Outbound Immigration Queue Times

[Shola]

Hi All.

Will be flying out in a couple of weeks with hubby and my little girl, does anybody have any recent experience of checking in online with British Airways? Also how are the outbound immigration queues? I am hearing that they are super long, do Thai's get through quicker than the foreigners? I just don't wanna be queing at midnight for ages with a tired toddler!!

Any advice for travelling with small child from the experienced is appreciated also!

Thx Shola

XXX

[londonthai]

outbound emmigration is 10-15 minutes waiting - I believe there were resent problems with inbound up to 1h. Checking just 1h before departure is good enough. Once you check in the airplane will eventually wait for you, if you are stacked at emmigration, so no worries.

with a kid you can try to go through without queing

[KhunDave]

Sorry for the slight thread drift.

Anyone know what the outbound queueing time is like at around 9am at present? Will be going through next week, and unfortunately for reasons I won't bore you with I will be cutting it very close.

Edited March 26, 2009 by KhunDave

[londonthai]

as long as you check in on time, you will fly, no matter how long ques at emmigration are. You can go together with the airline representative to the emmigration boots, as often happens with the first class passangers checking in late.

[salty]

I usually go to the left hand immigration desks. The right hand ones always seem to have much more people queueing to go through.

[raylo]

Hi All.

Will be flying out in a couple of weeks with hubby and my little girl, does anybody have any recent experience of checking in online with British Airways? Also how are the outbound immigration queues? I am hearing that they are super long, do Thai's get through quicker than the foreigners? I just don't wanna be queing at midnight for ages with a tired toddler!!

Any advice for travelling with small child from the experienced is appreciated also!

Thx Shola

XXX

There are rules posted which vary between airlines.

Essentially boarding gates close 15 - 30 minutes before the flight time. Not the boarding time.

I have never seen them enforced but ??

Ray

[wokkawombat]

I flew BA to Australia the other day, checked in at 2 pm and as usual the only delay was Chinese/Taiwanese/Japanese who turned up at the desk without filling in their TM6 and not a pen between them. BA/QANTAS have an early check in, 3 hours before the flight.

John

[rogerdee123]

Immigration lines at departure were today (Sunday about 3PM) backed up to the back wall.

I flew BA to Australia the other day, checked in at 2 pm and as usual the only delay was Chinese/Taiwanese/Japanese who turned up at the desk without filling in their TM6 and not a pen between them. BA/QANTAS have an early check in, 3 hours before the flight.

John

[DeeMaiDee]

Well done OP excellent post. I was thinking about this just last week as I expect to fly out to VN from the Swamp at 0745 in a month.

Last time I flew out the immigration wait was 90 minutes. Is that what to expect at 0745, anyone know?

[tangoll]

Sunday 29 March 11:15 am, right hand side outbound immigration hall, had about 4 - 5 people in Thai passport lines (2), and about 15 people per foreign passport line, about 6 - 7 booths open for foreign passports.

I had my APEC travel card with me, and went thru 1st class, diplomatic, fast track line on the left part of the immigration hall, and I was only one through the line, 15 seconds, but then my flight was delayed an hour, so I had 3.5 hours wait.

I also noticed that in gate D6 there are now two new computer stands with keyboard/monitor/ball-type built-in mouse offering free internet access. That is something very unique in any airport in the world.

[JimsKnight]

What's an APEC travel card?

[tangoll]

APEC Business Travel Card: here's the link

<http://www.apec.org/apec/business_resources/apec_business_travel0.html>

[Shola]

I hope that immmigration will be nice and allow me to join my hubby and DD at the foreign p'ports q so we can all go together, I know at heathrow thay allow you to q in the foreign passport line together if your hubby has a visa, oh well all up in the air untill we get there! Perhaps I can get hubby to call and find out, I'll post answer if I get any info....

Shola

XXX

[tangoll]

shola, the Thai pp line is always faster than foreign passport lines. What you should ask immigration is whether your husband can queue with you in the Thai passport line. If your flight departure is around midnight, I think you have little to worry about, as I think all lines then would be quite sparse in the outbound immigration section. If the right side of departure hall is heavy with people, go to the left side. I wouldn't worry too much if I were you, unless your husband is on overstay. Then bring money, baht 500 per day, up to max baht 20,000.

[jeffer]

I also noticed that in gate D6 there are now two new computer stands with keyboard/monitor/ball-type built-in mouse offering free internet access. That is something very unique in any airport in the world.

Free internet access at an airport is unique? Not really. Try Singapore for starters, a lot more than 2 access points, even free terminals in the budget terminal as well as free wi-fi everywhere.

[tangoll]

That's two terminals in just gate D6; I don't know about other gates, as my flight had left only from that gate. I assume that there would be two terminals at every other gate as well. Taipei's airport also had free terminals for use, but this was in a corner with 5 - 6 terminals for the whole concourse, not per gate. KL IA also had 3 - 4 terminals scattered about, but access was so slow, it was not usable for email.

So, 2 terminals at each gate is quite unique in the world. Try airports in the US and see if there are any free of charge terminals for use or Europe, for that matter.

[jeffer]

Auckland, Incheon, Melbourne, Sydney also have multiple free computer terminals from memory. I usually use wi-fi now so can't confirm if still current but I imagine it would be.

[NanLaew]

For the OP. I am sure that traveling as a family, you may avail yourself of a single immigration desk on departure. That way you will all be through at the same time.

However, I would recommend checking in 2 hours before departure as the Immigration queues can grow suddenly. Several airlines commence boarding 1 hour before departure. It took me about 30 minutes to get through left-side Immigration when I departed last Tuesday night at 23:15 on KLM. It was VERY busy and unfortunately, my domestic connecting flight was almost 1 hour late getting into BKK which meant I was checking in as the flight was boarding. After the 30 minute delay at Immigration, my departure gate was G5, right at the far end! I was traveling solo, moving fast and made it... just. You are traveling as a family and wouldn't have had a snowballs chance in hel_l.

Statements that the plane will wait for you are wrong. They have a departure slot that is mostly dictated by enroute weather, overflight permits and ultimately the landing slot at the other end. If you check-in late, your bags will be held on the tarmac until you have boarded as no airline likes the expense of delaying a flight to offload a slow-poke's baggage. Similarly, no airline wants an empty seat so your seat will be given to a standby passenger.

Edited April 3, 2009 by NanLaew

[Alwaysright]

I also noticed that in gate D6 there are now two new computer stands with keyboard/monitor/ball-type built-in mouse offering free internet access. That is something very unique in any airport in the world.

Free internet access at an airport is unique? Not really. Try Singapore for starters, a lot more than 2 access points, even free terminals in the budget terminal as well as free wi-fi everywhere.

Seoul too.

[Shola]

For the OP. I am sure that traveling as a family, you may avail yourself of a single immigration desk on departure. That way you will all be through at the same time.

However, I would recommend checking in 2 hours before departure as the Immigration queues can grow suddenly. Several airlines commence boarding 1 hour before departure. It took me about 30 minutes to get through left-side Immigration when I departed last Tuesday night at 23:15 on KLM. It was VERY busy and unfortunately, my domestic connecting flight was almost 1 hour late getting into BKK which meant I was checking in as the flight was boarding. After the 30 minute delay at Immigration, my departure gate was G5, right at the far end! I was traveling solo, moving fast and made it... just. You are traveling as a family and wouldn't have had a snowballs chance in hel_l.

Statements that the plane will wait for you are wrong. They have a departure slot that is mostly dictated by enroute weather, overflight permits and ultimately the landing slot at the other end. If you check-in late, your bags will be held on the tarmac until you have boarded as no airline likes the expense of delaying a flight to offload a slow-poke's baggage. Similarly, no airline wants an empty seat so your seat will be given to a standby passenger.

Thanks for the info, I found out a couple of hours ago I am unable to check in online for this flight so I will be arriving 3 hrs ahead of time, although the flight leaves at 12:45 am the gate is open from 6:30pm!!

See you all again soon

[Freddie_fly]

I also noticed that in gate D6 there are now two new computer stands with keyboard/monitor/ball-type built-in mouse offering free internet access. That is something very unique in any airport in the world.

Free internet access at an airport is unique? Not really. Try Singapore for starters, a lot more than 2 access points, even free terminals in the budget terminal as well as free wi-fi everywhere.

Seoul too.

Copenhagen, I believe that is still in europe

regards

Freddie