Is This New-Have To Show Boarding Pass On Arrival At Swampy To Get Inside The Terminal

[orchidlady]

I just arrived back in Thailand on flight from Hong Kong at 8PM. Two security women were standing at the door to block entry to the airport terminal. Before you could enter into the arrivals area/walk to immigration you had to show your remaining portion of your boarding pass. This delayed exit from the plane over 15 minutes as people had to search for their boarding pass stubb. Does anyone know why this new "security measure" was put in place? I have traveled in/out of the country three times in the past two months and have never been asked for this before.

[wpcoe]

By any chance was this a "through flight" from HKG to BKK to another city? e.g. HKG-BKK-AMS (random choice of AMS on my part)

If so, it could be to interecept the HKG-AMS passengers and keep them from straying off.

[whybother]

I came in on Monday and there was no checking.

Maybe they were looking for someone.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

Edited January 5, 2012 by whybother

[beechguy]

It's happened to me before, and not only in Bangkok but other airports outside of Thailand, there was a similar thread a while back.

Edited January 6, 2012 by beechguy

[PattayaParent]

^I remember a previous thread regarding Immigration asking for boarding passes, but not for allowing you off the 'plane.

wpcoe reasoning sounds plausible but then I'd just expect the cabin crew to announce that onward passengers should not disembark.

Edited January 6, 2012 by PattayaParent

[Shurup]

weird, never happened to me. I am going to Bali for a week and returning on the 14th, will see how that goes.

[KhaoNiaw]

From a few months ago:

http://www.thaivisa....-boarding-pass/

[PattayaParent]

I wonder if you didn't have the boarding pass would they not allow you iinto the terminal and make you get back on the 'plane?

[kwonitoy]

This has happened to my on several occassions coming into Bangkok, and into Hong Kong and Vancouver.

In each instance I found out latter that there was a person of interest on the plane. In Vancouver it was hold your passport open to the ID page, have your boarding pass stub ready and run a guantlet of 6 RCMP officers

[marstons]

been told by cabin anouncements a few times to keep them, but never been asked to show them. a few times over the last few years. always with Emirates.

silghtly off topic but anybody experienced Thai immigration at Cambodia bordeer asking to write telephone number on TM 6. had it happen a few times recently.

[dantilley]

In each instance I found out latter that there was a person of interest on the plane.

If that was the case, they could just look on the passenger manifest and find out exactly where that person was sitting and take them straight off the plane before anyone disembarked.

[bubba]

Never happened to me, and it didn't happen to me yesterday afternoon when I arrived on an international flight. I wonder if your experience might be due to some security issue with that particular flight?

[wpcoe]

wpcoe reasoning sounds plausible but then I'd just expect the cabin crew to announce that onward passengers should not disembark.

For security -- and cabin grooming purposes? -- often everyone must deplane at intermediate stops, but through passengers are herded into the gate room and not permitted to head toward immigrations. Asking for boarding passes to verify the destination is the way of separating the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

A simple announcement from cabin crew would not assure compliance. Not by a LONG shot.

Still not sure that was the case in the OP, but well, it could be.

[ericthai]

been told by cabin anouncements a few times to keep them, but never been asked to show them. a few times over the last few years. always with Emirates.

silghtly off topic but anybody experienced Thai immigration at Cambodia bordeer asking to write telephone number on TM 6. had it happen a few times recently.

I had them ask for my phone number i think one or two times cant recall what boarder crossing or how long ago, but do recall them asking. i do know this was asked for more than 5-6 months ago, again cant recall which boarder crossing, maybe coming back from Laos. dont know the reason for request.

[DougF]

I had to show both my passport and boarding pass at Doha, Qatar recently....they never announced this before we deplaned. What a pain in the butt. it took about 30 minutes to get off the plane. It took so long because nobody had them ready, so folks had to stop, dig around in their bags and find them.

I told them this was a stupid way to find someone. That comment wasn't appreciated. Oh well!!

[Estrada]

Same thing happened to me on 1st January 2012 when I arrived with my family from Sri Lanka. The Srilankan Airlines flight was going on to Guanzhou in China. I am not surprised that ground staff were checking the boarding cards, since the only passengers allowed to get off the plane are those that were getting off in Bangkok. Some chinese workers were trying to get off the plane to enter the transit lounge, when they were told to remain seated in Mandarin. it sounds logical to me to keep the ongoing passengers on the plane rather than the practice years ago of allowing passengers to enter the duty free area and reboard later.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Estrada

[mrdome]

They have asked for this before. Just put the pass into your passport after getting to your seat at boarding. I'd hate to wait after dozens of people frantically rummaging through every single pocket and carry on bag...

[bkk_mike]

If it's immigration or the police on the plane checking it - they're looking for someone - and as people aren't necessarily sitting in the seat they were allocated, this is how they do it.

If it's cabin crew checking, it's usually the onward flight thing, and they're trying to avoid "losing" people. (People may try to leave on purpose for monetary reasons. At least in the US it's not uncommon for the plane to be cheaper to catch to one of the transit locations with a through ticket, to a destination where they're competing for business on the route with other airlines, rather than a ticket to the hub airport itself, where they could have a virtual monopoly. Only works if you've got no hold luggage, and you're not planning to use the return ticket. It annoys the airline though as they waste time looking for their "missing" passenger).

[blackthorn2005]

I have flown into BKK about 50 times and only been asked to show my boarding pass once, luckily I had it to hand, others did not. I did not understand the requirement at the time and having read what is posted so far, I am still none the wiser.

[JohnAllan]

It seems to be ad hoc as my wife, son and I arrived back from the UK on the 4th with no requirement to show them. I did, however, have them with me as immigration were asking for them some three years, or so, ago.

And it is somewhat ridiculous as the purpose of a boarding pass is to enable boarding. If you've arrived at the airport, a plane got you there, and there seems no logical reason to see a piece of paper that has, invariably, been left on the plane. But . . . TiT!

[tombkk]

By any chance was this a "through flight" from HKG to BKK to another city? e.g. HKG-BKK-AMS (random choice of AMS on my part)

If so, it could be to interecept the HKG-AMS passengers and keep them from straying off.

I have often been asked to show passport and boarding pass when arriving in Europe, along with everybody else on the plane. I noticed that they actually checked whether the Asians had a visa in their passports. I guess it would be easy to disappear in the huge airports before getting to Immigration...

I have not experienced such a check upon exiting a plane in Thailand, so I guess there must have been a person of interest on the plane. The reason they did not apprehend him in his seat is most likely that everybody gets out of his seat the moment the plane comes to a stop, which is long before the doors open. And in addition, if you are an international fugitive, you will not sit in your assigned seat now, will you.

[dantilley]

^ You would have to sit in your assigned seat if the flight was full or nearly full. Last time I landed in LHR we all had to stay in our seats while the police came on and took someone out from their designated seat, then we were all allowed to get up and leave as usual. This would be a far more efficient way of nabbing someone than checking each boarding pass and passport on the way out.

Edited January 11, 2012 by dantilley

[tombkk]

^ You would have to sit in your assigned seat if the flight was full or nearly full. Last time I landed in LHR we all had to stay in our seats while the police came on and took someone out from their designated seat, then we were all allowed to get up and leave as usual. This would be a far more efficient way of nabbing someone than checking each boarding pass and passport on the way out.

Interesting experience you had. Yes, it does make sense.

But I often switched seats because I wasn't assigned to a seat together with my travel companion, and we asked the person next to them whether they would mind if we switched. Usually, it works. If have been asked too. All I want is an aisle seat, I don't care whether it's on starboard or port.

If I were wanted, I'd switch seats as a precaution. Or maybe I just read to many Robert Ludlum novels?

[dantilley]

Yes, a bit of seat shifting can be done but usually only a few people per flight would do this, I expect, so tracking someone down would still be pretty easy.

The police incident is the second time something like that's happened to me in the past year actually. The other time, they told everyone to remain seated and then the pilot read the guy's name over the speaker and the person in question had to get up and walk to the front to meet the officers waiting for him there. Both times quite embarrassing for the people involved! I guess it would be up to the pilot, he'd either check through the passenger list and tell the police to go to seat 38C or whatever (as in the most recent case), or read the name over the speaker (as in the previous incident).

[2unique]

Yes, a bit of seat shifting can be done but usually only a few people per flight would do this, I expect, so tracking someone down would still be pretty easy.

The police incident is the second time something like that's happened to me in the past year actually. The other time, they told everyone to remain seated and then the pilot read the guy's name over the speaker and the person in question had to get up and walk to the front to meet the officers waiting for him there. Both times quite embarrassing for the people involved! I guess it would be up to the pilot, he'd either check through the passenger list and tell the police to go to seat 38C or whatever (as in the most recent case), or read the name over the speaker (as in the previous incident).

you should really stop flying Con Air!!

I always leave mine in the back of the seat!! Bugger...

[IMA_FARANG]

This may be a little off-topic...but I think not very much.

There are at least two advantages of always keeping your boarding pass after arrival.

For one, if after you exit the plane, you suddenly realise a coat or a small bag was left behind...for security reasons you will NOT be allowed to go back into the aircraft and pick up that item you left behind. if you have your boarding pass however, there will be an airline staff person who you can ask for help. They will contact the cabin staff, give them your seat number and what item to look for, and often someone will arrive in a few minutes with that item for you.

Secondly, even after you leave the airport, if for some reason you lose your return ticket...the local airline office can use that boarding pass to access your flight info from the airline computer system....and thus verify that you did indeed purchase a return ticket. They may charge you a fee to re-issue that ticket...but that's better than having to buy a new return ticket.

[ravip]

I too experienced this during my visit to BKK in December 2011 - I was on a flight CMB-BKK-HKG

[cassde]

Reference the telephone number on the TM6, I use Express Visas to do my 909 day 'visa run' and they always insist on the number being written on the form. Maybe it's an unwritten requirement.

[cassde]

sorry I meant 90 day!

[dantilley]

Secondly, even after you leave the airport, if for some reason you lose your return ticket...the local airline office can use that boarding pass to access your flight info from the airline computer system....and thus verify that you did indeed purchase a return ticket. They may charge you a fee to re-issue that ticket...but that's better than having to buy a new return ticket.

Don't most airlines not require tickets these days anyway? Usually your passport is all you need to check-in.