Bkk Airport Immigration Deploys 70 Female Riot Police To Help Speed Up Lines

[monty1412]

Looks like it would be worth arranging departure out of an alternative city e.g. Chiang Mai has been a very low-stress experience every time. . .

You are so spot on... and good connectivity with Singapore/ KL.

[khunkeith]

Here is a solution: check out the arrival and departure schedule. Estimate the number of passengers. MAN ALL AVAILABLE BOOTHS!

Did that help?

that does not always work. recently, on a return from the Philippines, we arrived at 3AM. 2 planes, one from Hong Kong and one from Shanghai had arrived just before my flight. they had been delayed due to weather for 3 hours. flights get delayed all the time, you can't figure that into it. I would guess that there are more delayed flights than there are on time flight. One time, my flight arrived over an hour early. go figure.

The main point was :man all available booths.

...and...did you ever hear of "radio"? It's crazy...someone talks into a device and you can hear it miles away...a bit like mobile phone...someone could TELL someone about late arrivals and ADJUSTMENTS could be made!

so, you want to call people at home to come in when the lines get long? I don't think that's reasonable. If the people are not there, they are not there.

[khunkeith]

Here is a solution: check out the arrival and departure schedule. Estimate the number of passengers. MAN ALL AVAILABLE BOOTHS!

Did that help?

that does not always work. recently, on a return from the Philippines, we arrived at 3AM. 2 planes, one from Hong Kong and one from Shanghai had arrived just before my flight. they had been delayed due to weather for 3 hours. flights get delayed all the time, you can't figure that into it. I would guess that there are more delayed flights than there are on time flight. One time, my flight arrived over an hour early. go figure.

The main point was :man all available booths.

...and...did you ever hear of "radio"? It's crazy...someone talks into a device and you can hear it miles away...a bit like mobile phone...someone could TELL someone about late arrivals and ADJUSTMENTS could be made!

yes, call people at home, tell them to get changed into their uniforms and come to work. takes them 2 or 3 hours to get there. do you think they live at the airport? I am sure most use public transportation too. what color is the sky on your planet?

[steven100]

Won't be very easy for them to work sitting behind shields and all that protective equipment......

yes , and apparently it's using the tear gas canisters in such a confined space that concerns immigration officials.

[softgeorge]

So does it mean there wont be any more fast track for Biz and 1st class passenger during rush hours ? but all planes from Europe usually arrived at the same period of time from 6 to 7am .... so , you pay your ticket more than double and you have to queue like anyone else ? how nice is that ..... Now they ask us to arrive earlier to avoid missing flight ... what about arriving one day in advance , stay at Novotel airport hotel..will be be enough time ? This is crazy ...

Sounds like everyone will now be in the cattle class line to get you Biz and 1st class people through quicker, it's thai logic put everyone in the same line apparently it is quicker than 2. and if you move to slow expect a baton across the butt cheeks from the riot police.

Edited March 13, 2012 by softgeorge

[Payboy]

Here is a solution: check out the arrival and departure schedule. Estimate the number of passengers. MAN ALL AVAILABLE BOOTHS!

Did that help?

that does not always work. recently, on a return from the Philippines, we arrived at 3AM. 2 planes, one from Hong Kong and one from Shanghai had arrived just before my flight. they had been delayed due to weather for 3 hours. flights get delayed all the time, you can't figure that into it. I would guess that there are more delayed flights than there are on time flight. One time, my flight arrived over an hour early. go figure.

The main point was :man all available booths.

...and...did you ever hear of "radio"? It's crazy...someone talks into a device and you can hear it miles away...a bit like mobile phone...someone could TELL someone about late arrivals and ADJUSTMENTS could be made!

yes, call people at home, tell them to get changed into their uniforms and come to work. takes them 2 or 3 hours to get there. do you think they live at the airport? I am sure most use public transportation too. what color is the sky on your planet?

At least they could call the ones actually on duty to come back from the canteen or smoking area.

[chuang]

they should learn from Singapore..

[garvin123g]

Where do all of those immigration cards go anyway? Is there an enormous warehouse sitting somewhere filled to the brim with them, just in case they want to find out which hotel someone incorrectly wrote down? Is there a pile of paper sitting somewhere stating that we all earned enormous amounts of cash, and that we came with a tour group?

Surprisingly YES the cards ARE kept.. and stored and filed by date and flight.

I once had a problem where I had traveled with a group of friends and on returning to Bangkok. Immigrations had miss stamped my passport, ignoring my re entry permit and i year work Visa..

I foolishly did not even notice this until near Visa renewal time..

Panic city for me with many horror stories playing out in my imagination, I went to Immagrations, then on Suan Plu .

Up stairs, down stairs and finaly out to the back . I ended up in the large warehouse like area, one guy behind a desk, racks and racks of boxes neatly on shelves.

He looked thru a big ledger, checked my TM card # , and date of arrival and flight, Diss-appeared and came back with a smallish box containing all the TM cards from the flight. I recognized a half dozen fellow travelers from my group as he flipped thru cards.

He found mine, had me fill in a new TM card, re stamped TM card both halves, and my Passport, re filed the corrected TM card, initialed all these stamp entries, sent me back up stairs for more Initials and stamps and boom i was done and no problem all smiles!!

I would have never believed anyone could have found that little TM card!! Amazing indeed!

gb

[rocketmanbkk]

So what about if you pay for fast track to avoid queues getting into Thailand? I arrive next week and my company paid a fast track company to avoid this. Ant thoughts?

[samran]

I for one look forward to the Thai passport gates to come into operation.

If they do come on line next month, it will be a miracle though, they have been in the testing phase since they were first installed at Don Muang all those years ago.

[Johpa]

So does it mean there wont be any more fast track for Biz and 1st class passenger during rush hours ? but all planes from Europe usually arrived at the same period of time from 6 to 7am .... so , you pay your ticket more than double and you have to queue like anyone else ? how nice is that ..... Now they ask us to arrive earlier to avoid missing flight ... what about arriving one day in advance , stay at Novotel airport hotel..will be be enough time ? This is crazy ...

Life does become rather irksome once you have drank a little too much of that Kool-Aid and you actually begin to believe that your doggy doo doo does not stink.

Edited March 13, 2012 by Johpa

[melvinmelvin]

When arriving at Swampy (from abroad) I have never paid much attention to which concourse I arrive at. I just take a quick look up and follow the sign to Immigration.

I (normally) end up with making a 90 degree right turn from the corridor with moving sidewalks, then walk up a short/wide corridor then arriving in the Immigration lounge, with some Thai lines to the far left and others straight ahead and to the right.

My question:

Are there several Immigration lounges for arriving pax at Swampy? Where are they? Maybe its worthwhile to check another one if I arrive at a cramped lounge?

[DocN]

Here is a solution: check out the arrival and departure schedule. Estimate the number of passengers. MAN ALL AVAILABLE BOOTHS!

Did that help?

that does not always work. recently, on a return from the Philippines, we arrived at 3AM. 2 planes, one from Hong Kong and one from Shanghai had arrived just before my flight. they had been delayed due to weather for 3 hours. flights get delayed all the time, you can't figure that into it. I would guess that there are more delayed flights than there are on time flight. One time, my flight arrived over an hour early. go figure.

The main point was :man all available booths.

...and...did you ever hear of "radio"? It's crazy...someone talks into a device and you can hear it miles away...a bit like mobile phone...someone could TELL someone about late arrivals and ADJUSTMENTS could be made!

yes, call people at home, tell them to get changed into their uniforms and come to work. takes them 2 or 3 hours to get there. do you think they live at the airport? I am sure most use public transportation too. what color is the sky on your planet?

Actually it is blue, because I am from Earth, where we would call such things "pre-active management". Having enough personal on the premise for the worst case scenario and not for the best case scenario!

Greetings!

[monty1412]

Seriously speaking why should any of us be surprised about this. Thai's are quite happy to sit in terrible traffic and put up with instances of extreme selfishness by others which only cause delays.. why would the airport management care. Other than noises about wanting to be a regional hub does anyone here actually truly belive that AoT could hope to emulate Singapore Changi.

Case in point.. even though I live here and travel very frequently internationally I decided on return from chaing mai last night to experiment with AoT Limousine rental at the airport. But before I go there let me just pretend that you are a newcomer flying in internationally and landing at SWampy.

First thing you may experience is that their is an extraordinarily high chance that the plane will be apron parked and not gate parked so you are piled into buses and then ferried around the airport o an incredibly long and lurching journey such that one could be tempted to ask " are we near Sukhumvit yet?". last night it was a 25 minute drive from plane side to domestic arrivals gate.... your first experience perhaps but maybe after a 10 hour international flight you might see this as Thai friendliness in wanting to show you everywhere around the airport tarmac

Second experience is immigration.. enough said

Now your through and even on Thai airways the baggage wait is long but I'll assume here that with 2 hours to get through immigration your bags should be waiting for you.

You were going to take the airport train to Makkasan but the passenger next to you said don't as you have to get of the train walk down the road, across railway tracks and then onto the street and down a bit turning up some steps and there you are at local underground... you have a bit if baggage and this doesn't sound like fun mind you , you do have a certain amount of suspicion about what the fellow traveller said Im mean how could the major rail link from airport to city not link up with regional train and rail links.. surely he must be wrong .......great connectivity and planning here yet again.

So thinking to yourself.. Im terribly late Ill get a taxi.. wandering across to the eager young ladies you are told that a limousine ride downtown to soi 22 is 3000B. Using your high level of maths you work out that this is USD 100 or thereabouts.. questioning the lass as this seems high she immediately drops it to B1500 and tells you its a Toyota Camry.

Another nice experience but perhaps you are a trusting soul and believe that the AoT girsl were simply trying to teach you your first lesson about Thailand and that is bargain for everything.

So here are your first four experiences and you haven't even put a foot out of the airport. And AoT wants to make Swampy a hub.. a hub for what .. abject pitiful miserable customer experiences.. perhaps.

But I digress.. back to my previous evening intrepid investigations... posing as a newbie tourist I wandered across to the girls smiling ever so nicely at me and told then I was staying in a hotel out near emporium on soi 24 and how much would a limo be to take me out there. B3000 was the answer.. Camry was the car quoted....

So back over to my thai girlfriend and send her over without them knowing we are together.. she tells them she is just in from chiang mai first time in Thailand and staying with friends at Klong Toei near sukhumvit and how much would a car be to drive here there.. of course all said in Thai but answer was B1300.. yes no typo here.. the farang gets B3000 the thai gets b1300.

She comes back and then we both go over and I ask why i got price of B3000 and she gets B1300... answer is special price for Thai people...

Now there will be those whom on reading this will come out with the usual "if you don't like it why don't you go home". My answer to this high level mensa response in advance is that I would but I do want to stick around just a bit longer to see how Swampy really does evolve to become a regional HUB. I also dont want to deprive myslef of the humour and mirth that no doubt will be associated with this amazing transition of this airport.

Ive said it before about the floods, the terrorists, the city planning, the infrastructure planning, the tourist rip offs ( AoT included) and general ability of Thailand to execute projects and developments for the greater good.. Thailand let Singapore manage you and you can just go on doing what you do best without having to worry about troublesome things like building infrastructure and actually doing a modicum of forward planning and execution.

Vietnam is next country who will get their act together with regards to regional travel HUB and Thailand Swampy airport will continue to be the benchmark to all regional airports as to what NOT to do.

[tavarich]

Good planning with the exam !

"let's have an exam and take out 350 officers

"Oops, we have an exam lets get take out 150 immigration officers from other areas - doesn't matter that they don't know what to do, let's screw up the provincial offices as well"

I can't fathom Thai thinking it takes to much energy to bother with. As usual they head into a thing a.s.s. first.

[TechnikaIII]

So does it mean there wont be any more fast track for Biz and 1st class passenger during rush hours ? but all planes from Europe usually arrived at the same period of time from 6 to 7am .... so , you pay your ticket more than double and you have to queue like anyone else ? how nice is that ..... Now they ask us to arrive earlier to avoid missing flight ... what about arriving one day in advance , stay at Novotel airport hotel..will be be enough time ? This is crazy ...

"so , you pay your ticket more than double ... for Biz and 1st class" That is mostly for on board luxuries. Amongst the very comfortably rich who can afford such indulgences, are also drug dealers and other criminals. So they need to be thorough at security, regardless of how much money you have to burn. It's like when you die, you can't take your money with you, so it is when you go "air side", I want you and everyone else, including airline and airport officials, to be subjected to the same level of scrutiny. It's just the way in needs to be now. So it's best we all budget for the realities of air travel.

[chrisinth]

Facts: I travel about 300km/year and I am based in BKK for the last 7 years. I have timed queue times in BKK vs. about a dozen other airport immigration all over the world. BKK is by far the SLOWEST; especially during Thai tourism high season.

My question re: hiring female riot police to "speed up" Swampy immigration: Are they going beat the crap out of the tourists in line waiting to spend lots of dough in the LOS, or beat the crap out the slow moving Thai Immigration Officers???

"Facts: I travel about 300km/year". I have to assume that the figures you are saying is 300,000 thousand miles a year?

First glance I thought it was 300 kilometers. Nearly spilt my coffee! I walk that with the dogs every 2 months. No need for immigration there though.............

[techboy]

I guess male riot police don't have to do paperwork.

LOL. Ways of da world, eh.

[pattayadingo]

Time to cause a mini-riot, methinks.

I really do fancy being manhandled by a female riot policewoman - not that I am getting desperate, you understand

Maybe even get mesen a bit tied up, or better still, handcuffed.

[andyc2006]

So does it mean there wont be any more fast track for Biz and 1st class passenger during rush hours ? but all planes from Europe usually arrived at the same period of time from 6 to 7am .... so , you pay your ticket more than double and you have to queue like anyone else ?

You paid for a nicer seat on the plane and better food. No reason you should get preferential treatment from immigration at the airport.

In most airports, the airlines themselves pay the airport to setup special queues for 1st & biz passengers (and often for frequent flyers too), so those paying for the nicer seat have also paid for the preferential treatment at the airport.

Unsure if this is also true at BKK. And note that in many countries, they're not able to do this at the immigration checkpoints, only at the airport security points.

[techboy]

_{How hard is it to become an immigration officer? and what are the requirements needed?}

_{PHD in criminology ? BA in pencil pushing? doctorate in sour faces?}

Well, it is obvious that you just do not have a clue as to what is the answer to your questions. Neither do I. But the job probably entails a good deal more responsibility than appears on the surface. Maybe even catching bad guys? In any case your sarcastic, no-nothing reply is all too familiar in this forum.

[khunkeith]

always ready for a worst case scenario? then you are prepared for ticket prices to increase because someone has to pay for that. If they were to fully man the booths 24/7 and, subsequently, airport taxes went up, can you imagine the complaints on this board? People would be talking about jobs for politicians relatives, generals relatives, etc ,etc and the "typical Thai mismanagement" by having fully manned booths all the time.

Personally, I am usually at the baggage carousel before my suitcase pop up 90% of the time, regardless of the wait in line. I am usually impressed at the speed of the bags arriving too. At Heathrow, Frankfort, , Atlanta, LAX and Dulles Int'l, the usual wait for bags is 45 minutes to an hour after the planes arrival. In BKK, it's usually less than 30 minutes after arrival.

SO, you want to hurry through immigration and then spend your time standing about, waiting for your suitcase? Or, are you one of those people that takes up 1/2 the overhead compartment that is designed for 4 peoples things?

[chooka]

Was flying out a few weeks ago from Chiangmai to Melbourne via Singapore, got to the immigration desk a good hour before from flight and there was only one guy servicing the foriegners I was furious and had one guy infront of me took me at least 5 minutes to get through immigration and severly interupted my beer consumption in the lounge. I was going to give him a piece of my mind but took a few deep breaths and decided to let it slip this time.

[Kered]

Would the last person to board please turn out the lights.

[striderman]

yes, no need for the separate line at the arrivals for the first and business. In no any other country I have seen it. Good move from the emigration authority

fly into LHR uk and they have a priority line

[TechnikaIII]

".... because I don't want to check in with sex tourists, I don't want to sit crammed in with dozens of fat farangs with their ugly Thai wives and I don't want to stand in an immigration queue with fat bastards in flip flops and wife-beaters...."

So you have noticed too?

Just wish I could afford to pay extra, for exactly the same reasons.

It's bad enough having to stand in line with some of the scumbags at the Thai Consulate in Penang.

[chooka]

Actually first and business class passengers do pay for fast track - it forms part of the ticket price. The airline pays the Thai Government. And I think it highly unlikely that the airlines will allow the Thais to do away with fast track on a whim, even if it's just at peak times. And to those who want equal treatment for all, well life just isn't like that. Especially in Thailand. I don't pay for a business class ticket because I want a bigger seat and better food - I pay because I don't want to check in with sex tourists, I don't want to sit crammed in with dozens of fat farangs with their ugly Thai wives and I don't want to stand in an immigration queue with fat bastards in flip flops and wife-beaters. I have never waited more than five minutes at immigration in or out and I doubt that will change. And for the idiot who thinks that you should dress up to avoid the touts when you do arrive - what???? Not everyone wants to sit in a public taxi, I actually prefer to pay for a limo.

I feel for you my Prince, it is hard to walk amongst the common folk.

[bigbamboo]

I can understand the problem of sudden staff shortages. What I do not understand is why there is so little planning ahead. Every year the Tourism Authority of Thailand increases its foreign tourist targets. That naturally means that the passenger volume at the airport will also increase, thus more immigration staff should be hired and trained on an ongoing basis to keep pace with this ever-increasing volume. And when one then sees that half of the immigration booths remain unmanned during peak hours, one wonders why supervisors don't notice that and report back, so measures can be taken to hire more staff. It is all a matter of organisation. Unfortunately it takes months of enraged readers' lettrs and Internet forum posts and negative newspaper articles locally and abroad before someone at the Immigration Bureau finally bothers to address the problem.

Or a travel advisory........!

[monty1412]

Here is a solution: check out the arrival and departure schedule. Estimate the number of passengers. MAN ALL AVAILABLE BOOTHS!

Did that help?

DocN.. Ive never heard such rubbish in my life. Don't you realise what you have written would involve planning and execution . It would involve someone somewhere actually doing something proactively..... cmon Doc N get real.. we all know no-one anywhere is going to do anything unless there is a monetary award involved. Hang on.. hang on.... by George I think Ive got it.

What about reduce all the immigration officers pay and then give them a bonus for each passenger processed.. bet you they would be fighting each other to get the busy periods . Go one step further... if they process passengers within a certain average time and maintain that average they get a bonus. Performance based pay.... there would a revolution at immigration... the call NEXT would be ringing loud and clear from the previously sour, surly immigration officers.

[khunkeith]

I can understand the problem of sudden staff shortages. What I do not understand is why there is so little planning ahead. Every year the Tourism Authority of Thailand increases its foreign tourist targets. That naturally means that the passenger volume at the airport will also increase, thus more immigration staff should be hired and trained on an ongoing basis to keep pace with this ever-increasing volume. And when one then sees that half of the immigration booths remain unmanned during peak hours, one wonders why supervisors don't notice that and report back, so measures can be taken to hire more staff. It is all a matter of organisation. Unfortunately it takes months of enraged readers' lettrs and Internet forum posts and negative newspaper articles locally and abroad before someone at the Immigration Bureau finally bothers to address the problem.

Or a travel advisory........!

Playing devils advocate, since the tourist season is relatively short, 3 or 4 months maximum, does the immigration authority hire people for just 3 or 4 months, then, lay them off the rest of the year? Or, do they hire all these people and keep them on staff 12 months and have them sitting around on their thumbs for much of the year? The airport is a madhouse in December/January. it's peak season. But, when I fly in the off season, rarely do I run into any lines at all. I avoid overseas travel during December/January because of the hassles at the airport.