leaving the country. Stood in line for a about fortty minutes . I understand that Monday morning at 6am is going to be busy with people heading off on biz and such like, but it really was a poor effort. However, on the way back in, it wasn't much of a problem and the lines were no worse than a lot of airports around the world. I won't compare BKK with S'pore as that is too unfair, but it was an absolute pleasure as always going through Changi.

[onethailand]

I usually fly around 8 or 9 am - lines at immigration never too long, 10 minutes tops. If you're complaining about the line for checking-in, though, they've got to do something about that. But I always travel hand-carry only, and try to check-in by internet, so one way or the other I bypass the line and go to J16, though it appears internet check-in has now moved to J1.

[siam2007]

It's nice to see that people are always complaining about the new airport. Keep up the spirit people and hope you'll get so angry about the new airport that we won't have to see you in Thailand again

oh ya, another ridiculous childish nonsense-comment from the "Farang rak Thai" - corner, wish u have a chance to grow up one day...

well, back to the topic, I have travelled to no less than 7 major Asian airports in the past 2 months, and unfortunately, Thailand is by far the worst at the moment, when it comes to immigration-procedures and waiting time.

If my itinerary or destination allows it, I will use other airports such as CM or HKT or land- / seaborders (Satun Sept. 2007: very quick and hassle-free and no silly pictures taken).

what I dont understand: that nightmare at BKK-Suwannaphum started only 3-4 months ago, before it was almost similar to Don Muang. but the new Visa Laws are in effect for one year already.....

[asiaexpat]

Hello,

just have to air my feelings about Immigration at the airport ... now it happened the THIRD time in a row to me (means: it happened every time I arrived at the new airport) that I crossed the corner before the immigration officers just to find endless rows of people and having to queue at least ONE HOUR just to get my surveillance photo done and the stamp in my passport.

I'm sure the officers at immigation are innocent for it, but maybe someone who reads this and knows someone who knows someone could ask this special person in which way the new airport has improved in this matter (I never had to wait longer than 5 minutes at the old one), and if there are plans in distant future to improve the situation even more....

Just made another trip and my experience was even better than last June. Got in at 3 PM Sept 24 and was on my way to the family home at 3:45. I got through immigartion before my Thai wife and got the luggage. When the wife got through immigarion we were met by family who had a car waiting in the newly available drive up area in front of the terminal. The exit was amazingly fast compared with l;ast June. Korea entry was slower than usual. ICN is noted for being good, but immigration and baggage claim took over an hour. BKK has really improved by my experience.

Edited October 5, 2007 by asiaexpat

[mrtoad]

Hello,

just have to air my feelings about Immigration at the airport ... now it happened the THIRD time in a row to me (means: it happened every time I arrived at the new airport) that I crossed the corner before the immigration officers just to find endless rows of people and having to queue at least ONE HOUR just to get my surveillance photo done and the stamp in my passport.

I'm sure the officers at immigation are innocent for it, but maybe someone who reads this and knows someone who knows someone could ask this special person in which way the new airport has improved in this matter (I never had to wait longer than 5 minutes at the old one), and if there are plans in distant future to improve the situation even more....

Just made another trip and my experience was even better than last June. Got in at 3 PM Sept 24 and was on my way to the family home at 3:45. I got through immigartion before my Thai wife and got the luggage. When the wife got through immigarion we were met by family who had a car waiting in the newly available drive up area in front of the terminal. The exit was amazingly fast compared with l;ast June. Korea entry was slower than usual. ICN is noted for being good, but immigration and baggage claim took over an hour. BKK has really improved by my experience.

For some reason the exit seems to be slower than the entry. Maybe, they put all the slow people on exit points.

They still have a long way to go in getting to the standards of Changi, KL or Hong Kong in my op though. At present a C+, but it is getting better.

[samran]

Just picked up my wife and daughter.

No queue at 10pm. Straight though. Immigration guy jumped from his desk to help fish out the passport from my wifes handbag (she was holding the baby). Once through, another one ran to grab a trolley for her. Someone else from Thai airways came in to help her with the bags.

Crap airport. Absolutey crap.

[onethailand]

Haha... we should've met up, I just came through as well. Immigration time still about the same, 10 minutes or less.

[Sunderland]

Shout "Fai mai" (Fire) and suddenly the queue and immigration desks will be cleared instantly. Works every time for me. Haven't been stamped in or out of the country for more than 45 years now.

[baboon]

Flew in from Beijing at about 21:30 on October 6. Through in a very reasonable 10 minutes.

[pampal]

My latest arrival to Suwanaphum was sept 24 around 7am and I breezed throught immigration and collected my luggage and made it outside in less than 30 minutes.

I have nothing to complain about

[Rinrada]

Went through via internal immigration a couple of weeks ago...no Q.. and 5 minutes later in the Domestic lounge..

On departure last week again no Q..although it was First class where they escort you past the lads on gate and whack you on a buggy and then drive you along to the wotsit Spar and pub....nice...

Mentioned in another thread that even Heathrow was quick using the Iris/Immigration Scan machine on arrival......can only get better....

[lost_in_space]

Hello,

just have to air my feelings about Immigration at the airport ... now it happened the THIRD time in a row to me (means: it happened every time I arrived at the new airport) that I crossed the corner before the immigration officers just to find endless rows of people and having to queue at least ONE HOUR just to get my surveillance photo done and the stamp in my passport.

I'm sure the officers at immigation are innocent for it, but maybe someone who reads this and knows someone who knows someone could ask this special person in which way the new airport has improved in this matter (I never had to wait longer than 5 minutes at the old one), and if there are plans in distant future to improve the situation even more....

I came thru last evening in 5 minutes. I had to get to DM and very politely asked if I could go thru the Thai booths. I had to show my onward reservation. It is all a matter of timing sometimes it is awful and other times it is quick. Nice thing last night they announced which carousel the luggage was coming out on.

I went thru the Thai booths the last time I came in. I had had my Thai wife and child with me, and asked if we could go thru together. The point being that any station can handle anybody. If you have a decent reason and can speak a little Thai, it's worth a shot.

[kalasin]

I always seem to get pass the immigration before the luggage are ready.

So to me it's just a question of where I have to wait.

For me it has been pretty fast every time - 30 minutes after leaving the plane, I was in a taxi.

[somtaamgaiyang]

It's nice to see that people are always complaining about the new airport. Keep up the spirit people and hope you'll get so angry about the new airport that we won't have to see you in Thailand again

oh ya, another ridiculous childish nonsense-comment from the "Farang rak Thai" - corner, wish u have a chance to grow up one day...

well, back to the topic, I have travelled to no less than 7 major Asian airports in the past 2 months, and unfortunately, Thailand is by far the worst at the moment, when it comes to immigration-procedures and waiting time.

If my itinerary or destination allows it, I will use other airports such as CM or HKT or land- / seaborders (Satun Sept. 2007: very quick and hassle-free and no silly pictures taken).

what I dont understand: that nightmare at BKK-Suwannaphum started only 3-4 months ago, before it was almost similar to Don Muang. but the new Visa Laws are in effect for one year already.....

Just wait till Xmas. Millions of frustrated tourists with kids jamming up the lines, filling out their cards incorrectly.